It’s time to rake the leaves!
The leaves on three large oak trees on one side of the garden are tumbling rapidly. These are always among the first to drop and form a blanket over the lawn. We collect these up regularly – we never manage to gather them all but we try! They are then stacked in a corner of the orchard to rot down into lovely leaf mould. We use a variety of tools – leaf blower, rakes,
mower and my favourite – a plastic snow shovel! This proves very effective at picking up leaves once they’ve been raked into a heap.
I’m happy the trees and shrubs around the garden are showing beautiful autumn colour. During one very hot week in August I feared the colour wouldn’t be as good this year; I’m glad to be proved wrong.
I’ve started planting spring-flowering bulbs. I’ve copied an idea I saw on Gardener’s World recently to plant crocus into a shallow, glazed sink. The rest of the bulbs will go into the shrub border in the orchard. I’m trying Tulipa cretica ‘Hilde’, which is described as dainty but tough. I’ve planted it in a raised bed in a sunny position, which should be the perfect spot, although one of the dogs has also decided it’s his perfect spot to sit in the sun! Tomato plants have been removed from the greenhouse, with the last few green fruits inside ripening. In their place I’ve sown cut-and-come-again lettuce and salad rocket. Carrots have been good this year; by using Enviromesh over the first sowings I think I’ve outwitted the carrot root fly, for now anyway. We’ve started on a plan to enlarge the vegetable garden, but that story must wait until next month!
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