Hedge Trimming

Hedge Trimming

Wow, I think the whole world is hedge trimming at the moment. Now (late summer, early autumn) is the time to cut back your conifers and beech hedges and all that, which in my garden is most of the hedging. I cut the privet last week, it should have had more cuts over the summer, but it has had to get away with just the one. I didn't want to disturb it in early summer because of all the birds.

Today I did one of the beech hedges and also a yew which isn't a hedge but a big bush by the bird feeders. Sometimes the sparrowhawk lurks in the bush waiting to pounce on the little birds, but it gives the birds refuge most of the time and a sneaky way of approaching the feeders.

We had to go to the dump later with many of the cuttings (some from the last few weeks!) and the household refuse site (to give it it's more formal name!) was teeming with people with sackfuls and armfuls of the stuff, so obviously everyone is hedge trimming now.

Some of the leylandii are too high for me to reach. They don't belong to me but to neighbours so I hope that isn't going to lead to trouble in the future. None of them encroach on our light as such although one is out to the east of us so could eventually obscure the morning sun. It wouldn't be such a bad thing as we get blinded by it in the conservatory of a spring morning, but having said that we do like to see some sky and birds in that direction. The neighbour who owns that leylandii is never there so it is difficult to talk to him. He seems like a nice enough chap but if he isn't there it is hard to know what to do.

Power Deadheading

Power Deadheading

I've been very busy at work lately hence my gardening blog has been somewhat neglected, for which I am sorry. For the same reason my actual garden is a little neglected too, and so is my physical fitness now I am doing much computer and sedentary work and not getting out there as I was, digging and doing hard work.

Today I decided to spend about twenty minutes marching round the garden just to get the circulation going. Let's face it the garden is not quite so much of a "green gym" at this time of year: the hard work is done and now it's down to a bit of deadheading and weeding (well, I've started giving some of the hedges a good seeing-to as well, because I am off doing jury service in September so I need to get on top of them now).

However, I digress. It seems that inadvertently I have invented a new form of aerobic exercise for the less-than-fully-fit. I have called it power deadheading. Instead of going round and getting down on my knees with secateurs and trug in hand, I decided to march around the garden, but as my husband pointed out, I cannot pass a dead flower without feeling the compunction to chop it off. Therefore I marched until I saw a plant needing deadheading attention. Then I squatted down and cut off a flower, then bobbed back up again, squatted down for the next one, back up, and so on. OK I didn't squat for every single dead flower, but you get my drift. Enough to keep it aerobic even though the marching had stopped. I did not allow myself to carry the trug with me, so could only carry as many deadheads and tidyings as I could carry in one hand. I then resumed the march, to the compost bin with the bits, then back round the circuit to get to the next plant needing attention, and so on.

I carried on doing this for about twenty minutes or more, and felt like I had had a darn good workout at the end of it. Of course it's not the most efficient way of deadheading and weeding, but at least something else constructive is done in the garden at the same time as having a bit of a physical workout. It's called making life difficult I guess, but in a good way.

Frankly I still needed to get around with the trug later, as there are so many flowering plants needing deadheading at this time of year, and I haven't been out there for a few days due to really awful rain, but I felt good for my workout and at least some gardening was done at the same time.

Come spring and autumn of course I will get more garden exercise anyway, tidying away stems and the dreaded leaf clearance from all the mature trees, mulching, and planting bulbs. Then spring, oh dear, spring is all work, digging and planting like mad, trying to keep the seedlings watered in the greenhouse. I don't think I will need to power walk around the garden then!

A Visit from the Gardener

A Visit from the Gardener

Yesterday we had a surprise visit from the gardener who helped us to dig out the new beds in early spring. He was amazed at how well they are looking now, especially my exotic, hot border, with all the dahlias, cannas, ginger, banana etc. He said he hoped that it wouldn't all go over too early, and of course there are plants which probably will, especially the bedding like the pot marigolds which are flowering their socks off. But Dahlias should carry on until the first frosts, and the Canna and Ginger have yet to flower.

It was lovely having him here to see the fruits of our labours and to get a nice pat on the back. Now he appreciates how fussy I was about having as much manure and compost as possible turned into our sandy soil, and the mulch which has largely conquered the weeds.

The sad thing is he is finding a lot of trouble getting anyone decent to work for him. It's so frustrating, he has much more work in the offing than he can cope with, but no reasonably competent staff to do it for him. I thought jobs were hard to come by in Norfolk but it seems perhaps many of the best workers have gone elsewhere? Gardening as a profession is a strange affair - to be at the top of your game, you need to have horticultural degrees and such, but also have the muscles of a navvy and the energy to be a labourer. Only when you reach the dizzy heights of garden designer or guru can you afford to sit back and let everyone else do the work.

I'm always on the lookout for gardening tips. It's amazing what you can learn from other experienced gardeners. Some might seem obvious, but sometimes there is one which just never ocurred to you, which brings you better results or lessens your workload. I found a few at this site: gardening-world.com.

Outdoor Tomatoes and Blossom End Rot

Outdoor Tomatoes and Blossom End Rot

It is so hard, especially with the heatwave we were having until last week, to cope with watering the tomatoes properly. We have quite a number of containerized plants which also need watering, Brugmansias, which seem to wilt at every opportunity, and bananas. But the tomatoes, both inside and out, are very demanding indeed.

We have been dismayed to find grey/brown rot patches on the bottom of our tomato fruits, both inside the greenhouse and out, despite having bought blight-resistant varieties. We know we are in a blight area because we were told that by the previous owners. We assumed it was blight at first on the tomatoes, because there are some brown bits on the leaves as well, but we have been suspicious that maybe it is not tomato blight as the leaves and stems are little affected.

Anyway, we've now discovered that it is blossom end rot, which makes sense as it is at the end where the blossom is! The bad news is that it is a consequence of erratic watering, so I hope that more fruits won't be affected if we water well from now on. Lord knows we really did our best with the watering but it is so hard - we'll have to set up irrigation in future. The good news is that although I have sprayed them with Dithane fungicide anyway, it's not blight -yet. So with any luck we might yet get some ripe and edible tomatoes!