Hobbies and Crafts

Take it very easy Ann and give your back time to recover.

I haven't done any gardening this week so far as Monday and Tuesday it just kept raining, on Wednesday I had several appointments and it was SO cold and yesterday I wasn't free till after 3 pm and it is starting to get dark already by then. I'll have to hope there is a bit of decent weather over the weekend.

There isn't a lot left to do but there are still a few plants to be cut back a bit and I daren't let my own Mr Crewcut loose on them or they'll be cut back considerably more than a bit ;-)

Not a nice day here at all today, very grey. As I have a problem with a muscle in my back I am taking things very easy today. Certainly won't be going out in the garden. I have sorted out my orchids though on the kitchen windowsill if that qualifies as gardening!!

I have put a couple of photos of our great grandsons on my photoblog for thos who are interested also a few of the November garden!

All we have left to do in the garden is to prune the roses right down, a job OH always does as he is the knowledgeable one on the gardening front! I tend to be a bit cavalier, whereas he is much more methodical and thoughtful and in reality, sadly knows considerably more about it than I do! ( what an admission, but if I'm honest its true!!!!) Yesterday it snowed quite fiercely here for about half an hour, but didn't settle thank goodness, today its just dank and gloomy!!!

But we haven’t got a field behind us Ann. :-( it must be something to do with boys and their toys. Lock up the secateurs!!

I'm glad I'm not the only one with 'Edward Scissorhands' in the garden Ann! Despite specific guidance beforehand my OH somehow manages to do the opposite. I have a pretty red Potentilla that has been 'in recovery' for about 3 years. The only place he can't do damage is in the field behind the fence at the bottom of the garden when he cuts back the brambles. :-D

Same here Gwyn with the brown bin collection. Ours is due tuesday so no doubt OH will be out there cutting back what is not already bald. That will be after the fleeting visit of second grandson with wife and great Granddaughter.

Thank you for the cuttings information, - I do hope I manage to grow at least a couple of them.
Time has been very limited for garden work lately because of family matters, but I hope I can do a bit of sorting out early this week, before the predicted cold easterly winds blow.
Our back garden hardly sees the sun in winter, so it's a case of wrap up warm to work out there even without having to contend with bitter winds.
A lot of trees still have a lot of leaves, so there is plenty of tidying and cutting back to do before winter sets in. We have an opt-in paid garden waste collection once a fortnight, so the weekend before collection day usually sees a flurry of activity locally.

Here we are in the middle of November and I am still sorting the garden out for winter:-|. It seems that every time I am free to get outside it’s pouring with rain. We have had some lovely days but I always seem to be busy with other things then.

How can a small garden take so much time? However I am getting there. There are just a few things to cut back a bit now. Then I want to give the bird bath and the little pond a good clean before the icy weather comes.

The forecast is for the weather to start getting much colder so I’d better get a wriggle on :-D

You can take hard wood cuttings at this time of year, I do mine now and put them in multi purpose compost on my kitchen window sill, I stand them on a dish and keep them watered, but not over watered, they always grow. My window is West facing so gets the evening sun. I hope this helps Gwyn and good luck. Let us know how you get on. I always do more than I think I want as sometimes the odd one or two don't make it, so I have a few spares.

It sounds like a great place Ann and now you can take all your unwanted pots there to, like you said it's better than filling up landfill sites. As you know I have a pot garden so none of my pots go to waste and if ever I have a few to many empty pots I take them to our garden centre where other people can take them and use. So win win.

I moved a few of my pots around the other day in the bottom border, it was starting to look a bit boring so I put some more colourful plants there to brighten it up a bit.

took some more round there this morning so we have a bit more room in the shed now. Took some bricabrac round for their little shop as well. Not sure how much they make from things though as it is run on an honesty box. Not sure in these days that people can be trusted to pay a fair price for things. Still it was stuff I didn't want so it has found a home now.

Great that you have found somewhere to take your pots and trays Ann.
I hate throwing things away if someone can use them.

A question please about taking cuttings.

It's probably the wrong time of year, but I would like to try taking cuttings from a flourishing viburnum shrub. The property is soon to be sold, so it's a now or never chance.
What do I need to do and how to nurture to give them the best chance please?

The parent plant has been growing in a sunny garden border in Hampshire near a tall wood fence on it's eastern side and had a wonderful display of white flowers earlier this year. Not sure if it is in natural soil, - I think so.... This is well-drained acidic.

We are feeling pleased this morning as we have found somewhere that takes all spare pots and plastic seed trays, and the trays that new plants come in (like pansies etc. so not sending them to land fill but collected for charity. This is a very small local garden centre that is actually a charity itself called The Butterfly Garden

(http://www.thebutterflygarden.org/aboutus.asp)

We also took some bricabrac round for Flutterbys, their little charity shop. It is a marvellous place, the garden centre is small and rarely busy so goodness knows how that survives but when we go round on a sunday occasionally there is a little coffee shop open in Flutterbys which is usually staffed by some of the students who are all special needs and obviously enjoying being there. It is a happy place so we are pleased that we can take our used pots there.

Putting some yellow and orange coloured pansies in the front will look lovely Vera and like you said it brightens the area up on grey days. You timed that just right putting the fleece over the pots of agapanthus, it did go very cold in the evenings and nights for a few days. I noticed a few of my plants didn't like it. It's gone mild again now, so they've perked back up again.

Yes, there's always something to do in gardens no matter what size they are, it is funny how small gardens still have lot to do in them. I bet it looks lovely though. I'll keep my fingers crossed there's good weather for you, so you can finish the jobs you need to do. Enjoy your weekend away.

Very frosty start to yesterday so I was glad I had put some fleece over my pots of agapanthus. Later in the day I managed to get out and clear some more troughs of dying annuals and also plant some pansies up in big pots. We live in a small cul-de-sac with no front garden, though we do have quite a big paved area. In the summer I might have potted annuals or fuschias by the front door to brighten it up but for the winter I often have yellow and orange coloured pansies as they look so cheerful on grey days.

I still have some jobs to do before winter really sets in. How can a small garden create so much work? Far too wet today to do anything outside and we are off to Yorkshire for the weekend to stay with our son and family so nothing will get done now till next week. Fingers crossed for some decent weather :-)

What a lovely gesture Vera of your friend to buy you those lovely flowers. 51 pots wow that's a lot are you sure it's a mini greenhouse lol. It sounds like you've been very busy again, I think you having so many plants in the mini greenhouse they'll keep each other warm, so to speak.

Another busy day for you to Liz. How big is your avocado tree? How long have you had it?

I like plants and flowers indoors to Ann, it cheers the place up doesn't it?
Sandra has been very busy today making more cards with all the lovely things you sent her, she's had a great day.

It's getting really cold outside now after quite a warm start to the day. We've had lots of heavy showers of rain on and off all day, they say it's going to get colder over the next few days, hope all the plants will be alright.

I noticed a hedgehog walking down our garden in daylight, does anyone know if that's right. He was such a little thing and didn't look like he would make it through the winter with being so thin. I always thought hedgehogs came out at night. I'm a bit worried about him now.

How lovely of your friend to bring you flowers. I sometimes buy a bunch of flowers with the weekly shop. We have been very pleased with £3 bunches of fresias from Tesco. I was picking the Michalmas daisies for indoors but they have finished now.

A mixture of sunshine and heavy showers today and it is pretty cold. I managed to get out between showers and fill the shelves in the mini greenhouse with lots of pots, mostly geraniums but a few other things as well. Some of the pots are small and just have cuttings or little plantlets in them but a lot of them are fairly big, and I managed to get 51 pots in there. I didn’t think it would hold so many. I just hope most of it survives the winter.

I have only had to bring four large pots into the conservatory so I am well pleased.

I have been helping a friend who doesn’t have a computer with some family history and she called round earlier with a lovely bunch of chrysanthemums as a thank-you. They look and smell gorgeous. I do love fresh flowers in a room. I think I’ll have to try and find a little spot in the garden where I can grow flowers for cutting :-)

After a dull start its blue skies and sunshine this morning so I've mowed the grass, hung washing(!!) and swept some leaves. Our avocado tree, grown from seed is now in the greenhouse. Trouble is, having successfully grown and nurtured it, we're now not quite sure what to do with it!! Left outside it will die, inside, its just getting too big!!
Worry about it next summer!!!
Must have a look at those bulbs today!!

It sounds like you're getting there sorting out your garden ready for the winter Vera. I've done everything I can now, all the plants I can protect are sorted and either put in the greenhouse or down the bottom of the garden behind the conifers where it's sheltered. I'm so glad we created that area 2 years ago and flagged it this year, it's a godsend and we've managed to get such a lot of plants down there. Our neighbour over the back cut their hedge the other week so there's a bit more light down there now and a bit of space for the rain to get in, so the plants should be okay for the winter now. They are spring and summer plants so won't need moving again until next year. I had a look down there today and noticed my fuscia's are still in flower, I was quite surprised.

I'm the same as you and very surprised how most of my plants are still in flower, I'm still deadheading which is very unusual for this time of year, but it's keeping the flowers going. I should imagine once the frost arrives it won't look as pretty though, but for now I'm enjoying looking at such a colourful garden.

Having the mini greenhouse must be wonderful for you Vera, I know how much my greenhouse is used, all year around. I've never had one before, it was here when we moved in 10 years ago and now I wouldn't be without one. I put Sandra's pot strawberries in there in the summer, otherwise the birds would have them all and we've grown potatoes, carrots and tomatoes in pots in there to. I also have two climbing bluebell plants which are doing great and it's a smashing place to put my succulents during the cold winter months. I've recently had to put all my bulbs I have in pots in there as the squirrel was digging them up and although they are growing quicker it's better than not having any at all next year. So all in all I'm really pleased I now have a greenhouse. I can see how useful yours is too. That was lucky finding the fleece and just in time before the cold weather arrives.

A lovely day here but a cold wind again. The forecast is for a cold weekend so I think I will have to get various plants in the mini greenhouse and the conservatory by tomorrow night.

I managed to get into the garden for an hour or so today so finished cutting back the rudbeckias and started on tidying up the hostas. I also cleared out some of our troughs that had annual begonias in as they were beginning to look quite tatty. OH also found a roll of fleece at the back of the garage for me and I’ll use that to protect half a dozen pots of agapanthus that we have outside. I’ve had them for several years and they seem to survive the winter outside with a bit of protection.

I have been really surprised at how much is still in bloom in the garden. I’ve got blue and white campanula plants in bloom and I can’t remember them being in flower so late before, plus Japanese anemones and the geraniums still keep throwing up new blue flowers. The penstemon are still going strong as well. It’s lovely to see so much colour still.

Ann, I hope your OH enjoys his trip to rugby and you have a good time with your grandson