A busy time

The last month has been very busy. Lots to harvest, then eat, cook, freeze, store, sell or give away!

We also decided to hire a scarifier for the grass. We have been here 10 years and the grass (you can not really call it a lawn) was a weedy field that we just started to mow!

It took the 2 of us about 4 full days to use the machine, rake up the debris and wheelbarrow it to selected areas beyond the walled garden to rot down. The collecting bag that came with it was full in about 2 metres and since we had nearly an acre to do it was easier and quicker to rake up. Do not think we will do it again for another 10 years!!

The colours in the garden are glowing nicely and by October there will be lots more colours of autumn.

Vinus vinifere Spetchley Red’ small black grapes are insignificant but the autumn leaf colour is amazing

Dahlia Bishops children and cactus mixed, grown from seed and planted in a raised bed for cutting, although I prefer to leave them in the garden and enjoy the display there. Started last year and over wintered with a thick mulch, just added a few more this year.”pea netting about 8 inches above soil level has stopped them from falling over or needing individual canes for support.

Autumn crocus in full flower in September big flowers give added colour to the garden

There are also some plants that think it is spring again. The hosta are putting on new leaves, alpine strawberries not only in flower but ripened fruits and how about some apple blossom?

Alpine strawberry in September

Annual climbers

Over the winter we put in a new patio area and had a wonderful blacksmith make an arbour over it.

More space for growing plants over!!

I thought I would grow some annual climbers so bought some seeds earlier in the year.

At last the plants are blooming, but not all are successfully climbing up the poles.

Cobaea scandens Alba

I planted Cobaea scandens both Alba and Purple. The cup and saucer plant. They have tendrils rather than twisting themselves around the pole so have to be tied in regularly. I was hoping that the plants would climb up the poles and across the top of the arbour, unfortunately they have only grown to about a metre high.

Another climber I tried was Rhodochiton atrosanguineus Purple Bells.

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Rhodochiton atrosanguineus Purple Bells

The seeds of this plant are so tiny that they arrive in a little plastic tube in the seed packet. I failed to get them to germinate so bought a couple of plants from a local nursery. They too have to be tied constantly to the poles.

Thunbergia alata African Sunset was another climber I grew from seed, a lovely flower but does want to crawl along the ground rather than up the poles, so needs lots of encouragement.

Thunbergia alata African Sunset

The final seeds I grew this year was something I have grown before and the most successful. Mina lobata or Spanish Flag. This does grow up the pole (a bit like runner beans) with only a bit of tying in at the start to encourage it up the pole.

Mina lobata

Achocha

Never heard of this? a lovely annual climber with tiny flowers loved by bees and hover flies followed by unusual edible fruits, great in salads or stir fries.

Grows outside so no need for a greenhouse or conservatory to get these fruits.

We got the first seeds from Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library. The seeds are strange looking, flat and a bit like broken “shreddies”.

A tender annual which seem to germinate quite quickly so we sow them in modules in April and can be planted out when all chance of frost is gone. By the end of July and into August, September and until first frost, the fruits are appearing. Best eaten small in salads (2-3 cms) but if they get missed (they are the same colour as the foliage ) and grow larger then they can be used by removing seeds and using in stir fries, curries etc. Do not let them get more than about 5 cms . Remove the seeds before cooking if they do get too big as they will have set seed and then the plant stops producing more fruit.

Cyclanthera pedata

The first achocha we grew was Cyclanthera pedata – ladies slipper and each year save some seed so have never been without them for several years now.

Cyclanthera pedata

Last year we got the seeds of Cylanthera brachystachya – fat baby from the heritage seed library. They produce the cute looking fruits and do have different foliage to ladies slipper.

Cyclanthera brachystachya

Fat baby fruits

Keep picking and you could get a wonderful yield, last year we had 870 fruits from about 10 plants, grown quite close together up pigeon netting attached between two posts of the pergola. Makes a lovely screen with the advantage of attracting pollinating insects and you get the fruit. Will survive outside until the first frosts so make sure you keep a couple of large fruits for next years seeds.

I have read somewhere that the fruit is very good for reducing cholesterol but do not know if this has been scientifically tested!

Onions

We grow quite a lot of onions, shallots and garlic and they do taste nicer than shop bought ones!

Planted in October they are ready to harvest early summer. Garlic and elephant garlic in June followed by the onions and shallots in July. A few summer sown onions will be ready to harvest in late August/September.

After last years disaster with the onion harvest, too hot and a shortage of water to keep watering, it has been good this year. We grew onion Champion, shallot Longor and shallot Giselle. There are also red onion called Electric, not quite ready yet.

When the top growth starts to flop over the onions are ready to loosen in the soil, carefully push a fork under each bulb at lift up but leave them sitting half in the soil for a few more days. Then take them out of the soil and either leave on the top to dry out in the sun or if weather is very wet, we place on greenhouse floor to dry. They are ready to store when the stalk and outer scales of the onion rub off easily. Once cleaned up the onions are stored in the shed

Champion

Shallot Giselle

Shallot Longor

Shallot Giselle were quite small and since the Longor were much bigger ( 7 cms) we decided to pickle the small ones. A good tip I found was to pour boiling water on the shallots, leave 20-30 seconds remove the water and then pour cold water on them. This loosens the skins and makes them easy to peel.

peeled shallots

Pickled now leave for at least 6 weeks

Busy time

It has been a busy few weeks, trying to get on top of the weeding, a little rain and everything you want and do not want grows like mad.

Bindweed is the worst in the borders, gets up all the stems and you have to be careful taking them off some of the more tender plants.

It is also harvest time. Soft fruit has been coming for a while but now as the strawberries come to an end we have red currants, black currants, white currants, summer raspberries, blackberries and blueberries and 2 early but very large figs.

All these berries and currants are wonderful for breakfast on cereal or porridge. We freeze them in small, 2 portion , re-useable bags and put them in the freezer for breakfasts throughout the year. A few bigger bags of currants are frozen, for jelly or jam later in the year and crumbles or pies can be made by using a few of the “breakfast bags”.

White currants

This variety of white currant is called Blanca the bush was grown from a cutting several years ago and is now producing very large pea sized currants.

Another opening

We spent last week working hard in the garden trying to get rid of as many weeds as possible. On Saturday the Warwick Plant Heritage group visited our garden, the bindweed still managed to come up overnight!

It is rewarding to show other people what we have achieved in the garden over the past 10 years and hear their comments. They seemed to have an enjoyable time and with tea and cake available the many seating areas were used, until it rained. Fortunately this was nearing the end of the afternoon, so some people could stay sitting under the sun shade while others opened umbrellas and continued walking round the garden.

The roses were still going strong, the Alfred Carrier gave a wonderful scent on the arch as you walk up the garden.

Alfred Carrier

The Joanne Elise is still producing loads of blooms

Joanna Elise

Penny Lane is doing great this year, this has wonderful hips in the autumn

Penny Lane

Not only roses in the garden but more about that on a later blog.

Good or bad?

There are many insects and bugs in the garden, some useful some not. As we garden organically we do not use chemicals to eradicate all those we do not want.

Slugs and snails are a problem for every gardener we try to keep the numbers down with the use of a garlic wash, especially on hostas, also going out and manually picking them off and moving them away from the garden. On newly planted seedlings we use the organically approved ferric phosphate slug pellets, sparingly. Once the plants are established we tolerate a few holes nibbled from the leaves.

Aphids are bad this year especially on the new shoots of the apple trees, squashing them between finger and thumb reduces some and a soap spray helps too.

Once the beneficial insects arrive it is best not to use the soap as we do not want to kill everything.

A welcome sight is this “ugly” bug:

What is this?

The few early lady birds have been busy and the sight of these larvae mean we will very soon get many more lady birds to keep eating all the aphids.

Asparagus beetle

This very pretty beetle can be devastating on the asparagus crop. They nibble the head of the asparagus. Later they lay little black eggs on the fern foliage and these hatch into tiny grey slugs which can defoliate the fern.

This is a problem because once you stop harvesting the spears, the crop is left to leaf up and nourish the roots ready for next year.

We try and reduce the effects of this bug by squashing the adults, the are very hard to catch as when they sense a shadow they drop to the soil upside down and play dead so are hard to see! We also have to squash the slugs that hatch to try and reduce the damage and prevent the crop from being completely weakened.

Asparagus beetle