Funny Year

2020 has been a strange year for many reasons including the weather.

The plants and creatures in the garden are so confused.

The honey bees are so active for this time of year, butterflies still flying around in November and the blackbirds, who usually strip the cottoneaster berries in a matter of days have not even visited the bush yet. There must be lots of food elsewhere this year.

Flowers too are unsure of the date! There are new flowers on the poached egg plant (Limanthes douglasii), many new rose buds and fringed campion (Silene frimbriata) is also in flower. These usually flower in the summer!

We even saw blossom on one of the apple trees as we were collecting the mistletoe.

But there is one flower that is supposed to be open now and it is beautiful.

There are several evergreen clematis in the garden and this one, Jingle bells is the best this year.

This photo, taken at the end of November was full of bees, all sorts including several kinds bumble bee and many honey bees, buzzing away busily.

What is in the garden?

Looking around the garden we found some eggs. Can you identify them?

Answers at the end of this post.

October is the time for harvesting and clearing some of the vegetables that have finished, digging up the last of the potatoes to store for winter and any late apples.

Then as we move in to November leaves are falling from the trees. This is a “crop” to harvest so we rake these up and store in a large compost bin. Over the next twelve months they will reduce in volume until it turns into a beautiful leaf mould compost.

Brilliant for mulching all round the garden.

Last year we produced a tonne builders bag overflowing with this wonderful compost.

The compost bins are filling up this time of year too. Lots of shredding of plant material to make the compost:

As the potatoes are dug up the top plant (haulm) can go in the compost unless they are diseased such as blight. In that case they must be burnt or put in green waste.

The first frosts will blacken the dahlias and the stems can now be cut down and composted. The tubers can be dug up and stored in cool dry shed or left in the ground, covered by a thick mulch.

Sweet corn are all harvested now so the plants can be dug up, shredded and composted.

Some perennials can be cut down and composted. We leave most until the spring , unless they have blackened, they give structure to the winter garden, look great in the frost and provide a safe place for many insects to spend the winter.

Now is also the time to start the winter prune of soft fruit and top fruit trees. Blackcurrants should be pruned before Christmas so can be shredded and composted and once the apples and pears have lost their leaves and gone dormant they can be pruned, yet more compost material.

Always something to do in the garden!

Answers from left : pigeon egg, grass snake egg, aubergine (egg plant)

October colour

Half way through October, we have been very busy taking in the rest of the autumn harvest. Picking the apples, some to store and making 100 bottles of juice with the rest. Pasteurised they will supply our breakfast juice for the next year.

I love autumn, cool, sunny and dry days are the best and the colours are amazing.

Lots of colour in the garden from asters dahlias sedum and the leaves of many plants.

As the leaves loose their chlorophyll the colours start to emerge. Many of the plant we grow are for the autumn colour.

Cotinus Grace great when backlit by the sun

The Spetchley Red vine is lovely on the arch in the walled garden so I have taken some cuttings and started to plant them around the pergola uprights on the new patio.

Blueberries always give lovely colour at this time of year this variety is especially red and called Brigitta

Even the gooseberries give a lovely colour before the leaves eventually die.

Wildlife in the garden

 In July I posted “a compost surprise” , here are a few more surprises in August and September.

You saw the grass snake in the compost bin, it disappeared and have no idea where it went but yesterday revealed that it must be somewhere in the garden. The reason is we saw a baby! sliding along by the wall.

Baby grass snake

What about this? do you know what it is?

The hebe flowers have been covered in all kinds of bees and flies, this was a pretty one

A little different

We do like to experiment with things in the garden and try out new ideas.

In the past, amongst others, we have made a knot garden from Loniceria Nitida cuttings.

We also made a thyme clock, using different varieties of thyme for each hour.

A few years ago we grew some more exotic vegetables with the help of ideas from Garden Organic (www.gardenorganic.org.uk/) including Calaloo (a spinach type plant), chickpeas, sharks fin melon, Achocha, and yard long bean.

We still grow the Achocha each year, both the original Ladies slipper and another variety Fat Baby. Lovely little crunch in a salad, or a stir fry. Very prolific and smothered in hoverflies and other pollinators on the minute flowers.

This year we have tried a few more new things Edamame beans, Watermelon and Loofa.

The Loofa has reached the roof of the greenhouse and is now running horizontally along but no fruits have stayed yet so may need more research.

The Edamame beans and watermelon are successful and this years figs are the best ever.

Busy Harvest

From July onwards we are busy harvesting produce from the garden. The soft fruit has been very good this year, the later variety of red currant (sorry do not know which variety as they were in the garden when we moved) is providing a lot of fruit this year and the “strings” are very long. White currants have also been excellent and so sweet but are coming to an end now.

Summer raspberries and Logan berries provided plenty of fruit, over now but autumn raspberries are ready to take over. I like the autumn raspberries best and their care is much easier.

Summer raspberries fruit on old wood so at this time of year the new growth which will fruit next year has already grown. You have to cut out the old stems which fruited this year, and then tie the new canes onto the wire supports. The autumn raspberries are much easier, they fruit on the current years growth so maintenance just involves cutting the old canes down to the ground in the spring just before new growth appears, then new canes will grow up and fruit that year.

Success with peaches this year as a result of a cover to protect buds from winter rains with results in Peach Leaf Curl which defoliates the tree and weakens it. Also I went round with a paint brush to assist pollination when the blossom was out. The result, 9 large sweet white peaches, a good haul since the “tree” only has 2 branches.

Other more unusual crops harvested the past few weeks are purple graffiti cauliflower, inca berries, Achocha: ladies slipper and fat baby, artichoke, florence fennel, calabrese, baby spinach, figs and Edameme.

Edamame

A great selection of fruit and veg

A compost surprise

We compost everything possible in the garden except annual weed roots such as dock, dandelion and bindweed. Also very fibrous stalks from artichokes and the pond reeds which can not be easily chopped or rot quickly.

Around the garden are several “darlek” plastic compost bins in easy reach of the veg beds.

We also have a hot bin which is used for all the kitchen waste (not cooked) since we grow all our vegetables we have all the outer leaves which are already removed when produce is bought from the supermarket.

The bulk of the plant material goes into the 3 bay wooden compost system that we have at the bottom of the garden.

Despite each one being a metre cube, these would fill up in a matter of weeks , especially in the summer, and so we shred all the plant material using a brilliant Viking shredder which not only reduces the volume dramatically but also allows the material to compost more quickly.

Once one bay is full, the compost is turned into the next bay, leaving the first empty to start filling again. When this is full again, the middle bay is turned into the end bay, the first turned into the middle ,once again leaving the first bay empty to start filling again.

As the volume reduces considerably in size, the end bay can be topped up from the middle bay several times. After a year we hope to get a usable compost, although it can be left much longer.

There are loose fitting lids on these bays and they keep the heap moist, removing them when it rains if more moisture is required.

Last week I lifted the lid on the end bay to check moisture levels and got a bit of a shock

Thought it was an adder at first but then realised that it was just a grass snake even though it was about a metre long!

It has gone now but I am not sure which is best, seeing it in the compost bin, or having no idea where it is now!