Time to start closing down for winter

With all the plants coming to the end of their yearly cycle and getting ready for the winter I’m out and about seeing what plants I can acquire ready for next year and tidying up the garden for the winter. Cutting back dead branches, removing branches from trees that are overgrown and emptying pots into the composter.

The strawberries, brambles and raspberries are already cut back, suckers planted or cuttings taken. So I’m OK there.

I’ve already got some sweet chestnuts which I’m going to plant and see how they do in pots. I’m not going to bother with acorns mainly because there are so many around here and everyone thinks they are poisonous. So there will be plenty if needed.

Found some bullrushes growing in a bucket behind the shed. How they got there I have no idea, some bird must have dropped them, or they were blown in from a pond in someone’s back garden. I have no idea but I do know they are edible and I’m going to try one in the next few days.

There are also some unidentified trees in the garden. I’ve always treated unknown berries as poisonous and kept away but now I’m actually making sure what they are and checking them to see if they are edible.

Then when the weather closes in I’m going to plan out next years planting and work schedule and put it in the diary. This is the bit I’ve not done before, everything has been ad-hoc. Next year is going to be by the book.