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| This week's cafe flowers |
Don't these flowers look lovely for October, they re almost spring-like in colour. The Asters really are worth growing for their variety of colours, heights and flowering time late into the season. Be careful which variety you choose as some can be quite spready, enthusiastic growers as I call them. Others are well behaed and ideal for smaller gardens. Fortunately the great weather we've had for the last week is continuing, helping the flowers last longer too and bringing out some great autumn colour on the trees.
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| A Mix of Asters for the cafe |
After doing the cafe flowers on Wednesday morning I carried on weeding the borders, making the most of the dry weather. It is reaching that time of year where there is less need to tidy the borders and as they get covered in leaves I let them be until after new year. I made sure I gathered in some seed I wanted as I worked through the borders. Because it has been so dry lately I've had to water the stock beds and sales area, usually unheard of in October.
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| The entrance to the sales area still looks inviting |
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| Lots of colour on the Acers |
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One of my favourite trees, Liquidamber, fabulous autumn
colour adds to it's worthyness in a garden |
Thursday and Friday were spent weeding more borders, tidying the sales area and potting. The evenings are getting darker earlier so there's not much happening in the garden at home these days, apart from a quick water of the greenhouses and some jobs done on a Monday morning. I've been catching up on paperwork and sorting through piles of "stuff" on my desk at home. I've reached the wedding planning book, so I guess some planning will start soon. You can read about in this blog here
From Weedy Strip to All Year Round Front of House Border
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Here at home you can see a before (Sept 2014) and after
(last Monday). The plants I put in two years ago are
filling out well |
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| Lots of colour outside my office in the nursery |
The weekend again dawned warm and sunny and my first task was to re-pot all the indoor plants in the cafe. If you've been to the cafe, you will know some of them are pretty big so I got David to help me outside with them all. It was ideal doing this job outside in the sun where there was space to empty them out of their pots, re-pot them into lovely fresh compost with some fertiliser to help them along the way. Once back in situ they got a good watering and will soften the cafe interior and deaden some of the noise.
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| Re-potting the cafe plants at Whitmuir |
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| Can you spot a strange crop in David's workshop poly tunnel? |
Over the past two weekends David has been building himself a poly tunnel workshop out of left over tunnel pieces, wood and plastic. The whole thing has cost £50 and is an example of more great Quercus recycling. I have bargained to have half of it to over winter plants from the stock beds as I have no more room in the main poly tunnel!
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| Prince puppy even has his own bed in the tunnel! |
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| Isn't the sales area still looking colourful? |
The other big job we got started at the weekend was the scented border. This is the last untidy area you see as you enter the nursery, so it will be brilliant to get this done over winter. I have started by removing the turf (I use that term loosely) that is made up of several grasses including couch grass, creeping thistle, Hypericum, Achillea millifolium, creeping buttercup, and many other weeds. David kindly barrowed away all this material to behind the office where it is being used to level off the large area there. After removing several feet across the area I then dug it over, taking care to remove as many roots as possible. Being me that's pretty much all of them, there will be re-growth but the more I get out now the less to weed later. On his return trips David brought our own home made compost from the bins. This will add organic matter to the field clay soil and improve nutrition and drainage over time. I have started at the widest bit so that as I get more tired it gets narrower, getting the worst bit over first! I've got a list of plants that will be going in here, more on that as I begin to plant it up over the next few months.
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| beginning the scented border |
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| Lovely sky on the way home from the nursery on Sunday |
Monday and my catch up at home day off and first task of the day was to get the greenhouses prepared for winter. Usually I get a help to to put the bubble wrap on but being on my own it was a one woman job which took just over an hour to do the two houses, so not bad. I just need to get a bottle of gas for the heater and that's it all ready. Once the bubblewrap was on I moved all the plants that need winter protection in (apart from the four biggies that need two people).
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| Small greenhouse all wrapped up |
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| A cosy tent for winter |
After lunch it was the usual house cleaning and then some baking, I'm really enjoying time to bake again, this week it was fig and raspberry crumble cake which has had the thumbs up from everyone. I got bread made in the bread maker and various other tasks done around the house so am beginning to feel a bit more organised again, whew!
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| The makings of Fig and Raspberry crumble cake |
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| The end result is very tasty |
Tuesday and a wee adventure for me as I headed into Glasgow by train to visit middle son. I've never taken the train from Lanark to Glasgow and it was a very stress free alternative to driving into the city and paying for parking. Jamie met me in the station and we walked over the Clyde back to his new flat which I hadn't seen yet. It's very nice, spacious for him and his flat mate, handy for uni, work and socialising and not too expensive for him either, perfect. After a coffee we headed back into the city for a late lunch early dinner in his choice of eatery, Tony Macaroni. We had the full works, starter, mains and dessert, milk shakes and coffee, I won't need to eat for a day or so. We indulged in big sundaes for dessert which were awesome.
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| Heading to the south side of the River, Glasgow |
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| My Dad used to work in Union Street |
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| Decisions, decisions, perusing the menu |
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| A snowball and raspberry Sunday |
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| Glasgow central station, time to head home |
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| They don't make railway stations like they used to |
I hope you've had a good week too and are enjoying the autumn colours. Have a great weekend.
Previous October blogs:
A Week in the Quirky Bird Garden
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Your sales area looks most inviting Rona as does that fig and raspberry crumble cake. Do you close over winter? It's been fairly dry here until today which was extremely wet and windy. Will no doubt be collecting leaves if it is dry tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna, it's amazing how much colour there still is, mainly due to the lovely dry weather have had, now we are back to normal with rain and wind, so it will go soon. We are closing but open by appointment only over winter, i am looking forward to 2 weeks off at beginning of November. Happy leaf collecting :)
DeleteHi Rona, I really like your photos, you have a good eye for colours and compositions, those plants outside your office are stunning with all the colours, and that sunset is just breathtaking... PS it seems that I'm not far from you, just on the other side of Clyde Valley :-)
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks, it's been a lovely autumn so far, which I love, all those leaf colours and cool clear mornings :)
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