Watering the bulbs?

Yes!  I know it looks shocking! (sorry) Our favourite electrical expert watering a lamp post!  BUT, the electricity was off and we were trying to rule out a possible leak!  Perhaps I should say that on previous occasions, water had been discovered in the light fitting.  This results in the rest of the electrics in the house tripping out every time the sensor activates the light in the lamp post.  Conclusion..........erm - well we did establish the fact that no water is leaking into the light fitting from outside.  As for the actual cause.......all very inconclusive so, another bulb was fitted in hopes that it heats up more than the rather fancy soft light globe bulb that was fitted before and therefore rules out any possibility of condensation.  This was poor Dave's 3rd visit in an effort to discover the root cause so it's fingers crossed and - 3rd time lucky?

Who needs fireworks??

Colour in the Woodland Border

Despite all the rain and despite having the world's soggiest garden (the top lawn being the very worst) things are looking a tad better following a good weekend tidy-up and a couple of dry and windy days.  We sheltered from Saturday's showers and trimmed the Yew hedge outside the utility window, plant out some wallflowers, finish off shrub planting by the Lion Steps and even rake up leaves.  On Sunday, we even managed to mow the lawns and orchard grass on a high cut.  More leaves were hoovered up in the process.  2 planters outside the back door were planted up with bright purple Violas and some Tete-a-tete miniature daffs.  It will mean a little splash of colour in the spring.

Acer Corner

Talking of colour: despite the fact it's Bonfire Night, we have plenty of brilliant colours. The Woodland Border is pretty green and shady for much of the year but the gold of this Acer is a real focal point right now.  Some of the leaves haven't yet turned.  None of the Birch leaves have turned but then, we haven't had our first frost..... yet!  With this much colour on a dull day in November - who needs fireworks?

Guess how many bottles................!

Having been unable to find anyone local to press our apples, we took them up to Shugborough.  Amazing to think we live in the middle of a cider apple orchard but can't juice our own fruit!  Anyway, Tim Nicholls will juice, pasteurise and bottle the juice from these very apples.  The $64000 question is............how many bottles of apple juice will we have????  Check out Tim's website while you're coming up with a guess!

http://www.haywoodparkfarm.co.uk/

Kiosk Preparations

Note the even pruning and that straight line!

It was like old times as our friend Chris Genever parked his trusty Marmalade in the driver before 8:30am all ready to unload gravel and lay planks and sheets on the sodden grass in order to make a base for our telephone kiosk.  Before I could scramble into boots and jacket, The cement mixer was unloaded, the old plastic coffin had been removed and the planks were all in position!  Of course there was a little gardening to be done first as surrounding shrubs had to be pruned back in order to accommodate the kiosk.  We disposed of an old and leggy Spirea and then Chris dug out a 9" deep 42" square, laid shuttering and filled it with concrete.  That was after unloading and laying the gravel between York flagstones and bagging up and storing the residue!

According to Victoria at Unicorn Kiosks, ours is at present, enjoying being shot blasted.  Tony has kindly agreed to provide a few photos depicting the various stages of restoration.  We're looking forward to preserving a bit of English heritage at PTC.  Dare I say?  Watch this space!

Back to work after more gallivanting!

Chief Blogger is back again following another absence!  This time, exploring a tiny fraction of the Canadian shield in Ontario.  Verdict: a fabulous intensity to the autumn colours of the sugar maples, immense natural beauty and unimaginable amounts of wood and numbers of freshwater lakes!

1 plant=4 pumpkins

Apple crop

Anyway it's back to work and the first job was to pick all the remaining apples and my 4 pumpkins.  Yes, I know there are only 3 in the photo!  That's because the 4th has been made into a very colourful and spicy pumpkin soup.  Frankly, I think that's about the only way pumpkins can be eaten.  There was a surfeit of sickly sweet pumpkin pie in Canada and the soup is so deliciously velvety smooth, I don't know why you would ever want to add sugar and put it in a pie crust.  Sadly, due to the bounteous apple crop this year, we are having to store ours before they can be juiced and bottled.

There is still a surprising  amount of colour in the garden and only a small proportion of leaves have fallen.  I expected to return to bare trees.  It's still very mild and a hardy fuchsia which has managed to grow out between the joints in the stone wall deserves to remain.  Who would combine brilliant pink with violent orange and dare to be seen?  Only in nature such as this Spindle could such a colour combination look so good!

Spindle (Euonymus europaeus)

Hardy Fuchsia

Lawn Indulgence

On a dark and misty autumnal morning, it was indulgence time for the lawn.

The Green Thumb team arrived promptly with scarification and aeration equipment as well as an impressive Stihl powered sweeper. The aim is to remove all the dead thatch without ripping out the live grass.  Having checked the height of the tines on the scarifier to ensure the grass isn't scalped, and done a few test runs, it was time for the off!

It's always surprising how much bulk is actually removed.  The aerator removes plugs of soil of about 2 inches.  Ideally, the remaining holes should have lawn sand brushed into them to preserve the improved drainage created.  Must have a word with Mark!  Because of persistent wet weather, we missed out last autumn and following the heatwave this summer, the poor old lawn was really overdue for some T.L.C..
Anyway, in no time at all, treatments were finished and sweeping up completed with all sweepings deposited in the compost heap.  Result: a tidy treated lawn which should look amazing by spring!!
Well done all round!

Thatch residue and one finished and tidy lawn!

Still Standing!

Here's our faithful Chief Gardener having a much deserved drink having run a marathon - that's a whole 26 long miles in under 5 hours on Sunday in Nottingham. How good is that?  Congratulations again Chris!