4th OCTOBER 2025

 Another windy day so I am staying inside.

Looking out the window I have a clear view of our neighbours ...

... it was amusing to see the deer running away from the feeding station a few minutes ago swiftly followed by a couple of angry looking cows.

Then Stoaty appeared on our lawn.

We catch sight of him/her quite frequently ... but not recently.  I presume he has been busy caring for young ones and is now free to wander where he pleases.  He is not shy.  He gets quite close to us sometimes.

A few months ago he was wandering around our living room!  The back door had been left open and he was tempted in by the cat food.  He ran further into the house when I walked through the door and got trapped inside.  It took ages to persuade him to leave.

In winter his coat turns a beautiful white meaning he stands out when there is no snow around.

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3rd OCTOBER 2025

Today is a day to settle in with a warm

fire and a good book ...

[in my case Imprimatur by Rita Monadi and Francesco Sorti]

Dylan knows exactly where he wants to be.

Storm Amy is rampaging outside and it's quite dangerous out there!

The farmer has used his tractor to clear a large tree branch from the road and the horse-chestnuts are pelting the tarmac with conkers!

Not a day to be outside!

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2nd OCTOBER 2025

 

Although I have not finished work on the pond area yet I had to turn my attention to the 'allotment' beds today.  

On the way there I carried a few succulents into the greenhouse which is already starting to look quite full.  I still have some daliahs and begonias from two more village planters to put in there over winter and I haven't sown any sweetpeas yet but I'm sure we will manage!

We refer to this area as the 'allotment' but it is given over to flowers.

Originally I dug out four beds intending to rotate veg and cut flowers.  That idea only lasted about 3 seasons because the veg were always a disaster.  I could grow potatoes and nothing else.  Even when I bought ready grown veg plug plants and spent hours putting chicken wire fences round the the beds it still failed to produce decent crops.  So I now grow flowers.

I love bearded iris. 

Many years ago I dragged my husband all the way from Nottingham to Seagate Nursery in Spalding as they specialise in Irises. Our eldest son had just qualified to fly fast jets in the royal navy so I had to buy 'Top Gun' ...

Unfortunately that one was left behind when we moved to Yorkshire but the ones I brought with us thrived and I have bought more since so I was able to separate the clumps and form two iris beds like this one.  The bare middle section had a sweetpea obelisk until a few weeks ago.

My other favourite plant is the peony rose.  These plants were purchased locally this year but I have some in the main garden that my mother gave me at least 15 years ago.  That is one of the things I love about gardening ... as I wander round I remember friends and family because their plants are growing in my garden.

I bought a couple of plants from The Peony Farmer when she was just starting out a long time ago.  The Gardener's World team filmed her peony fields quite recently and it looks a sight to behold now!

Click the link to see what I mean!

This whole bed was filled with roses until I decided we needed a fruit cage so I could grow rasperies and strawberries.  The canes have been cut back now.

The other roses have been transplanted to different parts of the garden but this one was far too big to shift.  I should do something with those rosehips ... but I know I won't.

The final two beds have lupins in one and a pear tree in the other side ...

... but this was the weed filled area I knew I had to work on today.  I needed to rescue it before it became a real problem patch. I have made that mistake before.  You can concentrate on getting one area just so while another place is being over run with creeping buttercups and the problem then takes weeks to sort out! 

Today I turned the wet soil over quite easily and picked out the weeds then covered it over for winter.

I want daliahs in one part next year ... not sure what to plant in the other part but I do have a number of seed packets from Higgeldy Garden: I have always had great results from his seeds so it may be a productive cut flower patch next year.

We had filled this whole bed with tulips a couple of years ago and it was lovely.

However last year there were large gaps so I let the leaves die back then dug up all the bulbs.  

I have just scattered them round the rest of the garden which means we are in for a surprise as I have no idea what colours will grow next to each other!

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1st OCTOBER

 

 Although it is dry right now (7.30am) the fiery sky suggests rain later and the weather forecast agrees .... showers by 8am then 60 to 70% chance of rain most of the day.  

Well that means 30 to 40% chance of it being dry!!

Optimist!

Rain will probably stop play over the weekend though as two tropical storms are heading our way!

A group of friends bought me a rose arch for my birthday last October.  We finally got round to constructing it today!.

I envisaged it going beside the summer house to form an entrance to the pond area ...

 

... but now it is built I quite fancy it forming an entrance in the middle of the path with a rustic fence or various shrubs at the sides ....

I can't decide.  

It doesn't matter today anyway .... it has to be erected securely by digging deep holes and that was not happening today.  In the meantime it had been laid on the ground as I don't want it damaged by the two tropical storms!  

I went a bit mad on the bulb order last month.  This is not the whole lot ... the tulips are already in pots. while some daffs and hyacinths are in the ground.

Today I potted up three lots of hyacinths so I'm getting through them slowly!  Still got boxes of daffs saved from last year in storage and a bucket full of bluebells!

The cutting stuck in there is a euphorbia ... I accidently chopped it off so stuck it in the soil to give it a chance to survive!

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30th SEPTEMBER

  We were woken early by the loud honking of low flying Greylag Geese going passed the bedroom window.

     The morning was quite misty and damp. Dylan was eager to get inside for his breakfast and a bit of warmth.  Things improved quite quickly though meaning Andy could cut the grass ... I can spend all day working away and make little difference then he mows the lawn and the place instantly looks great!

 I returned to the pond area.  

The earth has been dug over and a few plants and bulbs have been added:

• Red cordyline which I hope is going to dominate that area in a few years.
• Blue Veronica that will self seed everywhere!
• A couple of wallflowers
• Chives
• A small cypress because I like the bright green
• A couple of Verbascums at the back,
• The very sad looking Rhododendron is not quite dead so I am hoping for a Lazarus miracle ... told you I'm an optimist!
• A couple of tiny hostas
• A dark heuchera

I have planted daffodils, hyacinths and irises .... I think there are snowdrops in there already ..... then I threw a few aquilegia seeds around.

All the dead leaves have been raked from the other side so that looks better for now ....!

We are surrounded by trees so in a few days time the leaves will fall in their billions.

Improvements have been made from what it looked like a few days ago ...

... but I will have to wait until spring before the full benefits appear!

The big job of clearing out the pond can wait a few days ... 

Lots of Red Admiral butterflies (or Red Admirables as they used to be called) are enjoying the juice from the fallen damsons ... wonder if they suffer from hangovers?

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29th SEPTEMBER

 I was determined not to get distracted from my planned task this morning so headed straight for the pond area.  

I have five objectives for here (not all will be accomplished in one day!):

1. Create a path along the back fence
2. Dig out the nettles from any exposed soil
3. Plant daffodils and hyacinths
4. Remove at least half the irises from the pond
5. Dredge the dead leaves from the water.

We have a log pile at the back of the house from a couple of trees we had to have removed earlier in the year.  I used some of those to form the edging for the path then covered the area in wood chippings.

It took a lot longer than I imagined as the logs were heavy and I had to make more trips than I thought.  On the plus side it meant I hit my 5000 steps for the day!!

The nettles were dug out and most of the cobbled path cleared but the bulb planting has been saved for another day.

Still lots to do but pretty pleased with the progress so far!

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28th SEPTEMBER

 We have a special visitor hanging around near the house today.  A roe deer turned up yesterday evening.

It was raining quite heavily during the night so I was surprised to see her still sitting in the corner of the field when I looked out this morning.  

She saw us looking at her and wandered across to get a better view of us!

I like her as long as she remains that side of the garden fence!

I have enough trouble with rapacious rabbits!!

Andy (my husband) took the photo above ... here is my effort from the same window...

... and this is the reason I will be using Andy's photographs as much as possible in this blog!!  😅

My first job yesterday was to sort out that dangerous leaning urn:

Originally I set out to continue work on the pond area but I have this awful habit of getting distracted ... so I cleared the over grown perennial sweetpeas from a messy corner of the rose bed instead!

This ...

... and this ....

.... became ...

... and ....

The pot contains tulips for a bit of spring colour.

The sweetpeas went to the compost heap.  I collected some of the seed pods because I am an eternal optimist .... Every year I attempt to propogate perennial sweetpeas from seed and every year I fail!

I then moved on to this section of the raised bed.  It is filled with irises, hyacinths, tete-a-tetes and muscari so I placed ten red carnations on top to cheer it up over winter.  

The begonias and geraniums will have to come inside before the frost but they look too good to disturb just yet!

I looked at the pond area for a moment but decided I needed a cup of tea instead!!

Hopeless I know!  My dream garden will just have to wait ... !

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