FIRST AUTUMN FREEZE
Last night, when the Guy Fawkes' Night bonfires were lit and the rockets going off, was the first night below zero that I am aware of this autumn here in West Yorkshire, high on the Pennines. My car windows were frozen, the grass was beautifully covered with a hoar of frost and the dahlias have been nipped. Soon the leaves will turn black. I cut a lot of the dahlia flowers and brought them in this morning, putting them in a vase, as I believe that they will last longer than if I leave them outside. It will soon be time to dig them up and store them overwinter.
The lawn needs cutting as it is a little shaggy but it is saturated with all the rain we have been having lately, and wormcasts make cutting it problematic. Cutting it will flatten the casts and there is no way I can sweep them away as they are just soggy piles of mud. The problem with wormcasts is that they create small patches of soil on a lawn which can easily accommodate weed seeds in spring. But now is not the time to sort them. At least worms are a sign that my lawn is healthy, that the worms are aerating away beneath the surface. Bless their slimy little wriggly bodies.
I did manage, this afternoon, to get the last of my tulip bulbs planted and just have a few snowdrops and some bluebells to deal with now. I cannot decide where to plant them yet but I have plenty of time. Right up until late December will be fine for planting, I think. I also have planted the last of the winter flowering violas. They replaced some rather bedraggled trailing lobelia that were growing in a tub. The hanging baskets of bacopa and lobelia are not look very happy this morning after the chilly night but I am hoping they will 'hang on in' a while yet!
When the dahlias are removed, I will be able to plant the four roses that are still in pots. Three are patio roses which I have decided I would prefer in the garden bed. The other is Sir John Betjeman which will be unhappy if it is left in the pot until next summer. The pot is not big enough to accommodate the deep roots of such a rose, even though Sir John Betjeman is not a very big shrub.
Thankfully there is very little else to do right now. Oh, I am waiting for the begonias in the trough to start giving up the ghost so that I can store the tubers for the winter. I'm going to simply place the ivy in the trough for winter. It's far too dark during the shorter days on that east facing wall for anything else really; not enough sunlight at all.
My neighbours' trees have been happily shedding into my garden and while they have been a nuisance I might not complain so much if they yield a nice bag of leafmould in a few months time. I have simply collected them while still nice and damp and shoved them into a strong black bin liner loosely secured at the top and and put them in a corner. I've pierced a couple of holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage. I do hope I don't end up with a disgusting slimy mass. Time will tell.
The lawn needs cutting as it is a little shaggy but it is saturated with all the rain we have been having lately, and wormcasts make cutting it problematic. Cutting it will flatten the casts and there is no way I can sweep them away as they are just soggy piles of mud. The problem with wormcasts is that they create small patches of soil on a lawn which can easily accommodate weed seeds in spring. But now is not the time to sort them. At least worms are a sign that my lawn is healthy, that the worms are aerating away beneath the surface. Bless their slimy little wriggly bodies.
I did manage, this afternoon, to get the last of my tulip bulbs planted and just have a few snowdrops and some bluebells to deal with now. I cannot decide where to plant them yet but I have plenty of time. Right up until late December will be fine for planting, I think. I also have planted the last of the winter flowering violas. They replaced some rather bedraggled trailing lobelia that were growing in a tub. The hanging baskets of bacopa and lobelia are not look very happy this morning after the chilly night but I am hoping they will 'hang on in' a while yet!
When the dahlias are removed, I will be able to plant the four roses that are still in pots. Three are patio roses which I have decided I would prefer in the garden bed. The other is Sir John Betjeman which will be unhappy if it is left in the pot until next summer. The pot is not big enough to accommodate the deep roots of such a rose, even though Sir John Betjeman is not a very big shrub.
Thankfully there is very little else to do right now. Oh, I am waiting for the begonias in the trough to start giving up the ghost so that I can store the tubers for the winter. I'm going to simply place the ivy in the trough for winter. It's far too dark during the shorter days on that east facing wall for anything else really; not enough sunlight at all.
My neighbours' trees have been happily shedding into my garden and while they have been a nuisance I might not complain so much if they yield a nice bag of leafmould in a few months time. I have simply collected them while still nice and damp and shoved them into a strong black bin liner loosely secured at the top and and put them in a corner. I've pierced a couple of holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage. I do hope I don't end up with a disgusting slimy mass. Time will tell.