What have you done in the garden today? Part 6

[MereDintofPandiculation]

What have you done in the garden today? What went well? What surprises have you had? What could have gone better?

@longtompot Most Fuchsias are non-hardy and need yo be overwintered somewhere frost free. A few are hardy and can be planted in the ground. Star Wars seems to be hardy, but as you’re not sure of the identification, it would be safer to treat it as non hardy. Either that, or get a couple of cuttings started so if you do lose it, you have a back-up.

Even hardy Fuchsias can be cut back to ground level in a cold winter. They’ll then put out new shoots once the soil warms up.

Thank you @MereDintofPandiculation I bought it at a plant sale outside a church in town and pretty much nothing was labelled! I'll try doing some cuttings, I can be very hit and miss with them, and see what happens. I didn't realise you could cut them right down over winter, so that might be why I lost some that were planted out in my previous garden.

Even hardy Fuchsias can be cut back to ground level in a cold winter. They’ll then put out new shoots once the soil warms up.

IME they can take quite a while about it, may not show any buds till late spring! I thought one I've got in my border was dead but had the sense to cut back then leave it - it's 3-4 ft tall again now.

I didn't realise you could cut them right down over winter, so that might be why I lost some that were planted out in my previous garden. I don't think the non-hardy ones survive even if you cut them back, and the hardy ones can be pruned hard back, or you can just leave them. Either the top growth will survive, or it won't - in which case it's the same as if you cut them back.

IME they can take quite a while about it, may not show any buds till late spring! I've always thought of it as summer. I think of hardy Fuchsias as a late summer plant, although having checked my photo records, I see mine was showing flower buds on June 2nd.

@longtompot When I said "Even hardy Fuchsias can be cut back to ground level in a cold winter", I meant by the frost, not by the gardener! Sorry to have been confusing.

I had some work to do on one veg bed today, a bed in the allotment that I made in spring. I noticed too late when the bed was new that there was a narrow strip of landscape fabric under part of it, but many inches down. I decided to plant carefully but to leave the fabric until I emptied the bed in the fall. So it was today's job and all went well until I decided to lengthen the bed as well.

Around the bed are wood chip paths. Cleared the wood chips from one end to extend the bed and weeded, but my trowel would not go in to get the roots, not even an inch. After a little digging and investigating I unearthed carpet. A huge swathe of disgusting carpet maybe six feet by nine under a one inch layer of dirt/wood chips. I had not known it was there because that area was path, not used for planting.

Carpet is out. I am mid-extending the bed still (stopping for a cup of tea) because of exhaustion and rain.

My courgettes after sulking all summer have suddenly perked up and decided to grow some actual courgettes. Whether they’ll make it to full size this late on is a good question.
Still no sign of the bulbs I ordered.

Dumped barrow loads of green waste into the skip. Beginning to see patches of garden I've never seen before! Lived here over 20 years.

@Hedjwitch That’s going to be fun! I’ve got a whole 2sq m of garden that I’ve not seen before that I cleared earlier this year. Planting opportunities are such an excitement in an established garden!

Found £50 in the garden today. Two £20s in the ashes of the bonfire and £10 by the compost. Ha, wondered where that money went. Pretty sure the only reason I found it was the slant of the sun forcing me to keep my head down.

And I picked ten squash today.

What have you done in the garden today?

Watched my dog kill a rat. He had hassled it out of my compost bin and the little bleeder ran right towards me and nearly into my house before my terrier caught him and killed him (very very instantly).

I know it is horrible, but so is the prospect of a live rat in my compost bin. The bin was too dry I think. I have drenched it with a hosepipe (very nervously in case of more exiting rats).

Also repotted an absolutely vicious opuntia, which holidays in the greenhouse through the summer but will shortly be coming indoors. Used thick leather gloves, which protected me from the thick spines, but a few of the tiny invisible skinny spines slid through to puncture my skin.

Took down the fruit cage and picked 1.2 litres of blueberries. That's not the final crop but I couldn't be arsed to pick any more today.
DH put up a new trellis for the vine and did an end-season weed of the blueberry bed (it's a faff while the cage is up) then I mulched with a load of (out of date) coffee machine sachets. The garden reeks of coffee now, but the plants will like it. And the slugs and local cats won't.

Not been on a gardening thread for a while. We've neglected our garden space but today trimmed an evergreen bush and cut back a hugely overgrown St John's Wort plant and an evergreen bush.

Ran out of green bin space so will wait until after Thursday to do more.

But we've started!

It's sometimes possible to exchange damaged banknotes - especially if the bit with the serial number is intact. I think it has to be the BoE rather than just your own bank.

Did a major weed/cut back in the front garden. Also cut back a load of ferns overhanging the ponds, rather than what I usually do, which is wait till they subside into the water. Was scooping up debris from the path under one of the ponds, and scooped up something distinctly fleshy. Expected it to be a big black slug but it was actually an adult frog.

watered the greenhouse and picked the last cucumber

chopped up some branches and added them to the dead hedge. I hate pruning and then disposing of the prunings, so I always do it as two separate jobs.

As I’m in the thick snot/productive cough stage of a cold, that lot finished me for the day.

With the arrival of autumn - I've moved away from planting - I've been redesigning my garden all summer, so it's a good time to break and reflect on the successes and failures of what I've done so far.

My focus has now moved to outside storage. I finally got my handyman to build a log store into the porch of the shed, we built a place for folding chairs and the stove. I've also had the outhouse cleared and repointed. I'm going to paint the internal walls white and get some garage shelving fitted. It's feeling less scary already - previously it was full of old spider's webs that hit you in the face if you moved beyond the door. The spiders are welcome to build their webs in the corners - just not in my face. I've hired a skip to finally get rid of all the rubbish the previous owner left behind - it feels very cathartic to finally bring order to my outdoor space.
Any ideas/links on how to store my garden tools?

They are the new notes, so undamaged. I just wiped them off with the kitchen sponge!

I did some deadheading/tidying up spent perennials before we went out today. Debating whether there's time to go out and look for bulbs ... not time to go to the big garden centre now and the local one has been disappointing the last couple of years since it changed hands. And I'm not quite ready to oust the summer plants from the pots.

I also took some cuttings from my umbrella plant, it had got too too heavy and unstable so it needed pruning down. I've never tried this before, I've got one in water and the rest in potting compost.

Gazed in some bemusement at all the new space after the huge pruning and cutting back project. Skip is absolutely full!
Discovered long lost stepping stones forming sort of a path across the main bed and into the garden, and sat in the summer house to ponder possibilities...woke up an hour later!

Here are five tips to help you grow a garden

1. Choose the Right Plants: Select plants suited to your climate and soil type. Native plants often require less maintenance and are more resilient.

1. Soil Health: Test and amend your soil with organic matter, such as compost, to improve fertility, drainage, and structure.

1. Water Wisely: Water early in the morning to minimize evaporation. Use drip irrigation or soaker hoses for efficient watering.

1. Mulch: Apply a layer of mulch around plants to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and regulate soil temperature.

1. Regular Maintenance: Keep up with weeding, pruning, and pest management to promote healthy growth and prevent problems before they arise.

So, Granny, what you do is you take an egg ...

@faroutnow i hang my garden tools on a long, horizontal rack, it’s brilliant because you can see what you have easily. My shed it tiny, 6x4’, so it has to be tidy.

Admired my hollyhocks that decided they're going to go to flower this year rather than next and pulled another bowl full of tomatoes off the plants. I think I'm really pushing them to their limit now, but I've got nothing to lose by seeing how long they'll cope with the temperature shift and the onslaught of wet weather really.

Brought in my outdoor seating cushions. Turns out the cover that goes over the seat is only showerproof, and not up to withstanding the deluge earlier this week.
The cushions were dripping wet so I stood them up on newspaper overnight and put them to fully dry in the sun today.
Now they're staying indoors for the winter.

Picked some tomatoes, planted some tulips, onions and did some weeding. Planning on planting garlic. Using cardboard going no dig