Category Archives: Gardening

Day 364 – 30th December – Last time in the garden

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Day 364 20181230

Today will have been the last day gardening for this year for me. While there is still more do to (weeding, leaf sweeping etc), one of the tasks I had for the break was to prune the grapvine so that it puts its focus into growing in the directions that I want it to. It’s not a long job and was done in the space of about an hour as I only have a couple of vines to trim. I’ve adopted the same policy as last year and I’m hoping that it will have a similar result in terms of the amount of crop that is produced.

Day 363 – 29th December – Coming through for 2019

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Day 363 20181229

Once flowers in my garden have finished blooming, I will try to harvest as much seed as possible. Most of these are in envelopes staying cool in tins in the garage. However the advise was to plant any alium seeds and nodules this year rather than wait. These are from the Alium Rosum that I sowed a few weeks back and from the nodules it grows rather than the seeds. Whether this will mean I have a profusion of these in the coming year I don’t know, but it will be nice to have a load more at no extra cost!

Day 353 – December 19th – Early Starters

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Day 353 20181219

I had a bit of a clear out in the gardne, removing some dead plants and cutting back some of this year’s growth on plants that need it. It’s been so mild that my spring bulbs, mainly daffodils, are starting to come through already, three months early. In repect of the colour in the garden I don’t mind at all, but my concern is what might happen to the plants if there is a sudden cold snap like at the start of this year, it could cause real damage to the bulbs while they are active rather than dormant. There’s nothing I can do but just hope.

Day 349 – 15th December – Patio Clearance

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Day 349 20181215

The weather is still quite mild but I decided that it was a good time to finally move all the less hardy plants from the patio and walls into the greenhouse before they do get caught by a cold stint. Also crammed into the greenhouse were the water plants from the water features that need to avoid being in frozen water. They will now stay here for a few months and I’ll top up the water every now and again, though at this time of year they don’t need much.

Day 323 – 19th November – Single Snow Drop

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Day 323 20181119

I moved one of my winter/spring pots out of the garage last week as I had noticed that a bulb has started to poke through. Today it the flower came and it was a snow drop. None of the other bulbs have pushed through yet, so it’s still on it’s own, but sometimes I feel that a single bulb in flower can be just as stunning to look at as a whole bunch. Others will follow I’m sure, but I think that it’s probably fair to say that with the snowdrops now coming, so is winter.

Day 321 – 17th November – At the sharp end

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Day 321 20181117

With the main gardening season over and the weather this weekend continuting to be pleasant enough to spend a few hours outside, I decided to do some preperation for next year. After a year of use I have a number of garden tools that were in need of sharpening so that they don’t damage plants when they are pruned.

Day 320 – 16th November – Mind the Gap

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Day 320 2018116

For quite a number of years, my sky line has not been like this. The ground starts just below the crop on this photo which might seem odd but I’m on the side of a hill and these trees start quite some distance below the level of my house. That said, until today both were above the top of my house. Now only one does and that will be reduced sometime later next year. The one that has been trimmed was actually much higher and far bushier. The result of these two trees was that even in the height of the summer when they would be in full leaf, I would loose the sun from the garden from 6pm rather than when the sun would set after 9pm. As you can imagine, that has been a frustration. Thankfully next year this will no longer be an issue and I’ll be able to enjoy what will hopefully be some long hot summer days.

Day 318 – 14th November – Wrong Time, Right Reason

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Day 318 20181114

This is the wrong time of year to be pruning my rose, especially given there are still a couple of flowers on it. However today I didn’t really have much of a choice. I had to clear the rose from the window area where I’m getting a replacement window so that it can be properly measured (something that I consider an important thing). It had to be today as I finshed slightly earlier than other week days so I was able to work in relatively reasonable light given how quickly the days close in. It was also reasonable weather which mean that with the patio light on I was able to tidy up after I’d finished pruning.

Day 316 – 12th November – A smashing time

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Day 316 20181112

With all the bad weather one of my larger patio pots, one with a reasonably sized jasmine going up an obelisk has toppled over. I can’t work out why as it’s not been an issue before. Unfotunately I had some nice lighting attached to the obelisk and when they went over and hit the patio they smashed. I’ll salvage what I can in terms of the non-glass parts, such as the tea light holder that was covered by the adapted bottle, and the solar light lid and hanging clip that went on the jar. Hopefully I’ll be able to recreate them without much trouble. In the meantime I have a load of broken glass that needs sweeping up.

Day 314 – 10th November – A Sticky Solution

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Day 314 20181110

OK, some of these are quite large for sticks, but I’ve been able to do some tree cutting and have collected quite a bit of wood that can be cut and dried for use either next year or even futher ahead. Once dried out these will be able to go on the firepits featured earlier in the year. In terms of quantity (having already cut it up) I’ve got about six average sized truggs worth of wood here so not a bad haul and not a bad day’s work in the garden.