What's happening in your garden today?

[Anniekay]

Earlier this morning a friend of mine came over to help me install 2 10' tall 4"x4"square posts for my new trellis. He dug the holes 2'deep then I held the posts with a post level on while he filled the holes with quick drying cement and added the water. Because I didn't have a square drill bit to fit the screws, he's coming back tomorrow and bringing me stainless steel screws to mount it with instead of the junky screws given with it.

As you can see in the background, I REALLY need it !!

The plant in the foreground is star jasmine which after the hurricane last year, ( not this last one) my old trellis was totally wrecked, and I had to cut the jasmine down to four feet. It grew and grew and I had to cut away 5' of lateral growth from each side to be able to install the posts.

This trellis is bigger than the last. It's 60" wide and 8 ' tall. It's got a 20 year guuarantee against cracking or splitting and is Poly something, I dunno the exact word. Gonna make a nice screen, I think !!

Oh, and my radishes, carrots, and mache seeds have sprouted !!

 

[Dirtmechanic]

That side of the garden gets quite a bit of sun all day as the garden is south facing. It got less in the late afternoon as it was in the shadow of a big tree at the bottom of the garden of the house next door and later the tea house.

You can see how big was this tree in this photo.

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But next year things will be better as the tree has been taken down since I took this photo.

It's the edge of the lawn next to the left-hand bed that suffers from the lack of sun as it's in the shadow of the fence all day. It tends to get patches of moss. I gave the whole edge of the lawn a dose of iron sulphate today. The wisterias on the two pergolas get plenty of sun.

With the tree gone the back of the garden will get more sun. There are trees in the two gardens behind ours, but they have no effect.

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Despite the grass being quite wet, I mowed the lawn with my Flymo Ultraglide. It has a big fan at the back that picks up "anything."
I must have had it ten years. It stopped working last year, but when I checked it out, it was only the on/off switch that had failed. I got a replacement on eBay for a fiver.

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This is part of my moss problem. There's some dead moss there from a previous dose of iron sulphate. It needs scarifying, but I need three dry days to attempt to do this.

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I might take the jet wash to the moss on the brick paver border in the week.

You should just change your border. Its an easier fight than the one you are about to pick with that moss. I know its a sun thing because of the shape of the shadow and moss being eclipsed. Icararus fell, so I am leaning toward not being able to fix that problem. Well not without removing some specimens and that just out for me.

 

[Jersey Devil]

Thursday is the end of the month. No rain in the future. We got ZERO INCHES of rain the entire month of October. NONE!!! 2.9 inches of rain in 4 months !! I have never seen this in NJ my entire life.

 

[Sheal]

I have plenty here if you'd like some @Jersey Devil and some fog to go with it.

 

[Sean Regan]

Not much today as it looked like rain and I'm up-to-date.
Did a bit more trimming of the top of the tree in the front garden. I had to walk thirty yards away from it in both directions to see the bits I'd missed. Any branch that was growing vertically, would just "bolt" in the spring.

Spent an hour tidying the shed and the garage.

I'm waiting for the other wisterias' leaves to turn. Then I can start stripping them.

I need to replace one of the several 6ft lateral beams on the pergola on the back of the house, I noticed earlier in the year it's got a bit of rot. I've a length of, 4" x 2" ready for it.

 

[Jersey Devil]

I have plenty here if you'd like some @Jersey Devil and some fog to go with it.

Annie promised me some rain from Helene, but apparantly she used it to fill a frog pond

 

[Anniekay]

Annie promised me some rain from Helene, but apparantly she used it to fill a frog pond

I promise that after you dig my frog pond I'll send you all the rain from my next hurricane

 

[Dirtmechanic]

No rain here in 'Bama for October either.

 

[Meadowlark]

No rain here just before Labor Day...it is incredibly dry.

 

[Logan]

Been weeding the rhubarb border, it had a lot of grass in it and at the back there's a few brambles that need removing but have to wait for the bin to be emptied. What I've pulled up has gone into pile in a corner that's out of the way for the hedgehogs to over winter.

 

[Anniekay]

Finallly got the trellis up, trained the jasmine up it and cut away a lot of excess. Hopefully, by next summer, it will no longer be see-through !!

 

[Jersey Devil]

No rain here just before Labor Day...it is incredibly dry.

You too ? One of my daughters lives in Wisconsin and says the same thing. Her ponds are bone dry. I think half the country is flooded while half the country is withering away

 

[Jersey Devil]

No rain here in 'Bama for October either.

Is it strange that during hurricane season, especially near the Gulf Coast, that you should go with NO rain at all in the month of October ? I would think that with the warm water temps that it would be unusual to be so dry there at this time of the year. IDK, just asking. Meadowlark in Texas says the same thing. Don't want to stress the issue too much but I am starting to worry. My perrenials are gone already and its still in the 70's. I wonder if they will come back !! I just never saw it so bad here. We can get close to 50 inches of rain a year. We got enough in the late Winter and early Spring but then NOTHING. Is this "feast or famine" healthy or destructive to plants ?? Maybe just "natures way"?

 

[Anniekay]

Is it strange that during hurricane season, especially near the Gulf Coast, that you should go with NO rain at all in the month of October ? I would think that with the warm water temps that it would be unusual to be so dry there at this time of the year. IDK, just asking. Meadowlark in Texas says the same thing. Don't want to stress the issue too much but I am starting to worry. My perrenials are gone already and its still in the 70's. I wonder if they will come back !! I just never saw it so bad here. We can get close to 50 inches of rain a year. We got enough in the late Winter and early Spring but then NOTHING. Is this "feast or famine" healthy or destructive to plants ?? Maybe just "natures way"?

Don't be too shocked: I haven't had a drop of rain since the hurricane either. I blame it on the jet stream's erratic position this year.

 

[Sheal]

When is Labour Day please?

The trellis looks good @Anniekay.

I've done nothing in my garden for a couple of weeks but I can't blame the weather, just too many priorities getting in the way.

 

[Anniekay]

When is Labour Day please?

The trellis looks good @Anniekay.

I've done nothing in my garden for a couple of weeks but I can't blame the weather, just too many priorities getting in the way.

Thank you @Sheal . Labor day was Sept. 2 this year.

 

[Sheal]

Thanks Annie.

 

[Sean Regan]

Nothing getting done today as it's raining slightly. If it's dry tomorrow, I'll get into the overhanging branches of next-door's trees with my telescopic pruners.

So just a general check round.
The acer palmatums are shedding their leaves.
This one will get "its fringe" trimmed a bit when they are all off. It's retained the shape I like.

This one will need more work to get it back to a more symmetrical shape. Might need a bit of wiring to encourage it to fill a couple of gaps in the canopy.

Both will have quite a number of dead lower branches to be removed. But it's the same every year. They are always replaced by new growth from the top.

Then there's the acer at the bottom of the garden.

We bought this in a pot off a stall in Altrincham market. I let it do its own thing until about ten years ago. I always called it our "Monet Acer." As it reminded me of the small figure in Monet's impressionist painting,"Sunlight Under the Poplars," which is the graphic on one of my jukeboxes.

(Before then, I always thought it was a dog, on closer inspection, it's a child).

This was it ten years ago.

Since then, I've kept it to this shape. I really like the change in colours through the year.

From, pink and pale green in the spring.

To as it is now.

It needs a lot of trimming of small branches that constantly bolt during the year and when the leaves have fallen it'll get a similar trim to the big one in the front garden, as it too gets every year to stop it getting too big.

 

[Anniekay]

@Sean Regan I really love how it looked when it was young and untrimmed. It looks to me like a cross between a Wooly Mammoth and a horse !!

 

[Meadowlark]

When is Labour Day please?

Labor Day is always observed on the first Monday in September here @Sheal.

Speaking of Holidays today and especially tonight is Halloween.

"Halloween actually comes from the British Isles. It's the modern evolution of the Gaelic festival of Samhain, traditionally celebrated in Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. The festival marked the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter, and it was viewed as a time when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could be crossed more easily. Offerings were made to the spirits or fairies, and some people wore costumes, either to imitate or hide from the spirits. Throughout the years, costumes, mumming, and guising have all been parts of the festival. Turnip carving was also popular."

I could go for some turnip carving

Halloween has lost some of its luster for the kids here especially because of the increasingly incredibly cruel and mean people out there.

Is it widely celebrated in UK? Other countries?