Six on Saturday: Keeping Busy

Both day and nighttime temperatures are dropping here, although nights have only been down to about 3°C so far. I note from my garden diary that I bubblewrapped the greenhouse this week last year, and the Coop soon afterwards; that certainly won’t be happening this year, but I am keeping an eye on the weather forecast for the next fortnight and if need be I will abandon other jobs on my job list and bubblewrap instead. The lower temperatures have certainly made an impact on leaf fall, as leaves are beginning to accumulate around the garden, and the witch hazels by the streamside (above) have become all but bare in recent days, although that is not the case with all of them.

I seem to have been a little lax in the garden of late, the result of weather or other commitments rather than general sloth, but seem to have made up for it this week by ticking off many and varied jobs on my mental ‘to do’ list. Ridding the garden of excess ivy is not one of those and is unlikely ever to be so, but I was pleased to remove this admittedly very attractive arrangement of ivy from the wall near the bottom of the garden. It began as a single stem snaking its way vertically upwards before branching out over the years into this neat fan shape – a very satisfactory result if this was a fruit tree or other decorative shrub. Sadly, it isn’t, but I was pleasantly surprised that with a chisel and wooden mallet it came off the wall quite quickly in large pieces of matted root; even digging the main root out of the cutting bed wasn’t as onerous as it might have been, although there may still be small sections of root making their way across the bed out of sight.

When it comes to prime real estate inside your home, it doesn’t get more valuable than kitchen countertops. No matter how much (or how little) space you have, it rarely feels like enough.

If you know your way around the kitchen, you fully understand the importance of a sharp knife. While fancy knife skills are impressive, using a dull knife is bad for the knife and a potential safety concern. Fortunately, it’s so easy to keep your knives as sharp as possible at home that you will forget your visit to the local knife sharpener.

If you’re strapped for storage, your attention might turn to the laundry room. But before you start stuffing the space with bins and organizers, it’s important to know that some items simply aren’t a good fit for this area. 

The garden may be in the thrall of autumn, but there is still a fair bit of colour around in patches, with the promise of more to come. Colour is concentrated most in the dahlia beds, where the blooms show little sign of stopping – we, and Jack Frost, know better! There are still roses in bloom, with ‘Strawberry Hill’ the main contender, continuing to delight:

Why do plants get sick? The simple answer is for lots of reasons, many of them similar to the reasons why we humans do. Take, for example, poor diet. Just as it’s one of the root causes of disease, poor growth and reduced life expectancy in humans, so it is with plants.

Collaborative post

A couple of those commenting on this blog recently have expressed surprise at how ‘tidy’ the greenhouse was, so this post is designed to shatter that misguided illusion. Firstly, I want to make it clear that what is shown above is not ‘the greenhouse’, but the Coop. Attached to the house, but only accessible from outside, it is more of a conservatory than a greenhouse  and hosts a range of tender plants and bulbs, all in terracotta pots. No potting up, planting or propagation takes place here, so there is little excuse for untidiness although the wind blows leaves in, spiders weave their webs there and I splash water and grit around. The working greenhouse at the bottom of the garden, however, is exactly that, a working greenhouse:

It doesn’t matter how spotless your kitchen is. If you have a counter full of appliances and a whatever, wherever tactic for food storage, your kitchen will inevitably look cluttered.  We tapped two organizational experts—Danielle Dorn, design director of mDesign, and Morgan Ovens, founder of Haven Home Wellness—for their top tips for reducing kitchen clutter. Read on for six quick and easy tasks you can complete today. Clean, clutter-free kitchen, here you come. 

BHG / Ana Cadena

It has been a mixed week weatherwise, but although windy at times it has not been too bad and certainly not bad enough to prevent gardening; nevertheless, I seem to have flitted about and not done a lot outside, probably subconsciously putting off fitting the new liner to the stream reservoir. It won’t install itself though, so shouldn’t really be put off much longer…