In the garden

Gulls on parade yesterday

Having had the warmest Halloween on record yesterday, November began in similar vein - sunny, blue skies and temperatures far higher than usual.  Which was just as well as I had a date with the back lawn.

One of the biggest lawn problems - creeping buttercups 

I may be a little late with my autumn lawn workout but I take the view that it probably won't do the lawn any harm and it might just do it a bit of good.  So I have scarified with a sprung-tine rake (the 'workout' was a much for my benefit as for the lawn!), followed up with another cut with the lawn-mower.  The idea is to remove all the thatch - moss, flattened grass stems, old grass trimmings etc, and I collected enough to fill a dustbin so I think the effort was worthwhile.  I'm having to work with the weather - rain is forecast for the next couple of days - but the next dry day, I shall aerate the lawn then top-dress it.  The front lawn will have to wait; tackling one lawn is better than not bothering at all and as we plan to dig up quite a bit in the front, I guess it can wait.

Early this morning we had a welcome visitor returning after a few weeks' away:

Our green woodpecker stayed for about half an hour, feasting on ants and other delicacies.  His plumage looked really bright.

Now for the monthly photographic round-up of progress in the garden.

On the left, onions; right, garlic

Four rows of spinach.  At the back in the grey container are carrots.  The rest of the beds are now under plastic to try to keep the weeds at bay.

Back lawn (before scarifying).  The bird table had a technical - normal service will hopefully be resumed shortly.

I took these photos first thing this morning, when the sun was still quite low in the sky, so shadows and indeed the sun itself caused a few problems.  I must remember that for the next few months (if we see the sun much).  This border is in desperate need of a make-over, and I have already taken out a couple of straggly shrubs and more may follow suit.  I'm trying to salvage the slate chippings that have been used as a decorative dressing as I hope to use them elsewhere.  This part of the garden spends most of the time in shade (so moss is a big problem in the lawn) and doesn't really dry out during the day.  The plan is to make this border at least twice as wide and to plant it up with a selection of perennials, climbers and one or two shrubs.

Side border - nothing's changed here.  Still not sure what to do with this area.

The front lawn is just this huge expanse of grass with a couple of shrubs stuck in for good measure.  Considering the property was built about 40 years ago it's surprising just how 'bare' the garden is; so little planting anywhere.  However, it does mean that we really do have a blank canvas with which to work.  It's just that there is a lot of work to do.  

N has been out of action all day.  Bed rest, anti-inflammatories and ice-packs have been the order of the day.  The swelling round his knee is reducing gradually and it's just as well that there's no work on the garage conversion over the weekend.  Hopefully by Monday he should be able to hobble around again.  In the meantime we are watching the plaster drying.  A bit like a watched pot, it takes it's time.