Humph's Happy Horti-cult: harvesting, preserving, mulching, leaf-gathering, bulb-dibbing, seed catalogue-surfing and hunkering down for winter

[Lexilicious]

Following on from the original March to August thread. For all - whether still gardening through the winter or planning to sweep the shed, hibernate, sharpen the tools and get started again in the spring.

Happy gardening again!

I'm in a quiche! Very exited now. Well done Lex.

DH has 'The cold that never goes away' too Maud. I'm finding the sympathy hard to keep up. It's a bit like a sympathy marathon and I've hit the wall.

I have never washed a pot - ever. Can I stay in the quiche?

Quite, Bertha. That's why I'm trying to stop myself whingeing because everybody knows I'm coughing for Britain and I don't need to point it out to them.

All decisions on quiche membership are to be referred to Humph and Lexi, I think.

Obviously sympathy marathons are easier to take part in than cold marathons! I think we need a cold snap to put an end to all endless colds and to stop things growing when they shouldn't.

I'm not sure the uber-quiche actually demands that I refer decisions entirely democratically to the caucus which I technically represent... Do you mind awfully if I just go with 'benign dictatorship'?

Surely, Lexi, you will be tabling a draft constitution (supported by a set of rules and standing orders) for the uber-quiche's consideration and approval?

Right now, nah. I'm listening to an owl hooting in the woods outside, for the second night in a row. In fact I think there are two!

I love owl hoots. Sometimes I have to convince myself that they're not at all spooky though if DH is away. The ones around here were still hooting at 7am this morning which is very unusual - must be the time of year for 'owl activity'.

Surely Lex there'll be Terms of Reference in good civil-service stylee?

Bit late to this but how has every odies's tomatoes done? The drought and the dull summer put the break on yields but the long warm autumn seems to have kept blight at bay in the west midlands at least. Just got the remainder of the green ones - they occupy the kitchen windowsill and the fruit bowl. I reckon I've has 10kgs over the whole season from 9 plants in total!
Does feel a bit wierds eating garden tomatoes in November.

My tomato crop was small and late but, as you did, we escaped blight. I picked the last few yesterday!

I could do Mission, Vision and Values?

My toms were crap this year. Most disappointing. Exacerbated by my careless approach to watering. Today for lunch I am having almost the last of my green ones, picked a few weeks ago and ripened indoors in a bowl. I grew 'Tumbler' and 'Marmande' and another round standard-sized one which my friend started from seed but didn't label.

Oh yes, a Mission Statement. We used to have Goals, too.

::Heart sinks at the memory::

I was quite proud of the toms I grew from seed - Golden Something, possibly Sunrise - but there just didn't seem to be enough sun for them, even though I moved them to a sunnier location this year.

Hi all, Maud steered me back in your direction. Haven't got much to add at the moment. Just sort of watching the weather and pondering when it should be time to put the flower bed to sleep for the winter.

Quick question: when you do fall clean-up, how far do you cut everything back? I think I may have been over enthusiastic last year because some things really didn't seem to recover very well this spring. One of my lavender bushes took aaaaaaaaages to green this spring and some other plants came up fairly feeble. But that may have been because it was such an odd winter last year (the temperature varied about ten degrees from October 2010 to Feb/March) and such a wet horrible spring (not much difference between March and June). We didn't get Summer until August and then had 6 weeks worth and then it was suddenly October and bloody cold!
This winter already feels different. There is a bite in the air that we missed most of last year.

So I'm wondering - is it better to wait until after the first frist to cut back? Or do it now?

Good to see you again, JM!

I don't do very much cutting back in the autumn. I've been persuaded to the lazy wildlife-friendly method of leaving most of the dead flower-heads on plants over the winter, as they provide seeds for the birds and the old top growth provides a bit of protection for new growth as it appears in the spring. I only cut back things like hollyhocks that I don't want to seed or that are likely to collapse. With the lavender, the problem might have been with when you cut it or how much you cut it. I often forget to do mine at all ::negligent gardener:: but it's supposed to be done immediately after flowering. Did you cut back into old wood, as they don't like that and that might be why it sulked? It might not be appropriate for your climate zone, but there's advice from the Royal Horticultural Society here.

Sorry, overlooked your final question! Again, you're in a different climate zone but I am wary now about cutting-back anything, as it's still quite warm here and there's a risk that the warmth could encourage new growth that in a few weeks could be nipped by frost. I might trim some of the roses but apart from that I'll be leaving things alone.

I'm leaving things alone too - going along with Maud's negligent gardener description and convincing myself it's for the best. Do need to cut back my potted lavender though...

My regular oracle, on pruning...

I am mostly of the negligent persuasion but I did a good haircut on my rosemary/lavender 'hedge' (six inches high, only planted Feb this year) after they had flowered, and the plants are showing the benefit - they've bushed out and put new growth on down at the base. I was careful not to cut old wood.

I am currently wondering whether to chop my Latifolius perennial sweet peas down to nothing (there are still new shoots emerging from the ground so I guess it will always come up and flower from new growth) or just to about waist height so it does the screening job of nasty fence posts that I wanted it for. The general guidance on climbers is to chop off any unrestrained top growth that would blow about in winter winds and get damaged. I deadheaded my (only) rose assiduously, but I didn't bother protecting the crown of my Phormium last winter and it was ok, nor did I lift Arum lily corms (which came back this year, but very late).

I do lift spring bulbs in the summer to rest, even when there are a lot of other jobs to be done, so I think I should do winter pruning and tidying when there isn't such a lot to do. There is less daylight time to do it all in, though. I leave and return home in darkness at this time of year, probably through to late Feb. Means gardening is packed into about 3-4 hours across Sat and Sun. I chuck branches in a pile behind the shed and leave fallen leaves where they rest on the borders, just rake them up from the grass. I have a wildflower patch on the top of the rockery which I'll allow to die off and provide seeds for birds, but next year I'm going to plant things there, so it won't be so wild. However I've got a different patch in mind for wildflowers and bee/butterfly forage.

Am still fretting about what the inevitable cold snap is going to do to seedlings. I bit the bullet and took off the bottles from the broad beans, and put them over parsley plants instead. All my onion, garlic, broad beans and peas have shoots, and the Cavolo Nero is looking pretty healthy. I use tins for protection from slugs - just use the tin opener on both ends (once emptied of soup/chopped tomatoes!!) and place around the seedling / where you put the seed. Sowed more Cav.N. and some rows of rocket in a Grow-Bed together, which I'll try leaving unprotected because the soil height is 18" off the ground. Also put some 'Rondo' peas from a rather old packet into one of those tallish round pea planters with the slots for canes.

Did my lavender! It's on the front doorstep and has been annoying me for weeks but I could never be bothered to go and get the secateurs from the shed. So...as I was waving off the alarm maintenance man I struck upon the inspirational lazy idea of just grabbing the kitchen scissors. Yay.

Apparently we're going to have quite a bit of frost this weekend - although I'm not sure which forecast to believe. One says the low for Fri and Sat night is going to be around 0 and the other around -7 which is really quite bitter for this area . -7 during the day would be even more ing though. But I digress.

So - would it be a good idea to leave my bags of tulip bulbs out overnight Fri and Sat, and plant them in pots on Sunday? I think I read somewhere that they should be planted after the first frost.

And once planted, where do I store the pots? Burlapped and close to the house, or in the garage? The problem with the garage is that thats where our water heater is so the garage stays relatively warm. And I don't have another unheated outdoor structure to store them.

It is supposed to be a bad winter by our standards, cold but not much snow, I've heard - but it's frustrating as the forecast varies so much!

Ah, the lovely Bunny!

I wouldn't leave naked bulbs out overnight, JM, as they would be far more vulnerable than when they're planted, whether in pots or in the ground. I would leave the pots near the house wall - I doubt they need the extra protection of being in the garage, especially if it's artificially warm. Make sure the pots are raised on bricks or pot feet, as they gives some more protection against them freezing and bursting.

Oh heck. Frost.

Our little fig tree dies off every year with the frost and then sprouts from the bottom in Spring so I am going to wrap it up in fleece this year. I'll have to go and get some tomorrow.

Anyone any thoughts on how best to do it?

Oh no - do I have to wrap up the fig? Someone please tell MB how to do it so I can do it too. Not sure a wrapped up fig is going to look aesthetically pleasing at the front of the house though - what will happen if I leave it to the mercy of the elements?

May get my tulips planted out this weekend too Jacks - I've been waiting for the weather to turn a bit and it is definitely feeling colder now so probably about time. Plus I'd really like to finally get the last of the bulbs out of my utility room .

I've never wrapped my fig tree but it is in the corner of two fences in a small urban garden, so probably has quite a warm microclimate. I've never done it, but read once that the secret to covering a large tree with fleece (or bird netting in the summer for fruit trees) is to tie the fleece to tennis balls and then lob them over the tree. I have done it in the past for other trees by hoisting the fleece up on a broom handle, but it didn't work very well and the very top of the tree was still exposed.

And for anyone who feels they haven't quite got enough bulbs ...

Blackpudding - our fig is still quite a small sapling. I think if it was quite a mature tree it would be OK but the branches never make it past one year old before the cold icy wind that blows off the river kills them off.

CITGM - tennis balls. What a good idea. Never heard that one before. It is a small tree so I will do it in fleece and I also have one of those big plastic hesian sacks that builders use to carry gravel in. I can put over the top of the fleece to stop the wind blowing the fleece off. It is quite a cold windy spot.

Phew. Ours is a new tree but we bought it fairly large and it's up against a fence so hopefully it'll be ok without a jacket on.

Maud - hide the bulbs! No more bulbs pleeease