2020 Harvest

A strange year in many respects including the crops in the garden. The hot weather meant we were unable to water some of the areas in the garden as the stored rain water ran out. We tend to limit watering to greenhouses and raised beds and hope that the rest cope ok. Unfortunately the onions failed because we did not manage to water them enough. But the potatoes were huge so they had been able to take advantage of the moisture in the soil from the wet winter.

A few new crops were grown this year, Luffa, which failed to produce any fruits but more success with edamame beans and watermelon (delicious)

Needless to say overall we were not short of a harvest and as you can see from the chart we had plenty for us and our family with lots of excess along with plants I had propagated to sell for charity.

We raised over £700. We donated this money to; Tysoe Dementia friends and Pam Britton Trust for Dementia, ECO work-shop Stratford (for adults with learning disabilities and autism),NGS (National Garden Scheme, medical charities), MIND(mental health charity), Garden Organic digital library, RNIB (Royal National Institute of blind people), NCDS(National Children’s deaf society),

January

I was hoping for some cold weather this winter to try and kill off some of the bugs in the garden, this last week has certainly been cold.

We have a weather station in the garden that gives us details so we can see what has been happening over the past 24 hours. It has not been above 4 degrees overnight ( freezing) since 22nd December and most of those were minus. On 7th it did not get above -0.2 all day! Overnight on the 6th it was -3.8 degrees which was colder than any night for the whole of 2020.

If you do not have to go out anywhere, and many of us can not now thanks to lockdown, those of you who are lucky enough to have a view of one, it is nice to sit in the warm and look at the garden and see what is going on.

I do not cut down a lot of the dead flowers in the autumn and I leave the seed heads as food for the birds and a sculptural shape in the garden for interest over winter.

I was so pleased that I do that as last week I saw chaffinch and bullfinch eating the seeds on the Phlomis seed heads.

Now with the frost and snow in the garden everything looks great with it’s white frosting.

Frosted grasses

Phlomis seed heads

Stipa gigantica in the frost

Verbena bonariensis

Christmas from the garden

 Each year I gather materials from the garden for the Christmas decorations.

We do not have a lot of room in our small house to put up a normal Christmas tree, sometimes we get a small one and cut one side off, so that it fits on the window sill! But recently I have taken a branch from one of the apple trees as we prune them and used that.

Decorated with baubles and lights it looks great and fits the space.

Wreaths are always made from materials collected from the garden. This year the one by the front door has a culinary feel with rosemary and sage, then a hint of colour with the addition of helichrysum dried flowers.

Another wreath is made for the gate into the walled garden. A framework made years ago from ivy stems and decorated this year with holly, ivy, mistletoe and fir cones.

We have a hedge of holly, made from seedlings grown from berries off a tree where we used to live. Only one of the plants ever has berries but we were lucky this year to get quite a few.

We sit in the dining area eating our meals, looking out onto the patio. So I thought it would be nice to have a table decoration on the table on the patio to look out at.

Using an old chimney pot and grasses, seed heads and other bits of foliage I am pleased with this new decoration.

The little Christmas trees grown in pots from seedlings are sometimes brought into the house but this year I have decorated one and put it on the patio.

With 2020 being such an unusual year with so many people at home over Christmas, some of them alone, the villagers have decorated a window in their houses to send Christmas greetings to everyone in the community. This is ours.

Have a nice Christmas wherever you are and how many you are. Lets hope for a much improved and fruitful 2021

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