A Bit of Pottering...

It's that time of year again and a bit of frost in the morning turns my mind to sorting some of the garden plants in time for winter. There are a few plants in the garden that are not natives and need that extra little bit of tender loving care. Originally we weren't going to have any of these but I do like a bit of a challenge and succumbed to tree ferns, melianthus major, eremurus and the like. We started by wrapping up the two tree ferns.

 We bend over the fronds and tie them together with twine. This form a space to fill with straw to protect the crown.

Then they get wrapped with fleece and hessian and end up looking like this...

The tree ferns look like two strange parcels and will remain so until next spring.  A thick mulch protects the other tender plants in the corner bed, including three eremurus. I hope they survive as eremurus are more used to the conditions of the Hindu Kush and won't like the winter wet that we are prone to.

The  melianthus major or honey bush has been stunning this year and is still looking good with the planting of verbena bonariensis.

It will never flower in Scotland as it does in it's native South Africa and it can't cope with our cold wet winters. I have lost a few in the past and they are easy from seed and basal cuttings. But rather than  start from scratch a good layer of mulch should get it through the winter. This is one of my favourite plants with its lobed bluish green leaves and serrated edge. I never tire of photographing it.

The next plants to get the mulching treatment are the row of globe artichokes. They should crop well in their second year. Each one has a cage of some sort round the plant to hold the mulch of bark, old compost or straw as in this case. The straw is usually kept for the hens nesting boxes but it's back to shredded paper for them. I don't think they'll notice...

This is the time one of the compost bins gets opened. It has been rotting down through  the year it's not quite the fruit cake that professional gardeners aspire to but its full of worms and will be great for spreading on the vegetable border and round the rhubarb. You can even see a few worms at the edge of the wooden board.

Ready for a bit of muck spreading....

When this box is empty and the compost has been spread around the garden the contents and all the shrubby cuttings left lying about after my mini tidy-up are turned into the now empty box and this is covered with carpet or black plastic to rot down over the next year. 

One thing I really dislike is when the contents of the compost bin becomes slimy and smelly due to a lack of balance in the ingredients. This is more likely to happen in the winter. During the winter I often use another method of composting, which is to dig a trench the width of the vegetable border and put the kitchen scraps in that and cover again with soil. I keep filling the trench with food scraps until the spring when the I start using the big bin again. Doing this will improve our sandy soil and crops such as runner beans can be planted on top. 

When we lived in Orkney I sometimes used the same method to rot down our plentiful supply of seaweed and then plant the tatties on top. I'm sure family and friends dreaded the announcement of a beach walk to collect seaweed armed with gloves and black bags.

I've started to sweep up the fallen leaves for leaf mould. There seems to be very few this year and the trees are fairly bare already.

Leaves on the deck path nearer the house have been swept onto the woodland border especially around the cardiocrinums. I think the photo would have looked better if I had taken the cane out first!

All the hoses have been drained of water and are ready to be stored in the shed along with the watering cans. I can hardly get in the door...

When I was looking for something in the shed earlier (you can tell it's in a bit of a state and I can't find things) I came across these bulbs in a paper bag. No name and not a clue as to where they came from.  Can anyone hazard a guess? If not we will find out when they flower next year....

Both the green house and the coldframes have been opened every day for some fresh air and in an attempt to keep the dreaded botrytis at bay. I must admit to not spending lots of time looking at seedlings and cuttings in the cold frame up until now. But I did discover some slightly chewed eucomis seedlings. As I lost all our mature plants last winter this has made my day even if it's a long time before we see any flowers on these.

 And last but not least P and I found a spot for the other part of the bedstead from Steptoes Yard. You may remember when we found it (see this link) and where we put the first part (see this link). The bedstead is now doing a fine job in holding back the the bamboo which was encroaching onto the deck.