Saturday 19 November 2016

I'm not sweeping the garden.

Dear Family & Friends

A sunny cool autumn day...crispy air to start with...but once I get going in the garden, it is still pleasant out there. Our village people are all very busy cleaning up their garden. Every plants harvested and yanked out. Most of our village neighbours' garden are immaculately clean...not a drop of dead leaf! They put them all in the dumpster!!  

my autumn garden

Mine still looks fairly full, although some plants has already given up, some are still hanging on. Perhaps I should chop them down as they are not so pretty anymore...but I still see a lot of butterflies and bees still hovering and benefiting it's last blooms....I just don't have the heart to take their food source out for the sake of a clean looking garden. So, my excuse of leaving half dead flowering bushes! I also let fallen Quince fruits on the ground to rot...because many butterflies enjoy the rotting fruit sap. Insects are still very busy during the sunny hours of the day...but when colder days arrive, food source will be very limited for them:(

we mulched garden beds with as much autumn leaves as we could collect

I'm not aiming for a perfectly clean garden...it's good to leave them messy for the benefit of the soil microbes. In fact, we're gathering the fallen autumn leaves from the village centre to cover and enrich our soil....now..this practice puzzles our neighbours even more!!

another beautiful day promised for tomorrow


Our sun has gone away on holiday for the past few days...now it's back...I've got to go out and face my chores. I wish you a happy gardening day ...or simply a nice day outside for a couple of hours too:)

Yours

6 comments:

  1. You are doing it right, Annie. And when the frost arrives it will make it all the more beautiful and interesting to look out onto. x

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  2. I'm always a bit horrified when people clean up their gardens and leave them barren for the winter. What feeds their soil???????????
    I pile on the leaves and grass clippings....I call it "tucking in the worms" for the winter. I'm rewarded with HEALTHY soil and happy plants.
    Good for you using leaves--it's nature's best fertilizer!

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    1. I'm not joking when I say our neighbour's garden is super clean,even their soil is sorted of every little stones... but like you, I also wonder what feeds their soil ... and they produce really big harvest as well! I suppose they pour in thick layers of animal manure as they plant...as certain time of the season, it's so off smelling.

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  3. I completely agree, best to keep all that matter in the garden and build your soil.

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  4. I too collected the fallen leaves and place them even in the flower pots. It is like recycling. Beautiful sky shot.

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  5. Organic matter is literally worth its weight in gold. A permaculture garden is a messy garden ;)

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