Saturday 14 November 2015

Storm Abigail, Friday 13th!

Since all of the winds earlier this week and now 'Storm Abigail' which mainly hit Scotland but we got a lot of rain and wind, the temperatures have definitely dropped. Hubby had a half day yesterday so having been told no rain PM we decided to go for the big dig!!!

Weather forecasters can and do get it wrong and they certainly did for Friday afternoon, it was wet, cold and windy, we had sleet and hail to contend with whilst getting the 'Jungle' in!

This is what it looks like now!


I hate this, leaves and mud everywhere. I couldn't get my garden waste bin through as it was so wet and has to come through the house. So this will stay like this until it dries a bit.

So five 'nanas' where cut back dug up and brought in, numerous Cannas and lots of Colocasia and Xanthasoma (Elephants Ears). This only took an hour to do, so I have reduced how much is dug up but I would like to reduce it further.

Bye bye Jungle for now.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Neglected Blog!

My poor neglected blog!

So much has happened since September......

Mum had a fall and needed an emergency op for a replacement hip....

I got flu.....  again!!!

My back has been giving me serious problems...

So for a catch up in September..

lots of beautiful flowering dahlias, I started getting the greenhouse ready



and the arid bed was still enjoying lovely mild weather


October....

was spent 'oop north' with my mum and I didn't get back until the end of the month.
When I got back it became obvious that Tango had deteriorated and sadly the decision was made and he was put to sleep.
Such a fabulous cat, with such personality, sadly missed.



I took this photo at the end of October and as you can see the garden is still looking good.



The Arid bed was covered,

 
since this photo, we have altered how it is attached to the fence. I'm using elastic woggles so there is give when the wind blows



it is working really well.

Lots of colour in the garden, I love this Acer such a stunning red.


My neighbours Pyracantha.

The passion flower went nuts this year and we had lots of these fruits.



So here we are November 10th and my 'nanas' are still out.  This is the latest I have ever left them out. It has been so mild that I felt they where better left out than in a humid greenhouse.


We have had a lot of rain and wind just recently and you can see that this Hiniba has started to 'yellow' around the edge of the leaves.
I have found when we have strong winds at this time of year this usually warrants a change in weather.



So this Friday is the day, when we do the big dig and get the plants into the greenhouse. We could probably last a bit longer, but I have to have help to get these in and hubby has a half day.