24th OCTOBER 2025

 

There was a beautiful sky over Fraisthorpe beach tonight.

Hopefully promising another lovely gardening day tomorrow.

Red sky at night .....

My day began in the greenhouse transplanting the lupin seedlings into pots.

I knew I was stalling on getting outside to plant the spring bulbs but it still felt cold out there ....

so I stalled a bit more by collecting and sowing some hosta seeds.

By then the bulbs had waited long enough ...

I started digging down at the pond with 15 mixed crocus and 50 small allium bulbs ...

... then ten colourful rockery tulips and more small alliums went among the rocks.

I planted a a pale pink japenese anemone in this bed where a dark pink one is doing well so it should survive.

I added 25 daffodils (citrus sorbet) around here together with 25 scillia bulbs, about 25 anemones (blanda mix) and more small alliums.

Some time was spent digging out the creeping buttercups and small neetles before planting 50 ixia bulbs.

I have a bag of iris to go behind the pond but the rain arrived so I went back to the greenhouse.

I found a large pot in which to plant the frilleries and placed it near the kitchen window.

5 Camassia were planted in another large pot and positioned in a sunny spot ... I have never grown these before so looking forward to seeing what they look like.

When I created the paths near the shed I dug up quite a few daffodils and bluebells so they went back into the ground ... then it was time for a cup of tea.

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21st OCTOBER 2025

 

This is the centre bed where I have scattered some Ranunculus then covered them with compost.

I soaked 400 while we were away for a couple of days ... they were bursting with moisture when we got back so I didn't waste any time in getting half of them into this bed.

I had to clear this patch before I could plant the rest of the Ranunculus.

The nettle roots were like fat yellow electric cables: the buttercups had started to spread again and the ivy will have to be dealt with at a later date!

I bought 20 wallflowers for £4 in Driffield so I put 8 into the back of this border.  The rest are going the other side of the fence on the lane.

The Lazarus plant in the middle is a foxglove with new leaves appearing.

Thompson & Morgan offered 30 carnation plug plants for £9.99 a few weeks ago ... they have grown on really well and are now settling into the new compost in the patio wall together with the spring bulbs.  Hoping for a eye-catching display this spring.

Leaving the lights on in the porch over night attracted a few attractive moths:

The Feathered Thorn ... and two very different but closely related aggregates ...

These two are both called Autumnal or November Moths (Epirrita agg) because they can't be separated!!  

Someone should have gone to Spec Savers!

Apparently you have to inspect their genitalia in order to identify the different types.

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15th OCTOBER 2025

 Had a short break from gardening duties over the last few days: my social life got in the way then the weather turned a bit grey and chilly.  I didn't abandon it altogether .... I managed a bit of tidying but my heart wasn't in it!

Anyway brief spells of sunshine enticed me out the door today so I returned to work on the centre bed.

The irises needed rescuing so the sunshine can hit the tubers or the plants will struggle to flower next year.  There are two years worth of weeds and dead leaves covering them.

It took two and a half hours of kneeling down weeding to once I had loosened the soil with a garden fork.  I dug up all the white geraniums but there are hundreds of seedlings scattered around ... it is a real pest.

I removed some of the foxgloves and the forget-me-knots as you can have too much of a good thing sometimes!

The cooch grass was the main problem and I'm sure there are plenty of roots still in the ground!

There is a very small patch in the centre that still needs attention but it began to rain slightly so I cleared away for today.

The red lobelia will be planted tomorrow .... I also have a couple of chysanthemums, a few achilleas and salvias ... and not forgetting about 500 bulbs all needing homes.  

Hoping for another decent day tomorrow.

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10th OCTOBER 2025

I was busy removing a few more weeds from the centre bed when this arrived ...

... a very welcome sight!

Here was the lane before he began work:

As you can see here our completely overgrown side is letting the neighbourhood down!!

Luckily we have a very helpful neighbour! 

He began at the lych gate which looked acceptable a few weeks ago when it was covered in pink roses and honeysuckle ....

It is much neater now and I can get near it to paint it!

We would have spent all day chopping this back.  He drove up and down for 45 minutes and the job was completed.  

He even reached inside!

The tall thick branches were despatched with ease.

We are no longer the negligent neighbours with the scruffy hedge.

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9th OCTOBER 2025

 Back to the pond today:

Thompson & Morgan had an offer on their bulbs ... so I bought 1500+ !!!

150 Allium Azureum

225 Allium Moly

300 Anemone Blanda Mix

600 Ranunculus

150 Mixed Ixia

75 Scilla Siberica

The patch near the fence now has 500 spring flowering bulbs plus what was already in there.

The pot in the photo was filled with a box I grew from a cutting last year.  Very slow growing I know but it needed to go somewhere.

The small pots of lilies were planted up then I put new compost between the stones and put orange pansies and red carnations along there.  

The Euphorbia (Miners' Merlot) could have gone into the ground but I  decided to make use of the chimney pot instead. 

Still haven't bought any alpines for the rockery and the pond itself is far too congested but otherwise this area is showing improvement at last.

We took a quick trip up to Bempton Cliffs last night hoping to see a White Throated Needletail ...

Photo from Hull Live.

Lots of birders turned up and got spectacular views of it.  It is a swift and has been recorded travelling at 115mph!  Poor thing should be on its way to Australia.  

It was late evening and the light was fading when we got there ... just in time to see it flying away!

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8th OCTOBER 2025

 Rather a destructive time in the garden today ... I got the hedge trimmer out to decimate this bamboo. 

A quick trim round the bench gave us some room to sit down ....

Then a shave up the side

revealed the logs placed there initially to hold the bamboo back!

Unfortunately it also revealed a large rabbit hole!  

I need to cut more off at a later date to block it up.

We have attempted to keep them out with wire fencing ... they just dig under it ... but secret tunnels in from the field is just cheating!

The bamboo looks a mess at the moment but it will recover quickly come spring.

Clearing up took ages!  I didn't mind because a tiny Goldcrest was fluttering about in the tree above me.  They never sit still.  We used to have a pair in the hedge regulary but this was the first one I have seen for ages.  It takes the garden tally since I started this blog to 40.

After that little treat I attacked the periwinkle invasion.

It looks alright when it flowers but the rest of the time it just grows higher and smothers everything.

There is a tall red hot poker in there somewhere!

It has to go but I will have to do it in stages as I feel exhausted just thinking about it!

There was no digging involved today: I just used the hedge trimmer to chop it back ... 

then had to clear up again!

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7th OCTOBER 2025

 I opened the door this morning to find the delivery man had left me a rose arch.  

We sent for it last week .... 1st October to be exact ... when I could not decide where to place my birthday rose arch.  Instead of having to make a decision Andy sent for a second one!

We were expecting it to arrive last Friday but when the email arrived to say it had been delivered we failed to find it anywhere.  

Andy made some calls and discovered it had been sent to Peterborough rather than our house in Yorkshire.

Its arrival today meant my planned tasks were put on hold so the arch could be built ...

The birthday arch is now forming an entrance to the pond area.  Obviously the bamboo needs to be chopped right back and something will have to be done about the bench and compost bins, but for now I just want to plant a couple of roses or honeysuckle at the side then add more bark to the path.

I had intended to place the second arch on the edge of the lawn providing a central entrance to the path to the pond .... 

 ... but Andy thought creating an entrance to a path on the other side of the garden would be better and I agreed with him ...

I was already with the spade and sharp edged trowel to create holes for the posts ... then Andy asked for the bulb planter and attacked the ground with force.  He had eight holes dug in record time!  

This is a shady area so a white rose or yellow clematis would brighten it up ... if either of them can survive in shade!!  

I have planted a couple of shrubs and some Lambs Ears  in front of the fence ... see the silver leaves?  That was a tiny cutting two years ago ... October is the time to propogate it so I should see if I can get another clump for free.

I might also string some bunting along the fence to add some colour.

A very tall spruce grows in view of my study window.  For the last few nights I have watched a number of rooks land at the top then each pulls an unripe fir cone off a branch and flies away with it in its beak.  I found this to be rather odd behaviour so I looked it up on line.  Apparently the rooks bury the cones ... as they do acorns and walnuts to help them through the winter ... but there is no evidence they actually eat the cones ... more research is being carried out.

 

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6th OCTOBER 2025

 Another beautiful day to be out in the garden ... but not such a lovely area to work on!

This was today's chosen task!

I dug up the lawn to form this a couple of years ago.  Imagine viburnum, weigela, tea roses, brearded irises, aqueliga, chives, sweet williams, wall flowers and geraniums and you have some idea of what it used to look like ... then this happened!

Well, three hours later I managed to tame about half of it!

I was careful to dig up only the weeds and leave the seedlings in place.  

Too many foxgloves have self seeded here though so new locations can be found for those ....

Obviously the bird bath needs washing out but the rest has to wait until tomorrow!

5th OCTOBER 2025

 

Our patio is enclosed by a walled raised bed.  This mess is the side to which I have given the least attention over the years.  

There are wallflowers, blue geraniums and Chinese Lanterns in there ... 

but they have been joined by large nettles, dandelions and a couple of sycamore saplings.  

The soil is also covered by dead leaves from a holly bush and a rather lovely mahonia ... both very spiky so not easy to pick up!

It took a while to dig out the enormous nettle root ....

.... and fill in an old rabbit hole ...

... and get the dandelions out of the wall ...

... but I now have room for some tete-a-tete daffodils. some grape hyacinth and a few small alliums.

When we first moved in I tried to dig out all the Chinese Lanterns ... I like them but I thought they were too tall for this area ... anyway as you can see I failed to get them all and they reclaimed the land!  Quite glad they did as they add colour at this time of year.

Today was a Vis Mig Day (Visible Migration).

  This morning we saw over a hundred pink-footed geese flying up the coast heading north.

 At the same time we were saying goodbye to the last of the swallows.

We haven't seen any for a couple of weeks then five appeared flitting about over the field obviously feeding up before their six week journey to South Africa!

After that awful storm we enjoyed quite a pleasant afternoon.

The butterflies were making the most of it:

Red Admiral .... Large White ...

.... and Speckled Wood joined me as I was clearing the raised bed.

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