I have all but finished the stumpery.  The last of the planting up will be done tomorrow if the rain stays away.  The under gardener is busy painting the garage ready for next years open day and I have marked out where the turf is to be removed for the new rose walk.  The roses are ordered, David Austin, of course!  They should be here by the end of November so we will have to get stripping very soon.  Turf that is.

I have started work on the stumpery, or in our case it is more of a loggery.  I spent a good deal of time digging the ground over having treated it for ground elder and then adding compost.  Next went over the membrane to stop any of the afore mentioned elder making a come back.  I was under a bit of pressure to get started with this as there we some Christmas rose plants which were to be moved and this is the best time to do that.  Happily they are now all in place.  The ferns, pulmanaria and perennial foxgloves are now placed ready to go in.  The hosters will wait till the spring in some cases but other will be lifted and divided shortly.  I am very pleased with the result as this part of the woodland looked good when the daffs were out but a bit dull the rest of the time.  Pictures will be posted under projects.

We appear to have been plunged into winter.  Last week I was in short sleeved tops and this week a body warmer and fleece.  There is still a good deal of colour in the garden but I am now starting to go around each of the bed and have a good tidy up and sort out.  I find this very satisfying as I make plans for the next spring.  When the rain starts to ease off I shall start on the new stumpery! Or in our case a loggery! Stumps are expensive and I decided to put the money into ferns rather than stumps, which could be added later and we have plenty of good sized logs from work done on the trees and I have also be promised two VERY big logs to place in the loggery.  Monday will see my buying a membrane for the ground which in this part of the garden we house the national collection of ground elder. When this is in place I can start to plant all the plants which I have been collecting over the last few weeks.  I do like to do a mass planting when I have a project in mind so that I get an instant effect and as I am not able to buy everything in one go I start collecting plants way in advance.  Will put the pictures on the site, hope you like them.

I cannot believe it is October all ready.  We have set the date for our Open Garden for the National Garden Scheme for the 21st of June 2009.  There is a lot of work to do before then what with a new rose walk, and the stumpery to be put into place but for now I had just better go and clear up the leaves!!