And just like that it is the end of October.........

This is a bit of a long one, but I wanted to round up the last week at the nursery before we closed for winter and a few other bits and pieces. Of course with being off there are several dog walks, painting and other things a Quirky Bird gets up to on a day or weeks off. 

Bluebell woods

I put together this board for our seed workshop a couple of weeks ago featuring different types of seed and their dispersal methods.

Berries (holly, roses, rowan)

Capsules (poppy, nigella, witch hazel)

Catkins (birch, alnus, willow)

Cones (pine, larch, picea)

Exploding seedheads (Euphorbia lathyrism, Lathyrus, Geraniums)

Nuts (hazel, chestnut, oak)

Pods (sweet peas, wisteria, lupin)

Winged seed (Acer, ash, lime)

Another autumn task - bulb planting. Today I planted some snowdrops in the orchard for a late winter display, topped up some bulb plantings through out the nursery gardens and planted lots of bulbs in the new woodland garden.

Planting bulbs, in fact planting any plant is hope for the future, looking forwards and the joy as those plants and bulbs emerge in spring to give us colour and hope, no matter whats going on in our lives and elsewhere, plants will grow and give us joy

Snowdrops waiting to be planted

In they go

Bulb planting in the new woodland garden

I've been thinking long and hard about what to do about my social media. It takes up a lot of time and I feel I have to stream line it to free up my valuable time to do everything I want to do. Currently I run 3 facebook pages, 2 instagram pages, a blog and a you tube channel and its just a silly amount on top of working full time running the nursery, renovating our house, trying to get some me time to paint, work in my new garden and walk and of course last but not least family and friends!

So:

I will be keeping my personal facebook page to keep up with family and friends.

The Quercus Garden Plants facebook page and instagram page will remain as they are very beneficial to the nursery business.

My blog, I have always been a diarist, so its a way of keeping that going in the tech era.
ronaquirkybirdgardener.blogspot.com/

I will keep the Quirky Bird Gardener Instagram page so I can share things that are not nursery related.

I have decided to discontinue the Quirky Bird gardener page on Facebook. If you follow me here you can instead follow me on either of my two instagram accounts if you use it or subscribe to my blog, where the same content will be. 

Thanks to everyone for following on this page and liking my posts, I hope you will join me else where on any of the above  will be good to see you there.

Calendula officinalis

Filipendula purpurea

Helianthus 'Morgensonne' (Helianthus decapetalus 'Morning Sun')

Rudbeckia fulgida var. Deamii

Rudbeckia subtomentosa 'Henry Eilers'

Ocrober views of the nursery gardens

The greenhouse is tucked up for winter

Quite often I don’t see these asters in full flower as we are closed for winter by the time they flower. They are well ahead this year and I’ve enjoyed a couple of weeks of their beautiful flowers before we closed up for winter. Depending on weather conditions some Asters will flower well into December, well worth growing for late autumn winter colour.

Aster (Symphyotrichum) novae-angliae
'Badsey Pink' and Cortaderia selloana 'Pumila'

Aster (Symphyotrichum)
novae-angliae 'Badsey Pink'

Aster (Symphyotrichum)
novae-angliae 'Herbstschnee'

Aster (Symphyotrichum)
 novae-angliae 'Septemberrubin'

Aster (Symphyotrichum) pilosum
 var. Pringlei 'Monte Cassino'

Cortaderia selloana 'Pumila'

You'll never look at Cornus berries in the same way again 

Well that's all Folks for 2022! Can you believe it’s the end of October already? I can't. Thank you so much to all our customers who visited the nursery and gardens this year, who purchased from us and all the support and positive encouragement through the year and especially in our more trying times this year. Its all very much appreciated. We are off for a much needed break and then will be back and forward doing all the winter jobs needing done. As you know I'll be on our social media chatting about plants and gardens.

Huge thank you's to Sam, Isabel and Rory for all their work, enthusiasm and great company this year. We got masses more done in the nursery, so much propagation and 1 and a half new gardens

I'd especially like to thank Viki at Junkshopantiques for helping keep both of us sane (ish) while running our businesses, being business owners, house buying and the ups and downs of life in general, more turbulent retail times and the unknowns if the farm sale at the beginning of the year

And of course David who manages to fit in the nursery amongst his own business and flying

Take care for now

Big thanks from Rona and David x

Walking back from Cardrona

I got David to drop Maisie and I off in Cardrona on his way past on Monday and we walked back home, an easy 3 miles, missing the worst of the rain. It was so warm though, 16C at the end of October! In other news the hall floor is finally sanded so we might get that room finished this week, yay!

White dead nettle

Almost home

Feeling accomplished- I've managed to make
 toad in the hole and get the batter to do what its supposed to
  

On Tuesday, having done a first coat of varnish on the hall floor, dropped off the floor sander and done a quick run round the supermarket for a food shop it was off to Roslyn Glen for a lovely autumn walk to the gunpowder mill. Haven't been here for ages and it was fab for photos with its carpet of beech leaves. Maisie enjoyed several paddles in the river, despite the cold, tough mouse dog this one!

Wednesday was a day of torential rain and wind, an indoors day finishiing off things in the hall, painting and other bits and pieces, catching up on admin and blog writing.

My blog about our visit to Culzean gardens earlier this year.
 

Pansies

Congratulations Dan on passing your
driving test

We've finished the second room we've renovated in our wee house. Taking our time fitting it in amongst everything else, sorting and fixing things as we go. We are loving the bright hallway we've created and our art gallery walls Thank you David for all your help with our latest project

on

Sadly the great carpet of nasturtiums in my garden have had their day with the frost last night, but plenty seeds have dropped to the ground so I am confident there will be plenty more next year

Today - a hefalump ........................

A walk along the south side of the Tweed to Neidpath tunnel and then back through the tunnel. Maisie wasn't fazed at all! Lol, she's managed to break her lead just before we go away on holiday and tonight wasn't fazed by the fireworks. This dog is something else!

A bonus if living where we do now, we can see the Peebles fire

works display from our back garden

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