Mulch

 What to do on a hot sunny day, I checked my mulch bins, this is free brown goodness, all we do is shred our huge magnolia leaves and dump them in black dustbins, I have two, then forget about them. Each bin starts full and shrinks down, other than the initial cost of the bins, rest is a bit of work. I did get heavy duty black bins, hubby drilled holes about 2" from base, I put all wire rack in the bottom, much cleaner than black bin liners.

I spread about half of the bin on the bare patches in my square bed, protecting the transplanted plant in the middle , I did the same to my poorly Astilbe, it does not look well, I've not given up hope yet, it's been fed and I water daily. Gladiolas are beginning to bloom, I've got more than last year, but not as many as I planted.

I am not to bothered in getting the temperature on my hotbin composters up into the green section, my older bin hovers just below the premium range and still make great compost quickly.

When our local council stopped collecting our garden waste bags back in 2021 and proposed to charge us for collections from a wheelie bin, which we would need to purchase. We decided we did not want a third bin, so we purchased my first hotbin, a shredder and the two black dustbins, the money we saved covered the cost of the items in just over two years, and with the cost of my second hotbin, we have still made savings and I get brilliant compost and leaf mulch, I still need to buy more but I do like using my own. 

It's the way my dad ran his garden, the only thing he ever added was farmyard manure from our local farmer, he would deliver a load to the fence at the top of our garden, still in his field, dad and my brother brought it all into the garden, dad had a huge composting bays as well, nothing was wasted all reused back into the soil.

I have lovely memories of long neat rows of veg, living in the country gave us a huge garden, it was all veg beds, feeding us all was a huge job, seeing rows of peas, runnerbeans, carrots, potatoes and loads of other things, dad and my brother Mel were always working outside, Mel started to grow different veg to dad, bringing in modern things. They grew enough for mum to freeze or bottle loads to last through the winter months. 

I do feel blessed with so many happy childhood memories, it's not the case for everyone, we were neither rich or poor, my parents both in their own way gave us a happy childhood, rural Somerset was a wonderful place to grow up, so much freedom back then. It's my mums birthday today, she passed 20 years ago and is still missed.

We had twenty minutes of heavy rain at 6am this morning, I'm sure as I lay in bed I heard the collective sigh of local gardeners, knowing they could stay in bed and rest longer as the gardens were getting their drink naturally, we have had a second sharp short storm since, I'm pleased, water buts will be full.

Flowering outside

 This plant is years old, an agapanthus, it's really late this year, loads of lovely leaves, but so far only a few buds, normally it gives loads of blooms. I will keep checking. The nemesia in my raised bed behind are very colourful, I have more bedding plants to go in. I have my flat bird table against the raised bed, I am using a bowl on the stand, the bird table belonged to my mum, so I won't ever get rid of it. This is next to my wildlife pond, now a nice looking corner.

My back bed is now summer ready, I have popped 7 fleabane/ erigeron daisies, they will fill the front of the bed. The shrub on the right is a snowberry, I have had it a few years, it was growing in the back flower bed in front of the greenhouse, it has doubled in size since I moved it last October, and so many more berries on it. All I need here is more bark to bring the level up and stop weeds. This back bed I am hoping to keep simple, with the daisies growing and filling the space, I will probably put in some pansies in the winter months, spring is taken care of with all the bulbs, which I leave in the ground.

This square bed is starting to look good, most of the bigger plants are new this year, so many blooms to come, both my lupins have flowers growing, I'm pleased they are not the same colour, I have a dahlias to go in the middle, in the frame, I hope to plant it in the coming week. I am aiming for a jumble of colour here, with most plants returning next year, these should be more winter interest as well. 

This side bed again has loads of new plants, I removed the salvia hotlips as they grew far to large for this area, and swamped everything. I love all types of daisies, this one at the far end was even better as I only paid £1.25 for it, sadly it was pot bound and looking very sad, so I popped it into a bigger pot, cut all the flowers off, it's been planted for a week and is looking good. I will soon have loads of asters to fill the gaps and give colour here. The pink rose is growing nicely, the yellow ones in the garden will bloom soon, along with pots on my shelf, so much colour. 

My tub is again full of colour, some of these plants came from the bed outside of the back door, there are two different fuchsias one each end. The coleus in the smaller pot will grow huge and colourful, the deep red plants had 3 plants in one pot, so the other two are planted at the back of the big tub. 

I normally have a bigger pot with a begonia in on this table, it's still on the greenhouse, the bigger begonia is now under the table, last year it stayed just outside the greenhouse, that area is full of veg. These new pots with sempervivums do look good here, I have a couple more in small pots to add to this display.

I have in the past 14 years tried to be as organic as I can be in our garden, the balance has been really good, by adding the veg beds this year, I was concerned about our lovely balanced eco system. The only pest control I use are slug pellets, in my flower beds, I don't use them around my veg, slugs and snails are munching in the veg beds, I am trying to pick them all out, I look for both every day. Weeds again are not a huge issue, I do have more this year, mainly in the veg beds, probably from the top soil purchased to fill beds. I try and grow from seed, which cuts back weeds coming into my garden in pots purchased. I strongly believe it's better to be outside every days keeping on top of pest and weeds. I am hoping to have frogs in my wildlife pond, so far nothing much lives there, the aquatic plants are doing well and keeping the water clear.

I dug out my hotbin composter, the compost is lovely, but I have more woody bits in there, when I only had flowers, I often added woody bits to keep the bin topped up. This year all the woody bits are being added to a pile in a corner, for a bug sanctuary, I will have enough green waste to keep the bin full, I dig the bin out twice a year, it's closed and get warm inside which speeds up the process.

Garden waste

Beautiful mulch, made in a big black dustbin, I asked hubby to drill holes in the bottom and I put a couple small wire trays in the bottom, this is mainly the shredded tree off-cuts, they have only been in there a few weeks.

We, well hubby cut back both tree's the Magnolia had loads of new growth, all the flower heads have fallen so a good time to do this. He also cut the top of the twisted Willow, we are trying to keep both trees a good size in the garden.

All this lovely green shredded matter has gone into the black bin, I have mixed it up with the other drier matter in the bin. My hope is by early October I will have a good amount of mulch, which I can spread around the garden. The bin will be empty and ready for the leaves falling from both trees, and the circle begins again. 

My last job is to use these pot tops (which were used in my old herb bed,) just normal pots with the bottom cut off. I have 1 bigger ring and 4 smaller ones, I aim to use bits I collect to make bug hotels. Starting with these bigger branches from the willow tree and some old bean canes.

With both the black bin above and the composter working so well, we should not need to purchase anymore compost or mulch this year. I decided to try the dustbin to mulch, I knew you could make mulch using black dustbin bags, so why not a dustbin, I don't have anywhere in the garden not on show, so everything I use needs to look tidy. So far this year, we have put all our garden waste into either compost or mulch, the only items we have to recycle is the pots new plants are sold in, I am talking to our local pet/garden shop in hope they will take back their own pots, as I purchase most of my bedding plants from him.

This is not the pretty section of the garden, but it is a working section, I have ensured it looks tidy, we have not visited the local refuse tip at all this year, everything stays within our garden, we have no 3rd bin for garden waste which the council collects, so therefore we do not have to pay extra for the service.  

Our garden is looking at it's best, with everywhere tidy and productive, it may be a small space, but we have used every bit we can. It's now just a case of keeping it looking good, I'm outside every day, dead-heading and checking, watering when needed, so when we sit outside we both enjoy our view.

I have just had a positive covid test, hubby only has a hint of a second line, we have friends here from Spain, lovely timing.