Solstice

I've not been out in the garden much as the weather has mostly been awful when I had free time and daylight! However, today the sun came out so I thought I would mark the winter solstice by planting garlic. Not sure if there's a connection, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I have planted three varieties: Lautrec Wight, Provence Wight, and Elephant garlic. These have gone in the patch where I planted potatoes; this experiment didn't really work as the frost came as soon as any shoots showed, but I did find a small handful of spuds today so will have them for tea.

The garden is still quite verdant, probably due to the relatively mild weather and lashings of rain. The English marigolds are still flowering, as are the wild deadnettles. The Gingko turned a beautiful shade of buttery yellow which lasted for about a week, and now the leaves are spread all over the garden.

In the coldframe potted snowdrops are starting to show their shoots, as are one or two other bulbs. The garden birds are singing loudly, and everything is looking promising for the year ahead.

Falling into Autumn

Autumn is upon us, with colder nights and damper days, and torrential rain interspersed with the occasional glimpse of welcome sunshine. I have continued with weeding and deadheading, but not much has changed. The grass grows longer as it is too wet to cut, and the spiders are hanging out in their webs hoping for food. They are fascinating to watch, rebuilding broken parts and testing each strand with a foot as they go.

Today I sat on the step of the shed and potted up bulbs of Allium and Nectoscordum ready for planting out in spring when I have cleared some more space. The mini greenhouse was put back together so that I have somewhere cool and sheltered from the elements to store the bulbs. I also planted crocus corms beneath the Gingko tree and in the wild flower garden. The leaves are starting to plummet from the Gingko, but not many are turning the bright, buttery yellow I have been hoping for. Maybe a cold snap will sort that out.

I have bought some quality garlic bulbs from The Garlic Farm in Merstone, for planting out as soon as possible. The varieties are Lautrec Wight, Provence Wight, and Elephant garlic. Hopefully we will get crops next year! Some of the potatoes I planted last month are sprouting, so we may get some new potatoes at the end of next month. Fingers crossed.

 

 

There are still a reasonable amount of flowers in the garden, including Verbena bonariensis, Rudbeckia, corn marigold, English marigold, dandelion, purple flax, soapwort, and borage. Celandine bulbils appear when I weed, and the primrose foliage is looking firm and healthy again, as is that of the foxgloves. Spring should be lovely!



Beautiful bracket fungi at the Garlic Farm



August and September

I didn't do a huge amount in the garden during August as it was so hot or so wet when I was free. However, I kept on with general maintenance such as hedge trimming, lawn mowing and weeding areas that had already been cleared. The bind weed is an absolute thug; as soon as you turn your back it grows a foot longer and entangles all the nearby plants. I spent a good half hour yesterday rescuing the hydrangea from its clutches!

I have had some successes and failures in the vegetable patch. The tomatoes have fruited heavily and I am in the process of making a batch of spicy tomato chutney, which will be followed by a batch of green tomato chutney, as the ripening of the fruit has slowed right down and the woodlice have been moving in to start devouring the fruit. Speaking of woodlice, the sweetcorn set lots of fruit which was quite slow to ripen, and when I checked inside the cobs, the little critters had made themselves new homes. I fed the lot to the compost heap. Ah well.

I had a good crop of onions and shallots, as well as spring onions and French climbing beans. The runner beans did not do well but they were in competition with bindweed, so I may try again next year and be more vigilant with the weeding. We had five very tasty carrots! The nasturtiums have flowered non-stop, and today I collected lots of green seed which is now soaking in a brine solution ready for pickling tomorrow night.

At the beginning of September I was given a large bagful of crab apples, and had an attempt at making crab apple jelly. I had done this once before and the end result was not good. This time the result was much better, coming out a beautiful shade of clear red, although perhaps not quite as set as it should be. It tastes scrumptious though. I have also picked a lot of blackberries and made apple and blackberry crumble for the freezer, and frozen the rest of the fruit to eat throughout the winter. Yummy!

This last week has seen me clear the sweetcorn patch, dig it over and replant it with seed potatoes that promise new potatoes in  time for Christmas. We'll see. The patch has been covered by netting suspended on wire hoops and held down with bricks in order to keep the cats off. The cats see this as a challenge. All the fruits on the tomato plants have been harvested and are being processed into chutney to help feed my cheese addiction. General weeding has begun again, and the lawn might get mown over the weekend. It is also seed collecting season, so until last weekend I had a ragtag collection of paper bags filled with desiccated seed heads, and then spent a pleasant morning sorting them and storing them in small envelopes. Spring bulbs have appeared in the shops, so I treated myself to some crocus corms, snowdrop bulbs (Galanthus nivalis, which I have planted in pots), and some Nectoscordum or Honey Bells. 

I do have a dilemma while gardening at this time of year, in that there are spider webs everywhere, home to the most beautiful garden spiders (Araneus diadematus), and I really do not want to damage them or interrupt the feasting on flies. Unfortunately I need to get to the shed, and all routes are blocked by these beauties so I shall have to be horrid to at least one of them. I had to stop cutting back the perennial sweet pea last week because I found an elephant hawkmoth caterpillar loitering in there. There has also been an abundance of hoverflies, honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, ants, grasshoppers, harvest men, blackfly, woodlice, shiny green flies, slugs, garden snails and banded snails (don't think that is the right name), cabbage white butterflies, moths galore, the occasional bat and a toad. Glorious!

Garden Spider

Elephant hawkmoth caterpillar

Toad

Garden Tiger moth

Crab apple jelly

July

July is two thirds of the way through; I have had a busy month with work, family trips away and holidays so the garden has mostly been left to get on with it on its own. Most of the month has been very hot and dry, but we have had rain this week and the water butts have refilled, just in time for the next hot, dry spell.

I attacked the hedge again with the hedge trimmer (get one, they're fun), as the brambles and ash trees were poking their heads out of the top and sides. I couldn't quite get all the way over the top as my ladder was a bit wobbly, so I popped a note through the neighbours door to apologise about the straggly bits and hoping nothing had landed their side. They were somewhat freaked out that I knew their names! They talk quite loudly in the garden....  Later in the week they were out trimming their hedges by hand, on the hottest day of the year so far, so I offered them the trimmer and built up good neighbourly relations! Go me!

There is, as ever, lots of wildlife around. The Red Admiral caterpillars in the nettles are pupating (small black cases), spiders abound, as do shiny green flies, hoverflies, blackfly on the beans and nasturtiums, the inevitable molluscs, ants, green shield bugs on the French beans, grasshoppers and various birds and butterflies. I found the corpse of a slow worm on the lawn one day. Probably due to the flippin' cats. They are still pooping and digging. Annoying. While working near the shed one day I heard a loud rasping noise, and turned round to see a wasp having a good chew on an old plank of wood. It's incredible the noise they make with such a small set of jaws, and that the chewed wood is then turned into such an intricate nest. 

There are many plants in flower (see the In Bloom page and the gallery), and I have begun harvesting the vegetable patches. I have had French beans, shallots, spring onions, and lots of herbs so far. The onions are nearly ready to harvest, and the runner beans are coming along nicely. The tomatoes are setting fruit, and the sweetcorn has male and female flowers - hopefully planted close enough together to cross fertilise. I have picked and eaten the broad beans in the veg patch (boiled, then mixed with mint, olive oil and feta cheese - yummy!), and there are still some growing in the flower bed. Most of the first veg patch has been harvested, so have interplanted with some perennials as a nursery bed until I have cleared the next flower bed. The annual sweet peas fell over in a storm so I had to cut them back hard, and rescue all the flowers. Hopefully they will grow back.  The wildflower bed is coming along nicely too, with a nice variety of species, which will hopefully self-seed and become even more interesting next year.

Nasturtiums and Salvia

Shallots, Spring onions and French beans

French beans, Swiss Chard, red lettuce and Sweet Peas

Mid June

This has been a month of music festivals and torrential rain, followed by hot muggy weather and scorching sunshine. Consequently I have not done a huge amount more in the garden. I managed to make it out this week and have cut the grass, trimmed the hedge (including the top while balanced on a wobbly ladder, and not managing to reach all the way across so wrote an apologetic note to the neighbours), done a bit of weeding, watering and planting.

On the patio, I weeded between some cracks and planted some scraps of Sempervivum that were not thriving in a pot. The ants under the patio were not amused. In the middle patch of the patio I planted a Thymus 'Pink Chintz', which will hopefully spread along the gaps between the paving slabs. The Thymus that I planted earlier in the month is thriving and in full bloom.

Today I potted up the Sweet William and Echinacea seedlings as they were getting a bit leggy, and then planted the Helleborus and Primula vulgaris seedlings in the border next to the path. The plants in the border next to the fence are burgeoning, with the Verbena bonariensis and Linaria in bloom, and the Hollyhocks and Foxgloves growing rapidly. Flowers are plentiful, with Lonicera, annual and perennial Sweet Peas, Scabiosa, Linaria, Sempervivum, Runner Beans, French Beans, Tomatoes, Ligustrum, Allium, Lavandula, Thymus, Taraxacum, Bellis, Sonchus, Geraniums, Bugle, Centaurea, Cow Cockle,  Corn Cockle, Alchemilla mollis, and grasses. I also started clearing the next patch of border as the docks and sow thistles were taller than me. The cats may be upset as this is their favourite sunbathing patch. That'll teach them for wandering into the house uninvited! I built a new support for the perennial sweet peas too, as they were too vigorous and heavy for the original canes. They are now starting to flower. The annual sweet peas are prolific and I have harvested at least three substantial bunches of flowers from them.

Wildlife is abundant too, with many slugs and snails, ants, beetles, bees, hoverflies, butterflies and a slow-worm. Swallows are whirling and screaming in the sky above, and bats are fluttering about in the evening. I also spotted an adult vine weevil which I promptly squashed. Sorry. Ish. Something has been digging a deep hole beneath the stump of the Cordyline, but I can't work out what it is. It seems too deep for a cat, and I have seen no other evidence for badgers, foxes or rabbits. Odd.

Cow Cockle

Sempervivum

Cornflower

Corncockle

May into June

The garden is actively growing now that spring is getting into it's stride, with warm weather followed by torrential rain last night. The wildlife is having a lovely time, and the slugs and snails have discovered the delights of shallot leaves. They are still not keen on bindweed, which is a shame. Black aphids have appeared on the runner beans and broad beans, so I am hoping that the hoverflies I have seen around will lay their eggs nearby and get feasting soon. I spent twenty minutes this morning watching red tailed and white tailed bumblebees buzzing from flower to flower on the dandelions in the lawn - really nice! In the nettle patch by the shed I discovered lots of leaves that had been sown into tubes; these probably house the caterpillars of Red Admiral butterflies, so it will be interesting to see if I can spot them emerging. I have also spotted a clutch of bright green butterfly eggs on a sweet pea leaf so will wait and see what they turn into.

Last weekend I decided to sweep the area of concrete outside the shed and lay an edging of bricks around it as we have a large pile of bricks behind the shed. I haven't cemented them in, just wanted to see what it might look like, and am pleased with the result. While moving the bricks I found a lot of spiders with at least six different species. Photos can be found in the gallery. This is going to be a lovely area, surrounded by plants, and perfect for barbecues and evenings sitting round the chimnea. I tested the latter with a friend last weekend and we had a lovely burn up!

I have been planting more plants out trying to fill the borders that are already cleared. I am loathe to clear the others until I have plants to go in them. I have planted Achillea 'Cerise Queen, Cerinthe major 'Purpurescens', Sunflower 'Pudsey', Calendula officionalis, rhubarb (it's looking pathetic so may not survive), Bugle, Scabiosa, Alchemilla mollis, Lamium and three varieties of tomato, lemon balm, mint and creeping thyme. When I edged the concrete area I made a small border near the fence, so some of these plants are in there. The mint is next to the shed so that it can spread without being a nuisance.

On a recent visit to a garden centre with my Mum, I took a chance on some packets of bulbs that were on a two for one offer; they were somewhat past their sell by date, but I took them home and nurtured them and am pleased to report that I have two Irises, a Hemerocallis 'Strawberries and Cream', a Lillium, and two Cyclamen hederifolium showing signs of life. The Cosmos atrosanguineus doesn't appear to be doing anything though. Time will tell. Quite a few plants are flowering now including Lonicera (Honeysuckle), Scabiosa, annual sweet pea, sow thistle, dandelion, lavender, and Allium.

Last night we had torrential rain so the water butt has refilled, along with every other empty container I could lay my hands on! I discovered a hole in the side of the water butt near the top and we have done running repairs with chewing gum as nothing else seemed to work. Minging but effective!

Nettle flowers

New patio area



Sempervivum



Allium

Fourth Week in May

Variable weather this week, with showers and sunshine. Tuesday was particularly hot and I returned home to find the Hydrangea wilting, as well as one of the foxgloves and one of the lavenders. Several watering cans of rain water later they seemed to recover.

I have planted a few things out that were starting to get spindly in the lean-to; Nasturtium 'Tom Thumb', Cerinthe major, and Geranium macrorrhizum. More to follow when space has been cleared. The honeysuckle is covered in fat flower buds, which I hope will burst open soon. The annual sweet peas are in bloom - a gorgeous deep purple - and smell amazing. Both lavender plants have flower spikes growing, and the multitude of Geranium varieties are blooming prettily. The fern plant I inherited has unfurled and is a lovely, cool green and will form a pleasant backdrop to something more colourful.

In the vegetable patches the runner beans are sprinting up their canes, the French beans are growing steadily, the onion sets seem to have settled in, the spring onions and shallots are fattening up. The strawberry plants seem satisfied with their new spot too. The only things not thriving are the garlic bulbs. Ah well.

There is plenty of wildlife; I have spotted several species of bee, slugs, snails, beetles, woodlice, found an ants nest under a paving slab, seen and heard lots of birds, found flies, and seen lots of spider species. On the subject of the latter, I found a stunning specimen of a giant house spider hanging out with its egg sac in the barbecue. I am becoming mildly obsessed with spiders; I had no idea there were so many species in Britain. We may also have bats nearby. While weeding the side border on Sunday I found many snails, some common garden snails and a variety of banded snails. Gorgeous!

The cats are getting used to our presence. The ginger one got cheeky and came into the kitchen when the back door was open. Cheeky so and so! He was chased out again.

I ended up in a garden centre on Saturday an came home with two creeping thymes to plant near the patio, so that they can creep between the cracks, some cucumelon seedlings, and a variety of perennial plants sold as bulb packets which are well past their best but were going cheap. I have potted them up and will see if they recover. They included Iris, Hemerocallis,,Cyclamen hederifolium, Lillium, and Cosmos atrosanguineus. All lovely when in flower.