October Gardening Journal

Source and Source

I'm afraid that most of our outside gardening has gone prematurely into winter mode! I'm just too cold to stand around outside doing the gardening.... plus, it has been raining quite a lot in The Netherlands... and so, all of that combined has led to some pretty slack outside work!

That said, plans for the front garden renovation are starting to get into motion... we've had a chat with the gardener who will be re-doing the area... and he had some great ideas for the bike shed as well. A small wire fence that we can grow ivy upon will also give our front room some much needed privacy!

So, in the photo above, there would be a bike shed (mostly underground) on the top left corner through to the path, with a pretty steep slope... but with a metal gutter to help get the bike up and down. There would be growing space on the top of the shed as well, although... my wife is a bit in the air about that... but I figure, a shed top garden is better than a bare roof that is at chest level.

On the top and hooking around to the left on the border would be the wire fence with the ivy... perhaps around 180-200 centimetres in height. We would keep the garden bed on the right hand side. With the rest of the space (there wouldn't be too much... we would replace with a stone garden or plants that don't require too much water/light. This is the shady side of the house, and there isn't a ready supply of water from a tap either. So, we would prefer hardy things that wouldn't require too much tending...

An unfortunate revelation was the fact that we need to apply for an environmental (?) permit... I guess as it is at the front of the house and we need to have the council approval that it doesn't change the "look" of the street too much (it is required for all structures over a metre in height at the front). It's a bit of an annoyance, but it just means filling out the online form (in Dutch...) and then waiting for the potential approval.... plus paying a small fee.

Our garden said to just wing it and not bother... but we do like to stay to the rules on these things... it is much more of a pain in the arse to find out that you've done things wrong and then have to take the whole thing down again....

Autumn brings with it some pretty heavy falls of leaves... and due to the enclosed area that we live in... the leaves blow in and get stuck in our front garden and the garage area. Piling up against our little wall... that means there is a great deal of raking to do... which our little one tried to help with...

Her version of raking involved running at the leaves with the rake and yelling "Stone of Power!"... at least it made sense to her... I did the whole area afterwards... an annoying job... but one that needs to be done!

As always, the back side looks much greener and lusher. The blackberry bushes on the right have been finally eradicated... we had an unfortunate accident planting the invasive type... the strawberries are likely to come out (or just die) over the winter. Our plans for this side are to plant blueberry bushes... hopefully not an invasive type! Anyway, the girls (young and old... ) love blueberries...

On the left side we are also going to ask the gardener to put down some highish poles with wire or lattice... to train the grapevine around... again, to give a bit of shade to the garden... and also a touch of privacy from the side. We like the neighbours, but it can be a bit awkward to see them all the time!

Apparently, the grass could use a bit of a haircut before the winter arrives... or so I'm reliably informed... constantly...

... you won't believe it... after over a year... the bulbs are in the ground! I wasn't allowed to do them... as I apparently wouldn't be planting them in the right spot.. and my wife, who knew where she wanted everything... wasn't doing them. But, they were finally done! So, we can expect some nice tulips and various other bulb flowers in spring! I still think that just planting them all over the place would have been fine... but apparently, colours and stuff...

Lastly, we've just figured out that we've been doing indoor plants all wrong... and been drowning our plants... so, we are going to have to redo the whole indoor plant thing! Luckily, my prized Terrarium is still growing really strong... it was a present from a student. Some plants are growing... and others are dying... but it is all keeping in balance and functioning well as a closed ecosystem!

It's really quite interesting to observe, as the dying plants will rot and give the nutrients for the other plants to grow... and when some of the others grow beyond the ecosystem to support, they will die in turn and provide the nutrients for the next batch. Although, that said... I'm a bit worried about the one that is trying to escape out of the top stopper....