Mulching - again!

It's been dry enough recently for us to finish off tidying the borders in the flower garden and, with the remaining perennials cut back, we were able to see what space was available for the last few remaining spring sown wallflowers, most of which were planted out several weeks ago.

Back in the late spring we also sowed a variety of foxgloves - Excelsior, The Shirley, Alba, and Pam’s Choice.  These were pricked out in June and raised in 9cm pots before being planted out into the borders where they’ll flower next year.

Once finished it was time for the job we always look forward to each year - mulching!  We’ve always used a mixture of our homemade compost, leaf mould, and coarse sand but felt that after ten years we could now omit the sand and stick with just the organic matter.  We transferred the leaf mould and compost into our barrow and mixed them together with a shovel. Using the same shovel and a deft flick of the wrist we spread the mix evenly over the beds to a depth of about an inch, or six inches in places where we want to protect our wonderful dahlias that are left in the ground over winter.

A few beds still require some work - the woodland garden and the shrub border adjacent to the garage are under a canopy of large sycamores and we're going to wait for them to finally drop their leaves before we put in the last foxgloves and apply the topcoat of mulch.  Recent freezing weather may see those sycamore leaves come down a lot sooner than we expected so we’re hoping the job will be completed by Christmas.