Autumn forage.

As summer ends winter is all to close and autumn becomes a rush for the insect world to gather the last of the harvest before they are beaten by the weather.

The bees had a great spring but foraging has been more difficult in both the rain and extreme heat that this year has brought. The hives have grown huge in times of plenty and then had to dip into their own stores with each ‘blip’ in the weather. As they approach winter the queen reduces her laying and every spare cell is filled with honey.The hives have been reduced to brood and a half. This is basically a big box for the eggs and a smaller one for the honey although in reality they store honey around the brood and brood in the upper honey box. If they are given to much space they can’t keep it covered and it gets damp and mouldy so it’s a sensible size to aim for as a beekeeper.As a gardener the best way to help the local bee population is to plant nectar rich flowers.Sedum or ice plant as its commonly known seems to be by far the favourite this month.Although Goldenrod, Verbena and Dahlia also get visited, especially by the bumblebees who are just as, if not more, important.Soon it will be the turn of ivy and certainly my neighbour is complaining about my bees blocking his drive with their obsession for his untamed ivy hedge. (I told him bees don’t sting at this time of year and they ain’t mine anyway because I can recognise my own. He seemed OK with this!)But it’s the sedum that is this week’s star.Loved by both honey and bumblebees alike.

December update.

Rudbekia in December. Crazy!

What a month it’s been. Miss C and I try to do something christmassy every day during December and this year I think we managed it. She also managed to fit in a fair bit of her maths while I sat working on a homemade present for the new nephew. We baked, crafted and made sweets. Some well and some less successfully, but all great fun.

Now the holiday is nearly over and after a couple of days of sitting on the sofa eating, drinking and being sociable hubB and I had cabin fever. We decided to cure this by going into the garden and cutting down a tree and claiming a bit more of our overgrown land. After 2 days of clearing, chopping and digging we replanted with a Hazel tree and a poor excuse of a blackcurrant I’d grown myself and not looked after enough. They should be happy here, dressed with homemade compost.

It might not look much but as well as the huge tree the ground was covered to some depth with ivy. Over the years ivy seemed a better bet than weeds but it’s tenacious and hard to eradicate once it gets a grip.

The tree trunk is stored for the log burner but the left overs were burnt on other parts of the ivy just to show how thick it all is. I determined to beat it this year. (no I’m not holding my breath while I say that!).

We have also been able to cycle down to the bees. At 14 degrees they are all flying and eating food. That’s not good and starvation will be a real threat for English bees this winter. Although my hives were all fairly heavy going into winter I’ve been supplementing with fondant. So far they have had 2 1/2lb each which is unprecedented in all the years I’ve had hives. It’s a worry but a necessary evil to feed in such warm weather. Although there’s no nectar I did see a small amount of pollen, probably Hazel, going in so there’s some good.

Here’s me adding another pound of fondant to the 4 of my six hives that needed it today. I have never had to wear a suit in December before but then I’ve never seen them fly in such quantity and over such a large area. I even took a sting to the hand, unheard of!

Treating mum.

It’s Mother’s Day today. I’ve had gifts, someone else cooked my breakfast, I’ve pottered in the garden, there’s been cake, family visiting and a country walk. It’s been a good day all round.

In the garden the sun has brought out some spring flowers.

In the polytunnel it has been almost tropical and the covers have come off all the pots

The bulbs I planted in January are coming into flower and some rather feeble hyacinths scent the air amazingly.

The summerhouse was 40 degrees when I first went in but in my rush to fetch the camera and take these photos, I left the door open and it dropped to a healthier 30

The seeds sown in there earlier in the week are not through yet but the onions and alliums are doing well.

In the house I have seedlings a plenty. Miss C is lucky enough to have her own bathroom with a lovely wide windowsill that she covers in collectables for the rest of the year. In the spring she has to move them all aside for the good of the garden.

The tomatoes I sowed last month have been pricked out into individual plugs along with French and African marigolds. This week they were joined by celery, chard, leek, melon and cucumber seeds. The peppers and chillies are also there but have been for a while and are not showing any sign of germinating yet. They are always a bit slow.

It’s still feeling warm at teatime and spring fever is kicking in. I can hardly wait to sow more things but as they all have to go into the unheated summerhouse I just have to be sensible and sociable. I won’t spend the evening on my own in the garden, I’m joining Miss C on the sofa and watching Dancing On Ice. It’s her favourite programme and she did sort of cook my breakfast, with a little help!

Happy 2018

Can you believe that another year has begun? In just a few days I will be another year older. I remember, as a child, a lesson on the millennium and a task to work out how old we would be on that date. I started enthusiastically enough but when I realised it was more years than I had fingers I declared ‘ I’ll be so old I’ll be dead by then’ and stopped counting. Now we’re 18 years past that event and I can remember it like it was yesterday. Well to be honest yesterday is often forgotten to me but then I’m getting older! 

Our family tradition is to spend New Years Day at the coast. Hunstanton is fairly close to us and as the weather was fine we set off. 

It was already busier  than it often is in the summer and by the time we left, the queue into the town was a good few miles long. I’m glad we’d started earlier than most this morning! 

The beach was busy with windsurfing and a few hardy souls were even sitting and digging in the sand. We contented ourselves with a very brisk walk from one end to the other. Walking into the sun meant facing the wind and it was bracing to say the least. 

Heading back to the car we had the wind and the sun on our backs and the promise of a good lunch to haste our way. 

As we pulled into the drive, back home,  I noticed this rather lovely rose growing on the front wall. It inspired me to find some other treasures.
There’s a rather nice geranium still flowering in the summerhouse.

There’s a very brave Hebe outside the back door and a rather bedraggled marigold out the front. Nothing else has survived the almost constant frosty mornings and warm days of the last month. 

If I’m making one new year promise this year it’s to be more organised. I won’t keep it, I never do, but wouldn’t it be nice. I could start planning now but I have a good book, it was a Christmas present and it would be churlish not to read it while it’s still new. 

Happy 2018 to you all. 

The show.

It’s 7 or 8 years since we last went to the Gardener’s World Show at the NEC. A lot has changed in that time but a lot has stayed the same. 

There are still lots of show gardens. Clever designs both old and new, especially as this year was a celebration of 50 years of Gardeners World. 

There was still the central marquee with its wonderful array of exhibitors. All showing off their plants to the best. Miss C loves carnivorous plants and I love hostas so we were both very happy. 

Hubby prefers order in the garden. He thought these herbs in large pots were an idea we could bring back with us. The chaos of colour in a garden is not so appealing to him as a nice tidy green plant and herbs fit the bill in his eyes. 

Having seen how big fennel can grow I realise I need to move mine and soon! 

He had me take lots of pictures of structural things he could build into our garden. Brightly coloured fences, bottle gardens and bee homes could all be this winters projects. 

The vegetables already being picked were amazing and inspired me to try harder. The stubby little carrots were a surprise. It reassured me that mine hadn’t been so bad after all! 

‘Don’t eat the display’ 

It seems a sad indication of the nation’s standards that we have to remind people not to steal from the displays. 

Lots of schools had made ‘ a meal in a barrow’ wheelbarrows. They all had some fun and well thought out items. I think this one was my favourite, just because they had used bull rushes to signify sausages. Such a great idea and just exactly how Miss C would think! 

In all it was a great day. Far to hot with temperatures in the 30 ‘s. Far to many people with far to few manners. Definitely far to far from home to make it a yearly event. But still well worth the visit. 

Happy birthday Gardeners World. Friday evening telly has been so much better since we had an hourly fix of Monty and Carol and I just love it when they finish the programme with the ‘ jobs for the weekend’ section and I’ve already done them. Makes me feel all smug and knowledgeable!! 

Hills and Holes.

There’s a quarry in Lincolnshire that has been mined since Roman times. The stone has been used to build everything from houses to cathedrals. In more recent times it’s become a nature reserve. As a little girl we visited on one occasion and I distinctly remember rolling down the hills over and over again.

Today we were back as more recently my parents have moved to the area. My niece is spending some time with us and it seemed a good way to spend an afternoon.

These days large areas are roped off to protect the ground and it’s precious flowers. Having two teenagers with us did inspire Hubby to challenge them to roll down the biggest hill to much squealing and laughter though.

The area is home to a number of rare plants and today we were lucky enough to see some of them.

The pasqueflower​ and orchid were prolific in a number of spots along with huge swathes of cowslips.

The weather was lovely. The plants and bird song were amazing but best of all was the company. We visited with my parents and my 86 year old dad put us all to shame by climbing every hill quicker than we were. He’s a force to be reckoned with and long may it continue, but I bet his legs will ache in the morning!

My kind of shopping.

I’m no shopper. I don’t mind the supermarket, everything under one roof, all done in one trip, once a week and quite honestly in general if it’s not in a supermarket I go without. Hubby is more of a shopper than me and Miss C loves it, if we are buying for her. In fact even I prefer it when we are buying for her!!

Today we headed to Spalding. If I have to shop than at least there I can still fit in a bit of gardening

The shops have a pretty outlook.

There are benches to rest and enjoy the views. 

There’s weird sculptures to ponder over.

A stream with fish, running all the way through the garden. Both fake and real!

Children’s entertainment

Spalding is the bulb capital of England. This outlet centre is built on an old exhibition site and is proud of it’s heritage.

Tulips, tulips, tulips and more tulips. Each variety is labelled but quite honestly who cares. With colours like this they are all wonderful.

There are other gardens for year round enjoyment, but in spring it’s all about the bulbs.

There were lots of children’s Easter activities. An egg hunt through the garden, but quite honestly I didn’t see anything but the planting and some rather cute animals.

I spent a bit on new towels and some craft ‘bits’.  We have lunch. But basically I just went for the flowers and topped it off with some rather lovely new secateurs.

A very successful day!

I only popped out for a minute.

I’ve been out in the garden again today. I popped out to hang out the washing and came in 3 hours later! It all started with a quick check of the summerhouse, just to see if the seeds were ok but as usual I got distracted and time flew by.

These pots of flower seedlings were taking up to much room and needed moving to the polytunnel.

The polytunnel was already full so plants from here needed moving outside.

Cauliflower and cabbages have lost their labels so I’m confused. Both look too leggy anyway so I guess they should have come out. I got distracted by the peas.

I found some pods!

The potted strawberries are flowering. So that took me outside again to check the outdoors ones. There I became distracted by an empty seedbed and  sowed parsnip, radish, spring onions, Pak choi, lettuce and turnip.

That led me back to the summerhouse to admire the melons and sweet corn, sown last week, before  I got involved in sowing more flower seeds and butternut squash.

Then I saw the dahlia and chillies needed a water and started moving everything around so I could water everything else that needed it.

These are Brussel sprouts and the cauliflower are in a different tray.  Once the labels fall out I will be stumped but for now I know what I’m doing!

Home Groan.

It’s been a really lovely month here and every spare minute I’ve had I’ve been in the garden. And boy don’t I know it!

My shoulders ache from cutting down the laurel, my hands hurt from using the secateurs, my forearm muscles feel stretched twice as long from all the pulling and pushing, lifting and carrying. In all I feel I could sleep for a week.

But it’s all worth it when spring is this beautiful.

The compost bins have been dug out. The oldest will all be used for mulching. As seen here around some freshly weeded perennials. Ignore the ground elder, I can’t beat it but I’m certainly trying!

The polyanthus have bred with the cowslips and created new colours.

The quince has finally appeared and the peony is showing bud colour. I’m supporting it this year with a mix of chicken wire and old sticks, all my own design!

The tayberry has been tidied and woven into the side of the chicken run. It’s hopefully going to be a fox deterant very soon.

The raspberry bed is shooting. We don’t tie them in but do pop them behind the rails just to keep them off the lawn.

The ivy along a very flaky walled bit of the garden was pulling down it’s supports, hence the quickly crafted posts. That’s now had a major short back and sides cut.

Miss C is estatic with the tomato plants growing on her bedroom windowsill, while melon and peppers grow in the spare room. The summerhouse is filling quickly with lots of extras and some tasty looking cucumber plants.

All in all it’s been a productive spring. Miss C is fitting in some riding today so I am taking a breather, baking cakes for free as the sun charges the solar panels and drinking coffee. I might be stiff and aching, with muscles like Pop Eye but you won’t meet a happier home maker even with the groans, moans and bruises.

But oh to be a cat.

It’s all grow.

It’s been raining here this morning and although that’s possibly a bad thing actually for me it’s a big help. I have been able to catch up on housework, especially the ironing, which was threatening to take over.

We’ve been busy in the garden every spare minute this month.

Miss C is growing the tomatoes and chilli on her bedroom windowsill and was excited to find that they germinated today.

We’ve trimmed hedges and bushes. Weeded and weeded some more. Moved a few seedlings that were in the wrong places, mostly foxgloves from plant pots in the tunnel that they had self seeded in.

Miss C repotted the strawberry runners that we are going to keep in the tunnel hoping to get earlier fruit.I dug around everything and tidied.

The tunnel is so full I can’t clean the sides so that’s a lesson for next year. The cabbages, cauliflower and lettuce look ok but I’m not convinced it’s been worth having them in there. I guess if they grow huge, don’t bolt and taste good now that spring is coming I might reconsider.

 

The garlic and onions outside are growing well. The leeks are definitely bigger.The covers are great for keeping the birds off but a bit annoying to remove so I’m afraid I was to lazy!

Flowers are everywhere. Mostly snowdrops which with me splitting each year, and their own self seeding, just spread and spread.

Iris and crocus. Which seem to be forcing their way further and further under the fuschia each year. They just can’t be removed now, they are so intertwined.

When we first moved here we didn’t have any daisies in the lawn. I went to my sister’s house and dug some up for replanting. When they flower in February then I know it was worth it!

Roll on the real spring with lots more gardening opportunities , good weather and high hopes. I can’t wait.