A belated Happy New Year.

                             Rain on snowdrops

2020 has now been running for a month and it’s been a busy time here at the house. The gardening has had to fit in around the almost constant rain. The new bathroom and utility are being enjoyed. The apiary is wet and miserable and has only just escaped the flooding that has crept ever closer to it with each visit.

The ground around the hives is waterlogged but all 6 hives are alive and eating the fondant as quickly as I can feed them. With the trees missing their leaves it is easier to show you the site. It is protected enough that I was able to work in here this week in just a thin jumper and is almost the perfect setting, marred only by the people who insisted on creeping around causing trouble in the dead of night.


At home the winter preparations continue. I have dug and mulched all the veggie beds now. I created a new one in a weed covered area down the bottom of the garden and have ringed the ivy on these large trees. I hope to take out all the top growth this month, if time and weather allow. Although larger trees are good for wildlife these two shade to much of the space. I have lots of fruit bushes and trees which suffer in the summer from both the shade and the lack of water.

The Ash tree has an almost constant Ring Collar Dove nest in it so I’m hoping ringing it will let the ivy die slowly while the nestling grows up and leaves. The area will be cleared to make more vegetable space as soon as possible.

In the house, today is the day the chilli seeds go in. I’m a bit later than last year but I can’t help feeling that this mild weather can’t last and I don’t want to be left with to many baby plants to protect. Call me pessimistic but I think winter might have a sting in its tail yet!

An early start.

Yesterday I took honey from the hives. Miss C and I spent the evening extracting it and this morning the wet supers needed returning to the bees. I had started yesterday at 7am and by 9.30 when I finished it was already unbearably hot. This morning, having woken at 6.30. I headed straight out. The sky was clear and blue and the day promised to be hot.

The bees look a bit overgrown but there is a clearing in front of each hive. Unfortunately a group of local kids have decided to have a party near the hives. I just have to hope they will all be safe. By that I mean the bees, although one of my hives is so nasty that it might work either way!

Back home it’s all quiet. HubB, being a part time musician, didn’t get in until 2am after a long distance gig. Miss C still slumbers, in her quest to be a teenager (at the minute she calls 8 o’clock a lay-in but I’m sure that will soon change!) I’m sitting enjoying the bird song with a coffee.

The garden is looking OK!

Onions and garlic, nearly ready.

Celery interplanted with pak choi.

Peppers forming. As are the spaghetti squash and butternut.

During the house renovations, the panelling in the bathroom has been taken out. HubB has made me some lovely new raised beds which I instantly filled with courgettes and butternut squash.

The butternut squash are a tale in themselves. I sowed the seed, had to many, offered them to friends. Realising I had accidently, potentially, given them all away, I sowed some more. They didn’t germinate, so in my quest to be organised I sowed a third packet which instantly took off. A few days later the second packet also grew. The first plants are now at fruiting stage, the second have mostly been given away and the third are growing well. I don’t like to count my chickens, but this could be the year of the butternut. Time will tell!

October update.

The weather has taken a real turn for the worse. The sun may be bright but the temperatures are cold and last night we even had hail stones that laid in piles. This all seems so much worse when your house still has no heating and falling masonry due to a water leak of phonominal proportions.

Outside the garden clings on.

The dahlias I grew from seed in the spring have been lovely and, although everything else in the bed has gone over, they still flower with abandon.

A heather in my blueberry bed makes up for the death of the actual blueberry bush.

A tray of viola seedlings needs a permanent home. The front garden is calling!

My new strawberry bed is establishing well. A November strawberry would be amazing.

In the polytunnel the peppers and chillies are still cropping and lots of tender pots are ready to over winter.

My cauliflower seedlings were eaten by a sneaky group of late caterpillars but, since planting out, look like they might recover.

My £1 bargain pear tree will be a fun experiment.

The edible fuchsia which quite honestly tastes horrible has got tired of my insults and is not ripening but my bargain bucket herbs are coming on a treat.

Outside the Brussels are struggling with white fly, wooly aphids and sooty mould but give their best.

Mildew has attacked the peas, who gallantly pod on.

Sweet potato still looks fairly green and the onion and garlic bed looks healthy if not a bit weedy.

The same can not be said of the raspberries that have been on their last legs all summer and yet still fruit. Amazing plants and definitely worth the space.

George the cat followed me everywhere today and I struggled to keep his tail out of all the pictures. So here he is, along with Mr Bones.

Happy Halloween.

Quick note to one’s self.

Cabbages need more space and certainly don’t need interplanting with lettuce. 

Broccoli need more firming in before they fall over and grow sideways.

Brussel sprouts need a stake at planting time before they grown along the ground and head upwards in all directions. 

In short. Brassicas need more space, more support and more netting. 

Lesson learned! 

After the rain.

Like most of the country I was kept awake most of Tuesday night by the storm. Thunder and lightening and torrential rain pummelled the garden so it was some surprise when I went outside yesterday to find hardly any sign of it ever happening. The water butts were over flowing and every container without a hole in it was full but otherwise the garden just looked fresh and clean. Our neighbour was not so lucky and a huge tanker was pumping his drive out all morning, so we had a lucky escape. 

It has rained all morning again today. I’ve moved the downpipe into another tank and filled that now as well. This afternoon is bright and sunny and a foray into the garden shows just how much good the rain has done. 

Peas planted last weekend are through, as are lots of the other seeds.

Butternut squash are looking hopeful. These are my outside ones, extra plants I was to tight to throw away! I planted one in the polytunnel as well after last year’s lack of cropping success. I’m hedging my bets as I absolutely love butternut soup and am sure I will never have to many. 

I nipped out yesterday and planted my oca in the ground. It has fallen over the sides of the pot and as it makes tubers wherever the stems touch the ground I decided to plant it in the space the onions came out of. Unfortunately I couldn’t get it out of the pot so I settled for second best. I wrapped the celery while I was there, I used these tubes for the leeks last year with great success so I hope it will work as well again. 

The polytunnel is like a jungle. It’s hard to move in there at the minute. 

The tomatoes are disappointing. Moneymaker are huge but just not ripening and the Gardener’s Delight is not much better. The cucumber is growing like a triffid and the fruit is tasty but has to be peeled as the skin is just to tough. No strange foreign varieties for me next year, the lesson of cheap seeds has been learnt! 

Peppers are doing better than last year after I started them off so much earlier and chillies are looking good although we haven’t tried any yet. 

There’s a tiny melon growing and an even tinier watermelon. Both seem to pollinate ok but then the fruits keep dropping before they swell to any size. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong but fingers crossed. 

Outside the raspberry bed is feeling the strain after I used the spare space to grow a few sweetcorn. Which then got underplanted with bollotti beans and then just a few spare brassicas were added. In all they now feel swamped and are retaliating by growing so tall I will need a ladder to pick the fruit. 

My next year’s resolution is more beds with less in them. I’m not holding out much hope in keeping it. Growing veg is just so much fun. We haven’t eaten a shop brought veggie all week and boy does that feel good. Home grown new potatoes and cauliflower tonight.

I just need a cow and a pig next. Now where on earth will I put them! 

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!! 

It’s always good to be home.

We’ve been away for the bank holiday. I’ve had a great time but as we pulled up on the drive my first thought was to rush down the garden for a check up. Chickens, poly tunnel and summerhouse. 

The summerhouse has romped away and space was needed everywhere. Lots need taking to the polytunnel to harden off. 

The polytunnel is a similar jungle. The cabbages and cauliflower have been a failure with lots of growth but no heads. The peas are podding but not swelling very quickly. All of the over wintered flowers and plants needed to come out. I decided to be ruthless and clear the brassicas into the compost. Space is going to be needed really soon. I also stood all the pots outside with a view to covering with fleece should it look necessary. 

I earthed up the bags of potatoes. 

Moneymaker tomatoes have their first flowers coming. After putting them in the tunnel I decided to plant some in the soil. 

I planted them really deep. I hear that encourages more roots to form on the stem and certainly last year I had a good crop of fruit after doing the same. Both  the tunnel and the summerhouse looked better for a clear out and now I have lots more room for some more seedlings. There are still lots germinating. 

I might have to dig up more lawn to fit them all in but I’m sure hubby won’t mind! 

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.