I have managed to check my seeds and found that there isn’t much I need to buy. I did get to a garden centre the other day and buy some of the ‘Maya Gold’ potatoes that were good last year plus some ‘plum’ type tomatoes which I seemed to have none of in my collection, and that’s about all I deeded.

Very early primroses in flower

One recent good result was the brussels sprouts which produced enough for our Christmas dinner do that was the last product of the garden for this year.

The weather has continued mild since the last post, only a couple of nights with frost so our hanging baskets are still out and producing flowers, though looking pretty scrappy now. Also, some fuchsias in pots are still flowering, pretty amazing really. The drawback is that the grass has continued to grow, as have the hedges, albeit slowly.

No real gardening has taken place since the last post, my visits to the garden have been pretty much restricted to filling up the bird food containers, and kitchen waste into the compost containers – not to mention taking another couple of squirrels for their ‘holidays’.

So I need to sit down and sort out my seeds for next year and start to plan the planting.

Meanwhile hope my reader had a good Christmas and have a Happy New Year

All of which should mean that it’s been nice enough for me to get on with loads of jobs in the garden, but I’m afraid not. I have tackled a few of the tidying up jobs in a rather desultory way – like pruning back the grapevine in the greenhouse, removing some of the tomato plants (but there are still some with fruit ripening!) and tackling the hedge on one side which I’m reducing in height by a foot or so. I have managed to plant a few pansies in the front – though only around 3 of them are bothering to flower despite the mild conditions, still they are better than bare earth until the bulbs come through. Speaking of which I did actually manage to plant up a couple of containers with narcissi and some tulips, plus a few in the garden.

There is still some digging to do – one section isn’t touched, but it does have some Brussels sprout plants on it which look as if they are going to produce enough for Christmas. I have got some parsnips growing also, traditionally they aren’t any good until frosted, which at the present state of things may not happen for a while (despite last night it is predicted to be warmer over the next few days).

There are still a couple of peppers to harvest in the greenhouse, plus one or two tomatoes, otherwise  it’s a bit of a mess and really needs a day of tidying up to be ready for seed planting (not that I’ve bought any for next year yet). Now that I have electricity in the greenhouse I can get some seedlings started a bit earlier so that’s something to plan for.

So not much action to report, and even the wildlife has been fairly quiet, although I have evicted four squirrels in the last month and seem to have removed the local population for a while. The birds have been finding plenty of natural food at the moment so the bird food hasn’t been going down very fast.

Maybe I’ll have tackled some of the bigger jobs by the time I post again……

I’ve dug a bit of the garden, and removed all the climbing beans plus the netting (no easy task removing the bean remains from the netting) and the supporting canes

Meanwhile, the tomatoes are still producing – mostly small ‘cherry’ types now, but still worth having. In the greenhouse there are also some sweet peppers left still ripening (we ate the big one last weekend) and the other variety of pepper (can’t remember the variety, they look like v large chilli peppers so I suspect they are sweet rather than hot but we’ll see). The aubergines are now dying off  a complete waste of time and space this year.

Sweet peppers harvested (& eaten alrady)

The most astounding thing though was the ‘great grape theft’ – I had been leaving the grapes on the vine in the greenhouse until they were as sweet as possible and set off last weekend to harvest them – only to find every last one had gone! birds I suspect a week or so ago through the opening vents on the sunny days. So all that was left were the ‘skeletons’ of the bunches and no grapes.

Sport the Grape....

Not much to report on the wildlife area either, two blackbirds were having a really vicious fight near the greenhouse the other day so the battle for territories must be well under way. The birds are going through food fairly quickly now, stocking up for winter I guess.

And that’s about it for now….

So I think I’ll try the Mayan Gold again next year if I can find them. We eat some today and they were fine mashed and quite tasty.

Tomatoes are coming in thick and fast, a fair number were cooked into sauce the other day but there are already a pound or so from today – still the sauce keeps in the freezer ok.

Some brambles were ready yesterday so those and a few from the freezer plus a bramley apple I put into a ‘bramble & apple’ pie – yummy with custard. Looks like there may only be a few more now though.

Meanwhile in the greenhouse, peppers are ok but the aubergines are still flowering beautifully, but no sign of any aubergines – waste of time really. The grapes are looking good bit still  bit under ripe I think.

Pics below of potato harvest:

Apart from hedge cutting and maybe a final cut of the lawn, the main activity has been collecting tomatoes, all ripening like mad. A whole lot have already been converted to sauce ready for use in other dishes. Many of the cherry type have just been eaten as they come, very sweet and tasty.

Also harvested the rest of the row of potatoes near the greenhouse, and one of the bags – the row in the ground has produced well, including the Maya Gold variety (see below), but the one container/bag I’ve emptied was less productive.

To compensate for the lack of activity reports take a look at the photos reflecting the time of year below: 

Mayan Gold potatoes - one original seed potato

 The above were panted as an experiment near the greenhouse, others are in a bag not yet harvested. The flesh is yellow and firm and we’ve already eaten them – sliced and firied – yum! 

Ripening cherry tomatoes

Robin checking up on me

Red Admiral on one of last buddleia flowers - only about the fourth I've seen this year

Spotted in the greenhouse – orb web spider and ladybird prey. It’s hard to walk round the garden this time of year
without walking through one of the webs produced by the orb web spider.

Spider with ladybird prey (in the greenhouse)

The tomatoes pictured below are a mixture of ailsa craig and a couple of the small tomato varieties, the ailsa craig came in handy for a baked potato & mince dish the other day.

Also being harvested are brambles and raspberries – although the brambles are noticeably poorer than last year, a result of the dryer period earlier in the year I guess. The rasps are from just one cane, which is very prolific, I wish I had room for more really – this one is just in the border by the hedge and I do nothing to it other than prune it. However, the brambles, plus some from last year from the freezer and a bramley apple, went towards a pie tonight.

I collected a few more climbing beans and pretty much the last of the mangetout peas the other day, and there are a few courgettes still being produced The cucumber has now been consigned to the compost bin after producing one tiny cucumber. Even worse, the aubergine plants in the greenhouse have been flowering so nicely they would qualify as decorative plants in the house – but not one flower has set, so no aubergines – yet.

As for wildlife – rather annoyingly, a squirrel appeared in the garden the other day, so the trap is out…. Birdwise it’s been very active with the long tailed tits appearing in number – I counted ten the other day – with six on the fat feeder at once – see below.

First potato harvest - with scabs!

One of the first tomato harvests

Six long tailed tits, and more waiting!

Which is more or less the story of our holiday, hence the break in posts. Before going away I had set up the ‘drip feed’ system I have used before and it mostly worked while we were away, so no big disasters in the greenhouse or other critical plants in pots and growbags. The plants in the garden, however, have suffered as there had been a spell of several days without rain I would guess. Three of the climbing bean plants are dead, and the courgettes are looking pretty,  as is the remaining cucumber plant (see below).

On the plus side, the tomatoes are just starting to ripen so we haven’t come back into an instant glut. Mind, it took a fair time to remove all the side shoots and so on from the plants – it’s amazing how fast they can grow. So the toms are just starting to ripen and I’ve harvested haalf-a-dozen or so today, some Ailsa Craig and some of the small varieties.

In the greenhouse, the pepper plants are ok and have produced a few peppers as well, but the aubergines although flowering like made show no signs of setting any fruit – don’t know why.

Apart from the courgettes and beans, the lettuce have survived ok, though obviously would have been bigger with more watering and the potato plants in the ground outside the greenhouse have died right back so I think will need digging up soon. The potatoes in the containers are still showing green stems so may be able to be left (they were kept watered by the drips but the ones in the ground weren’t).

Of course the weeds showed no desire to stop growing and I’ve ripped up loads around the courgettes, with lots more to go round the bean plants. The broad bean plants were completely dead and dry and so I’ve pulled them up now. The mangetout peas are looking to be on the way out – I harvested a container full yesterday and they have mostly been eaten now. There were loads of climbing beans to harvest, most of them rather bigger than they should be, but still no problem to eat – runner beans at the same stage would have been stringy.

The birds had pretty much scoffed all the food in the feeders I’d filled before going away so they had to be all refilled. It was very noticeable today that the long-tailed tits were back in numbers (finished breeding?) and I counted five on a fat feeder with two waiting to join in. The goldfinches were happy I’d refilled the nyjer seed container and the sparrows were soon back at the seed feeder as well.  Saw a dark coloured cat in the garden today, but switching the electronic repeller (it had been off while we were away) seemed to encourage it to vacate pretty quickly.

Well at least one plant is fairly healthy.....

Tomatoes by the kitchen starting to ripen

The cucumber - struggling to survive!

The mangetout peas true to form are producing faster than we can eat them, and as usual some pods seem to hide until they are more like regular pea pods.

Courgettes are producing well, in fact I harvested four smallish ones today to go into a ‘mince and courgette bake’. Meanwhile, the sickly looking cucumber plant in the container has finally popped its clogs so I’m left with one plant, still struggling but has at least produced a flower.

Tomatoes (the ‘fruit’ rather than the plants) are expanding fast – so a glut will no doubt happen when they all ripen at once. Also in the greenhouse the peppers and aubergines are flowering and at least one pepper has set, though I notice that one aubergine flower has dropped off the plant without setting. I hope there isn’t a repeat of last year when only one aubergine was produced – but the omens aren’t good.

We harvested all the blackcurrants (and around 4 whitecurrants the birds missed) last weekend, a total of over a kilo (around 2.5lbs), all being converted into coulis. The gooseberries finally were baked into a pie with added brambles from the freezer as none of the local shops had any more gooseberries – the combination worked quite well though.

I was fairly cross when a third squirrel turned up raiding the bird foo after the previous evictions – but I had it in the trap within a couple of hours, so we are currently squirrel free. I heard on the radio today that there is a ‘butterfly watch’ taking place to map the current distribution and decline. It did make me aware how few I have seen this year. Apart from the usual cabbage whites and small blues there have been very few other species around, even though our three buddleia bushes are in full flower – in fact I saw one red admiral today and that is the first butterfly on the buddleia I’ve seen so far.

The Blackcurrant Harvest

However, things have moved on from the last post and the weather hasn’t been too bad either.

I am harvesting broad beans, though some have been a bit small thanks to the dry spell earlier I think. Also mangetout peas, courgettes (A couple just the other day) and of course various salad leaves. The climbing beans are in flower so should be producing in a couple of weeks or so, and some of the tomatoes in the greenhouse are set and growing.

On the fruit side, the blackcurrants are ripening nicely and some whitecurrants on one bush wereripe  -  but when I checked the birds had had them!. The gooseberries are ripe both on the bushes I planted and the one growing in the hedge, so I think it will be gooseberry pie this weekend. (Later) The goosberries when harvested produced less than a pound of fruit, I blame the dry weather earlier in the year. So no pie unless I can find some more to supplement them. The blueberries are mostly ok, though sadly one of them died when I missed watering it – and another was caught in the nick of time. So I’ll have to investigate taking cuttings to see if I can regain the loss. All of the plants have berries this yer, though not a lot, but next year should be better hopefully.

Although one courgette plant is producing, one of the three doesn’t look well at all and the one courgette it has produced doesn’t look too good either. On the other hand if they were all producing at full speed we’d be suffering a courgette glut…. The two cucumbers – one in the ground near the courgettes and the other in a large container – re both struggling and I’m not sure why, I’ve kept them watered and fed them with liquid fertiliser (though not too much) – partly it’s the weather I suspect but they are at least growing just about.

Speaking of the weather, since the last post it’s been more of the same really, a couple of days of fine weather, then showery days (well a bit like Wimbledon really) but overall it has got warmer. We did have one day recently where I recorded 30degC in the garden, but that was exceptional. It’s sunny today for instance, and may stay fine all weekend.

I’ve been given half a dozen sprout seedlings by my neighbour and they have gon into section C which up ’til recently was only growing weeds – I’ve never has a lot of success with brassicas so we’ll see.

My salad crops have done well, most of the early plantings of mixed leaves have gone to flower or seed now – and the ones by the kitchen have been cleared so I’ve planted some mixed lettuce there now and one of the containers located near the kitchen which held mixed leaves has been replanted with ‘cut & come again’ mixed leaves. My carrots, parsnips & turnips seem to be ok – in fact some of the turnips (along with the mangetout, courgettes & broad beans) will go into a mixed veg bhaji this weekend.

A few weeks ago I had a pack of mixed herbs delivered by post (part of an ‘offer’ which included some flowers as well) which included thyme, sage, mint and oregano. Most of these are in the garden or container now and doing fine – in fact the mint was harvested already last weekend (along with other mint already in the garden) to season a lamb joint and to make mint sauce of course.

The potatoes, both in the containers and in the ground, seem to be fine, the ‘maya gold’ variety has been flowering for a while now and may be worth harvesting soon.

In the greenhouse? Well, the tomatoes I’ve already mentioned, and all of the plants are about at roof level now so being ‘stopped’. The peppers are flowering and I noticed last night last one of the aubergines was in flower. Let’s hope they produce rather better than they did last year.

The wildlife developments have been interesting. Suddenly the ‘sparrow gang’ have reappeared and I counted 10 at one time the other day so that’s encouraging. The feeding stations on the lawn have been moved around and added to which has led to major activity from the great and blue tits. The nyjer seed has been consumed at a great rate by the goldfinches plus I’ve noticed the odd greenfinch struggling to get seed on the feeder as well. There has been a noticeable increase in the boldness of the local jackdaws (themselves only an arrival during the last 5 years) who have now plucked up the courage to steal food from the bird-table. I’m still plagued by pigeons as well. Speaking of food stealers, I’ve evicted two squirrels in the past few days, the first to appear in the garden for some time, so hopefully we should be squirrel free for a while now. Which is good news for the birds – for instance I heard nestlings cheeping in one of our hedges a couple of weeks ago which turned out to be baby robins, and the blackbirds have been raising a second brood I think as the female was busy collecting nesting material a couple of weeks agow. The ‘bold mouse’ is still around, racing out onto the lawn in broad daylight from the bushes to pick up seed dropped by the birds.

Pictures below:

New Sprout plants

Developing tomato in te greenhouseAubergine flowerBlackcurrants - almost ready Gooseberries

Gooseberries

 

Blackcurrants - almost ready

Aubergine flower