PUTTING THE GARDEN TO BED

 For the winter. Up until this last week the weather has been quite mild and then we had several days of grey skies with no  sun apart from about half an hour now and then. 

It made it every dull. Paul continued pottering around, getting those plants that needed to be lifted, like the Dahlia's  sorted and washed off dried and put away for the winter.

Other plants were moved into the potting shed or greenhouse, that had it's bubble wrap reattached to the glass for more warmth.

The Bananas are now all wrapped and padded to help them survive the winter cold.  So now it's just clearing up and sweeping and waiting for next spring.

The flower garden still as some splashes of colour. The pots have been replaced with tulip bulbs and a wallflower in the centre.

z

I have to say all the fuchsia's have been brilliant and been flowering for months and still going strong added a lovely look to the beds.

The Rowen is full of lovely pink berry's for the birds to eat.

Lovely and full.

The Mahonia behind it is starting to open it's yellow flowers and all the insects and bees are buzzing around getting those last bursts of nectar.

So mainly just some tidying left to do and then the long sleep until spring.

OCTOBER WE INCREASE A FLOWERBED

 

 

In October Paul increased the size of the flowerbed at the side of the studio.

In the summer moths it was very full with some plants getting squashed by others.

We decided to bring the edge out  to the edge of the path. Which added about four foot or so to the depth of the border.

z

Once the grass had been removed , the edging stones were brought forward to form the edge against the pathway. The end goes over at an angle to the studio, at some stage the area in front of the studio will be paved to meet the path.

We have put a tall metal fence around it for now until it starts to fill out and to stop the dogs from going over to check it out.

The new area needed to be raised slightly to meet the old area , so lots of lovely compost from our compost bins was added , then all the geraniums etc that had grown along the original edge was dug up split up and moved forward.

The column has been moved forward to give space to plants behind. The new area as been filled with some plants from pots and other that were cuttings along with some moved from other areas of the garden. 

We also took away some tall shrubs that formed part of the barrier between the trellis and the flower garden, to let some light in behind the Magnolia Black Tulip , which needed some shelter when first planted but is now big and growing forward to find the light. Now hopefully it will grow more towards the trellis and straight up.

 The statue has been put safely away for the winter due to how many strong storms with have had recently and since we have moved it forward and cut some shrubs down, we decided it was best it stayed safe this year.

Already the plants are getting established and hopefully next year this area will be full of leaf and colour.

A STAR PLANT

 

Sedum or Iceberg plant. These plants always flower so well and the buds take a long time to open and then are open for months.

A great plant for the later months in the garden

LETTING IN THE LIGHT

 We have a habit of planting too many plant in a space when making a new bed and this happened with our big shrub bed near the back of the garden, We wanted to fill the bed with shrubs that would grow and hide the view from the seat on the back circular patio to the Lychgate. This we achieved and the space filled and you no longer had a clear view.

The area on the left near to the folly.

Seen from the 'front'

So over the years they have been in there it's all grown densely starting to fight for room to reach into the light. 

There is a lovely Rowan tree which gets lots of flowers and berry each year but the Mahonia at the back to the side is now getting so big and fighting to the front along with getting into the lower branches.

We decided a serious cull was needed to get some light in, also bind weed was curling massively around everything making matters worse!

So the Mahonia branches that were leaning forward have been cut back, a lower branch on the Rowan that was crossing the space has been removed. Loads of bindweed has also been pulled out, we will need to get in to remove the roots later.

Top branches of cider apple tree has been removed which has opened up the area on the right. We also made the decision to remove a Verburnum shrub from the front and centre which has given a big open area which is also going to allow some squashed small shrubs to thrive.

From the other side of the lych gate showing how the apple trees have been allowed to grow.

We allowed the centre Bramley apple tree to grow thinking about shade in the years to come if climate change made the world hotter. However it's just not in the correct place it's meant to be espalier so was planted up against the side by some trellis but it's too big has a tree to be there.

 But there is also another two espaliers either side which have gotten out of hand, so we have decided  to remove the two other trees completely and cut the Brambly apple tree back to being an espalier again. 

The Rowan finally clear .

The window of the folly on the left can now be seen from the end of the garden but the lych gate is still 

hidden perfect. 

PINKS

 

THE WONDER OF NATURE

 

to

JUNE IN THE GARDEN

 

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

X

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

Z

So plenty of colour around the garden.