Pride of place this week has to go to the new shed. So let’s go straight to it.

One

The old one went a week or two ago, leaving a large open space for me to contemplate. I was wondering why I had ordered a same size replacement when surely I could manage with a smaller one, but too late, the shed was on its way. It is very new and shiny. How lovely it is not to have to lift the door up off the ground before trying to open it and how lovely not to have a soggy floor every time it rains.

Two

I have some new borders to plant up. This one is at the very back of the garden in the area used for produce. This is a very inhospitable plot for veggies, dry and shady and nothing has fared well here. Now the plan is try some plants. First in were three asplenium scolopendrium or hart’s tongue ferns. In the spring I will add thalictrum, hostas, tiarella and aquilegias. The logs in the corner come from a fig tree, read on for their sad story.

Three

Earlier in the year tragedy struck the smaller of the fig trees. I can’t believe it didn’t make a six at the time. Whilst trying to remove the alkanet from around the base of the tree I realised it was moving around quite a bit. Further examination revealed it to be rotting from soil level so it was quickly taken down, sawn into chunks and stored at the end of the garden. The space I was left with was planted up with annuals and an old dahlia that was lurking in a pot. The dahlia did well but it won’t be a permanent fixture. The first real frost arrived this week so I will lift the dahlia and then settle down to thinking up some plans for this border, a sunny spot thank goodness.

Four

More new plans to put in place for this patch of ground. I took out both white currant bushes and a good number of gooseberry bushes earlier in the year and sowed a green manure mix. That has now been dug in and mulched over. Now the ground is ready to receive a new redcurrant bush and a new white currant bush. All the bushes will now have more room to breathe and hopefully I will be able to net them more successfully against the birds.

Five

It is the that time of year again, when the cotoneaster horizontalis gets to be a star of the show. This was not one of my favourite inherited plants and I thought it would be on the list to dig up asap. But those red berries are very attractive at this time of the year and the blackbirds need something to nibble on. It stays.

Six

There’s a little spark of lime green in the border coming from the euphorbia oblongata. This will be its first winter out in the garden after having been grown from seed. It is described as fully hardy but short lived. I hope I get another season out of it.

There are a few jobs still to done, not least the last of the tulips to be seen to. The mojo just wasn’t there last week to get on and do that but the cold weather has arrived and they must be planted soon. Temperatures in the greenhouse went down to -0.9 degrees for one night this week, winter is coming.

Mr P continues to host this merry band of sixers for which many thanks are given. Stop by and take a look. Enjoy your winter gardening, here the wildlife is taking over. Parakeets and squirrels have come for the persimmons and the birds are regular visitors to the feeder. All very entertaining.