Post Comment Love 8 - 10 November

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed from the linky, and if older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

It’s been a busy week here which has involved at least a couple of lunches out, a bonfire and some fireworks in the next village, a visit to the pub with neighbours and a new yoga class! It’s been nice to get out though, we tried a new place for lunch which we could get the bus to and the charcuterie was excellent. Getting the bus back was ok in the end but it was very late arriving, and both of us thought it might not actually show up at all - but it did, eventually!

We had a family lunch to celebrate my youngest niece’s recent engagement and rushed back to meet up with neighbours for a visit to the bonfire and a few fireworks in the next village over, which ended up with an enjoyable and impromptu visit to the pub, before a dark walk back home - and it was nice to have company on that walk too.

Then to top it off - and for balance (literally!) I booked myself into the relatively new Monday lunchtime yoga class - unbelievably my first ever yoga class, but thanks to Yoga with Adriene online I didn’t show myself up, hardly at all anyway.

Have a great week.

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My garden in October

Last month was all about the sunflowers and tomatoes finally delivering, and that theme has continued this month and while this update is still sunflower heavy it does contain a little more too. But sunflowers first…

At the start of the month at least the sunflowers were upright, at times this was solely because they’d been propped back up again using plant pots at their base to help them buffer the wind as much as they could. However, it wasn’t to last and in the end the sunflowers have spent most of the month casually draped across the closest bush, still flowering, still gorgeous, just lolling!

It was great to see the smaller sunflowers persevere though - and we’ve been enjoying their flowers throughout the month. As the month progressed they adjusted to their surroundings, and once again started to head towards the light. Given that the plants have found themselves a more sheltered position I’ve left them there, which I think has extended the time I get to enjoy them - so it’s a win from me, even if these must be the most unconventional sunflowers ever!

I must remember to collect some seeds for next year though, as they are a variety I’d grow again. I’m not sure exactly which they are as the seeds were passed to me from a neighbour of dad’s in Norfolk.

We’ve had plenty of wildlife in our garden this month too, some of which we’d expect and some not so much. For a couple of mornings we enjoyed watching this blackbird gather berries from our pyracantha - and it seemed they enjoyed it too, so I’m glad we were able to provide a good perch point.

It wasn’t long before we received some unexpected visitors, who spent most of the morning in our garden waddling about and making the most of the fallen crab apples. Google suggests they’re red legged partridges and most likely had escaped from a local shoot as they didn’t seem that savvy at all. Hopefully they found somewhere more suitable, as we’ve not seen them since - which I think is a good thing, as lovely as they were I wasn’t overly keen on adopting them. Perhaps they found a pear tree that was more to their liking than our tiny crab apple tree, who knows.

One of my challenges for this garden is not quite having the hiding spots yet for plants over the winter, many of our terracotta pots I’ll move under bushes or closer to the brick wall at the front of the house to give them as much shelter as I can, and that seemed to work fine last year. But it’s the more tender plants that I’m struggling with in the colder weather; I’ve brought the chilli plant in and that’s by the window in the utility room. It’s not ideal but I think it’ll fare better than outside.

My other challenge was the succulents, which are new to us in this garden. I didn’t want to bring them in as the pots aren’t indoor pots, but I knew they’d need some protection but would also need some light. Then it came to me they could quite easily be re-homed in our garage gym, I thought initially I’d just place them by the half-glazed doors.

With frost forecast (but thankfully not materialising) it was time to put my plan into action, but then I realised the ‘drip trays’ I’d bought for under our bikes could really earn their keep. Even better having the pots here don’t get in the way of accessing the bikes, and when they’re watered there’s no risk of having any pot leakage across the floor! Definitely an unintended bonus of having something a bit dull and functional.

I had two newer and much smaller succulents from our recent Open Studios visit and these are also in the garage in their old biscuit tin drip tray. I hadn’t thought to add plants to our garage gym, but these are really great additions even if they’re here just for the winter.

Outside the garage the small pot of wallflowers I bought earlier in the year looks a lot more healthy than they did during the warmer summer months, so I’m excited to watch them do their thing when the time comes. These are ‘Chelsea Jackets’ so should be a mix of pastel colours, let’s hope they know what they’re supposed to do!

Although the weather has been unseasonably warm the amount of sunlight is obviously much reduced, so it was time to pick the remaining green tomatoes. Some ripened, but most were resolutely staying green which I don’t mind. I also had quite a few from dad that were green and all of them have been put to good use and gone towards a green tomato chilli ketchup, which is one of my favourite ways to use green tomatoes - more on that soon.

And talking of unseasonably warm temperatures, right at the end of the month I noticed through the utility room window that our everlasting sweet peas which we brought from the old house have already started growing. There’s lush green growth about 8 inches high, which I really wouldn’t expect to see normally. That said, the pot is in a sheltered spot and not the best place for growing sweet peas as they’ve not really done anything much more than this since we’ve been here. In some ways I’m pleased to see they’re still going, but surprised to see them now - and all I hope is that when I’m ready to put them into their long term home they remember to grow and flower in a more usual timeframe. Fingers crossed, though they may have a fair while to wait!

The Garden Year: November 2024

Welcome to the last Garden Year linky of the year as realistically there’s little to post about over the winter months, and so this linky takes a break. Thanks to everyone who’s joined me throughout the year - enjoy the winter, let’s hope it’s kind.

This past month I’ve been trying to catch up in my garden - I’ve still lavender that hasn’t been cut, and realistically much of which remains uncut is likely to stay uncut. I’ve got some done on the nicer days, but with an unexplained pain in my wrist I’m trying to do less of what aggravates it - and it seems chopping and secateur use is on that list. It gets better when rested though, so that’s good news.

I am hoping to do some small tree tidying work, though may have to enlist MOH to help with that - which will be good, but also trying as explaining exactly where to cut things can sometimes get lost in translation to a not-so-keen gardener!

Leave a link below to share what you’ve been up to in the last month, or add a comment sharing your plans for the upcoming month.

Advice, inspiration and places to visit

“TheGardenYear

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