Dug out a clump of Helianthus "Lemon Queen" that had run of out of steam and was hardly flowering. Luckily it was quite shallow rooted and after yesterday's rain came out quite easily. Got as much soil off it as l could, but the soil is pretty poor and no sign of worms or any other creatures in it. May have to get OH to raid the contents of the compost bin, if not BF&B or similar will have to do for now. Dug out the sorry remains of a shrubby salvia and disposed of it. Also recovered a very leggy penstemon, so took cuttings from that before adding it to the green waste. Kept a couple of bits of the helianthus and potted them up. Time for a cuppa!
I've been busy clearing out the woodshed and the playshed and taking the contents to the tip. The playshed will now be used to store garden furniture and cushions and we will order a new load of wood for the winter. Must do some potting on and potting up tomorrow, preferably before I get the nails done.
Raked up some early falling autumn leaves this morning - put onto compost heap, inspected the 10's of echium seedlings that are self seeded from parent plants - far too many to leave to mature, but I left them in situ for now - will remove the weakest early next Spring before they shoot up. Collected all the decent fallen cooking apples, rest are left for birds or compost heap.
Did some hedge trimming, pruning and tidying today. Layered-up a new compost bin with soft prunings, grass, veg waste, and bit of cardboard (I save the loo rolls for that). I’ll be doing a leaf mulch one soon expect, as my front garden/drive gets covered in Ash leaves.
Had to go into Lincoln this morning but went to allotment this afternoon Harvested French beans , round courgettes as big as pumpkins, Toms , cucumbers , some carrots 🥕 and beetroot plus of course lots of little jobs Hoping to finish cutting hedges tomorrow afternoon
I dug out three patches of couch grass from the front lawn, filled in with soil, sowed lawn seed, watered well and covered with mesh to keep the birds off while it (hopefully) re-grows. Then I deadheaded the buddleia (which self-seeds all over the gravel parking area) so I'm wondering whether to get rid of it or whether I really ought to keep it for the butterflies. The neighbours have got a row of them so there are plenty around.
Finally got around to dividing up our irises in the back border. Took a small chunk from each of the 5 plants for myself, my SIL, and my MIL, then passed half a tarp full to some other local gardeners. Yay! More room for alliums now
I planted out 4 nice Tradescantia 'Purple Heart' I rooted in water into the existing bed of it in my front garden. Bed needs to be filled out more. All of these Purple Heart sets I started from rootings I did in water. There are about 25 young sets now in this very large bed. I'm trying to fill out all the blank dirt with the Purple Heart. It's just 11:00 and it's already 33ºC, so I'm done for the day I'm afraid.
That little plant with the red bloom in the photo is Turk's Cap (Malvaviscus drummondii (M. arboreus var. drummondii), planted just to attract hummingbirds, which is does. It's a native Texas plant and does really well here in our sweltering heat in the summer. Gets quite large, too. There's a larger established one on the opposite side of this bed as well, so it's a veritable hummer buffet. Attracted about 10 hummers a day this season. The pot of sedum is sitting there to cover the cap of the water sprinkler system control. Will think of something better to do that with one of these days.
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That bread and chutney looks yum 😋
Dug out the sorry remains of a shrubby salvia and disposed of it.
Also recovered a very leggy penstemon, so took cuttings from that before adding it to the green waste.
Kept a couple of bits of the helianthus and potted them up.
Time for a cuppa!
Harvested French beans , round courgettes as big as pumpkins, Toms , cucumbers , some carrots 🥕 and beetroot plus of course lots of little jobs
Hoping to finish cutting hedges tomorrow afternoon
Hoping to have a day at allotment tomorrow