Getting Ready for GMT*

Tonight the clocks go back, so we get an extra hour to play with - hurrah! It's also meant I've been getting ready for GMT* in my garden this week by taking advantage of the remaining light and relatively sunny weather. OK, we'll draw a veil over Thursday's miserable day ;)

As you can see, there's plenty to be done. The fallen leaves have been gathered up and used for mulching the garden. The shredder's been pressed into service to make further mulch from various prunings. Although the fat lady hasn't quite sung yet, this year's thick dahlia duvet is firmly in place.

I've had some further clearing up to do on the lower patio as last weekend's high winds brought down lots of branches from the overhanging silver birch. It wasn't anything too severe, it's just their super long thinness means they're always ripe for a little weather pruning. These got added to the mulch pile too :)

Also, the ivy from the neighbouring public land made a full scale onslaught over the garden fence this summer and started scaling my garden shed. Whilst I like the ivy for its wildlife nurturing properties, this was simply a step too far. It's now had a severe haircut and lobbed back over the fence - I daren't add it to the shredder as I've been caught out by its survival abilities before. I'm sure the neighbourhood trees will enjoy a little random mulching too.

The shed's had some further TLC: I've cleaned the windows and had a little clear out, so I can gather up all my solar lights and various bits of garden whimsy today and store them in there over the winter. There won't be any appreciable illumination from the lights during the next few months and I don't want to lose any of my garden ornaments to the frost, so in the shed they'll go. The last day of BST* is always my signal to complete this task as it seems rather fitting somehow.

What autumnal tasks have you been up to lately?

NB: The BBC are promoting the Go On, Give an Hour campaign this weekend, which is all about using our extra hour to help someone get online. I signed up earlier this week and I'll be helping a friend to get her blog started tomorrow. I'm rather chuffed Andy Garland from BBC Radio Kent got in touch earlier this week about a garden blog feature he's doing to promote this campaign on his Sunday gardening show.

As well as the dulcet tones of Dawn, James and possibly Nigel, listeners will hear me reading my Dusky Rose post from this month's Garden Bloggers' Blooms Day. I had to dream up a rather wacky way of recording my piece as I don't have a smart phone and I couldn't find our PC's microphone**. So I sent Andy a recording made via my camera, accompanied by a rather wobbly and boring picture. Fingers crossed it's done the trick!

Update: Here we all are on BBC iplayer until around 11am next Sunday. It's about 2 hours and 18 minutes in.

* = GMT - Greenwich Mean Time; BST - British Summer Time
** = I found out later NAH had 'tidied' it away.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Tiger Sheds. Note I'd planned writing it anyway to remind us re the clocks going back tonight.

Comments

  1. Esther Montgomery29 October 2011 at 11:36

    I keep waking up at five in the morning because . . . because that's when I seem to be naturally waking up at present. I suppose this means I will be now waking up at four as far as the clocks are concerned. One thing I have found from this - that there are lots of good programmes on TV in the night, even though it's almost non-stop rubbish in the day time.

    Good luck with your wobbly-pictured broadcast!

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP29 October 2011 at 12:24

    Esther - it's been 3-4 am for me this week! NAH's away and the cats have either been fighting in the kitchen at that time, or if I've let them in the house, Skimble has been sick on the duvet.

    Having thoroughly trained me to be wide awake in the middle of the night, they've now calmed down, but I'm still waking up!

    NAH is back home tomorrow, so hopefully normality will return soon and I can at last get some sleep.

    ReplyDelete
  3. petoskystone29 October 2011 at 15:15

    for me, this time of year is 'let down the storm windows'. no more cooling breezes, time for the window screens to be put up for the year! since i'm still getting used to the soil in my garden, i've left i few things in, just to see how frost patterns there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Victoria Summerley29 October 2011 at 20:58

    Actually, you've inspired me to write my own post about the autumn tidy-up. I really enjoyed pottering around today and it sounds as if you enjoyed your autumnal tasks. I've done a link to your post - hope you don't mind!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dobby29 October 2011 at 21:31

    No Autumn tidy up for me today. It has rained. Did mine last weekend. Went to the local electrical store to get a box a washing machine came in to put my canna in. It will be nice and snug in there padded out with straw once it decides to stop growing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. VP30 October 2011 at 00:06

    Petoskystone - I've just seen snow's arrived in parts of the States already! That means there's a bit more than a cooling breeze around - sounds like you've done your autumnal tasks Just in time.

    Victoria - Thank you. I love it when my posts inspire others, so of course I don't mind :)

    Dobby - that's a great idea, especially as your Canna's pretty precious to you :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Karen - An Artist's Garden30 October 2011 at 08:36

    Lovely to see an image of your garden - seems ages since I was there - well it is ages, just over a year ago.

    We have started the Autumn tidy up in a very gentle way as lots of things still seem to be flowering like mad (Better late than never)

    K
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. VP30 October 2011 at 12:38

    Hi Karen - I've been thinking recently about your visit (and mine to you)and how things haven't really changed since you were here.

    Hopefully they will have by the time you visit next ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tatyana@MySecretGarden30 October 2011 at 14:40

    Hi there! Thanks! Your post is a good reminder to me to finish my garden cleaning chores. As always, I hesitate to pull out the plants which still look good. As a result, I usually work in rain and cold in November. At least, this year I started early with hoses and pots, so they won't freeze!

    ReplyDelete
  10. VP1 November 2011 at 09:38

    Tatyana - hello, it was great to meet you in Seattle :)

    It's a sunny day here today, so time to do some more work in the garden!

    ReplyDelete

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