PLANS FOR SPRING

· Remove The Devil (aka Snowberry bush)
· Make a flowerbed against the Tuja hedge (which isn’t ideal but… where else can I have a flowerbed? Need to think about that one)
· Fix the raspberries from spreading too much
· Tidy up the gooseberry
· Building bathouses
· Building birdhouses, especially one for owls so please keep your fingers crossed.
· Build a compost
· Sow rhubarb
·Build a bird bath

Project

The Backyard is a horrible mess due to no planning what so ever and the horrible evil Snowberry bush (sound so cute but it’s really not). I found this adorable green tunnel, it’s in The Poison Garden at Alnwick Gardens (so want to go there) but I don’t have space or use for a tunnel but then it hit me. Why not make a little house/hut of it? A round little secret place just for me covered with ivy? I was thinking of having it in the Backyard and I hope that I’ll get some help in the spring to get rid of the Snowberry, build a compost box (well, actually three, or at least two), replant the raspberries and the gooseberries, make some space for my rhubarb and basically tidy the place up.

If this hut/house thing happens, it will be called, Kojan.

Picture found here.

Picture found here.

Today

I started cleaning up, making the garden ready for winter. Got all the dahlias I grew some seed this spring and cutting all the leaves off and putting them in labeled paper bags, hopefully some of them will live through the winter. Some are really big and it’s not THAT cold during the nights yet so they can stay in their pots or flowerbed but the babies got bagged. My favorite is an Oxford baby with really dark foliage; I hope the flowers are just as nice. And I hope I'll have some seeds of my own to sew next spring. (If I get any seeds I'm willing to share)

The raspberries are absolutely everywhere, must find something to prevent them from spreading but so far no luck. A plastic rain barrel is the best thing so far but it was way too expensive, especially since I plan to cut it. Anyway, trimmed them and some of the lavender, planted cuttings in individual pots and dug them down under the rhododendron (which I hope to edge with boxwood, love edging).

And took a picture of the last poppies for the season, I think...

Some kind of Papaver rhoeas but which I don’t know, I do have to get all the seeds since I want only blue and pink in The Backyard. Red is best up close so The Front Yard and/or The Slope