Clean Up

Six on Saturday is hosted by The Propagator.  For links to weekly garden diaries from around the globe, check out his comment section & the Twitter hashtag, #SixOnSaturday

Annual washing of the Halloween dead fingers.

It's the type of autumn where things are unexpectedly blooming, seeds & berries are being raided by wildlife.  The wildlife in turn sometimes escapes the cold by coming inside the house.

Time in the garden is spent tidying borders, packing things away.

And of course, there's the little discoveries.






1.  Carrots.

In the spring, I'd sprinkled last year's carrot seeds around the tomato plants.  In 7 of the 8 planters, the carrots were smaller'n an electrical cord.

And then there was planter #8.


2.  Pellie neglect.

Last week, the carving of the pumpkins made room in the potting shed for the pellies.  The chocolate mint pellie'd grown so large, the inside pots needed shuttled a bit for it to fit.  Something or other interrupted this process & Choco Mint stayed out all night.

Apparently his way of complaining about my oversight is to turn red around the edges.  Rather beautiful, but warning enough for me - he's now inside, all safe & snug.


3.  Corn seed.

The garden's corn stalks usually end their lives as Halloween decorations.  You may remember we had an abysmal corn experience this year with young plants dying & the few survivors producing tassels but not silk.  None of the dried stalks were worth putting on display.

There were, however, 2 tiny cobs which are now drying on the rake as next year's seed.


4.  Fennel flower.

The self seeded fennel in the fire pit cum flower bed has produced buds.

I'm wondering why I didn't transplant it when it first came up.  Maybe next year, if I'm careful . . . or maybe not.


5.  Mahonia?

I found these 2 little guys when cleaning out the corn & pumpkin patch.

If they're mahonia, I'm not a big fan, but they might convert me.


6.  Acer love.

Some nursery or the other (Thompson & Morgan, maybe?) had 2 acers for £5.

They're both so young that their trunks are about the size of my carrots from planters 1 through 7.  But o what a punch that colour packs.

Not even close to being the last rose.

That's my Six for the week.

The drop in temps makes being outside less attractive, but there's still tulips to be planted then more tulips to be planted, then after that, tulips . . . to be planted.

So maybe, just maybe, see you next time.