A Plan?!

I worked out I need a minimum of ten full days in the garden just to get on top of the jobs I want to do before Autumn.  The main job is at the back where I am removing plants to create a proper place for a vegetable patch. Old photos of our house when it was two farm labourers' cottages show a vegetable plot in the rear garden so I feel like I am returning it to its original state.  I made a small start earlier in the year before we went to America ... I have a bucket of potatoes from the area under the trellis but the cabbages were overtaken by weeds!  The leaves taste okay though.

Well, that side has now been dug over and the other side will be cleared over the next ten days!  The rest of the plot is being cleared of everything (it feels like mostly bind weed and ground elder but there are a few things worth rescuing!) then I will move my strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb and gooseberries into a sunny spot where I can use the fence as one side of a fruit frame: then root crops, onions and cabbages can over winter in the rest.  According to the books I can plant beans and peas now ... seems a bit late but I will give it a bash.

To make the plot a little larger I removed three paving slabs from a small patio area ... unfortunately one was the roof of an ants' nest.  They swarmed out in a very angry mass and I had to leave them for a while to let them sort out my mess.  I am doing a better job with the bees and butterflies ... and the frogs.

My sister surprised me with this lovely bird bath.  (SO pleased with it so Thank You!).  The magpies love it too ... it is just the right size for their bath tub! I watched two line up on a branch while a third one took a dip then the others took their turns!  Obviously British magpies!

 I have a massive To Do list!

1. Prepare new veg plot; move the fruit then sow/plant some veg. Replant primroses, aquilegia etc in other parts of garden.
2. Clear the hedge bottom and plant daffodils and spring bulbs (plant up pots for Xmas).
3. Clear path near apple trees, chop back the evergreen (what was I thinking planting the old Xmas tree there?!) and generally sort it out .... this sounds so easy but part of a forsythia has died so it will probably take me hours to saw through the tangled branches!
4.  Finish tidying the front garden ... what will I do with the thousands of crocosmia bulbs I am pulling up!? 
5.  Bring geraniums etc inside.
6.  Fill the freezer with apples.
7.  Store the furniture.
 
Ten days may not be enough! 

 I just sent for 200 spring bulbs for £5.65 through the Gardens' World Magazine!  Lidl also have a good deal this week .... 5kgs of large British daffodil bulbs for £4.99.  Money CAN bring you happiness!