Diary of a Mad Gardener

Plan for 2012

2012-01-22T20:03:00.001Z

The new year always starts with a new plan for my vegetable gardening. Here is the 2012 plan, all carefully arranged so the veggies don't go in the same part of the plot until the 4th year. I used to have a third year rotation, but when I reclaimed some extra land, was able to spread it out a bit.

The big change for this year is in the potatoes; after several years of poor yields with the earlies, I have given up and will just grow maincrop (blight resistant varieties only). Our springs are definitely cooler and later than they were 10 years ago and our wet soil is taking longer to warm up, so earlies are out. Having successfully trialled Cara and Desiree last year, we are going to stick with them from now on.

Some minor changes in varieties - changing to a heritage beetroot which is reputed to do well under cover, which is the way I often need to start them. Also trying Oarsman leek, in my continuing quest to find a leek which will grow big and strong in our heavy soil. I live in hope...

Back to Work!

2012-01-15T14:37:00.001Z

Well, it's been almost two months since I was at work on the vegetable plot. In that time we have had rain, hail, more rain, more hail, sleet, more rain... well, you get the idea. The ground is saturated, haven't been able to dig up parsnips, leeks or artichokes yet. But hurray! We have an almost rainless weather forecast for the next few weeks.

So it was time to replace the shed. The old shed above was rotting in several places and while being 12 years old, should have gone two years ago. Its replacement had been sitting inside it since early November, waiting for some fine weather.

So with a fine weekend and my Other Half available for two days, we set to work early on Saturday morning. Knocking an old shed apart is hard work, but once we got some of the boards off we realised that the rot was so extensive at the bottom we could probably just push it over and finish it that way. Hey presto! Took a couple of hours to demolish.

After clearing up the glass and depositing it in the very useful glass bin on the allotment site (no idea that existed!), all we had to do was lift the floor out of the way to come down on the concrete rafter and gravel support for the old shed. In this picture you can see two things: firstly the shed roof parked out of the way on the slope and secondly what I have called the "bramble dance" where OH got himself entangled in the rogue blackberry shoots.

So this is where the "fun" started. These sheds are supposed to be easy to put together, but as you fit one new piece, another fitted piece falls out of the slots. A rather suspect screwdriver coupled with screws which were too big for the purpose, and the odd mismatched hole resulted in a fair bit of swearing and aggravation. By 2.30 we had got the walls of the shed up and decided to call it a day. A hot bath for sore muscles beckoned.

Back to work early this morning with a better screwdriver and some smaller screws and after a good night's sleep we fair motored along. Here's the shed with roof and doors, rather firmer and more stable than yesterday. A trip to B&Q for some sealant for the suspect places where things didn't quite fit perfectly (they never do in DIY constructions) along with a burger from Burger King's drive thru to fortify us and the job was done. Time taken from beginning to end - 7 hours. Never again. This plastic shed has a 15 year guarantee. By the time this needs replacing I'll be rich (of course I will) and will pay a man to do it!

Winter Colour

2011-11-20T17:25:00.001Z

While there are still a couple of Rudbeckia flowers outside, generally everything is grey and brown now, but inside I have two Christmas cactuses cheering me up. They are such beautiful flowers.

I really ought to be thinking about next year's seed order but somehow I just can't face it yet. I've just finished my home-grown potatoes and there are very few veg left, along with some apples, but until everything is eaten I just can't focus on what to (try to) grow next year. So for now I'm just enjoying these flowers.

Slow Going...

2011-11-13T17:12:00.001Z

It's been too long since my last post, work has been manic (this is a good thing in such difficult times!) and with computer problems I haven't been able to do much, but I have finally persuaded my prehistoric laptop to accept and upload photos again. It has been very slow going on the plot, I picked the last of the apples, a fairly good crop but they didn't ripen too well due to the lack of a summer. It's been almost impossible to work on the soil due to the rain, the ground is completely saturated, so the weeds have really got away, as you can see from this photo of a small corner of the plot, completely overgrown. It's been so wet, as I pulled the canes you can see out of the ground last week, they had formed a vacuum seal and only gave way after quite a lot of tugging, with a "pop'! Now that's wet soil for you.

This autumn has been unusually warm overall, which has given some of my beleaguered vegetables a little more time to grow. In fact the temperatures have been remarkably close to the ones we had in our so-called "summer". We're not going to have monster parsnips this year, but at least we have something to salvage from the wreckage.

Whereas these beetroot are a disaster, along with pretty much every other beetroot plant in the north. They just didn't grow at all, so no beetroot this autumn. We have no idea what the weather will bring this winter, but we are hoping for some dry weather so we can work on the soil, plus we have an old shed to demolish and a new one to construct, which should be fun!

What a Topsy Turvy Year!

2011-10-03T16:15:00.000+01:00

It's been a strange year, warm weather in April and now a summer in early October, very strange and the plants are very confused. But this was a nice surprise for me - autumn crocuses in full flow. I bought some about 10 years ago, stuck them in a pot and they were good the first year. After that they didn't do much and I forgot all about them, keeping them because they happened to be in a pot which a nice aquilegia made a home in. It seems they have made a comeback!

In the vegetable garden, the remaining apples are coming on. This is Blenheim Orange, a large dual purpose cooker/eater. I think the "orange" in its name may have something to do with the colouration you can see on these apples, on the sunny side of the tree. As they ripen they turn a glorious shade of orange.

While the vegetables have been fairly dismal this year, we are still getting crops of courgettes, tomatoes and runner beans.

And these are the Spartan apples, like the Blenheim Orange the first substantial crop for this tree. You might think that these look ripe, but in fact they have a few weeks to go. Spartan turn a shade of purple when ripe and should be ready later this month.

Sorry about the delay in posting, it's the busiest time of year for me in the shop plus my laptop is slowly dying and now refuses to import photos from the camera. I'm in the market for a cheap tablet, if anyone's got any ideas?

Some Successful Experiments!

2011-09-18T17:36:00.000+01:00

After the difficult year we've had with the weather and temperatures, it's nice to see some of my experiments have paid off (and survived the recent hurricane left-overs). On the left are some of our tomatoes, bush types which we tried for the first time on the basis that they fruit earlier than cordon types, which is now essential in our shorter growing season. I tried two varieties, a small cherry and a larger type called Totem, and I think I'll stick with Totem next year, the cherries not being quite so successful. Despite having only two weeks of summer weather, they are ripening though I had to scour the inside of the cloche for slugs this morning!

The peppers have also done well, though the small slugs are now starting to eat them so I picked them rather than watch them disappear. Given better weather (i.e. actual summer temperatures) they should ripen to orange. But I'm really pleased with them and will definitely try them again next year, though I will need bigger cloches for them and for the tomatoes.

I'm particularly proud of this garlic. In recent years our garlic crop has been diminishing as our climate has cooled, our shortened growing season doesn't allow it to mature and we can't plant in autumn in our cold, wet soil. So I decided a change of variety was in order and chose "Picardy Wight" from Thompson and Morgan. This variety originated in northern France and presumably has been bred on in the Isle of Wight, a well-known garlic area in the UK, given its second name. It can apparently be planted in autumn or spring.

I haven't counted the bulbs, but this crop grew from 6 bulbs (current price £4.49 for 3) and some of the bulbs are massive. More importantly, it has actually matured properly (started Feb). So I recommend this variety to those in northern climes, an excellent crop with good sized cloves, the kind you'd be happy to buy in a shop.

Still to come in the garden - more apples, carrots and marrows, maybe a few beetroot?

Preparing for the next storm

2011-09-10T16:53:00.004+01:00

Having survived the tail end of one hurricane this week, now it's time to prepare for the next one, which is due to arrive on Sunday night. The plum tree survived this week's storm quite well, mainly because all the weak branches had already broken in the atrocious weather earlier in the year. But with very high winds expected, it was time today to remove the last of the fruit; I did a picking 10 days ago which mostly went into jam.
My tomatoes are slowly, very slowly, ripening. Watching Gardeners' World last night, Monty Don suggested taking the leaves off the plants to bring on ripening. I though this was a good idea, so I set about it today. If you're wondering what the cloche frame is made of, it's plumber's tubing, very good and sold at all DIY stores. Add some plastic to the top, and it does a great job in protecting plants.
I'm glad I did this because as I dug among the leaves, I came across a bit of rot, and also a bit of blight. At this stage, it's not too bad and by removing the leaves I hope I've nipped it in the bud. The damp weather has created ideal conditions for diseases.
And here are the plants after their haircut! Rather denuded, but there will be more air around them and I also threw a few windfall apples underneath to encourage the tomatoes to ripen. The cloche has now been firmly closed in advance of the storm.
While I was working on the tomatoes, I disturbed this frog which was hunting slugs among the plants. I hope it will go back, as the slugs have eaten some of the tomatoes.
It was also time to remove the Worcester Pearmain apples, they started falling off this week with the weather, so they've all been picked now to prevent more damage. I finished picking the Katy apples yesterday. The remaining two apple trees are not at a stage where the fruit is ripe enough yet, so I've left those on and made sure the trees are secure.
Here's a selection of veg for today; the last peas of the year, the first runner beans at the bottom, a few tomatoes, my precious first ever cucumber and three french beans. I bought a climbing french bean plant earlier in the year as an experiment. Not sure £1.75 is a good price for 3 beans, one with a slug hole in it? The snails loved it, though since I prefer to feed myself instead of the snails, I don't think I'll grow any of these plants next year!

And a note for those reading this in northwest England; I hear that Lancashire County Council has bought extra salt this year and is expecting snow to fall in November. This tallies with my perception that autumn is 3-4 weeks early, we don't normally get this kind of weather until October. So I'll be trying, between the downpours, to get out and get as much work done as possible before the winter weather closes in.

My first cucumber

2011-09-07T20:20:00.003+01:00

Given the number of cucumber seeds sold every year, you'd think they were easy to grow, but I've never had any success with them. I've tried greenhouse types, outdoor types, round, long, almost all going and never produced anything. So earlier this year when we lost plants due the frost, I picked up a couple of cucumber plants in the garden centre. My Mum laughed at me, thought they would produce as much as previous attempts, i.e. nothing. But I proved her wrong - here is my very first cucumber, after 10 years of trying. It is a miniature type, designed to fruit earlier than others, just like the tomatoes I also bought earlier in the year. One to try again, I think.
This cucumber is growing in this long bed. You may think there are several plants in here, but in fact there are only three. The pumpkin you can see right at the back of the bed is actually growing forward from there right to the end. I decided to cloche this bed given the cold and now very wet weather, to protect the cucumber and also to help the pumpkins set as they were rotting off in the damp. It's worked well, with three pumpkins set on the one plant at the last count.
I weeded the parsnip bed at the weekend; they are small but the first sowing was wiped out by a plague of snails. At least they have room and light to grow now. It's been a fairly bad year for vegetables, cold and wet, and everyone at our allotments has struggled. We really must be due a better summer next year.
But the fruit has been doing well - I picked the first Katy apples this weekend, some rhubarb and a few autumn raspberries. I dread to think what the current windy and wet (America's hurricane) weather will have done to my trees since. I'm just hoping my supports held and the trees are still there, with most of their fruit still on!

Small but perfectly formed...

2011-08-30T17:57:00.002+01:00

Here's my dwarf chilli plant, with its three fruits. This was an experiment; the plant sat on the sunny windowsill of my bedroom, the warmest place in the house. Given that this summer consisted of temperatures which rarely reached the dizzying heights of 19C (66F), it could have been warmer and then maybe it might have done a little better. Still, for a trial, this is a good result. To the right of it you can almost see the basil, which I bought as seedlings and potted up in a large bulb pot. This has also been very good, producing leaves over several months, so I think I'll be repeating these next year.
But here's another experiment which didn't do so well. This pot, and several others like it, contained Lobelia Cardinalis Queen Victoria. It now contains a dandelion as it turns out that snails and slugs are very, very fond of this plant and despite my best efforts, they gradually stripped every leaf and then stalk back to the ground. So this plant is a no-no for my climate, sadly.
But I still have some flowers - this is Rudbeckia Goldsturm, a little nibbled by the slugs and snails which have thrived in our cold, very cold summer.
And the nemesia and geraniums are still going strong. I can't recommend nemesia highly enough for being trouble-free, flowering for months and providing a good splash of colour around the house.

I lit my first coal fire in the house a couple of weeks ago, autumn is already here, so the plants are slowing down now and another cold winter beckons. Lots of jobs still to do in the garden, I have finally done the summer pruning of the fruit trees and cut down the old raspberry canes, but we still have some more raspberries to come yet, along with all the apples. I also did my first picking of plums this weekend, in the rain as it turned out! Hope to get out between the showers later in the week. I really don't fancy picking fruit and vegetables in the pouring rain again.

Musings on Weather and Climate

2011-08-21T11:21:00.003+01:00

Regular readers of this blog will know that this year has been a difficult one because of the weather. But I don't think it's just this year - take these Desiree potatoes, for example. An early maincrop potato which we dug this weekend (actually my Other Half did 90% of the work). A good crop, but this is the size of crop we used to get from both first and second earlies too. Not in recent years. This set me thinking about weather and climate change. For years we have been told that the world is getting warmer, and that here in Britain it would get warmer and drier, though recently this has changed to warmer and wetter to cope with the actual facts! Since 2005 I have been keeping brief notes on the overall weather for each growing year, so I revisited them this weekend. Up to 2006 we had what I described as "average", gradual warming in springs, some hot and dry weather in the summer, a gentle cooling at the end of the year. In 2007 and 2008 we had warmer springs, but cool and wet summers. In 2009 the pattern switched to late, cool springs (with late frosts), wet and cool summers again, but with the added kicker of a cold winter. This year we had exceptionally warm weather in April followed by an exceptionally cool May and frosts, which confused the plants enormously. The general pattern is one of cooling, not warming, with a shrinking of our growing season.
While one year doesn't create a pattern, three certainly does in my book. These Cara potatoes, another maincrop which has done very well, are suggesting to me that I should forget early potatoes as our springs are now too late and cold for them. I've not had a decent crop of earlies in years. Our summer here is most definitely over, the Swifts headed back to Africa two weeks early, the swallows are already gathering and the starlings have returned from the hills earlier than normal. The long range forecast for September and October is suggesting colder than average temperatures, so it's looking like we're in for another cold winter.
So my 2012 planning will concentrate on adapting to our seemingly shorter growing season - planting things like these bush tomatoes, which crop early (50-60 days) and are now under a cloche to ripen. They started out under lights in a nursery so I think I will have to buy some ready grown plants like this to give myself the best chance of crops. I may have to forego purple sprouting broccoli, which does not survive prolonged freezes. I'll probably increase my autumn crops such as cabbage in compensation. More cloches may have to be purchased in order to give my plants the best growing conditions.
These are my peppers, again shop bought to fill the gaps left by the late frosts. They've done quite well but are definitely on the downhill slope now. They're under a cloche to keep them warm and ripen. It feels like early September here now, I lit a fire for the first time this week to keep me warm in the evening. Never done that in August before! Still, the challenge in gardening is the constant change, every year is different and that's what makes it interesting.
Finally, I was just about to remove a rotting courgette when I noticed something underneath it. Two toads were spending the day snoozing in this nice damp spot - you can just see one poking its head out! Toads are my friends, hoovering up the slugs, so I left them where they were. Not something you see every day!

Happy gardening!

Crime Scene Photo

2011-08-13T20:45:00.004+01:00

Well, that got you interested didn't it? While the criminal classes were rioting 25 miles away, though happily many have already been locked up (the police "Shop a Looter" campaign is going well), I had my own crime to detect. I reached into the chest in my shed where I keep nets and potato sacks, as I had need of the said sacks. This is what I found. Despite there being only a tiny gap under the chest lid, apparently it was big enough for a woodmouse to hop in there and make its home in the winter, chewing up the hessian to make a cosy bed. I think I need some new sacks...
Once again, we have had monsoon rain. So bad, in fact, that for the first time ever I put my cucurbits under cloches in an attempt to prevent the flowers and thus the fruit rotting off in the wet, having already lost some courgettes and pumpkins. It was a good idea, the first pumpkin has now survived and the courgettes are looking good. So is the grass, as you can see from the photo.
The tomatoes are doing surprisingly well, despite the rain.
The plum tree needed a bit more support and many of the branches are bending in an alarming manner, but are holding firm. Not long now and the fruit will be ready.
The apples are also coming along, but later than normal, probably two weeks or so late.
The cabbages are loving the rain though.
Today I finally got my leeks transplanted, into the traditional deep holes. Many were unfortunately gobbled up by the slugs and snails, so survivors are few.
And with the appalling weather a number of them are ridiculously small, so these runts are planted as a group for early picking. They'll never get very big, just to spring onion size. Still, they will be useful anyway.
But we've also picked the first marrow, which is a welcome addition to our vegetable table. We have a few more dry days forecast, so I am hoping to get some gardening done this week, but really this year has been a major struggle with the weather. I've never had to cover plants in August, crazy. Hope it's going better where you are.

A Quick Update

2011-08-07T21:16:00.002+01:00

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, but leaving aside the necessity to work for a living, the rest of my time has been spent weeding and picking fruit. I now have 4.5 bags of gooseberries in the freezer (and the scars on my arms to prove it!), which is probably arounds 15 pounds of fruit.

Now the rain has returned, another branch of my plum tree has suffered damage, though not as bad as last time, so this week will be spend dodging showers to get out in the vegetable plot. I'm hoping for a couple of dry days. Meanwhile my cat can continue to enjoy sitting on the doorstep among the flowers while I'm working hard.

After the Monsoon...

2011-07-24T18:05:00.006+01:00

While North America is sweltering, we're, well, not so much. The now customary July monsoon has come and gone, leaving my brassica frame flattened as you can see. Happily, the plants were ok and I got it back up quickly.
For several days I wasn't able to get out and pick the fruit which really needed picking. I've picked the ripest green gooseberries now. These have a reputation for being very tart, but if you leave them until they are soft and slightly yellow, they're sweet enough to eat off the bush, delicious. But the green ones make better jam as they're higher in pectin.
The red gooseberries have also been picked and mostly packed into the freezer. Very sweet indeed. The raspberries suffered in the monsoon, with mould taking over so we've lost a lot of fruit. Not unusual at this time of year, hopefully we'll get some more yet.
But the rain damage meant they were really only fit for jam making - as they don't set well on their own I mixed them with an equal quantity of redcurrants from the freezer. Raspberry jam is a soft set so it doesn't keep as well as, say, gooseberry jam, but it is one of my favourites.
The strawberries are past their peak now but still producing. The ones in the basket were rain damaged and I used them to make a cordial, along with the final remnants of last year's redcurrants from the freezer. I tend to eat perfect fruit fresh, poorer quality fruit gets packed into tubs and put in the freezer for making cordial in the winter. They turn mushy but for cordial it doesn't matter.
My experiment with different types of tomatoes is doing well, we have quite a number of small fruit on the little bushes, which is earlier than I have ever managed before. This is looking like a successful experiment, though it's a bit early to call yet.
The broad beans have had a very good year, with a huge crop, this basket is the last of them. The variety I have settled on is Claudia Superaquadulce, a very hardy variety suitable for north-western clay soils, and it gives 100% germination.
There were so many this year that this bowlful has gone into the freezer, after being blanched in boiling water for 2 minutes. Conversely, the peas haven't been as good, the weather hasn't suited them as well as last year, so more beans and fewer peas in the freezer. You win some, you lose some...
Potatoes have been similarly problematic. The first early crop was very poor, the second earlies better but not great. Lots of people have had this problem, a passing gardener at the allotment leant over the wall and told us he'd had very poor results from his first earlies too, and he grows them in tubs. This is the second year where the cold early in the year and the late frosts have really impacted the plants, so I'm seriously thinking about dumping earlies next year and going for maincrops. Will see how the remaining plants produce.
And another experiment, carrots, has also yielded its first, shall we say, unimpressive results. Believe it or not the carrots in the photo (the snail shell is for scale!) have been in the ground for over 3 months! Dreadful, and these are the good ones because they are actually carrots! Much of the crop was done away by the carrot fly, the rest suffered due to the soil, I think. These carrots were early ones sown under cover.
The autumn carrots which I sowed at the end of June are looking much better. Slightly patchy germination, but the plants seem healthy. There are two varieties, resistafly and fly away, both designed to handle the dreaded carrot fly. So far in this experiment the results suggest I should forget early carrots and focus on maincrop.
The bed which held the early carrots was, I realised, in a poor condition. It's under a tree which means that once the leaves are out, it receives less rain, and the soil itself was very lacking in organic matter. So since the carrots failed, it gave me the opportunity to get to work on this bed. I dug in a lot of fresh horse manure, something I wouldn't normally do as fresh horse manure kills plants rather than nourish them. But since I won't be using this bed again until 2012, I dumped a lot of manure on it, and will leave it to rot down over winter. Hopefully I'll have more success with this bed next year.

This week's projects are to pick more green goosberries, clear away and weed the broad beans and first peas, and I hope to pick the first courgettes. Happy gardening!

July 2011 in the Vegetable Garden

2011-07-18T21:38:00.002+01:00

I've spent most of my gardening time in the last couple of weeks picking and processing fruit; redcurrants, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, strawberries and raspberries. But everything is coming on now, so here's a quick round-up. The courgettes are flowering well - they're F1 hybrids and don't need male flowers for pollination so they're quick to get going. Once the fruits have set, I take the flowers off the end to stop rotting if we get monsoon weather like we've had this weekend.
The peppers I bought a couple of weeks ago are growing well under their cloche and have lots of flower buds. This is an experiment, no idea if it's going to work!
The red gooseberries need picking, must do that in the next couple of days.
The pumpkins which suffered under the predations of the slugs and snails and then the cold have now recovered and are growing well. On the subject of ravenous critters, since I bought the new slug pellets the plot is now littered with corpses, about 60% snails, the rest slugs. We didn't used to have snails on the allotment but in the last few years the population seems to have grown. I do feel slightly guilty but round here there are no natural predators in big enough numbers to impact the snail population so some of them have to go - once the plants are big enough, I won't need the pellets anyway.
These are my shop-bought cabbages and cauliflowers (replaced the eaten plants) which are now doing very well under their butterfly net.
And I've built supports for the apple trees; this is the Worcester Pearmain tree which is going to need a new stake in the winter as it's leaning at an alarming angle now. While the Katy tree has nice tough branches now, this one is still a little floppy, so that's a project for winter. For the first time, all four trees are carrying a good crop, so there's lots to look forward to.
And the pruned plum tree is also doing well, with the plums swelling nicely. They will start to turn colour this week.
You can just see the second crop of peas on the left, then broad beans and the first peas. The broad beans have been magnificent this year, still plenty left, and another good picking of peas.
And this is the garlic - the best I've ever grown. The lettuce in front is doing well, the nibbled plants are now recovering. I expect to be pulling the garlic next month, I'm hoping there may be some really monster bulbs under there!

So, back to the fruit picking...

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day July 2011

2011-07-15T15:38:00.005+01:00

At this time of year the flowers in my beds are finished, and are resting under the shade of the trees, so attention switches to the pots around the house. My summer plants are just starting, they've been slow due to the cold spring/early summers, but we're finally making progress.
My New Dawn Rose has been magnificent this year and is a talking point for people who walk by. The blooms have been unusually large and I have tried to figure out why. There's no smoking gun, but I'm, wondering if the warm/cold/warm/cold (you get the picture) weather is responsible. It slowed the plant down so I think it spent longer developing the blooms than normal when temperatures rise consistently. Well, that's my theory anyway!
These pelargoniums are doing well; I grew them from cuttings taken in early March. Easy to do, these plants will overwinter in the house, then I'll repeat the process. If you've never taken cuttings before, these are a good place to start.
I love nemesia, but these have been very slow to get started due to the cold weather. They're now starting to flower and will continue through the summer.
Still small, but they provide a welcome spash of colour round the house.
This is my favourite flower at the moment, a delphinium which is a new plant this year. Next year it should have more blooms, but I'm enjoying the few it has, plus the novelty of seeing this plant round here. You don't see many delphiniums in this part of the world due to our high slug and snail population, they eat them voraciously. So this is in a pot armoured with copper tape to prevent the critters munching on it.

Apologies for the gap in posting, I've been busy with work and all my spare time has been spent picking fruit on the allotment! The glut is still with us, but will post pics of the vegetable garden soon.

Some July Flowers in Containers

2011-07-07T19:18:00.004+01:00

My New Dawn rose is just at its peak, it's been putting out flowers for weeks but at the moment it's prolific. The flowers seem a little bigger this year than before, a stunning sight. As a reminder, this grows in a ridiculously small amount of soil on a paving slab.
My yellow floribunda rose is also in full flow, this is it's second year.
I've underplanted it with pink busy lizzies, an unconventional colour combination but certainly bright! To the left you can just see a newly planted pot.
These are the lobelia cardinalis Queen Victoria, which I sowed earlier this year. I potted them on and they were finally big enough to go outside last week. I planted them deep in this container as they have very tall flower spikes, and I don't want them to get too battered by the wind. I have several pots of these, not sure if they will flower this year, but I'm hoping.
My white pelargoniums are all coming into flower, on this one you can see the influence of its pink ancestor, with lots of the flowers starting off a pale pink before brightening to white.
And I have a number of nemesia. I love these little flowers, and hope to get some better photos once they've got going, but it's taken them ages to get big enough to plant out, with the cold weather. They're varied in colour, this is a lovely red one.

Not much time for gardening this week, very busy with work, but I do hope to get more done this weekend.

2011 - The Year of the Slug & Snail

2011-07-03T18:25:00.004+01:00

It's about ten years since I've seen such a plague of slugs and snails. Generally we keep on top of the population by leaving beds uncovered during the winter and turning them so the frost kills the eggs, plus using raised beds and where possible using varieties which are slug resistant. In my first year growing potatoes I was horrified to discover my Charlotte potatoes (the leaves) literally covered in a carpet of slugs, so since then I've been more careful. But the two months of wet weather recently has allowed them to thrive so today I bought some nuclear strength slug pellets rather than the more environmentally friendly ones I normally use. Don't like it, but as this point it's a choice between growing food solely for the slugs or food for me. I choose me.

Above is a good example of what the slugs or snails (don't know which) have done to the lettuces. Every leaf gone, the centre cored out. This lettuce may or may not survive, but you can see above that the beasties have targeted only the green lettuces, apparently the red ones are not as tasty.
They've eaten things they don't normally bother with, such as parsnips. Fortunately I did a second sowing a couple of weeks ago and they are now coming through, so with additional protection I should still get some parsnips this year. The roll of honour of the plants fallen in battle includes 2 runner beans, some leeks, spring onions, radishes, all the parsley, all the coriander, most of the cabbage, all but 3 of the broccoli, 4 courgettes, and 2 pumpkins.

Still, I am an optimist by preference and the gaps in my beds have given me the opportunity to try a few new things. Above are two pepper plants, which I will grow under a cloche. Next door to these are two mini cucumbers - I'm determined to crack the cucumber problem and with a gap in the bed I bought two little plants to try out.
I was left with only 12 summer cabbage plants and 3 purple sprouting broccoli, so I also took the opportunity to buy more brassicas. I've got winter cabbage, red cabbage and some cauliflower. Again, cauliflower is something I've never tried, it does have a reputation for being difficult and I'm not sure if our soil will be right, but I've nothing to lose (except £1.75 for 8 plants). All the brassicas are now in, watered, surrounded by a pallisade of slug pellets and under a net to protect against the cabbage butterflies, which are already fluttering by.
The second sowing of peas have germinated but in the process I discovered once again that I really can't sow in a straight line. So Other Half had to build a support frame with a bend in the middle (note the bent willow on the left hand side) to deal with my inadequacies.
But every cloud has a silver lining. Last year our broad beans failed completely as we had a drought at exactly the wrong time for them. This year the rain came at the perfect time and we have a bumper crop - this is the first picking, lots more to come. Tomorrow all the first early potatoes will come up and I will finish the currant picking (I hope!).

It's very frustrating to spend time nurturing plants only to see them destroyed in a matter of hours. This year it has been literally a case of "here today, gone tomorrow", but I think that half the interest of gardening (fun might be too strong a word right now!) is doing battle with whatever the weather throws at you.
But the rewards of all this work are plain to see. At this time of year there's nothing better than tucking into a bowl of home grown strawberries and cream.
And following on from my last post about the mole I met a few days ago, I went back a couple of days later and found a mole-shaped hole by the path. So it looks like my mole has taken up residence; a good choice, with a field on one side and the high grass bank of the road on the other. I hope it enjoys its new home.

Can you guess what this is?

2011-06-29T21:23:00.003+01:00

So there I was, ambling along the path heading to the post office when I spied a dark mammal on the edge of the path ahead. Couldn't think what it was, a bit large for a shrew, possibly a vole, but quite a mystery. I walked up to where I'd seen it, but it had disappeared into the long grass, and I couldn't find it. Mysteriously, lots of the grass by the side of the path had been flattened by something. Curious.
So I was rather pleased when I came back to find it was still around, a little further on, and I crept up to get a closer look. As it turned out, I didn't need to creep as it was completely unconcerned by my presence. Do you know what it is yet? (for British readers, you should read that sentence in a Rolf Harris accent)
Handily I had my camera with me so was able to snap these pictures, but it was difficult to get a good look as it spent most of its time with its head buried in the grass, munching on what it could find in the soil. Got it yet?
Well, this photo is the clincher. You can clearly see its spade-shaped front paws. It's a mole! I've never seen one except on TV, so it was fascinating to watch it dig around the roots of the grass for its lunch. It had clearly been moving along the path all day, and was intent on continuing. I did try to get a picture of its snout, but it had its face buried in the grass most of the time. So if you've never seen one before, now you know; dark grey, short tail, bigger than a vole and with its face buried in the soil at all times. I watched it for a few more minutes then left it in peace.

I've had enough of the rain now

2011-06-27T20:49:00.004+01:00

After 6 weeks of cold, with rain every day, it seems the slug population which was decimated by the cold winter has had a population explosion. In a few days they have demolished one courgette (one of the replacements!), two pumpkins, a few parsnips, all my parsley and coriander and more. Above is the single climbing french bean, which is one of my experiments for the year. You can barely see it now because every leaf has been gobbled up by the slugs. The runner beans are doing better, but have been similarly pruned.
There are a number of weeds in this picture, but you can just pick out four cabbage plants which are all that survive from my summer cabbage seed bed. The broccoli is similarly massacred. So I will have to see what I can find left in the vegetable plant section at the garden centre. Very depressing, I do use environmentally friendly slug pellets but I'm convinced there are so many slugs and snails they are crawling over the dead bodies of their comrades to get to my delicious plants. Not a lot you can do, except pray for a dry spell and a plague of frogs and toads to eat them up.
So then I took a look at my redcurrants to see I had visitors there also. You can see the stripped stalks of redcurrant clusters. I suspect woodpigeons are to blame, I've caught them pinching my strawberries before. I don't net my fruit as generally I don't need to, this is the most severe damage in 10 years. Happily, there are many, many more redcurrants out of the reach of the birds. Every year brings its ups and downs - last year the potatoes and broad beans were dreadful due to the drought, but we had an excellent crop of cabbages instead.
There are a lot of strawberries but they're all still green due to the awful weather. Another week should see the start of our harvest.
My bush tomatoes are doing surprisingly well, since they spent their first few weeks under cloches, out of the cold and rain. They're flowering now, and look very healthy. Wish I had tried these varieties years ago.
So onto the good news; the first raspberries are now ready, lots more to come. And I've dug the first few potatoes - Pentland Javelin, a first early. They're not bad, though smaller than I would have liked since we had a long dry spell when they were doing some of their growing. But the later potatoes are looking healthy and growing well (cross fingers) so I think we may have a good harvest this year.
And here's the first picking of currants; I decided to take off the ripest redcurrants so the woodpigeons don't get the opportunity - they only go for red berries so they've left the whitecurrants and blackcurrants alone. There's a good crop of blackcurrants, so this is the first picking.

So now I'm hoping for a dryer spell, it has been very warm over the last couple of days but is cooling down a bit this evening. 2011 really is shaping up to be the year of weather.

Bempton Cliffs 2011

2011-06-19T16:58:00.003+01:00

We've had a few days away, visiting Bempton Cliffs, which we last went to two years ago. The cliffs are spectacular, hosting many thousands of breeding seabirds. Above is a rather nice shot, showing the combination of wildlowers hanging on to the cliff edge along with the birds to their right, also hanging on to the cliff edge. If you don't believe me, click on this photo and zoom in on the cliff to see the birds.
Our aim this time was to see some young birds, and we weren't disappointed. Most of the kittiwakes, like these above, had chicks already hatched. Many had two in the nest, perched on 6 inches of cliff edge.
They're incredibly close together, in this picture you can see 5 nests, some of which have been used for decades. The chicks are very cute balls of grey fluff. I also saw a couple of herring gull chicks, which were adorable brown speckled things, but couldn't get a photo.
It was hard to find a guillemot chick in a position where I could get a photo, but here's one in positively palatial surroundings, most of them grow up in spots with much less room than this. If you think the birds in these photos are spotted with suspicious looking white goo, then you are right - the birds just jettison their waste off the cliff onto whatever happens to be below. Since these cliffs have several storeys of inhabited ledges, it creates quite a mess and an incredibly strong smell. You can smell the birds before you see them! The guillemot chicks jump off the ledges into the sea at 3 weeks old, before they can fly, amazingly. I think some of them will be bouncing down these cliffs since the sea isn't exactly at the bottom!
There were lots of puffins knocking about, but they don't stay still for long as they nest in burrows so most of the puffins you see are on their way to or from a fishing trip. This one obligingly had a snooze on a ledge for me.
We wanted to see gannet chicks, which we did manage but not on the day I had my telescope for taking pictures. These birds are enormous and nest in ridiculously small spaces on the cliffs.
This one was asleep on its rather larger nest at the top of a stack, which was adorned with a daisy plant at one end. The oldest part of the colony (this is a newer area) had the oldest chicks, which, sad to say, are large, white and very ugly, with big black beaks. Not nearly so distinguished as their parents.
This pair were courting, there was still a lot of nest building going on, with gannets carrying seaweed in, or, conveniently for the human visitors, landing on the cliff tops and ripping off grass to carry away. There were several "mowed" patches along the cliff edge. Animal gardening at work.
So no gardening this weekend, though I did enjoy the cliff top plants and noticed this beautiful common spotted orchid yesterday. We walked miles along the cliff tops, saw pretty much every nesting kittwake and gannet and had a good break. Back to the garden this week.

Finally! A bit of sunshine and a few flowers

2011-06-16T18:38:00.005+01:00

I thought the peonies would never open, but finally they are getting there!
Been busy on the vegetable plot this week, I weeded and then resowed the parsnip bed. Some of earlier sowing had germinated, but only in clumps like those in the photo. This kind of germination is common when we have a monsoon at the wrong time of spring, so this is why I always hold some seed back. We've spent a lot of time weeding this week.
Finally finished clearing the bed for the second sowing of carrots and beetroots; the beetroot germinated patchily, similar to the parsnip, they are affected by cold, wet springs. The carrots are Resistafly and something else whose name I can't recall, again supposed to be resistant to carrot fly. These are maincrop - I won't do another sowing as I find sowing after late June doesn't work too well with our climate.
One of the really strange things about this year is that not only is everything late, but it has slowed down its normal rate of flowering. Take this shrub rose; it started flowering almost two weeks ago and by now should have been covered in flowers, it tends to flower all at once. But this year, it is flowering sequentially, over a much longer period. Normally the flowers would last two weeks, but we're already at that point and there are still flowers to come. I'm seeing the same effect on my New Dawn rose, which is still to peak although it's had a few flowers come out over the last week or so. The slow rise in temperatures and the constant up and down, particularly at night, seems to have elongated the flowering season. So no "wow" mass flowering, but rather more sedate and longer lasting show, which I'll enjoy just as much.
I finally got the pumpkins out this week, though the courgettes and marrows stayed under their cloches until mid week to keep them warm. I've never had to do this before, what an extraordinarily cold spring we've had this year. But now they are getting away, finally.

On the plum tree issue, I failed to find my tree wound paint, so resorted to bandaging the damaged stump in strong packing tape from my office. That should keep the rain off and hopefully nasty bacteria out!
It was a cheering sight to see the dark pink peonies outside the house eventually open their flowers properly!
Have a good gardening weekend!

Well, I did say it was windy...

2011-06-14T17:08:00.002+01:00

This year is turning into a series of battles with the weather. The last month has been cold, wet and very, very windy. So as today turned out sunny, warm (shock) and with a mild breeze, I set out to thin the plums, only to find the wind had got there first. I first spotted one small branch of plums on the ground, thought "that's not good", then looked at the tree to see a gaping hole in the middle where the centre branch was hanging down limply. It was still attached, just, but it had to come off too.
Actually, I think both were attached to the same centre limb, it looks like the wet foliage and plums were caught by the wind, and twisted off. I didn't have the right tools with me to tidy up the damage, will have to go up later to do it. We should have a dry couple of days, so I have time. The trouble is, plums are prone to disease and this wound creates the perfect entry conditions for it. I'm crossing my fingers. Having said that, the gap in the canopy actually creates better conditions for the remaining plums, with more light and air able to circulate.
Given the damage and the fact that the increased warmth now means the plums are growing fast, I spent an hour thinning the fruit. This is necessary for a few reasons; stopping branches breaking under the weight, allowing air to circulate around each fruit to reduce rot and preventing the tree becoming a biennial bearer. It didn't produce much blossom or fruit last year, but did the year before so this is a risk. If I thin the fruit, it reduces the strain on the tree and should mean it flowers and fruits well again next year. Above is a picture of a sample branch before thining.
And here is that same branch after thinning - I used scissors to snip off the fruit. You remove all the small stuff, though some of it was starting to drop of its own accord, then reduce the remaining fruits to a suitable distance between each one. The books suggest 2-3 inches, mine are probably 1.5-2.5 inches overall. In some cases this means removing over 50% of the fruit on a branch. But none of the fruit left is crowded, so it should be better quality and it should suffer less from rot and the resulting wasp attacks. Let's hope it doesn't suffer because of the damage.

Summer approaches slowly, very slowly

2011-06-11T17:14:00.004+01:00

Our temperatures are still yo-yo-ing, with nights (like last night) sometimes very cold, as low as 4 or 5 degrees C here. This is causing some stress to tender plants like courgettes, so I left the cloches on them to be safe. The days are chilly in the wind, but occasionally, just occasionally, the sun breaks through, it feels warm and you can dally outside to enjoy the flowers. These are sage flowers, from a big pot of sage I keep by the door. One plant in the centre has paler flowers than the others, but the nice thing about herbs is they can look good as well as taste good!
This is the yellow poppy which just plants itself where it likes in this area. When I'm weeding I tend to leave it alone because it's pretty and cheerful.
In the vegetable plot, the slug-nibbled courgettes are recovering, this one shows a lot of new growth at the base as it didn't lose its growing point. I bought two replacement plants (unnamed variety, so who knows what they'll do) at the garden centre this afternoon as I'm a bit short of replacement seed. Given our low night temperatures, I was unsurprised to see that even the plants at the garden centre showed signs of having got a bit cold - at this time of year they expect to be able to leave them in the unheated part, apparently global warming hasn't kicked in here.
Here's the pale pink peony in my garden, it always manages to grow the biggest flower outside the support so it droops a bit. I had to support it with my hand, such a lovely flower.
And here's my pot peony, it has 8 flowers this year and is looking magnificent, just like the ones on Gardener's World last night, in Monet's garden. You can always tell what's been on Gardener's World if you go to the garden centre the day after. Today the herb section was humming with people after Monty Don's piece on herbs. Normally I'm one of a small minority of people who linger there, but this afternoon there were lots of people agonising over all the varieties of mint, sage and lavender.

Anyway, I hope to be sowing more seed tomorrow. I bought replacement coriander, parsley and leeks today as I do seem to have lost some in the monsoons of the last month. Let's hope the rain (and hail!) holds off for long enough tomorrow.

Everyone else's rain

2011-06-07T19:22:00.008+01:00

This is what my soil looks like after a month when we got not only our own rain but, seemingly, everyone else's as well. I think that's algae, never seen anything like it. This soil is between the potato rows and is the worst as the rain ran off the ridges.
I decided I needed to finish earthing up the potatoes and deal with the algae covered soil as well. Great thought, but it was like concrete and the three prong cultivator you see above is now at a different angle as the soil was so hard. After three rows my back and shoulders had had enough. Unfortunately the gap between the rows isn't quite big enough to get the fork in safely.
Not sure whether this is parsley or coriander, as labelling things makes gardening way too easy, why label when you can forget and then practice your plant identification skills later? Whichever it is, germination has been poor so I'm going to buy some more seed - these tend to be a bit slow to get going, but they coulda lso have been drowned.
But at the top of the same bed, the spinach and chard has germinated extremely well, I went out with my packets of seed to resow in the gaps, but didn't need to. So that's good news.
The early carrots are growing, there's also some beetroot in the left of the bed. But what you can see here is that the carrots at the top of the bed are bigger than those at the bottom, though some resowing does confuse the issue. Clearly the soil lower down is poorer, so once these carrots are out I'll need to put some manure on this soil. This bed is dryer because it was under cloches for a long time and it's under a tree, so gets less rain.
Talking of cloches, my bush tomatoes are doing well and have flower buds growing. I left the end of the cloche open at the weekend as it was warmer, but with more rain and cold weather I closed it up again yesterday, likewise the marrows and courgettes. I only noticed after I downloaded this picture that I was also growing a nice crop of grass under here!

Finally, as I was writing this post I was watching soot and ash falling down the chimney into the grate. It had been happening since the morning, but was becoming an avalanche. At first I thought it was just that I hadn't had the chimney swept in a while, but as the torrent increased I suspected it might be a jackdaw chick which had fallen down the chimney. One last avalanche and I spied some grey "sticks", peeked up the chimney and saw a pair of legs standing on the ledge. I grabbed a towel, went for the bird but it anticipated me and flew out, straight into the window which I should have opened instead of the door, thinking about it. Anyway I gathered it up in the towel and took it outside, where it flew off to rejoin its parent on the rooftop, leaving behind a very bemused cat who can only dream of catching something like that! Now I don't need to get the chimney swept and I have loads of coal soot for my roses...

...and back to summer again

2011-06-04T14:08:00.004+01:00

The weather in May was atrocious. It was the windiest May for 36 years at least, and in addition to the cold, we had 152% of normal rainfall for the month. While this is good news for our water supply as the reservoirs are all full, it's been fairly disastrous for the plants in our cold, clay soil. Here's a picture of my climbing french bean, which I had to plant out as it was trying to escape. Not any more; despite being in a fairly sheltered position behind the peas and beans and next to the tomato cloche (they're fine), this plant was blasted by the cold wind. All the old growth has been damaged, the two runners blown off, but happily given the rather better weather now, it is putting up new ones.
The slugs and snails took a fancy to my courgettes under their cloche and that, together with the extreme cold, has meant that I've lost two plants completely, with others, like this one, rather nibbled. I think this one may recover, but I kept some seed back just in case, which was a good decision.
Likewise the germination of the runner beans has been poor as temperatures got too low and the humidity was high with day after day of torrential rain. These will need resowing too. The resown pumpkins have also failed again!
Fortunately, not everything has suffered. The peas are now flowering, they needed a good soaking to get growing so that's something to look forward too.
And the garlic is very large for this time of year. The diameter of these stalks gives a clue as to the size of bulbs below, and it seems the rain came at just the right time. I switched varieties to Picardy Wight this year and it seems to have been a good decision. The lettuce at the front of the picture has also benefitted from the rain.
The broad beans have set their first crop and it looks to be a good one. The damage you can see on the leaves is made by pea and bean weevils, which find broad beans make a good meal. They don't cause any problems for the beans, just create frilled edges on the leaves.
In terms of flowers, there are a few things to look forward to. Here's a peony bud, this is the one which grows in a pot outside the house.
And this is the peony which grows in my little garden, where the soil is poor so it often doesn't flower.
The shrub rose is just starting, hope to have a picture of that in its full glory this week.
And my New Dawn rose has put out its first flower.

So order of business for this week is to resow the losses and do final sowings for things like carrot and beetroot.

Return to Winter

2011-05-28T11:03:00.003+01:00

One month ago I was wearing short sleeves and enoying the sunshine, now I'm back in warm sweaters and keeping out of the wind. This week has been wet, cold and incredibly windy, so everything on the allotment has slowed down. These cabbage seedlings are barely bigger than two weeks ago.
The courgettes I got in last week have been nibbled by slugs which were equally keen to get out of the cold wind and snuck in under the cloche. Fortunately the damage isn't too bad, they'll recover well. Funnily, the slugs didn't seem to like the marrows, which they've left well alone.
And despite flowering early, the strawberries are slow to come on as we've seen little sun this week.
But the raspberries are alive with bees pollinating the flowers and we have a large crop of raspberries set now.
And the potatoes seem to like all the rain, they're growing on well. With the forecast for the next couple of days wet and windy, it will be a while before I get out again. Let's hope it warms up soon.

Rain, wind and occasional sunshine

2011-05-22T12:00:00.004+01:00

Given the current very changeable weather, you have to get out when you can, between the showers. So that means doing as much as you can in the short sunny gaps in the clouds. Here are my little tomatoes, which were ready to go out earlier than I expected. I've tried for years to grow tomatoes, with little success. It's partly to do with our latitude, partly our soil and predominant weather (wet!). So this year I decided to buy some ready grown plants from the nursery, and selected two varieties which are a bush type and thus earlier fruiters than traditional cordon types. So here they are, Balcony Red at the front and Totem at the back. After all the rain, the soil is good and damp and these plants got a good dollop of horse manure underneath to get them off to a good start. Some slug pellets just in case the slugs take a fancy to them, a cloche on top and they should grow on nicely now.
After another cold winter, the slug population has diminished but they still make a beeline for my lettuce plants, the seedlings being particularly vulnerable. Still, they did save me the bother of thinning out the rows, as they rather handily left plants spaced about 10 cm apart which is just right. We also have a lot of snails here but, while they do seem fond of rhubarb leaves, they don't seem to eat much else. And they are rather pretty, with shells in different colours.
I also took the opportunity to get my courgettes (zucchini) and marrows in. These are the courgettes, after my experiment last year I repeated my 2 trowels of horse manure under each one technique, rather than fertilising the whole bed. These plants are looking good, but given the wind and heavy rain, they are all now protected under cloches until they've grown on a bit and it's warmed up. While it is warmer and dryer in the south, this week has been decidedly chilly "up north".
After giving my pumpkins a good talking to, one of the recalcitrant seeds has actually germinated, but the other two have disappeared. So I've replanted these pots. There's plenty of time, it's still early in the season and a bit chilly.
The climbing bean which was looking to climb out of my window is now safely in the ground, next to the peas. The plant on the left is one of last year's parsnips which I'm leaving to go to seed. Speaking of parsnips, I did experiment with growing them from my own seed, and a number have germinated though there are some gaps. I'm wondering about filling the gaps with my bought seed, but not sure if it's too late now?
In terms of fruit, this year looks to be a bumper and early one. The gooseberry bushes are heavy with fruit which is already a good size.
Some of the redcurrants are already starting to colour up, which is incredibly early for these as I would normally expect to start picking them at the end of June or beginning of July.
My plum tree is covered with little green plums, but I think I'm going to thin them as the tree is showing signs of being a biennial bearer. A heavy crop can exhaust a young tree, leading to poor flowering the next year. If you thin them out, the tree copes better and flowers next year too. The books tell me you should wait until the stones have formed in the fruit, so it's about time to do this, when I can find a few minutes!
And my troublesome Blenheim Orange apple tree has lots of fruit for the first time ever, after about 7 years in the ground. So buying another compatible pollinator and pruning a bit harder has had the right effect. Apple trees can be complicated beasts, and this one has been particularly difficult. It's a dual eater/cooker and an October apple, so there's plenty to look forward to.

Wherever you are, I hope the weather is kind to you this week.

Hurrah! Sun!

2011-05-18T21:02:00.002+01:00

After a full 48 hours of continuous rain, we finally got a 7 full hours of dry, with a bit of sun peeking through. Lovely, but I now have masses of work to do, grass to cut, weeds to pull and there is more rain forecast, though thankfully not as much. One job which is now finished for this year is the manure heap. Throughout the winter local horseowners dump their manure (above) at the allotments from time to time, and I use it to create my own manure pile for use the following year. The beans and cucurbits love it, when it's well rotted there's nothing better. The heap above will be the last load until autumn, and I really can't get any more on my own pile so I've covered it with corrugated plastic and will leave it to rot down over the summer.
Speaking of cucurbits, here are the seedlings in the shed. At the back are the courgettes, middle the marrows and in the foreground are the pumpkins, or they would be if they had germinated. Only two out of five have made it this far, so if they're still a no-show at the weekend I'll replant with the spare seed I saved from last year. Disappointing - usually they germinate well, but not this year for some reason.
This is a climbing french bean I bought at the garden centre last week, I've never grown these before so it's an experiment. I was hoping to get it in the plot last weekend but it was too cold, so I kept it on the windowsill. When it arrived it was still small, but it has grown very quickly. I found a couple of sticks to give it something to go at, but on one side it has outgrown that stick so I had to attach another one with a plant tie. It's now half way up that one, let's hope I get it in the ground in the next couple of days before it starts climbing out the window!

It never rains but it pours...

2011-05-14T15:08:00.004+01:00

After several weeks without any rain, this last week we've had all the April showers we missed last month, with no end in sight. The problem is the showers, while generally short, are frequent and sometimes very heavy, so you can't get an hour of good weather to get out in the garden.
My once empty water butt now has a few centimetres of rain in the bottom, but there's a long way to go! A couple of times this last week I got half way to the allotment and had to turn round, seeing the black clouds coming my way.
Still, it's just what the vegetables need - here are the potatoes recovering after being nipped by the frost. While the temperatures have dropped this week, the weeds don't seem to mind, and my once weed free potato bed is looking a bit scruffy now.
The peas and beans really needed this rain, though they are in one of the damper beds on the plot. The broad beans (left) are just starting to flower, while the peas are zooming up the supports and are now taller than the beans. Today I finally found a 45 minute gap between the showers to get the second sowing of peas in, a little later than I would have liked but between the drought and the monsoon it's been hard finding the right weather for planting.
This bed holds the garlic and salad crops. The lettuce is coming on well now, the radishes in the foreground are growing well too. We've had our first small lettuce picking this week, there's nothing like eating your own produce.
You can just see the carrot seedlings in here - actually there are two sowings of Early Nantes in this bed. The earlier one is at the back, the second sowing in the middle of the photos. They're being rather crowded out by the forget-me-not, which is epidemic in this bed, I can never get rid of it. It is a pretty flower, but one plant produces enough seed to cover several square metres, it seems. Fortunately it has a small root system, so when I eventually find a dry spell in which to weed this bed, it'll come out easily without damaging the carrots. As we suffer from carrot fly here, these seedlings are kept under a cloche full time. I will sow some more carrots outdoors later once the danger season is past.
I also made a trip to the garden centre this week. I bought these tomatoes, dwarf varieties which I can keep under a cloche. I don't have a greenhouse but our climate is too wet and chilly for outdoor tomatoes to produce well, plus we get blight in the rain. The other problem is that starting seedlings without special lights and heat results in poor quality plants which again take a long time to pick up. So I decided to cheat and buy some well-grown plants which have had the best start in life. We'll see how they do, it's a bit of an experiment. In the top left corner of the box is another experiment; a chilli plant, which I'm planning to keep on my bedroom windowsill, the warmest room in the house. One corner of the windowsill gets full sun for 6-7 hours a day, so I'm hoping that will be suitable for this plant.

So this week I'm hoping for a dry spell or two, to get on with the weeding. I'm crossing my fingers...

Early May in the Vegetable Garden

2011-05-04T20:11:00.002+01:00

Apologies for the lack of posting, this is for two reasons. Firstly the Almighty Google has decreed that henceforth my business website data must include bunches of numbers and codes, and I've been passing hours every day punching numbers into a spreadsheet, after I've hunted them down on the internet of course. Deep joy. So I've been spending a lot of time hunched over my computer instead of outside in the garden. While it will take a month or so to finish the job, I have broken the back of it now and should be able to avoid the special circle of hell reserved for those who misbehave in the Google empire - Invisibility in Product Searches.

Secondly, when I have been able to get out I've spent all my time weeding and watering, trying to keep up with the plants given the dry weather. So no time to stand and admire, much less take pictures. In the meantime my rhubarb has gone mad, as you can see from the photo above. I've taken these flowers off the plants now, so it can concentrate on producing nice stems to eat.
We've had an extremely dry period of weeks, which hopefully will end this weekend, but it hasn't been too hot, which has meant that the soil is still damp underneath, thankfully. We had a forecast of frost this week, so on Monday I spent an hour earthing up the potatoes to protect them. I couldn't get every single leaf under cover, unfortunately, as you can see from the photo above, where some leaves were caught and burnt. Apologies for the dandlelion seeds in the picture!
Last night's frost also caught some of the apple blossom, this is on the Spartan tree. The frost is always patchy, but I'm not too concerned as most of the blooms have now been pollinated.
The lettuce has been under a cloche and is growing on well now, with newly germinated seeds filling the gaps too. The cloche keeps the frost off and has kept the cold winds away too. Despite the dryness, the last few days have been chilly.
This is the Blenheim Orange apple tree. I took this photo to record its magnificent flowering this year. I have had problem getting this to set fruit, so purchased another apple tree last year to help in the pollination; it now has a Worcester Pearmain on one side and a Spartan on the other. All the signs are good, the Spartan has also flowered well so I'm hopeful we will finally have a first crop from this tree.
The warm weather means that everything is a couple of weeks in advance of where it should be. This photo is of the redcurrants, which I would normally expect to pick in July. This year I think I will be picking in June, given the development of these fruits. All the soft fruit is racing away. I spent two hours bent double at the weekend finishing the weeding of the strawberry bed, not a moment too soon as while I was rescuing the plants from the grass, I found they had started flowering. I've never seen them flower in April before - I have mid and late season plants, not earlies. Again, I think I'll be eating them in early June instead of late June/July.
The peas and broad beans are growing well, though I have been watering them a bit to help them along. By now I should have done my second sowing of peas, but I can't see the point of putting them in dry soil, so will wait until next week. I have started the marrows, pumpkins and courgettes in pots, I don't like to do them too early, especially since I lost some to the frost last year.
Earlier this year I showed a picture of a pot with a sad looking piece of a Bleeding Heart plant in it; my Mum had accidentally split a bit off her plant while weeding and we weren't sure it would survive. Plants really are amazing things, it didn't just survive but now has several fronds of flowers.
Another early flowerer has been the Hawthorn, which we would normally expect to see around the 6th May here. It actually started last week, but the different trees all flower at slightly different times so we have a gradual whitening of the countryside going on now. Such pretty flowers.
The main theme in the garden at the moment is the dryness though. My gate won't close as it has shrunk so much the bolt doesn't meet the hole in the timber; a trusty brick has to suffice. I am getting a bit tired of watering, since my water butt is now empty and I have to trudge up and down the hill to the tap. Let's hope this weekend does finally bring the rain we've been promised!

Brockholes Nature Reserve

2011-05-03T17:37:00.003+01:00

At the weekend we went to a new reserve nearby - Brockholes. This area was an old gravel quarry which attracted a number of birds, some of them rare, while it was still working. With the gravel pits now closed, it has been converted into a fully fledged reserve. It has several habitats; the river Ribble (above), woodland and open water.
The woodland section is full of singing birds at this time of year.
There are several pools, large and small, including one with the visitor centre which I unaccountably forgot to photograph. It's designed to attract ground nesting birds, sand martins and species which live in the reeds. We saw one sedge warbler, heard more and also one reed warbler singing, so while the reed beds are still getting going, they're already a success. These are birds we rarely see in our part of the country, so this reserve could be a real treasure.
This is the biggest lake, with a carefully landscaped centre designed to provide safe nesting sites for birds like the little ringed plover, of which there were several bobbing around. At the back of this photo you can just see the beautifully crafted sand/mud bank which already has a number of resident sand martins.

We had a good time, the only criticism of this reserve was the signage (lack of it in some places), and its clearly not yet finished. The biggest problem was that while the website clearly says no dogs allowed, there were no proper signs at the reserve, though while we were there some hastily printed and laminated signs went up, which were ignored. Ground nesting birds and dogs don't mix, so they need to get a grip of this; we saw one dog not only in the main nesting area but off the lead too. The only birds nesting on the lake so far seemed to be canada geese, but if they want others to breed here they will have to enforce the ban.

Since this is less than 30 minutes from home, I'm, sure we'll be back for another visit soon.

Normal gardening blogging will resume this week - have been very busy watering the vegetable plot, no time to take pictures!

Easter Weekend in the Garden

2011-04-23T21:41:00.004+01:00

I don't think there's a better sight than the pink of cherry blossom against a blue sky. It lasts such a short time - already blowing off the trees - but while it's there, it makes you smile.
All around here there are branches heavy with blossom, most pink, but some white, like these outside my house. Lovely.
In the vegetable garden, the Katy apple tree is in full bloom now, while the plum has finished and is setting its fruit.
This is a bit of a long shot, but here you can see all four of my apple trees; left to right we have Worcester Pearmain, Blenheim Orange, Katy, Spartan (the newest and smallest one on the end). I've had a struggle getting the Blenheim Orange to flower and then getting it to set fruit, having lost one of the trees that used to pollinate it, but adding the Spartan last year did result in one apple setting, even though the Spartan was very new. This year the tree has a lot of blooms, as does the Spartan so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a proper harvest this time.

The cloche you can see in the bed covers the lettuce, radish and spring onions. The weed ridden mess on the right is the potato bed, and just out of shot on the left is the pea/bean bed. The empty bed in the middle is the "leaf bed" - more on that below.
And here is a shot of the potatoes, carefully taken in a less weedy spot so you might think I'm a really good and conscientious gardener who doesn't have to work for a living and can spend every day pulling out every stray bit of grass. Convinced?
This weekend I planted up the "leaf" bed - spinach (the perpetual kind which is the only one that doesn't run to seed for me), chard, parsley and coriander. I habitually keep about one quarter of the seed in reserve in case of germination failures - in normal years our wet, cool soil can affect germination so I'm always cautious. I also filled in the gaps in the transpanted lettuce with some reserved seed as well.
These are the artichokes, which I replanted in February, and which have now pushed through the soil well.
And this is the strawberry bed, showing the before and after weeding view in one photo. The warm spring has meant I've got behind on my jobs, with the weeds and grass getting going very fast so I've struggled to keep up. I really hate weeding this bed - it's back-breaking work, but thankfully only needs a good weed twice a year. As you can see, I've weeded almost half the bed today and scattered some well rotted horse manure on the soil. As the bed is under a tree, it naturally gets a mulch of leaves over the winter which helps lighten the soil, so all it needs is a little feeding.
Another sign of the warm spring is that bluebells are out very early this year, these were on the way home and they're just putting their heads up.
Here's a picture of the weir, you can see the 19th century sluice gates in the background, which used to take water to the mill in the village. The river's low due to the lack of rain, but there's still plenty of water dropping over the edge.
More bluebells, with some ferns pushing through too. When you see slopes like this planted with flowers, don't you wish you could create a garden like this too? Somehow nature seems to do a better job.

Have a good gardening weekend.

A lovely warm April...

2011-04-19T17:30:00.005+01:00

After last year's cold spring, this April has been remarkably warm and pleasant. My last narcissus bulbs have just flowered - the small yellow ones you see mixed in with these white ones. Small, but very sweet smelling and as I type their scent is drifting through the open window. So early spring is coming to an end and I'm looking forward to the garden delights to come.
On the allotment, work has started in earnest. This weekend the grass got its first cut, using my trusty strimmer thingymebob.
And I sowed radishes and spring onions. I like radishes, and have found that a variety called Rudolph works well for me. Unfortunately, sowings after early May have a tendency to go to seed, no matter what I do or where I plant. I'd really like to get a longer radish season so, working on the assumption that it's the variety that's the problem, I've also sown Scarlet Globe next to it, and I'll repeat this double sowing through the season to see how they do.
These radish are next to the lettuce which I transplanted a week or so ago. The funny thing about Salad Bowl is that when they germinate indoors, the green and red varieties are both green. But when they go in the ground, the red immediately colour up. The little blue pellets are environmentally friendly slug pellets - among a few dead ones, I found one live and fat slug under the lettuce cloche. It wasn't there for long...
And speaking of cloches, I have whipped them off this bed - on the extreme right is a very straight row of weeds which mark the old edge of the bed, newly extended and awaiting weeding. Then (right to left) we have two rows of broad beans and two rows of peas. Lurking in the background somewhere are a couple of parsnips which I missed in the winter and which are growing on to provide next year's seed. This week's job is to get the weeds out and then my Other Half can do his favourite job - constructing a frame for the peas to climb. I will also do a second sowing of peas in the next week or so.

One month ago I took some cuttings from the white pelargoniums which I overwintered in the house. The parent plants went back outside a couple of weeks ago, and are filling out well. Meanwhile their offspring have been busy growing new roots, as you can see! Excellent growth on these little plants, they're now outdoors in a long trough pot on my sunny windowsill. If you want to practice growing cuttings, geraniums are a good one to start with.
Last summer I posted about the pruning of a rambling rose, and here is a picture of the result. A few months ago this plant looked rather straggly, but you can see how important it is to cut it back and tie down the long stems into a horizontal position; all those vertical shoots will produce flowers this summer. The plant is looking extremely healthy and pushing new growth out at the base, so I think it might be another good year for this rose.
And finally, a couple of weeks ago I posted about a packet of seed - Lobelia Cardinalis Queen Victoria. I was amazed to read on the packet that the seed could take up to 6 months to germinate, and thought I might be waiting a long time to see the plants! But fear not, the seeds confounded me and here they are, just starting to grow their first true leaves. It'll be a while before they're big enough to handle but I'm hopeful of getting some flowers this year.

Have a happy and sunny gardening weekend!

Holker Hall Gardens

2011-04-12T16:43:00.009+01:00

Each year Mum and I try to get to Holker Hall, in Cumbria (just west of Grange-over-Sands) to see the spring garden. It's a lovely garden, with lots to see through the summer, but we prefer it when the shrubs and trees are flowering. It's a mix of formal and informal gardens, so here is a tour of what's on offer there right now. Do click on any of the photos for a closer look.

This section doesn't photograph too well, as the canopy creates a lot of shade, but this walk runs up the hill, with a fountain on the first "landing" of the steps (you can just see it in this photo), then the steps go on upwards, with a water cascade either side. Very shady and cool on a hot day, which it wasn't today!

On either side of the fountain are the massive rhododendrons we come to see; planted in the Victorian period they are truly magnificent. Holker has its own microclimate which means things flower a little ahead of our area, despite being further north. Timing it to get the best of the shrubs is always tricky, though fortunately different plants flower at slightly different times.
Here's another huge rhododendron, this time a white one and it was difficult getting the whole thing into shot!
A revamped woodland section contains some smaller flowering azaleas (left) and frilly magnolias (right). Alongside the path are lots of other woodland species such as bleeding hearts, lungwort, wood anemones, snowflakes, and the tree in the centre is surrounded by lily of the valley.
Here is a massed planting of hellebores, probably easier to see if you click on the photo. There were various colours, all just at their best and the photo really doesn't do them justice.
The thing about this garden is you turn a corner and suddenly you're hit by something stunning, like this pink magnolia. I love magnolias, but my soil really isn't suitable for them. This year we managed to get to Holker just as they were flowering, and there are lots of them!
One area they have been working on in recent years is the woodland garden; here's a shot of daffodils among the trees. The daffodils are just starting to go over, but they're still very impressive. Elsewhere there are massed plantings of yellow and pink primroses.
And in the midst of this is a small formal garden in (I think) the italianate style. These formal beds are yet to reach their peak, but some of the tulips are starting, as you can see in the foreground.
And here's the woodland garden on the other side of the formal bit. The nice thing is they've designed the planting so that paths can be mowed through the grass for you to walk on; it's not a place where you see "keep off the grass" signs, which is nice. You can see one of these paths in the centre of the photo.
While the house is open to the public, the family keeps its own quarters and garden off limits, but these domestic escapees were foraging among the rhododendrons.
This is one of the newer areas, still under development. In the foreground are some magnolias, more new magnolia trees are out of shot to the left. In the middle ground are silver birch, while at the back are a couple of rhododendrons. Most of these trees weren't here when we last visited a couple of years ago. They look like they're leaning, but that's just my dodgy camera work! I was standing on a sloping path and failed to compensate.
And this is a camelia corner, with several bushes, of which this was the best. The bare bones of the planting were laid down 100+ years ago, with the rhododendrons and trees which have now reached a huge size. In between, subsequent owners have added more themed planting, of which this is an example. They've also been careful to plant for the microclimate - this side of the garden is much more sheltered than the woodland sections.
I love monkey puzzle trees, you used to see a lot of them when I was younger. They were fashionable around a hundred years ago, but age has reduced their numbers somewhat, so to see a collection of huge specimens like this is now a rarity. The biggest tree in this group happily has small offspring growing at the base, carefully preserved by the gardeners.
Returning along the paths towards the house, here is another showy rhododendron in full flow.
The formal gardens near the house are classics of their type; separate "rooms", bound by hedges both large and small. Here is the view looking up the avenue; as you can see there were quite a number of visitors about, I found it impossible to keep people out of my pictures!
Standing at the same point as the last photo but looking left, here is a stunning tulip border along the edge of the box hedge. These borders are changed through the season, beginning with tulips.
This is the centre of this "room", with low hedges and four beds in the centre circle. The trees in each bed are closely pruned pears. The plants in the wicker-bound beds are pink tulips, just a few days off blooming, so you'll have to use your imagination!
But even this well-kept garden has a few things out of place - here's a grape hyacinth which has chosen to grow in a gravel bed by the path.
Leaving the first "room" behind, you pass through a section with high hedges enclosing lawns, then into the final "room" which has yew hedges round the edges and in the centre, where it encloses a sun trap with benches for the weary. They haven't finished planting this bed in the foreground, it's looking like it will be full of summer flowering plants eventually. This bed is exposed to the wind and it looks like they may have lost some plants in the winter.
The path runs in a circle round the centre hedges; as you can see, there is a bit of topiary here too.
And here is a shot of the tulip beds outside the house. It was too early for the tulips really, we have been when they are flowering and they are stunning.

While I like the formal beds, it's the woodland garden I like to see; rhododendrons and magnolias of a size too large for ordinary gardens. If you're in the area, it's worth a visit, especially in the spring.

A Glorious Sight

2011-04-10T11:37:00.004+01:00

My Victoria Plum is in full bloom, the first of the fruit trees to blossom each year. It's a marvellous sight, and it also has a sweet scent too.
This tree was planted in 2005 and took a few years to settle in; it's on a Pixy (extremely dwarfing) rootstock and for a couple of years I was concerned the graft hadn't taken correctly. But eventually it produced a few flowers and two years ago a lot of plums. Last year it didn't have too much blossom, and was also affected by the late frosts we had; this year it's covered in blossom though. I'm now slightly concerned it is tending to be a biennial fruiter, so will have to keep an eye on it and thin the plums once they've set to prevent this happening in future years.
The bush fruit is also flowering - here you can see mostly redcurrants. A couple of weeks ago on Gardeners World Monty Don showed his hard pruned currant bushes. I've never bothered doing this, preferring quantity and I have masses of fruit each year. Put it this way, the retail value of the fruit these bushes produce is enough to pay my allotment rent twice over. So these redcurrants are sparingly pruned, only the blackcurrants get a good haircut as they need it in order to produce fruit.
The broad beans are growing well under their cloche...
as are the peas which have now pushed through.
This is the parsnip bed this year. This bed was reclaimed from a grassy bank back in 2000 (you can just see the continuation of the bank behind), with the lower plot on the left and the upper plot on the right. Like much reclaimed land round here, the clay soil was poor at the start so I added soil and organic matter but it was still too poor to grow very much. A few years ago I had a new retaining fence built and extended the bed a bit, adding more soil and a lot of organic matter. The soil in here is now light, with a good depth of topsoil so this year I decided to put the parsnips in here. I've used my own seed which I gathered last year, keeping my packet of bought seed in reserve in case of failures. I'm hoping that this light soil will favour the growing of good, long parsnips.
I planted out my home grown lettuce today, they look dead in this photo as they'd just been watered in. This leafy lettuce (Salad Bowl) doesn't transplant particularly well so there will be losses, but I can fill the gaps with seed in due course and I will get some lettuce to eat in May, which is the point really. I've also popped in some spring onions here, the whole lot is now under a cloche to keep it warm.

This week I took advantage of the warm and sunny weather to sow beetroot outside. In a cold spring I tend to start them in pots indoors, but from previous experience I know they could germinate well in this kind of weather. If needs be I can pop a cloche on them later.
And here is a truly white daffodil, my last daffodil to flower, and they're just coming out now.
Finally, for that "ah" factor, here is a brand new foal, outside with its mum for the first time this week. Not mine, I hasten to add, just a paddock I pass on the way to my vegetable plot. Couldn't get too close, the foal is still a bit jumpy and its mother very protective. Sweet.

Flowering Blackcurrant - Again

2011-04-07T17:46:00.003+01:00

The most popular post on this blog is the Flowering Blackcurrant from 2009. Looking at that photo now, I think I can do better, so here is an updated picture, taken this morning. Rather better, I think, I tried to find a flower where most of the blooms were open. It is a lovely bush and, as you can see, is covered with blooms. Difficult to get a photo of the whole plant today as it's quite breezy, but I'll try to get one later in the week.
So spring is here; these willow catkins are getting along well, the first swallows have arrived and today I saw (and heard!) my first willow warblers of the year. They've just arrived from Africa and the first few will be followed by many more - we have a good population of these birds round here. Have a look at the link and listen to their song, it's the song of summer for me.
Here are a couple of daffodils from my garden, very pale ones with orange centres. Looking at my photo library, it seems these are out almost 3 weeks earlier than last year. We did have a late spring last year, but spring is a little earlier than it was in 2009 too.
And here are my grape hyacinths, in full flow, with the red stalks of the peony behind.
These narcissi are also blooming three weeks earlier than last year. This means I really must get going in the vegetable gardening, lots to do there, so I hope to post later in the week. Enjoy the spring sunshine!

End of March in the Vegetable Garden

2011-03-31T17:37:00.002+01:00

Here's a turn up for the books - straight potato trenches. Usually my potato rows wriggle their way across the ground like worms, but for some reason this year they're rather straight and evenly spaced. No idea how I managed this. You may notice there are weeds along the edge. I take a live-and-let-live approach to weeding, only bothering when they're affecting my plants or harbouring too many slugs. Digging potato trenches is hard enough, I really couldn't be bothered getting every weed out too!
Here's a nice weed-free plot though, the garlic is growing well. I hope to be putting some lettuce in this bed next to the garlic soon, the soil here is really good now, light and full of organic matter.
Here are the blackcurrant buds, just ready to open. I'm hoping for a good crop of blackcurrants again this year and they're often one of the first fruits to flower.
The rhubarb is romping away now, I'm looking forward to tucking into this in due course.
And last year's leeks are still going, giving early spring vegetables which are welcome at this time of year.
At home, the seedlings have moved to the cooler windowsill to grow on. The lettuce are on the right; on the left are the spring onions and the geranium cuttings. I think it may be time to take the plastic bag off the geraniums now, they should have little roots and be able to cope with "breathing" normally.
I potted up the herbs too; the parsley at the back has already contributed to a salad, the coriander at the front was a slightly sickly plant due to the really crappy compost the garden centre had used. It was the kind that turns into cardboard if it dries out even a little bit, but it's picking up now it's repotted. I moved all the basil seedlings into a large, shallow pot as they'll never go outside but will sit on this windowsill in the sun for the summer.
And finally, I started my Lobelia Cardinalis Queen Victoria. I was astonished to read that germination for this plant can take, and I quote, "1 to 6 months". Months? What on earth do these seeds do, just sit around, saying "Shall we get going then?" "No, don't like the look of the weather today, let's not bother." How can a seed take that long? Anyway, I sealed them into a plastic bag as per the instructions and I'm hoping that they might grow at some point this year.

The weather's a little bit changeable at the moment, but I'm hoping to get out this weekend for some gardening, if the rain holds off for a while.

Container Gardening Part 2

2011-03-26T13:27:00.007Z

Last time I talked about the "hot" right side of the house, today I'll focus on the cooler west left side. This side gets direct sun for a short time in the morning, but then spends the rest of the day in the shade. It's also longer than the other side of the house, so most of my pots live here.
Since most of our weather here comes from the west, this side is also less windy and a bit drier, so daffodils like these don't get blown about so much. This pot has got quite crowded now; when they've finished flowering I'll split the bulbs up, particularly those at the left end which is rather congested.
This side of the house is the "nursery" side where sick or recently moved plants reside. A couple of weeks ago my Mum was weeding her own garden and got a bit too enthusiastic around her bleeding heart (dicentra spectabilis), splitting a bit off. She potted it up and gave it to me, as I wanted one of these, but the shoots seemed to die off. A week later though it's recovering as you can see from this photo, with nice pink shoots coming on.
On the right are a couple of small crocus pots; these haven't flowered well so I think I need to move them. The pot next to them is one of my new plants; a red oriental poppy (papaver orientale Allegro). I don't know if this is susceptible to snail damage, so I've left the pot un-armoured and will see if they go for it in due course. Next to that is a young New Dawn rose; this is a cutting I took a few years ago and it's now getting bigger, though unfortunately you can't see its full size in the photo. I'm hoping it might flower this year.
In this photo (right to left) we have my new delphinium (Belladonna Bellamosum), some more crocuses, the bleeding heart and my Himalayan Poppy. I took seed from this last year with a view to germinating more plants; according to internet sources, it can be difficult to germinate, needing very cold temperatures. So out I went in December with my carefully conserved seed, which I scattered round the base of the parent plant. I did this because the snails like this plant and since the pot is now armoured, any seedlings would have a good chance of survival here. As you can see, the parent plant is looking very healthy, and it is now surrounded by tiny seedlings. It's too early to say if they are poppies, there are certainly a few weeds in there, but I'm hopeful.
Right to left: first my little oak tree. Yes, really, don't ask me why, I really don't know why I have this. Then a wild flower which I love, Purple Toadflax. It grows tall spikes of purple flowers, and seeds itself readily everywhere. Next to that two varieties of rosemary, one what I call a "tree" type, with thick woody branches, and a new bush type. These are here for now as they've just been repotted, but once they've settled in they'll go round the other side of the house for the sun.
The pot on the right here is a carawy plant, which I'm growing to make seed for breadmaking. The other pots contain dwarf sweet peas, which I picked up in the garden centre recently and I'm hoping they will create some nice colour in the summer.
This is a slightly scruffy area unfortunately as I haven't got this far in my tidying. The plant on the right is woad, which I intend to use for dyeing wool as soon as I know how to do it! The other pot contains mint, along with a collection of dried leaves and moss! Mint is best kept in a pot as it is very invasive; this one is useful for mint tea and other culinary uses.
On the left is another herb; chives, which come back year after year. The large pot contains some marjoram and lady's mantle which you can see at bottom right. This pot needs attention, I suspect that I will need to replant this year, but I'll wait to see what comes up first.
On the right here are some narcissi with a single crocus lurking. In the white pot is a large hosta, which I've had for about 15 years and still grows very well. Hostas are very attractive to slugs and snails, so the pot is well armoured with copper tape. On the left is a pot of sage. Behind them is this plant:
a clematis which I was given as a gift some years ago. I've long since lost the label and have struggled to get it to flower. I've tried cutting it right back, half back or not at all. Whatever I do, it produces leaves but no flowers. Any ideas? I'm kind of losing the will to live with this plant, and have no intention of doing anything with it this year, just to see if it will prove it's worth the space and all the watering. If it doesn't justify itself this year, I think I'll remove it and find something else for this large pot for next year.

So that's a quick tour of my container garden. It's very easy to do, and I'm hoping to expand it again this year, with some new perennials along with summer bedding plants. Most of my pots are plastic which makes them easy to move, it also reduces water loss on the hot side of the house. Terracotta pots are lovely but with our harsh winters, they often don't last too long. Watering can be a bit of a chore in the summer, but there's nothing nicer than arriving home and seeing the splashes of colour against the sides of the house.

Container Gardening Part 1

2011-03-23T16:12:00.005Z

Despite being a keen gardener, I don't have a garden attached to my house; I have a strip of land across the road, which comes with many problems for growing things so it's quite limiting. So I've been doing a lot of growing in pots and larger containers outside my house. I'm not alone in this here, most of my neighbours do the same thing and the village looks very pretty in summer. But you don't have to limit yourself to bedding plants; it can be like a normal garden, with seasonal planting which you rotate through the year. So I thought I'd share my container garden with you, hope it provides some ideas for those who are limited in space.

The photo above is of my house; the corner points just east of north so looking at the picture the right side of the house faces roughly west, and left side east. This means I have two very different micro-climates, and on this post I'll talk about the "hot" (right) side. This gets the sun from early afternoon through to early evening - at midsummer this means a little over 5 hours at the hottest part of the day. The house is made of stone and if you've ever leant on a stone wall which has been in full sun, you may remember that stone retains heat and radiates it for hours after the sun has gone down. So even plants which should cope with lots of sun can find it difficult on this side of the house should we be lucky enough to have a hot spell.

I have two roses on this side; you can see them in the first photo. My New Dawn seems to survive the conditions well, though I am careful to reduce the leaf cover after flowering so it doesn't lose too much moisture through the leaves. I also have a yellow rose in a pot by the door, and it also likes the sunny conditions. In spring, this side is perfect for early bulbs and flowers, such as these scilla siberica. Once they have flowered, they move to the other side to feed in the shade before resting for next year. This pot is by my front door, where I can see it regularly.

The great thing about container gardening is you can plant for more than one season in a large pot. My rose has space round the edge for me to tuck in some colourful annuals later, and this pot is a spring/summer mix, with grape hyacinths round the edge and a peony in the middle. A peony alone in a pot would be dull for months on end, the grape hyacinths flower briefly so a combination of the two works well. The grape hyacinths also shade the roots of the peony as they grow on for some time after flowering, so stop the peony drying out too much. You can just see the red shoots of the peony poking through the foliage. The grape hyacinths will be at their best next week, I think.

The two pots at the back here are rudbeckia goldsturm; I split one plant last year into two pots. Rudbeckia should do well in sunny conditions, but it doesn't cope with the temperatures here. It needs water more quickly and often than I can supply; at this time of year it likes the light but I'll move it round to the other side of the house in about May as I've found it grows better there through the summer.

In front is one of the white pelargoniums which I took cuttings from a couple of weeks ago. I've planted these up and popped them outside now, these plants cope very well with the hot conditions here and geraniums of all kinds are ultra reliable on this side.
More pelargoniums here, next to a large pot of daffodils - I think these are the white ones, but don't know as I regularly lose labels. Thank goodness for blogs - once the name is on here I can look it up! Bulbs cope well with living in pots all year round; I'm careful to move them to the shade and feed them once they've flowered until they die back, and they seem to thrive on this treatment.

The deep windowsill on the front is just wide enough for a trough pot, and this one is another mix; snowdrops with yellow primroses. The snowdrops have finished flowering, the primroses are just starting to open now. Occasionally I split the primroses, but again they and the snowdrops stay in here all year round. This windowsill is too hot for anything to grow later in the summer, plus my cat likes to sit on it by the open window in the summer, so once these flowers are over I'll leave the windowsill bare.

You can grow pretty much anything in pots, and I've started to grow more perennials this way, using annuals just to fill gaps. But we do have a large snail population here, and they like to munch their way through my precious plants. The answer is this copper tape, which has a self-adhesive backing though is is quite sharp on the edges, so beware! It does the job - this is a delphinium which would be gone in 8 hours if I planted it in the ground here, but in an armoured pot it will be fine.

If you're wondering how it works, it seems the copper gives the snail or slug (I have both) a small electric shock as they try to slide over, so they don't bother. The only thing you have to watch out for is that the leaves of the plant don't touch a wall or other plant, creating a bridge. The downside of the tape is if a snail does get in, it's imprisoned and will eat its way through your vegetation!

In summer I water the plants on this side every day, twice a day if it's hot. But by testing carefully, I've learned which plants like these conditions and always manage to have some colour here. Next time I'll talk about the other side of the house and introduce some of my new plants for this year.

Crocuses

2011-03-18T20:58:00.002Z

One of the first flowers of spring is the crocus, and I have to confess they rank highly on my list of favourite flowers. They need bright spring sun to be at their best, and today was one of those days, thankfully.
The best crocuses in this area are in the local churchyard; these white and purple ones run down the slope. Do click on either of these photos for a closer look - simply glorious.

Second Week of March - Sowings and Cuttings

2011-03-13T12:53:00.002Z

I was hoping to get the pototoes in this weekend, but the soil is still too cold and wet so they'll have to wait a bit longer. But my first daffodils are out, which is always nice to see.
Earlier this week I sowed my first lettuce - Salad Bowl, a loose leaf lettuce. They're at the back of this picture, very fast to germinate. Half of the tray is red, half green but at this stage they look the same, though you will notice a slight difference in germination rate - strangely the red doesn't germinate quite as well as the green. On the left are some spring onions which I sowed at the same time and are just putting up their heads, on the right the basil which I bought from the garden centre and which should be ready for transplanting later this week.
So then my thoughts turned to cuttings. I bought some sand and rooting powder with a view to taking cuttings from my white geraniums which have been in the house over winter. I prefer rooting powder to gel, find it easier to use and this pot comes with a handy dibber top which you can use to make a hole in the compost.
Geraniums tend to root well, though it's some years since I did this and last time I had a conservatory in which to keep them, instead of a windowsill. I mixed the compost with a little sand to improve drainage, then cut off some promising shoots from the plants. On the left is a shoot before preparation, on the right one after. You need to remove all the leaves except one at the top, then cut just under a leaf node. Put the shoots in water, then dip each one in the rooting powder and pop in the prepared compost. Cover with a polythene bag to keep them warm and moist until they root, it takes a few weeks.
And here they are; four healthy shoots which should provide new plants for later this year. The old plants will be used in in my planting outside the house, while these will be kept in individual pots this year so I can bring them inside for the winter and start the cycle all over again.

Anyone in the UK see Gardener's World on Friday? It's nice to have a proper gardening programme back again after it's meanderings over the last few years. One talking point on a blog I saw was how many secateurs Monty Don had hanging on his "shed" wall. I say "shed" but really his outbuildings look like the outskirts of Hampton Court Palace, what a place! Anyway, it was nice to see that I'm not the only one who sows beetroot in pots rather than direct in the soil, it seems I'm in good company!

Doings for the First Week of March

2011-03-06T14:34:00.003Z

While we've had some hard frosts this week, the weather is looking up and the days are getting noticeably longer. Not much to do in the flower garden at the moment - just some tidying up of the leaves I didn't get to before the December snow, and some tying in of stems and pruning on the roses. But on the allotment, it's full steam ahead.
The rhubarb is pushing up well now, lots of lovely red stems appearing with proto-leaves on top.
And the fruit trees are budding - it's not very easy to see on this photo, but this Katy apple is covered in buds. So today I sprinkled potash around the base of each fruit bush, tree and raspberry stem to aid in their flowering. I followed that up in the case of the bushes and trees with some horse manure and topped it off with some compost. Now I can sit back and let them do their thing - no further work required.
The garlic, which I planted a few weeks ago, has got above the soil now.
And cloches are starting to breed on my plot - the one on the right has the broad beans under it, which I planted on Monday. The one on the left is preparing the soil for the first peas, which will be planted in a couple of weeks. I also have another one warming up a bed for an early carrot sowing.

In the press this weekend there has been talk of increases in allotment rents. Some local authorities have been increasing rents by 100 to even 300%. I'm fortunate in that while rents on my plots have been increased again this year, the increase is only around 6%. It will put a few pounds on the rent, but it's not massive. I suppose allotment holders are seen as an easy target, if you really want to grow your own vegetables you'll pay up - a few pounds on every plot is an easy way to increase income for the Council. Anyway, at least this year my Council has actually written to me to tell me about the increase rather than just send an invoice without giving notice of the rise. It seems they have learned their lesson from last year when I pointed out that under the terms of the lease, they were obliged to give one months notice of the change. Even when I've taken into account the costs of the plot and seeds/equipment, I'm saving over £1000 per year in food costs, and have better food into the bargain. If you're an allotment gardener, I hope you're not being badly affected by rent rises.

Another Rainy Sunday

2011-02-27T14:07:00.005Z

This morning I was ready to get out and put the broad beans in, but once again it was raining, so I went off to the garden centre instead.

This week I finally planned out my sowing and jobs for the spring on my calendar, sorted through my seeds and discovered three things: (a) I had forgotten to order leek seeds, (b) I needed to get the broad beans this weekend in and (c) there is a hell of a lot to do right now!

So here are my purchases: at the back a couple of perennials - oriental poppy and delphinium, small plants to grow on. I only bought one delphinium because it will need protection from my large snail population, as may the poppy. So it's a bit of an experiment. I also bought another rosemary, to add to my herb collection. Other herbs - curly leaved parsley, coriander, caraway and basil seedlings. These are for inside the house until my outdoor ones are sown, though I can't grow basil outdoors here so these seedlings will grow on and then be transplanted into something bigger later. The caraway will go outside. I also got some dwarf sweet pea seedlings, which should be nice later in the spring.
My list of jobs on the allotment includes dosing the fruit trees and bushes with potash - I hope to be doing that this week. I also got some ammonia for the cabbages and at the front are two leek seed packets - one early and one late cropping.

As you may know from my previous post, I hate washing pots, but my purchase of these shiny new things had nothing to do with that, honest! I got two solid trays, each of which will hold two of the small seed trays or 5 of the modular trays in the picture, along with two propagator lids. I find the trays with my propagators too big for some sowings, so these will be much better, they will also do well with the geranium cuttings I plan to take soon. Along with a big bag of compost, I'm ready to get started!

UPDATE: I managed to get the broad beans in Monday lunchtime, despite the bitter cold - still at least it's a change from rain...

My Least Favourite Job

2011-02-23T19:47:00.002Z

In a few weeks the new growing season will get going with a vengeance. So I really need to be getting ready and this means I have to tackle my Least Favourite Job.

I've no idea why I have such a phobia of it, it's important in order to grow healthy plants, but I really, really hate washing plant pots. Stupid, but there you have it - somehow I think there is always something better to do than this. Here's a sample collection of some pots I finally got around to this week - they've been creating an obstruction in the kitchen for a couple of weeks as the only way I can force myself to do it is to trip over them regularly.

I've now washed the plant pots left in the house, but still need to pick up the propagators and seed trays from the allotment and give them a do. How many more days for that?

So what's your least favourite gardening job?

For Mal

2011-02-18T18:12:00.004Z

I thought I would just post this picture, following a little discussion on Mal's excellent allotment blog. He points out, quite rightly, that a lot of people who grow vegetables also make their own bread. So here's a picture of jerusalem artichoke soup and my small (1 lb) loaf, made of 4 parts organic white flour (which I bought in a 25 kilo sack) to 2 parts wholemeal spelt with some whole spelt grains thrown in for good measure. Delicious.

In the news yesterday there was mention that over 50% of the commercial purple sprouting broccoli crop has been wiped out by the winter weather. This makes me feel a lot better - as an amateur, you always think you've done something wrong, but the commercial growers have had a hard time too. For me, it is a disappointment but I feel for the farmers who have lost a lot of income as a result. It's soul destroying to look at rotting crops in the fields, let's hope we have an easier winter next time round.

Digging up the Jerusalem Artichokes

2011-02-12T17:34:00.005Z

Today I decided it was time to dig up the rest of the artichokes - I'd already done one third, but it's almost the middle of February and before too long they'll start growing again. As you can see from the picture, there are a lot of artichokes this year, and I decided to be very thorough as during 2010 they decided to make a bid for world domination and started to escape the bed. So no corner or edge was left unturned. Of course, as I have heavy clay soil currently saturated with the deluges we've had over the last week, I'm now nursing a doozy of a sore back and am mightily glad the new bed I purchased last month came with an orthopaedic memory foam mattress - just heavenly!
Jerusalem Artichokes are easy to grow - my crop started from a dozen shop bought artichokes, and they're happy on clay soil. So I kept the big ones for cooking and replanted the small ones, 2-3 inches down. They really don't need any attention now - they seem to be satisfied with a top dressing of compost and the occasional weed removal.

It's nice to be able to eat vegetables from your own plot at this time of year; today I also picked some leeks and found a couple of forgotten parsnips.
And we have these to look forward to - last year's chard and spinach regrowing. I should be able to get a crop off these in a couple of weeks before whipping them out for a summer crop of something else.
My last job for today was to put a cloche on the spot where I'm planning to sow the broad beans at the end of the month. The variety I use is quite hardy, but pre-warmed soil really does help, especially after all the rain we've had in the last couple of weeks. I've had these cloches for years, they do last well and this one will stay in place until the broad beans are well above the soil.
And finally, here is one of the hyacinths I rescued from the boiler cupboard a few weeks ago. Despite a diet of absolute neglect and conditions exactly the opposite of what is normally required, they are flowering! No idea how, but I'm grateful.

Spring on the Way

2011-02-06T12:05:00.003Z

The spring bulbs are growing, the roses are covered in little pink leaf buds, so now is the time I really want to get going in the garden. After a very cold spell, we have now been treated to gales and rain, so the soil isn't ready to work yet. Instead, I've started planning.

I may have mentioned before that I plant by the moon. No, this isn't some new age thing, but a method for improving yields and crop health. The basic principal is that the lunar cycle and its passage in front of various stars influence growth of plants. Sounds weird, but since I started using it in 2006 my yields have gone up. A proper scientific trial 4 or 5 years ago (featured on Gardeners World while it was still a programme for gardeners) found that sowing according to these principles did increase plant size, health and yields. In fact the sweet peas outpaced their non-lunar planted siblings by more than 2 flowers to 1.

In practice, what it means is that on certain days you sow or transplant root crops (carrot, beetroot, etc), other days leaf crops (lettuce, cabbage), flower crops (flowers, broccoli, cauliflower) and seed crops (tomatoes, beans and peas). While this method does not do away with the vagaries of the weather, in general it does result in increased germination, bigger plants and higher yields, in my experience.

If you're interested in this method, you're best to get a book to get started - they usually contain a calendar for the year. Being someone who likes to economise, I don't want to buy a new book each year, so I go to an online calendar to get the days and transcribe them onto a calendar. Here's the link, but be warned, it is in pigeon English and may not be easily understandable if you don't already know the method.
A couple of weeks ago my potatoes were still in deep hibernation. I took a peek at them this morning and discovered they were raring to go. So here they are, all laid out.

At the top we have Pentland Javelin, my favourite first early and I have 3 kilos of them. A delicious fluffy potato. On the right are two early maincrop, Desiree (top) and Cara (bottom). Both are slug and blight resistant, but I haven't grown Cara before so this will be an experiment. On the left is Cosmos, a second early which crops really well, is blight resistant and reasonably (but not completely) slug resistant.

This week, having transcribed the planting days onto my calendar, I'll go through my seed packets and plan sowings for the coming months. I never stick to it, but it does give me something to aim for!

First Planting, First Disaster and First Harvest of 2011

2011-01-23T13:32:00.002Z

I like to get the garlic in the ground in January - I don't do autumn sowings as the soil is too cold and wet here. This year I ordered 6 bulbs, having run out of garlic due to Other Half's compulsion to use garlic in everything he cooks. He points out that Jamie Oliver uses lots of garlic too - boy, that man has a lot to answer for! I reply that I've calculated he uses £3-4 worth of olive oil and garlic in everything he makes, but he can afford to. For those of us who are not rich TV chefs, we have to make do with a little less. Anyway, having given up onions this year I dedicated the space to increasing the garlic crop. Six bulbs translated into 115 cloves, which, if they all grow, should give us enough garlic to see us through to summer 2012 when the early Spanish garlic arrives in the shops.

The garlic I planted (you can just see some of the cloves in their holes in the photo) is Picardy Wight, which by the name probably has some connection with the Isle of Wight, a major garlic growing area in the UK.

So on to the first disaster of the year. Last year I lost some of the purple sprouting broccoli plants due to the weather. This winter I carefully brushed snow off the plants in an attempt to prevent the same thing happening again. Clearly this tactic didn't work - it seems that the freeze damaged the plants, the wet weather that followed introduced bacteria and rot set in.
Here's one of the dead plants (I think), showing the extent of the collapse. I trimmed the damaged leaves off the plants and will leave them for the rest of the week before removing the plants which are definitely dead - some of them look bad but are showing signs of life so I'll wait a few more days. I reckon that I've lost about half the crop, but we're due to have a dry spell now so some of them should perk up a bit, based on my experience last year.
To finish on a more upbeat note, here's my first harvest of this year - leeks and jerusalem artichokes. The leeks are late winter ones as I like to have something to look forward to after Christmas, they're still growing so will get bigger now as the days get longer.

It's nice to get the first plants in the ground and make a start on the new season. Hope you are doing the same, wherever you are.

First seed delivery of the year

2011-01-15T19:59:00.002Z

No gardening this week, first we had more snow, now lots of rain so I can't do much outside. Instead, it was time to peruse my first seed deliveries of the year. My first small packet was a collection of three carrot fly resistant varieties of carrots to cover the whole growing season, some spring onions and the red lobelia which I discovered back in September and just have to grow this year. This batch of seed came from Thompson & Morgan, plus some garlic bulbs which arrived this morning.
Most of my seeds come from Chase Organics, including the seed potatoes as you can see above. The potatoes will stay in their box in the cool hall for a couple more weeks before I start to chit them. The seeds are sitting in the kitchen now - my next job is to draft my sowing and planting calendar for the year - I never stick to it but it does give me something to aim at.

I also got a plastic sieve - it's supposed to be for soil, but my Other Half plans to use it to sieve the weeds, extracting as much soil as possible and leaving it weed free with minimum effort on his part. A rather good idea I think.
And finally I had a surprise. Last week my boiler broke down and I had no hot water. So I called out "the man" and took the opportunity to clear out the boiler cupboard thingy and give it a good spring clean. It seems that last year I grew some hyacinths, then when they had finished put them in the boiler cupboard for some unknown reason. I discovered that despite being in bone dry compost in a warm place, they had started to grow again - they soon stopped due to the dryness and lack of light. I have no idea if they will flower, but I've been watering them and they're now good and green. Plants really are amazing things.

By the way, boiler fixed and hot water now on tap again, thankfully!

First Gardening of 2011

2011-01-02T14:08:00.005Z

So, after what was officially the coldest December for 120 years, today it was time to go and see the damage. These sprouting broccoli plants look a bit sad; the heavy and fast-falling snow followed by a prolonged freeze has bent a lot of the leaf stalks. I'm not too concerned; they put on really good growth last autumn and the flower buds are already formed, so we should have a good crop anyway.
These sprouts are a little pathetic, but they're the only sprouts we've ever managed to produce, so I'm happy. I only grew them because I had some seed left from previous attempts and a bit of space - our soil and conditions really aren't right for sprouts, so I won't be growing them again.
The leeks survived well under their blanket of snow and should be ready for picking next month.
I opened up the pile of horse manure which I accumulated over the winter 2009-10 to check it was ready, and here it is - lovely stuff. It surprises me how many people put fresh horse manure on their veg plots, but they were at it again today. Fresh horse manure will burn plants, it needs to be rotted down for a year until it's good and black.
And so today was time for the first gardening job of the year - manuring the rhubarb. It's always the first plant to get going in January and if you look hard at this photo, you can see a few buds pushing through the soil. Rhubarb loves horse manure and so I'm quite generous with it. Yum, yum, can't wait to eat it in a few months! I don't force my rhubarb, just leave it to grow naturally.
Someone (not me) left out a pair of gardening gloves on our last visit and tried to suggest I had left them out to be snowed on and deep frozen. Stiff as a board, as you can see. I gently pointed out that I never wear those gloves as they are too small, and it might be down to the mystery person who also left the shed padlock out and unattached to the shed a few weeks earlier. She graciously conceded the point and put it down to a "senior" moment!
This is my water butt, the water is now thawed round the outside but still frozen inside, as you can see by the frozen leaves in the top! The ground is still a bit frozen in places, we live in a bit of a frost pocket.
This week I've been doing my seed order and planning this year's growing. Apart from the fruit and herbs, I rotate everything every year. The four main crops; cucurbits, brassicas, potatoes and peas, move anti-clockwise to the next large area in sequence each year. The other crops move among the smaller beds. The only big changes in my plans for this year are that I've dropped onions and replaced them with carrots. We tried carrots ten years ago, but struggled with the soil conditions and carrot fly. The soil is much improved since then, and so I'm hopeful we can grow carrots this year. I'm looking at barriers for the carrot fly since companion planting was hopeless. So lots to do and lots of gardening catalogues to peruse...

Happy Christmas from Snowy Lancashire

2010-12-23T16:52:00.002Z

Last Friday/Saturday we got a heavy fall of snow, as you can see from this bench and the wall behind. The temperature hasn't got above freezing since, so there's still plenty of snow around.
Here's a snowy Christmas tree.
For this one you will need to click on the photo and zoom in to the right of the telegraph pole. I have a little feeding station for the birds - some birdseed and fatballs. I've started taking the fatballs in at night as they freeze and the birds can't get their little beaks in. So I put them back out at first light and within half an hour the first visitors are there - the long tailed tits you can see in the photo. There are four here, the full group is around nine birds, and I use fatballs with insects specially for them as they won't take any other food.
I know everyone hates leylandii, but they also provide a good habitat for birds here and look rather nice in the snow too.
And this is the path to my vegetable plot. I've brushed the snow off my purple sprouting broccoli plants so if we get a thaw and a refreeze they don't get too damaged. I was hoping to be able to pick some sprouts on Christmas day, but the temperature is forecast to remain below freezing so think we'll be eating peas from the freezer instead!

Have a good Christmas and here's to a good gardening new year!

December Occupations

2010-12-15T18:59:00.005Z

The snow melted away at the weekend, so it was time to get out and do a bit of gardening. A bit of rough digging, tidying and excavating beckoned. The top of the soil was still a bit frozen but only about an inch deep, so it was easy to punch through. I decided to get all the parsnips up; with more snow and very low temperatures forecast for tomorrow, it would be the last chance to get them out, so here is a bucketful of parsnips, very delicious.
I also dug up some Jerusalem Artichokes (above) - the ones that had escaped their own bed and were growing in the bed next door. I like artichokes, but the downside is - ahem - they make you "windy", if you get my drift! For those unfamiliar with this vegetable, here's a link to the Wikipedia article on them. They're a true winter vegetable, I dig them up once they've stopped growing in December, through to January, eating some and replanting some for next year. I got them at a greengrocer in Suffolk a few years ago, brought them home and planted them up. It took a couple of years for them to settle in and grow on, but now they're prolific.

One other thing I did this week was to sow some Himalayan Poppy seeds - I've heard they need a cold spell to germinate, so I carefully sowed them in the pot with the parent plant as it is armour plated against snails and slugs.

All that's left to do now is hibernate with some gardening catalogues and my laptop: I did the bulk of my Christmas shopping during the thaw when I could get about, I have a 25 kilo bag of bread flour in the kitchen, along with some big bags of lentils; parsnips and artichokes in the fridge, brussel sprouts on the allotment waiting for Christmas day, so I'm all set for the snow. Hope you all enjoy the wintry weather (those of you in the cold part of the world, anyway!) and have a good Christmas.

Snow Pictures

2010-12-07T15:11:00.004Z

By popular demand - well, one person actually - here are some pictures of snowy East Lancashire. This is the steam railway line which runs through the village, with a little station which you can see in the picture. It doesn't run during the week.
I love the crystals that the snow and frost makes on the vegetation but it's devilishly difficult getting a snap as the camera finds it hard to focus on white. So here are stems of the local marsh grass covered in frost. This grass grows in wet, shady spots so it holds the ice crystals well.
Looking down the valley to the south. We have a strange micro-climate in this valley, with a temperature difference of 3-5 degrees from the town 6 miles away. The UPS delivery man was cursing this yesterday when he arrived at my house at 10am to discover not only that we had a lot of snow, but the temperature was still 5 degrees below freezing! We get snow most winters as a result of our climate, and often more than surrounding areas.
There aren't many leaves left on the trees but these red beech leaves are still hanging on in a sheltered spot.
These black sheep arrived here in October and aren't too used to seeing people walk by yet. I think they are Black Welsh Mountain sheep, an old breed suitable for harsh conditions, but if anyone wants to correct me please feel free. In recent years local farmers have been experimenting with older breeds - the grazing round here is variable and in some places poor, so hardy sheep who are happy foraging in the snow and wet are most welcome.
Finally, if you still haven't sorted all your Christmas presents, here's an idea for you. I wanted to get a gardening calendar for my uncle, so had a look on Lulu.com. I couldn't see anything I liked, so decided to make one myself! I took some of my favourite pictures from this year, one for each month, and made them into a calendar using the easy tools on Lulu, it took 30 minutes. I made it and ordered copies on 28th November and they arrived today, so there's still time if you want to do the same. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the paper and binding, and there are lots of options for how it looks. I've made my calendar public, so you can look through it if you like. Just visit Lulu.com and shop for calendars.

Review of 2010 - Part 5, Marrows, Pumpkins and Courgettes

2010-12-05T13:08:00.003Z

It was a good year for these vegetables, although I did lose a few seedlings to the late frosts in May. Above is one of the marrow plants. For those not familiar with this vegetable, a marrow is kind of like a very large courgette/zucchini. The only thing I did differently with these veggies this year was in the planting. Normally I prepare a patch of ground, manuring and composting it. This time while I did a general preparation, each plant got 2 trowels of horse manure and 1 of compost directly in its planting hole. Definitely a good plan - growth was quicker than ever before, so I will be repeating this planting method in 2011.
Marrows are curious vegetables; here is an early one and at this stage the skin is still soft enough to eat without peeling. I like them chopped whole (no need to remove the seed core) and baked in the oven with tomatoes and onions. When they get older (and bigger) the skin toughens rather like a pumpkin and you do need to remove the seeds. I have a nice recipe for marrow curry which is delicious for the mature vegetables.
The courgettes (zucchini) were magnificent this year, cropping for three months which is a record. Really huge fruit too. All of these plants were helped by the cold winter which killed my mortal enemy, the slug, in thousands.
This is a marrow plant with two fruits growing. I put a tile under each fruit (I also do this with pumpkins) to keep them off the wet soil. This helps prevent rot and in rainy conditions stops the fruit being splattered with soil.

The pumpkins did really well too, with a record 11 fruits, some of which are still waiting to be eaten. As a little postscript to this post, here's a story of what can happen with stored marrows and pumpkins.
I put two crates of marrows and pumpkins on top of the bookcase in the living room as there was no room in the kitchen. One day I came down and smelled a strange smell, couldn't figure what it was. I shrugged it off. Next day, the same, but a little stronger. Later that morning I found a pile of watery stuff on the floor. Regular readers of this blog may recall that last year I lost one of my cats to stomach cancer and the first sign of this was vomiting. So I got into full panic mode, thought my remaining cat was ill and worried myself to death but thought it was odd because I hadn't seen or heard her do it. I cleaned up the water and then took my parcels to the post. When I got back there was more and this time there was also a pool on part of the bookcase- very strange, so I cleaned it up again. Then I sat down to have a cup of tea, turned round 5 minutes later to find more water on the bookcase.

Then, and only then, I looked upward, to find a marrow had rotted and was oozing water out of the crate. Drip, drip, downwards, hence the bad smell and mysterious watery substance. The smell in the crate was not pleasant! So the moral of this story is to keep marrows and pumpkins where you can easily keep an eye on them.

Oh, and the cat's fine, by the way. She's spending the winter attached to the radiator under the window, can't prise her off it:

Review of 2010 - Part 4, Peas & Beans

2010-11-23T18:40:00.004Z

I always start my early peas and beans under a cloche, which goes on the ground when I prepare the soil about two weeks before planting. This traps what little warmth there is during the day and helps germination. After the cold winter, this was even more important this year and the peas above were planted in early April. I also did a second sowing (without a cloche) one month later, in an attempt to extend the season.
I know I really bang on about this, but if you like peas, grow an old tall variety like this one - Alderman, which grows up to 2m in height. You get more crops for the same amount of land, and you stand a better chance of eating your peas instead of feeding the slugs. The only downside is the support needed - this year I used a framework consisting of canes with twine woven from top to bottom in between. It stood up well to the weather and wind, only subsiding gently towards the end of the season.
My bid to extend the cropping season did work; although the second sowing suffered a bit from the 6 weeks without rain, it recovered and we had peas into August (picture above). I still have a large bag of peas in the freezer.
The runner beans were started in toilet roll pots in the shed. I waited until quite late this year as we had late frosts, but they grew on well once they got going. The great thing about toilet roll pots is you just pop the whole thing in the ground. Unfortunately they went out just as the dry spell was kicking in, I did water them but they were a bit slower to get away.
I'm not really a big fan of runner beans; I grow them mainly for my Mother, who loves them. They were late due to the weather but cropped reasonably well into October. Most of mine ended up in vegetable soups, liquidised! The variety is White Emergo, a white flowered variety. These are supposed to keep good pollination rates even in a dry summer. This did seem to happen in the one dry summer we had some years ago, but I can't really remember the days when we had hot, dry summers any more!
The broad beans weren't good. I planted them under a cloche in March, which was late as I normally put them in in February. The soil was just too cold and we had been unable to prepare it due to the snow. They started well, as you can see from the picture, but ...
... just as they started to flower, we hit the dry spell and they struggled. The crop was poor this year; I think I started to seriously water them too late. I featured these poor plants in my review of the weather a few weeks ago.

So mixed results with the peas and beans, and a few learning points.

Next week, the stars of my plot this year - marrows, courgettes (zucchini) and pumpkins.

Review of 2010 - Part 3, Roots

2010-11-18T13:45:00.003Z

This has been a generally good year for my root crops. The radish got off to a good start with the sunny weather in spring and the first crop was excellent. Unfortunately the subsequent sowings suffered a bit due to the dryness. Watering produced excessively quick growth, splitting the roots. But in my part of the world I usually find the first sowing is always the best anyway. The variety I sowed is Rudolph.
After last year's total failure of the beetroot crop, I was determined not to let the same thing happen again. So I started all the beetroot in pots in the shed, 4 or 5 to each pot. I think this was wise, given the cold and late spring and it paid off. I lost no more than 5 plants when I put them in the soil - being very careful to leave the soil around the roots intact- and you can see from the picture that we had a lot of beetroots. At the end of summer I picked all the small ones and pickled them leaving the larger ones to grow on. There are still a few in the ground, I'll get them up before the hard frosts come. So if anyone tells you that you cannot grow beetroot in pots and plant them out, tell them that's rubbish because I've done it! The variety I grow is Egyptian Turnip Rooted - it seems to tolerate the damp soil and vagaries of the weather here better than other varieties.
Parsnips also did well, a mix of home-grown and bought seed produced a lot of plants. Unfortunately I planted them a little too close to the pumpkins and some of them didn't get quite enough light. Still, they will be useful for miniature parsnips for roasting. I've only picked one as yet (top of the picture) but it was delicious. The variety is Tender & True.

As you can see from the picture, I've still got a few cabbages left as well as beetroot and parsnip. Next week I'll look at the peas and beans.

Review of 2010 - Part 2, Leafy Green Veg

2010-11-01T15:22:00.002Z

I've never got on well with spinach, it didn't seem to matter what variety, when or how I sowed it, it always ran to seed without producing leaves. So last year I bought a few Perpetual Spinach plants from the garden centre and popped them in to see how they did. To my surprise, they flourished, and for the first time we actually had leaves to eat. I therefore decided to take the plunge with a packet of seed this year.

The photo above shows the leaf bed in July. I sowed them in April, Swiss Chard on the left, Perpetual Spinach in the centre and lettuce on the right. The spinach was producing when this picture was taken, and is still going now. It should survive over winter and I anticipate having some early leaves in 2011 before next year's crop gets going. The bed was just composted, with a small bit of manure as well. So a definite success, not one plant went to seed.
The Swiss Chard (leaf beet) was slower to get going, and I had to do a second sowing as it didn't all germinate well. But it is doing well now, as this picture from a few weeks ago shows. Good quality leaves, again the best ever. This is one of those plants which tends to seed itself where it fancies around the garden. The lettuce was Salad Bowl and was very good, as always.
As for the cabbages, I grow summer cabbages, though we tend to eat them well into autumn. This year we grew two of the smaller varieties; Minicole on the left, Golden Acre on the right (the apple helps to give scale). This size of cabbage means you don't end up eating it for days, and we tried Golden Acre as we had difficulties getting a good crop of Minicole. The growing conditions this year were particularly good as we had lots of light at the right time of year, so it was a good test of the two varieties, and the consensus is that Golden Acre won. While not as compact a variety as Minicole, it provided a more consistent crop of similar size vegetables and a slightly better taste too. Minicole varied from teeny tiny cabbages (the size of a blown sprout top) to some a little bigger than the one in the picture. So we'll just grow Golden Acre next year. By the way, as you can see from the picture, our slug population has now recovered in number and appetite!

As the sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli are still going, I'll make a judgment on them later.

Review of 2010 - Part 1, The Weather

2010-10-26T14:28:00.004+01:00

As gardeners, we're always at the mercy of the weather and this year has been memorable for that, at least. While we always get some winter snow in my part of the world, last year's was, well, exceptional in its depth and duration. Along with others in my village, I trekked out to buy food since the car was useless, and my winter vegetables did suffer.

The leeks were buried under snow for weeks and never really recovered, while the broccoli (above) seemed to have survived with its head above the snow. However, in time what I realised was that the prolonged cold with intermittent thaw had damaged them, with ice crystals getting in and once the weather warmed up, some of the plants rotted away. The moral of this story is that should we have similar weather, I should brush as much of the snow off the plant as I can straight away to limit the amount of meltwater later.

If you would like to see pretty pictures to remind you of what it was like here last winter, you can do so here and here

But it was not all doom and gloom - the prolonged cold decimated my nemesis, the slug population and we didn't see any for a few months. Most of the slug eggs were killed by the frost, though the snails didn't seem to do too badly.

We had a dry October and since I knew the forecast for the winter was bad, I made sure we got as much of the soil cleared and prepared as we could, which saved a lot of time in the spring. I've done the same this year, to be on the safe side!
The spring was consequently delayed, with plantings around 3 weeks behind a normal year. Just as things were getting going, we had a late, hard frost - see the potatoes above. I also lost a few marrow and pumpkin seedlings which were growing on in the shed. I've never seen this kind of frost damage before, but the potatoes recovered surprisingly quickly. So a late start, some frost damage and then...
The Drought. We had several weeks with no rain at all, not even a drop. You can see the effect on these broad beans, which were doing the bulk of their growing at the time. A very poor crop, despite my best efforts to water them. This is highly unusual weather for East Lancashire, which is a wet area due to those Atlantic westerlies and the proximity of the Pennines, which force the rain out of the clouds. Rotation watering helped to keep things like the lettuces going, but it did slow down some of our crops.

This dry spell coincided with the longest days of the year, when we have around 19 hours of light each day, and some plants positively thrived on it. Above is a picture of the cabbages, but all the brassicas did well this year, even the sprouts which I always struggle to grow. The lack of slugs, the dryness also slowing down the advance of those that did survive, meant that these plants were able to get away quickly and put on masses of growth in the permanent sunshine.
But the potatoes really suffered as there was nowhere near enough water for them. A poor crop, consisting of either really big or really small potatoes, about one third of a normal crop. The onions likewise had a bad time, with a slow start because of the cold, followed by dry, followed by the traditional monsoon which arrives as soon as the water company declares an Official Drought.
The onions didn't grow well due to the erratic weather conditions, and then they suffered from rot as the rain came. A bad year, and I probably won't grow them again as we never seem to get a really good crop. The wet weather also rotted a lot of the summer raspberries,which was a shame.

Once the monsoon was over in early August, everything came on well. Some yields were down (apples, onions, potatoes, broad beans), others did well (strawberries, peas, pumpkins, marrows, cabbages). Most years you have things which do badly, and others which perform better than expected, but this year was one of extremes.

So, what were the lessons of the weather this year?

prepare beds well in autumn in case I can't get to the soil until later February
get my winter pruning done before Christmas
brush snow off the broccoli and dig out the leeks if the snow is around for a prolonged period
give up on onions as east lancashire isn't the place for them
don't be afraid to plant late in cold spring - everything catches up quickly once conditions are right

Next week I'll start cogitating on what I'm going to grow in 2011 based on this year's experiments.

Heading Towards Winter

2010-10-17T15:05:00.003+01:00

After the unseasonably warm weather recently, temperatures have taken a downward dip over the last week, with trees turning orange and leaves falling. So in the garden it is time to gather the remaining crops and then tidy up the beds ready for next year.
This feverfew has just started to flower, rooted in a patch of tarmac by the kitchen sink drain. I grew this in a pot some years ago, it seeded and since then it turns up each year wherever it fancies.
The autumn raspberries are delicious...

Next week I'll start a review of the year, successes and failures with thoughts on what to plant in 2011.

Autumn Doings (and Stone Coffins)

2010-10-10T17:25:00.007+01:00

At last, some dry weather, which should last for a couple of weeks. The autumn raspberries are now producing well.
Removing the pumpkins has given these parsnips more space. I don't start picking them until after the first frost, so they have more growing to do yet.
Runner beans on 10th October - not very common so late in the year, but a welcome addition to our vegetable hoard this year.
Still lots of chard and spinach to come too.
These broad beans seeded themselves, growing from beans which were in a pod I missed a few months ago. They started to root themselves in the soil, so I've removed them and put them in pots for the winter. I'll pop them out in the spring, for a few early plants - with two small beans in there too, there are five in total. In this part of the world we don't do autumn sowings of beans - the soil here is cold, wet and we often get snow.
As vegetables finish we're clearing the beds - this is the former marrow bed. I've spread my "cat compost" and lightly worked it in. This compost is made from wood-based cat litter + cat wee, composted for a year. It will now have another 4-6 months in this bed to break down further. It's a good soil conditioner and has really helped to lighten my heavy soil.
Here are the last two courgettes for 2010 (sniff!) - tiny really but still good eating. No more until next year, let's hope they're as good then as they have been this year.
I caught this green/black bug sitting on my green shed - do have a close up look as it is really rather interesting. After a bit of hunting around on the internet, I think I have identified it as a Green Shieldbug in its final stage before moulting into its adult appearance. Amazing how many different stages there are for this insect.
So, where do the stone coffins in the title to this blog post come from? Yesterday we went to the seaside for some birdwatching and on the way back decided to call in here - St Patrick's Chapel in Heysham. This is all there's left of it (the wall on the right is more modern). It was built in the 8th century, and it's famous for these:
Coffins carved out of stone. They're certainly pre-Norman Conquest, some people think they were for bones rather than bodies, and there are several.
Next door is another church, St Peter's, now the Parish Church and also thought to be 8th century. It's mentioned in the Domesday book, and also has the distinction of having a Viking hogsback gravestone which we were unable to see as there was a wedding on. It's funny, when I was a student I lived a few miles from here and never came to see the site, glad I finally made it!

Rain Stops Play

2010-10-03T15:18:00.002+01:00

Torrential rain again today, so no chance to get out. Instead, here's what I've been doing during this week. First, I split the Rudbeckia (shown split above), taking it out of its pot and cutting it down the middle. Each half has a pot to itself now and I hope to have lots of flowers next year.
Then I brought in my white pelargoniums, taking them out of the large outdoor pots and putting them into smaller indoor pots, taking care to ensure there were no slugs or worms in the compost! Here are two of them - I have four plants which are now adorning my windowsills.
I also split an outdoor geranium - Russel Pritchard. I bought this plant years ago, put it in my garden and then gave a bit to my Mum. A year later, my plant gave up the ghost. So now I've taken a bit back!
And here's a picture from what we did yesterday - went to see the birds at Marshside RSPB reserve in Southport. A flock of hundreds of pink-footed geese flew over our heads, travelling the short distance from the saltmarsh to the pools and safety of the reserve. Last year we were lucky enough to catch a skein of these geese flying in from Iceland; there are many thousands of these pretty birds here in Lancashire every winter. When they're on the saltmarsh, all you can see is a few heads poking out of the vegetation, like submarine periscopes, on the watch for predators. Very amusing, but an impressive sight as they fly over your head in huge flocks.

We also caught a glimpse of what we think was a visitor from America - a pectoral sandpiper which got blown across the Atlantic and turned up at Southport a couple of weeks ago. Let's hope that after a diet of Lancashire worms, he can find his way home in the spring!

Pumpkins Galore!

2010-09-30T18:06:00.006+01:00

At the weekend I put all the marrows and pumpkins in the shed to start to dry off, and today we brought them home. Here they are - marrows in the foreground, pumpkins in the background. The marrows are Tiger Cross and have been magnificent - for a first attempt, I'm very pleased. The pumpkins are supposed to be Small Sugar, a small pumpkin, but you will notice there are three smaller and oranger (just invented that word, I think!) fruit in there. It's either a genetic throw back or a seed from a different variety in the packet, as the small pumpkins were all on the same plant. These will keep for months in the house, so plenty of good winter eating there.

It's been a good year for these plants; although I did lose a few seedlings in the late frost, the replantings grew well. The only thing I did different this year was to put a dollop of horse manure and good compost in the planting hole rather than fertilising the whole bed, so I think that's something I'll do again next year.

A note on the colour - I rarely get my pumpkins completely orange while they're still outside, but they ripen well indoors.
The last couple of months have also been good for the weeds due to the rain, so we've started clearing them systematically. Here are the leeks, which are growing on well and are now being freed from the weeds. A late winter variety, for eating after Christmas so they're not very big yet.
And somewhere in here there are strawberries!
The cabbages have also done well, we have enough to carry us into November.
And we have these sprouts to look forward to in November/December. I've never had success with sprouts before, only sowed these as I had a few seeds left from my last attempt. Not sure if it's the weather or the bed I put them in or a little of both. Anyway, this is a rather nice surprise.
And these are the purple sprouting broccoli, which will be ready next March/April. Something to look forward to, a treat you really struggle to buy in the shops.

I'll be doing a review of the year; good, bad and ugly later when I sit down to do next year's seed order and I'll compare varieties then.

Passionate about apples

2010-09-25T18:40:00.004+01:00

I'm passionate about apples, having worked in a place in the early 90s with a large orchard and apple store. You just can't beat an English apple for taste, after that I never bought anything else in the shops. I learned all about the different varieties, how to grow them, how to store them and while I don't have the land for such things here, I decided I had to grow them on my little plot. Most people these days don't know how an apple should taste, think they should be green and tart (the fault of all those golden delicious apples) and a lot of growers didn't bother to grow traditional varieties for many years. Thankfully, that is changing a bit now, and it is easier to buy English apples, at least in the autumn and winter. With dwarfing M27 rootstocks, anyone can grow an apple tree somewhere.
These are the Katy apples which I picked a few weeks ago and which are now perfectly ripe. I left them in their crates for a while, and then sorted them, putting those with damage or no stalk to one side for quick use as they won't keep. Then I used some paper kitchen roll to wipe them over and remove the dirt. These apples have a waxy coating when ripe (like a lot of early apples), as a result you can't really wash the dirt off, wiping is the best way and then they're really shiny.
This is the first of the fruit from my new Spartan tree. This fell in the high winds recently, far too early, so I've put it with the Katy in the hope it will ripen. Another little known fact about apples is that they are ready to pick when you gently lift an apple, move it 90 degrees from the branch and it gently detaches - no need to pull. Or you can wait until they start falling off! Spartan is probably my favourite apple, and this does make it into the shops in October. One side will turn a deep purple colour when ripe and it has a very distinctive taste, quite unlike any other apple.

Once you know about apples, you can identify them by shape and colour pattern. Here are three of my four types (the Blenheim Orange is still on the tree). The one on the left is a Worcester Pearmain, a 19th century variety which I picked today but which isn't ripe yet. Dark red, with a distinctive pattern around the stalk and in shape rounded but bigger at the top than the bottom. In the middle is Spartan, a flatter type (like many late apples), with one side which will turn purple when ripe. On the right is Katy, which is more rounded and bright red with yellow streaks. The only main type of apple I don't have is a russet, the very latest apple which has a thicker skin and lasts through the winter, often only becoming ripe after Christmas. Maybe I'll have one someday.

So this autumn if you can find some homegrown apples in your local shops, do try them. Sweet, tasty and I can guarantee you'll never eat a Golden Delicious again!

Seeds and Other Autumn Things

2010-09-20T16:55:00.001+01:00

It's been hard to get out in the garden due to the strong winds and incessant rain. So I have done a few indoor things - firstly the parsnip seeds. These came from a couple of parsnips which I inadvertently left in the ground last winter - there are always one or two which escape. So as the seed heads matures, I cut them and put them in the shed to dry off, and finally brought them in last week.
Ten minutes of stripping them from the vegetation, and here we have a good collection of parsnip seed for spring. I generally find it germinates quite well, but I will get a commercial packet of seed to bulk up the numbers.
Meanwhile, the pumpkins are continuing their bid for freedom, this one is climbing the plum tree.
But the vegetation on the pumpkins is now dying back and I can see the fruit - ten in total, four in this picture (two yellow, two green). I'll leave them out a bit longer to ripen more.
One of the supports from the Worcester Pearmain apple tree snapped in the wind so I've had to prop it up.
This week, if it ever stops raining, I'll pick all the small beetroot for pickling.
And this afternoon I put away the sage and mint leaves I dried over the summer.

I finally got around to repairing the shed this week, with the help of a neighbour who volunteered. In the process we discovered that the shed is dead,with rot setting in at the base of two sides. So that's another project for next year, not to mention expense. Still, it's survived ten years in the soggy northwest, which is pretty good. Thinking of a plastic storage shed next - anyone got any recommendations?

Anyway, I have removed the snails which had moved into the shed, and the mice shouldn't be able to get in either, so mission accomplished for now.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day _ September 2010

2010-09-15T14:06:00.003+01:00

After the high winds and heavy rains of recent days, I'm amazed I have any flowers at all. At this time of year activity is in the pots outside the house - this is Rudbeckia Goldsturm. I've had this plant for years and it has failed to flower, so this year I repotted it and moved it to a slightly less sunny position, as drying out has been a problem. It rewarded me with good growth and a few flowers, so I'm tempted to split it this autumn and repot it again.
And these are white pelargoniums, underplanted with mimulus which are sadly past their best now. A cheerful sight in the wet weather we;re experiencing now.

Mid-September

2010-09-13T14:05:00.003+01:00

Mid-September and the leaves are turning, the weeds are still growing (unfortunately) and the rain is making a rather too frequent appearance. This means time in the vegetable plot is rather limited. I have a hole in the back of the shed that needs fixing, the strawberries have disappeared under the weeds and the pumpkins are trying to escape onto the plot next door, but the only thing I can actually do is pick produce. So last week I picked the last of the Victoria plums - a small crop this year, I suspect the tree may turn out to produce mostly biennially.
The runner beans are now doing well, too well for my taste. I'm not a huge fan of these things, but Mum is, so I grow them mainly for her. Mine tend to end up in soups.
And I picked the Katy apples - again not as big a crop as last year, but the dry spring led to a severe June drop and indeed apples continued to fall off through the season. Still, enough apples to keep us going for several weeks!

And as you can see from the photo, the courgettes are still going - they're not growing as long as they were, instead they're growing short and fat. Has anyone else seen this phenomenon?

There are plenty of cabbages too, all a good size for small cabbages. And there is lots to look forward too - pumpkins, chard, parsnips, sprouts and broccoli, not to mention more apples and raspberries. Let's hope we have a few days without rain.

More Gorgeous Flowers

2010-09-05T08:11:00.004+01:00

Now my Mum has this little obsession. Every year she has to take a trip to the seaside. She was in Canada earlier this year when we had our summer, and since she got back it has rained incessantly, so facing the prospect of a nice, warm weekend, and since Other Half was working, we decided to take ourselves off to Lytham on the Fylde coast (south of Blackpool). We walked along the front, I was excited to spot three Little Ringed Plovers, and then we went to have a look at Lowther Gardens which have recently been given a makeover. It's your standard Victorian park, with beds, rose garden, fountain, and bowling greens, but it was the long bed at the back of this photo which caught my eye. Do click on any of the photos for a closer look.
The rectangular beds alongside the paths were planted up in vivid red or yellow begonias mainly, and very striking they were.
But when we went over to the long border, we found these mystery plants. A man was walking along the edge too, so we asked him if he knew what they were. He said he wasn't sure, but thought they may be a kind of lobelia. He was right - Lobelia Cardinalis Queen Victoria. A stunningly tall red flower, with red foliage to match. It's a half-hardy perennial in this part of the world. In this patch of planting, they had put it in front of some delphiniums, which I think was a mistake as the lobelia is taller.
But here, the delphiniums were in front and I love the combination of red, electric blue and yellow.
What was nice about the planting of the border was that it contained fairly random plant and colour combinations, with no repeats. Here we have red dahlias, lamb's ears in the foreground and white late-flowering foxgloves on the right. In other parts, there were yellow dahlias, heleniums and lower growing plants; a real mix of hardy and half-hardy perennials.
And here you can see the full sweep of this long border, with the clock in the middle and one of the rectangular beds in the foreground. A lovely border, and that lobelia is definitely on my plant list for next year! I just wish I had enough ground to be able to create something imitating this, maybe one day when I'm rich, sigh....

Edenfield Flower Festival

2010-09-03T17:06:00.004+01:00

Today we went to the Edenfield Flower Festival. It's held in the parish church, this is an old picture which shows the building quite well. If you think that the tower is leaning, you're quite right - it's about 2 feet off, and is the only part of the earlier church built in 1540 which survives. The rest was built in 1778. Interestingly, when they were working on renovating the panelling and pews inside recently, they discovered subsidence in the stone floor and there will be an archaeological dig here soon to look at the earlier churches, one of which was allegedly built in wood.
This was my favourite - a marble font with a lovely flower arrangement in top.
The village school submitted some vegetables and sunflowers they had grown - rather impressive!
Here is the inside - it surprised me by being smaller than I expected based on the outside. Potted chrysanthemums in the centre. The balcony (not common in an Anglican church) was added in the 19th century.
One of the strange things is you cannot access the balcony from inside the church but have to go outside and in another door, by which is this lovely hydrangea, in full flow.
And every village in Lancashire has its cricket club - here is their window.
Away from the church, I thought I would share a bit of this planting. The local authority experimented one year with wildflower/mixed seed planting in one of the large grass verges. They cut a large, wavy bed out of the grass and scattered seed there. Everyone loved it, so they've done a few more now, and this is a small section of one of them. A great idea, cheap and cheerful.

Pruning Week

2010-09-01T15:19:00.004+01:00

So, after the coldest (and very wet) August in 17 years, we've finally got some settled, sunny and - yes - even warm weather. It was time I got round to pruning. I started with the Victoria plum (above). Plums should have all their pruning done in dry, warm weather in summer - if you prune in winter, you run the risk of introducing disease into the wood due to damp. I prune the leaders (the part of the branch which produces the framework of the tree) back to 8 leaves in length, and the laterals (the side branches) back to 6 leaves. This induces the tree to form flower buds on the laterals.
My plum tree is grown on a Pixie rootstock, so it's technically a dwarf tree, but I still needed stepladders to reach the leaders this year. There's not a lot of fruit on it this year, but there has been a lot of good quality growth, which bodes well for next year.
Next to the apples. One of them is what is called a tip-bearer, so I don't prune it. The others are spur bearers, i.e. they form fruit on spurs along the branches, so summer pruning is important to encourage the formation of flower buds. Above is a picture of the Blenheim Orange - you can see the leader in the centre, surrounded by lots of laterals.
On apples, you leave the leaders alone until winter, but cut the laterals back to 3-5 leaves. The same applies to gooseberries, so I did those too.
Then I cut out the old canes from the summer raspberries, the ones that fruited this year. They're easy to see - they're the brown ones. The green stems are the ones that will fruit next year. Removing the old canes creates space and air around the plants, and I should be able to weed in there now.

Of course, having curly hair my pruning activities generally end with my finding bits of leaves and plants in my hair. I took out all the bits I could see, but still found a few leaves and an old raspberry flower in there when I washed my hair this morning!
Elsewhere, I trimmed my little Box bush into a tidy mound.
And I took out several old stems from the flowering blackcurrant, to ensure we get constant new wood growing. Above is a picture of a berry - a rare thing on a flowering blackcurrant. Not edible by humans, but the birds might like it.
And here's the biggest marrow I've grown this year, with the secateurs next to it for scale. A monster!

If you're keen on growing fruit, the best book on the subject is "Growing Fruit" by the Royal Horticultural Society - it covers absolutely everything and is invaluable.

A Day of Firsts

2010-08-28T11:37:00.003+01:00

I was excited to find this when I dug among the leaves in the pumpkin bed. It's a Crystal Apple Cucumber - it should grow a bit bigger than this, but it is the first one I've managed to grow and there are a few more in there. Having said that, I've tried to grow this cucumber outdoors for a couple of years with no success previously and I've come to the conclusion that it really isn't suitable for our climate - maybe in a greenhouse, but not outdoors. So there won't be any next year.
This was another surprise - a solitary apple on my Blenheim Orange apple tree. This tree flowered for the first time last year (after 6 years in the ground) but didn't set fruit. I realised it was because it needed two pollinators and I had lost one to apple canker a couple of years earlier. So I went and bought a Spartan tree this spring to help it along. It flowered sparsely (Blenheim Orange can be a biennial fruiter) but it did set fruit, as did the Spartan. Unfortunately the extreme dryness of the spring meant that the June drop was very severe and I thought I had lost all the apples. So today, when I spotted this I was over the moon. My first Blenheim Orange apple - it's been a struggle, but we're getting there now.
And the Spartan tree also has two apples, again a first for me. I think Spartan is my very favourite apple and while you can buy them in good greengrocers now, I've long wanted to grow my own. This should be ready in October, along with the Blenheim Orange.
Now I have grown pumpkins before, but it has been an extraodinarily good year for them. Today I counted seven, but there could be more under the foliage - the largest number I've ever managed to grow. This is Small Sugar, it generally turns out a little under football size and the first fruits are just starting to turn orange.
Here is the first marrow I allowed to grow to full size - I hardened it off in the shed after cutting and now the skin is hardened, I've brought it home. It should keep for a good while yet. On the right is my first summer cabbage, a small one which I had for my lunch yesterday. The apples are some small windfalls from the Katy tree. As you can see, the courgettes are still going and there are more to come - an excellent year for them.
The weather is unusually cold for the time of year. Some of the trees are starting to turn already, and I'm concerned we may be in for an early and cold winter. So when we take up a whole crop, we're clearing the ground and doing the winter composting now. We did the same last year, and it paid off since we couldn't get at the ground for a couple of months. Better to be prepared for the snow to come, rumour has it the salt mines in Cheshire are working 24/7 at present as early frost/sleet/snow is forecast...

Pruning a Rambling Rose

2010-08-25T15:13:00.005+01:00

After a day of monsoon rain, today was fine and clear so I decided it was time to prune my rambling rose (New Dawn). This rose was grown from a cutting around 10 years ago, and above is a picture of what it sits in - compost surrounded by stones, placed on a paving slab. Yes, you read that right, it's not really in soil at all. Roses don't need much around their roots, but occasionally passers-by stop to look at this rose's roots, particularly when it's flowering as well as this. They can't believe it either. I just top it up with a good quality compost every year and feed it.
By this time of year, the flowers are long gone and there is a lot of growth, including some new vigorous shoots, which you can just see at the bottom of the picture. I prune it now for two reasons - to reduce the leaf cover before the autumn winds, as it's on the windy side of the house; and secondly to shape it for next year so I get good blooms again.
The key with a rambler is to create good, long, horizontal shoots, as the flower shoots grow off them vertically, as you can see in this picture. The main shoots have to be horizontal or they don't flower.
You can see here that there are some new shoots growing straight up - these are soft and malleable at this time of year so I can tie these in horizontally.
I start pruning from the outside, removing old flowering shoots and then identifying and removing weak and misshapen shoots. I gradually work back to the main branches, keeping an eye out for the vigorous new growth. I take out a few old horizontals, and cut others back to a good new shoot which I then tie in to the horizontal.
I say "tie in" but actually it's rather difficult to do on my house - the stone is extremely hard and undrillable, so I only have a few anchor points with screws inserted into the mortar between the stones, from which I attach pieces of string. A bit of weaving of stems together, some judiciously placed string to prevent movement, and the job is done.
I do prune it hard, as you can see from the left overs, but the plant can now put all its energies into the new shoots for the month or so of growing time left.
And here it is, much reduced leaf cover and a sturdy framework which will stand up to whatever the winter throws at it. The few shoots which are still sticking up vertically will be woven in when they've grown a bit longer.

A brief time in the garden

2010-08-22T12:47:00.005+01:00

Fine days have been few and far between lately, with the incessant rain, but we are now getting the occasional day without rain, and the hosepipe ban has now been lifted. The soil is very wet, so even when it's not raining, we're not doing jobs which require you to walk on it, to avoid compacting the soil. So this morning it was a quick scoot round the garden to collect some veg and take a few pictures. The runner beans (above) are flowering and fruiting well now.
This is the Katy apple tree. I was reading last week that growers suggested this year's crop would be smaller than normal due to the drought, but also sweeter as a result. If you compare the picture above with last year, it is clear that there are fewer apples on the tree - the June Drop was very severe this year, with trees dropping more fruit than usual due to the dryness (I did water, but it was hard to keep up with the demand). I do think the apples are slightly smaller too, but as to being sweeter, we'll have to wait and see. These apples aren't ready yet. In fact most fruit and vegetables appear to be about two weeks behind where they were at the same time last year.
In the herb bed, there are lots of flowers - here are some peppermint flowers, with a white tailed bee enjoying them.
And here's the fennel; you can't see them, but this plant is covered in hover flies, which love its flat yellow flower heads. I keep the seed from this plant for herbal tea and other kitchen uses.
The marrows are still growing, but the plants are showing signs of becoming tired now. We have a number of small marrows on the way, but I may let them grow to full size rather than cutting them early; I already have one hardened off in the shed but would like to lay up more marrows for late autumn/winter. This time last year the courgettes and pumpkins were pretty much over, but I think we have a few more weeks of growth left in them this year.
And the promise of things to come - the autumn raspberries are flowering well and setting fruit. I actually prefer the autumn ones to the summer ones, they have a deeper flavour with a hint of citrus (hope that doesn't sound pretentious!). We can expect to start harvesting these in about 3 weeks - the good thing about autumn raspberries is that we often get settled dry weather in late September, which means they don't rot, unlike the summer ones which get rained on very reliably. We lost a lot of raspberries to the rain this year.

Hope the weather is good where you are, happy gardening!

Courgette (Zucchini) Recipe 2

2010-08-19T14:21:00.003+01:00

We've had a lot more rain, so time in the vegetable garden has been short. When I did get out I found my camera batteries were dead, so no pictures this week. So instead, here is another recipe for using up courgettes - this time it's courgette fritters. First grate your courgettes (above), sprinkle with salt and leave to drain for a couple of hours.
Squeeze the liquid out of the courgettes, keep the liquid for use later. Then mix in gram flour with some chilli powder, the amount of gram flour will vary according to how wet the courgettes are - the courgette/flour mix should be fairly stiff.
Make into fritters and deep fry - I drop a spoonful into hot oil - until golden brown.
At the same time, make the sauce by frying some onions, then add either fresh or tinned tomatoes. I usually add some spices - ground coriander, ginger and a small touch of chilli, but you could make a plain tomato sauce. Add the courgette juice - this will contain salt so you shouldn't need much seasoning.
When the sauce is ready, you can reheat the courgettes by dropping them in the pan with the sauce, or if they are still warm from frying you can serve on top.