What Did You Do In The Garden Today...?

[Ladygardener]

I'm sure they'll be grand Jasmine, at my house we'd rarely have a frost so early and I just cut them back when they've pretty much stopped flowering.

[Dutchy]

I do have to get the Dahlia out. It might not be frost getting them as much but the soaking wet soil that sees them rot.
I hope to get them out this weekend and set them upside down in the shed for some pre drying off and then after that they go into newspaper and cardboard boxes into the garage.

I have planted all daffodils not separate as planned with this pheasant eye ones but as clumps. Accepting that there are things I cannot do right now and hey who does not like to be with friends eh?

[Jasmine]

I tend to think of you being a bit more mild where you are Ladygardener. I just wonder why we're told to wait until after they are blackened to cut them back. I'm sure they'll be fine like you say.

Mine are mostly with friends Dutchy!!!

[Jasmine]

I have done all the tulip bulb planting now except for 2 pots that are waiting on Evri to deliver some FG reduced tulip bulbs. I also did a lot of leaf sweeping and raking.

[Ladygardener]

It's quite a bit milder up at my house Jasmine for sure. Here, we have a lot less rain and the summers are warmer.

The drizzle today was constant so no gardening was done.

Well done for getting your bulbs in Dutchy, the Pheasant Eye flowers are beautiful and they're scented too.

[maggy]

I just hunted out the cover for my patio table , Ive carried the chairs into the garage so it was a little big as I think its designed to have the chairs under it as well, anyway I hunted in the garage for somthing to tie around it to stop it blowing away , I was just about to give up until I brought a basket down of a high shelf! I knew John would have something it had a few guy ropes I found one that did the job.

I dug up a nice passiflora seedling for my niece .

[Tig]

You'll be getting in bother if the kids know you've been exploring high shelves maggy

After days of gloom it has brightened up a bit today so I have cut back two herbaceous peonies I'd missed, tackled some of the ITOH peonies although several are hanging on to the foliage and made a start on cutting back the triffids (aka the akebias). The arch they are on is 5' wide but the gap to walk through was just over 2'! I got soaked as we must have had a light shower overnight. I find working looking up makes me fall over nowadays so took it steady. The long loppers were too heavy for me so I cut a lot of it off lower down then had a me v akebias tug of war with them to yank out as much as I could. The garden bin is quite full but I won't tamp it down in case there are ladybirds & shieldbugs in the foliage, they will climb to the top and I can rescue any that are in there before I compact it a bit.

[Tig]

Oh got the ladders out this aft and I supervised the rest of the akebia hack back. They should behave now until spring. 3 ladybirds and 5 shieldbugs climbed out of the brown bin and have been relocated back into the garden.

[Jasmine]

Evri finally brought my tulip bulbs so I planted them and I made a start on doing a slight cut back on the budds and roses - the brown bin is nearly full now.

[owdboggy]

Just to show that I have not been idle recently
imgur.com/a/summer-house-raised-bed-kv5gCdA

[Jasmine]

Very nice, have you got planting plans owdboggy?

I raked up all the leaves that had blown down over the past few days, cut back some of the hellebore leaves so I could fill the brown bin up and I planted camassia and tulip bulbs in the spaces between the roses in the new rose bed (it was the old meadow strip).

It was lovely working in the sunshine!

[Jasmine]

I forgot to say that I also potted up the dried out dahlia tubers in dry compost to overwinter in the shed. It worked last year - only lost one tuber. I always think they have 2 chances!

[Dutchy]

I now have all Dahlia tubers drying upside down in the shed.
I'll hopefully be able to pack them into boxes this Thursday.

All bulbs are where they need to be as well so I can relax now.

[Dutchy]

I emptied the rain gauge.
And fed the birds.

[Tig]

I've tidied up some phlox that had bent due to the snow and were over the path, a few more Itoh peony leaves had fallen and pulled some of the calendulas that were blackened. Tidied up the regal fern and spotted the bramble that I've been trying to get out behind it had sprouted again, got the foliage but not the root.

[Jasmine]

I've swept up most of the leaves in the back garden - I wasn't going to but it looked so untidy! I also cut back a huge grass that makes a mess too.

[Tig]

Pruned the acer that is quite close to the dining room window. I don't want it getting too big and blocking out light. Picked up loads of clumps of moss the birds have thrown off the roof. They are doing a good job cleaning up there so I'm not going to moan, as long as it doesn't block the guttering.

[Ladygardener]

I was clearing up and bagging leaves yesterday too, I'm on my 2nd 1 ton bags for this year, it's a job I love doing. I also cleared the fallen leaves from the 2 rose bushes down in the bed beside where the poly tunnel remains are and did a bit of weeding there too. It was great to be able to get it all done but I'm paying with it in regards to one of my shoulders now, it should settle back down in a few days 'tho.