A New Year – Not much goin’ on

Well here we are in February and the garden is a wasteland – full of weeds as the winter hasn’t really been that cold (9 degC on Thursday!) so they have kept on growing and the lawn is muddy as we’ve had enough rain just to keep it wet.

All in all I’ve not felt much like working in the garden and there have been more important things to deal with inside in any case. I’m also missing encouragement  from my neighbour (no longer here).

All I’ve done recently is a bit of hedge cutting – particularly in the flower border area as it’s the best time to give it a good cut (the section is mainly holly) while the perennials etc. aren’t growing. I’ve also chopped down the remains of the nettle patch at the bottom of the garden. I’m hoping to insert an open composting heap into that area this year as I seem to be generating so much compost now – three bins on the go!

Regardless of my efforts things are growing – the garlic is coming along nicely and the two rows of ‘The Sutton’ broad beans are now up (see below)

Broad Beans just appearing

The fact that the Autumn planted beans are up highlights the fact that I should be spending some time in the greenhouse getting some more beans planted into pots – I’ve just restored the WiFi connection in the greenhouse in anticipation – well sitting in there planting needs a bit of entertainment!

Bulbs are springing up all over the place of course and soon there will be daffodils appearing in flower all over the garden – but first of course are the snowdrops – not quite open yet though (see below) but this year there will be more patches of snowdrops thanks to some planting a couple of years ago.

Snowdrops – not quite open

Wildlife

A recent review of the trailcam set on the lawn watching the bird ground feeding spot near the house revealed a fox having a good look round, as well as the usual cat etc. Some good pictures of robins and dunnocks but strangely no mice at night. No hedgehogs either so maybe they are actually hibernating just now.

A couple of squirrels need to be evicted during the last month as well…

Almost Finished Harvesting

Now that Autumn is officially here things are winding down in the garden of course and harvesting of produce is running down – apart from the tomatoes that is!

Tomatoes outside the kitchen – notice how some have split and aren’t really much use now

Tomatoes outside the greenhouse – pomodoro

The pomodoro seem rather more prone than others to various ailments as you can see. Still they are good for making tomato sauce for pasta..

I must admit I haven’t been doing a lot in the garden over the last few weeks, partly because I’ve been busy with other things, but also apart from the harvesting it is the time of year when most of the work is tidying up and pulling stuff out of the ground or pruning rather than planting.

That said I do have a collection of ‘spring flowering’ plants in the greenhouse which I need to put in place before too long and I have some bulbs to plant so it’s not going to be all tidying…..

The climbing beans are past the point of being collected though there are plenty of pods still on the vines. I may save some of them for next year – but I’m not sure if they are F1 hybrids. Anyway, I think I have some left in the packet…. They were better than the variety from last year, though one of the vines that grew purple coloured pods produced very few pods. As the beans are a mixture it will just be pot luck next year unless the saved beans germinate….. The dwarf beans are also past their best and I don’t think there are any worth picking now.

Climbing Beans – past their best

The mangetout peas lasted until the other day and I didn’t get round to planting any more during the last few weeks.

Mangetout ready for picking – since eaten!

The courgette plants as usual were far too fecund from two plants. Even though the variety produced yellow courgettes and were easier to spot some still managed to hide until they were massive – so I’m sorry to say some went straight to compost. Well there were plenty of other small ones to eat and there is only so much that can be done with courgette….

One of the smaller courgettes….

We also had just enough cucumbers – there were two plants, one bought as a seedling and one from seed. The bought plant, grown under the ‘door’, produced several cumbers and the died a few weeks ago for no apparent reason. Meanwhile the plant grown from seed, which I planted  in a container, barely survived attacks from slugs and pigeons and had to be protected under plastic for a few weeks. Eventually though it thrived and produced a couple of cucumbers, and is still alive though may not produce any more but we’ll see.

Sweet peppers in the greenhouse –

The peppers in the greenhouse are doing ok. The sweet peppers have fairly chunky peppers and the chilli variety plants have quite a few peppers, but not yet ripening apart from a plant in the kitchen.

The raspberries I planted produced until a couple of weeks ago – enough to keep me with some for breakfasts and for some to be frozen. The ones growing in the hedge near the greenhouse are producing just now – I had about a dozen with my breakfast this morning.

There is still the odd strawberry ripening – if I can get to them before the slugs or birds they are a handy addition to my breakfast.

A couple of the strawberries

Meanwhile the grapes in the greenhouse are just about ready. The plan is to produce grape juice this year, I just need to get the bits and pieces together ready.

Bunches of ripe grapes – I’ve picked them just this evening to make grape juice

There is a big chunk of work coming up dealing with the hedges though – especially when the brambles have finally stopped producing (I’m still hoping to harvest some more) but most haven’t been properly cut since late spring and some have really grown.

Some of the remaining brambles – there are better ones elsewhere though

I must get round to digging up the potatoes as well – the tops have died back almost completely.

Wildlife

The trail cam deployed recently on the lawn showed two hedgehogs together and a young hedgehog has been wandering around in daylight as well – and it is small enough to get through the protection cage around the ground feeding station so the camera caught it inside a couple of times.

There have been ‘visitations’ of greenfinches to the feeder with sunflower seeds a few times recently and they can empty it in a couple of days. It also rather annoys the great tits who can’t get near the seeds for the greenfinches and they regard the feeder as theirs normally.

I have seen a squirrel around the garden a couple of times but not round the bird feeders as yet so it is safe – for now….

 

Update With Pictures

A big update with pictures to bring things more or less up to date.

All things in no particular order :

Tomatoes – the ones near the kitchen are doing ok – there are four in the container, but the two I grew from seed (tumbling tom) are well behind the two I bought (sweet ‘n neat – bush type & ‘orange zinger’ a cherry tomato type) – the latter being a main step type see below:

Tomatoes outside the kitchen – the tall one if the ‘orange zinger’ with fruit already set

Outside the greenhouse two growbags have the later germinators (marmande and 2 x pomororo) and they are still relatively small but the RH bag (2 x pomodoro & giulietta) are now big with well developed fruit (see below)

Well developed plants outside the greenhouse

Inside the greenhouse, all the plants bar one have been ‘stopped’ as they have got enough trusses or have reached the roof and several have fruit but not ripening yet (see below). They are at the point where watering with tomorite is now a regular job. There is more of a mixture of types – ailsa craig, marmande, pomodoro and giulietta. The odd mixture is a result of the rather peculiar germination record this year (lots of pomodoro for instance).

Full size omatoes in the greenhouse

Greenhouse tomatoes developing well

The pepper plants in the greenhouse again were late germinators and only one – a sweet pepper (gourmet) is growing well but still yet to produce flowers. All the others, mostly chilli type (prairie fire), are still rather small and only a couple have been repotted into big pots yet.

Not much else in the greenhouse apart form some house flower cuttings and a set of helianthemums waiting to go out into the garden.

Elsewhere the garlic plants have all collapsed (weather) though they don’t actually look to be ready yet:

Garlic bed – but are they ready?

The mangetout on the other hand are ready and producing plenty of pods – I added two new rows in the last week or so to keep production going.

Mangetout – now producing

The dwarf beans are growing ok (?) after initial attacks by pigeons, but are yet to produce flowers.

Dwarf beans

Climbing beans

The climbing beans are flowering and I can see there are at least two types but I don’t know what types they are. I just hope they produce well unlike the ones I grew last year.

I have one cucumber plant growing well under the glass – a ‘mini’ I bought as germination of the cucumber seeds was poor – the one plant that I did grow from seed is now in ‘special care’ as it was attacked by slugs. Two courgettes did germinate (‘atena’, the yellow one) though and both plants are under the glass and we have had one small courgette already with more to come soon.

‘Mini’ cucumber with courgette flowers beyond

The broad beans however are a bit of a disaster area. Poor germination from the ones planted in the ground in the first place but even the ones produced in the greenhouse are not producing pods. They are tried and tested varieties I’ve grown before as well (the sutton and aguadulce) we haven’t had a meal from them yet. Some sutton plants don’t have a single bean pod or flower on them for instance.

Broad bean plants

One bed I’ve planted up with salad crops only a couple of weeks ago has seedlings through, but it is netted to keep away the pigeons. It’s a mixture of salad leaves, lettuce, turnip and radish.

Salad crops

The carrots have been a problem. The first sowing was all eaten by slugs?, the second by slugs & pigeons and the third only a few have survived!

The fruit is doing well despite the weather though. The redcurrants are ready and protected by netting so a picking session is in prospect (we had enough for jam last year) and the gooseberries can’t be far behind.

Gooseberries – ready?

Ripe redcurrants

The raspberries have started to ripen so a few have been ready enough to eat already. There are lots on the canes ready to ripen as well

Ripe raspberries

The strawberries which were supposed to produce fruit in succession according to the variety instead seem to have produced some fruit at least all at once! Most eaten now though…

Strawberry plants – with straw!

That’s all on the growing

Wildlife

The trail camera out for a couple of months showed two hedgehogs together and a different fox but no return of the badger.

No squirrels for a few weeks then one appeared this morning.

Some Progress but Weather Still Variable

Although it is spring and showers are expected the weather has still been very up and down – with the odd sunny day, rainy days and still some frosty mornings. The days are at least longer and with the clocks change there is now some light in the evenings. The greenhouse has at least been reasonable to work in mostly, though too hot on the rare sunny days.

One big failure of the winter planting has been the broad beans where only half or less of the beans planted back in Feb?

have come up. Fortunately I have been able to rescue the situation with beans planted in pots in the greenhouse. Most of these I’ve planted in the bed now, and there are some more in pots not yet up which will hopefully fill in the last gaps.

What broad beans?

On the other hand the first batch of mangetout peas are now in the bed and looking good. Also, the rocket plants I put in a couple of weeks ago seem to be thriving. The sweet peas though are struggling apart from those planted near the kitchen window.

Another failure has been the carrot seeds – nothing has appeared so after ?? weeks I think they aren’t going to germinate. I do have more seed and a different variety so I need to get some of them sown as soon as possible.

I have two courgette seedlings and one cucumber seedling just a t the point of producing their first true leaves, so they will have to be potted on I suspect before I can risk then going outside. I have more courgette and cucumber seed planted but not yet through.

Elsewhere, I’ve been sorting out one of the compost bins as the rats had found a way into it so I had to empty it into another and then reset it over some mesh and flatter base – I needed the mesh as the rats had gnawed part of the base away to gain entry.

 

Wildlife

The trail cam has shown another visit by the badger as well as regular visits by a hedgehog.

More Plantin’

It was warm enough again a few days ago to work in the greenhouse again and so I managed to sow some more seeds. First of all, some mangetout peas, enough for a row at least. Secondly some flower seeds, in particular some sunflowers, rudbeckia and dwarf dahlias.

Some of the existing seedlings could be moved out of the propagators  and the marigolds were advanced enough for this. The tomato seedlings also were big enough to pot on into individual pots – but these I put onto a tray and kept them in the house for a few days to make sure they were ok (still coldish nights).

Tomato and flower seedlings with pots of broad beans And sunflower seeds  (tedddy bear)

Also, I put some cloches out over tow of the raised beds ready for the beans and peas (hopefully).

Meanwhile some more seedlings/small plants that I ordered a bit ago have turned up – some sweet peas and petunias. The petunias (36 of them) were just micro plants and needed putting into a grid tray more or less straight away so that was an hour or so in the greenhouse.

One or two pepper seedlings have appeared in the pots on the kitchen window ledge but it still isn’t really a good result – I do have another packet of sweet pepper seeds to start of if no more appear.

The salad leaves in the greenhouse are now coming on well:

Salad leaves coming on well

Things in general are starting to bud in the garden – we’ve had a few dry days now but temperatures have in general stayed fairly low – around 3 to 5 degrees in the morning struggling up to 9 or 1o during the day. The daffodils are still in full flower as well – and some of the later narcissi still in bud.

Wildlife

Hot off the press – the badger sighted again! The wildlife cam at the bottom of the garden had been out for over 2 weeks and i just reviewed the results, so mostly cats, squirrel, blackbirds and hedgehog(s) turned up as usual but then on with the badger wandering in then back again very clearly – haven’t had time to process it yet so maybe the next post I’ll be able to show a clip.

F

I’ve Bin Plantin!

Yes, progress at last. Weather is still all over the place with rain, wind, some sun and this morning a frost (first for a while) and temperatures varying from 0 to +13degC in the last couple of weeks.

Anyway, I was finally prompted into action by a bit of sunshine and planted a whole raised bed with broad beans. I should have planted some last autumn really but  somehow I missed that opportunity. Two varieties – ‘aquadulce’ and ‘the sutton’ – about half the bed each. Planted, as usual, much closer than recommended but who has the space they want you to use? This is more space dedicated to broad beans than usual but I do have more beds to fill!

The garlic plated a couple of weeks ago is now just producing shoots although I notice the tops of some have been nibbled – I suspect pigeons!  The strawberry plants are now coming on – apart from a few (see bottom LH corner of pic below) – I will be talking to the supplier about them!:

Strawberry plantlets mostly growing now

Just today I’ve had to cut the holly hedge on one side of the garden – which has been growing regardless of the time of the year, plus I’ve pruned some of the blackcurrant bushes – though there are still more to do….

Just to illustrate further the way things are growing here are the daffodils in my lawn – they have been in full flower for more than a week now (compare with last post):

Lovely daffodils! Now fully out

Wildlife

The trailcam at the bottom of the garden has revealed that at least one hedgehog is still active thanks to the warm winter. Also I’ve spotted a different fox from our regular visitor – which is easily recognisable by having a very thin tail, not very brush-like. The new one has a proper ‘brush’, the the ‘thin tail’ one is still around.

A New Year – Weather Still Living in the Autumn

Hi to my reader in 2016.

So what’s happened since the last post? Well apart from Christmas etc. not a lot in the garden. The weather is still totally weird with temperatures up in the teens (C) many days, although it did drop to only 2deg the other night. So I have a Osteospermum in the garden which has just flowered, plus several cyclamens in flower. It’s really bizarre and annoying as plants (and weeds) that should  have died or gone into hibernation are still growing! So plants that should have been cut down for the winter are actually producing new shoots – even some of the clematis! I’ve actually had to hold off planting some of the spring flowering plants I have in the greenhouse as some of the plants they are meant to replace are still in flower – it’s just ridiculous.

Some colder weather is promised for the next week but that doesn’t really seem like enough to turn things round.

All in all it makes what to do in the garden a bit tricky – and although unseasonably warm it hasn’t been terribly comfortable working in the garden as there has been a fair amount of rain and wind and very little sun.

I have managed to buy most of the seeds I need for my vegetable gardening however, but the flower section is still in the ‘planning’ stage.

Wildlife

The most recent trailcam videos (from December) show the hedgehog still active as well as an indication of the weather plus fox and of course several cats but nothing very unusual. The birds are going through sunflower seeds at a high rate but mainly just blue and great tits with the odd robin (and hedge sparrows on the ground).

Still Not Really Winter

Despite a couple of nights where the temperature did actually get below zero, it’s been pretty mild since the last post. It’s around 10degC today for instance, though quite windy. We have had a reasonable amount of rain though, enough to curtail work outside on several days.

I have managed to get out and work a few days since the last post – so now six out of the eleven raised beds are clear, and two and a half are seeded with winter green manure – though only one is showing seedlings at the moment.

Green manure sprouting

All the crop plants from inside the greenhouse are now being composted, so what’s left in the greenhouse now are the winter bedding plants from a plant supplier, at various stages.

Speaking of the bedding plants, I did get round to planting some of them out today into containers – all of which are underplanted with bulbs as well so now there are some pansies, bellis and sweet williams learning how to cope with the weather outside the greenhouse.

I have been puling up some of the dead and dying annual flower plants from the borders as well as I spot them, though the way the weather has been they’ve hung on rather longer than they should.

Wildlife

No a lot to report really, I’ve had trail cameras at the bottom of the garden and watching the bird feeders. The first has shown that the hedgehog(s) have probably gone into hibernation as there weren’t any sightings in November, the only thing of not beside the multiple cats was a visit from the fox we’ve seen before (it has a rather non-bushy and ‘bent’ tail).

The bird feeder camera revealed visits from green-finches and long-tailed tits as well as the frequent great tit and robin visits as well as some desperate attempts by magpies to hang onto the fat block feeder. The speed that a great tit can land on the feeder with sunflower seeds, grab a seed and fly off has to be seen to be believed! The feeder needs refilling at least once a week as a result.

Autumn – Suppose I Should Clear Up

Well so far the autumn has been fine but what you might ask have I been up to in the garden since the last post.

The answer is not a lot really. I have cleared out the growbags in the greenhouse and one of the ones from alongside the greenhouse. The others will go as soon as I have time and they are finished growing and any tomatoes left aren’t really ripening or are too ripe. We’ve had such a glut of tomatoes from all the plants that there’s no keenness to use any of the ones left!

Still producing are the peppers in the greenhouse, and it’s been so mild and even sunny many days that they are probably still ripening. Also still producing are the courgette plants but I would guess that apart from the courgettes that are currently still on the plants there won’t be any new ones. The cucumbers have more or less given up growing as well. the cucumelon has ‘fruit’ on but I’m not sure if they are ready.

There are still potatoes in the ground, but the carrots and beans are finished and cleared away already.

On the fruit side I’ve harvested the apples (Lord Lambourne & a few Braeburn) as the wind had blown many of them off anyway. The blueberries were finished a couple of weeks ago, I was able to have some with my breakfast cereal for several weeks. Also, raspberries, from the canes that have been in the garden since before I moved in have been producing until only a few days ago, again nice with mmy breakfast. There have even been a coupl of strawberries in the last week!

I have been potting up a load of winter bedding flowers including Bellis, Pansies and Sweet Williams plus some ‘garden ready’ Bellis and Polyanthus delivered a week or so a go are waiting to be planted out.

Wildlife

Not much to say except several squirrels have been taken on holiday since the last post. The results of a trail cam at the bottom of the garden have shown regular visits from cats and hedgehog(s) plus one sighting of a fox.

The birds, mostly tits, have been going through the sunflower seeds rapidly together with a ‘fat slab’.

So What has Been Happening With The Veg?

Well they have been growing and I’ve been cropping – but not all and not all successfully.

First, the broad beans are finished now, the last beans were harvested today and some of them too old to use but all needed peeling before uses (they are going to be used later this week). they have been pretty good and have produced a reasonable crop. Cant’t really say that the De Monica produced better than the Aguadulce, both seemed pretty good.

Broad Beans – all picked and waiting for the chop, with Garlic in front ready to harvest

The mangetout peas are also almost finished (although there is a small number of plants I planted after the others in the beans bed still not flowering yet). and they have also produced well, still a few pods to come though I think.

The climbing beans are producing now (we had some today) but not really well and they still are pretty reluctant to climb properly. Even allowing for the poor weather early on after they were planted it’s still pretty disappointing- so I don’t think I’ll grow the variety (Fasold)again and will return to the previous variety (Blue Lake) grown over previous years.

The reluctant Climbing Beans – note the amount of growth at the base

The ‘dwarf’ beans have been misbehaving as well – not being dwarf and pretending to be climbing beans so they have needed support – all a bit weird really – still they have produced a few beans.  (we had some today).

The ‘Dwarf’ Beans not being dwarf!

The peas (Hurst Longpod) are close to harvesting and the pods are filling out well so next weekend I think we’ll be having them.

The ‘full size’ peas

The ‘climbing’ strawberries have finished their first crop but there are one or two new flowers so there may be more coming. While on the fruit, one of the raspberry canes planted last year which is supposed to be an autumn variety has been producing for the last couple of weeks, just enough to go with my breakfast cereal, and very nice too. Meanwhile, the blackcurrants are ripening up and looks like we may be harvesting next weekend.

Raspberries – great with my breakfast cereal

The salad cops haven’t been as good. A container of salad leaves is currently being harvested and a row of radishes is also ready plus a row of lollo rosso lettuce is also ready. However, other crops like beetroot, leaf beet, and mini-celery have either failed or are struggling with a few plants. Partly this is down to pigeon damage and partly to failure to grow at all. As an example, tow rows of lettuce germinated but after a couple of weeks half of each row had gone as a result of pigeon or slug damage.

Lollo Rosso lettuce with radishes behind

Cos lettuce, Turnip, with Pak Choi behind and Calabrese at the back (plus plenty of weeds!)

The Courgettes are of course trying to overwhelm everything else – below is an example – there is a cucumber plant left of it (completely hidden)and the climber is a ‘cucamelon’ donated by my neighbour (who is growing one as well) growing as an experiment. I have harvested two cucumbers already though.

Courgette taking over!

To finish off – one tomato (a ‘Gardeners Delight’) is just starting to turn (see below) – so soon we’ll be harvesting by the ton…..:

The first tomato to start ripening

Wildlife

A rather annoying squirrel has been about which mostly ignores the peanuts I put out to entice it into the trap, and goes straight up the pole to the seed feeder – which it has almost destroyed. Drastic steps were needed – so I bought an anti-squirrel baffle to put on the pole – which I’m please to say has ‘baffled’ the squirrel (I watched the other morning go up the pole then wonder what to do next). So I’ve now got a new seed feeder in the hopes it will last longer.

The trail cam has been located on the lawn for a while recently and revealed a hedgehog wandering about and was itself knocked over by magpies – 3 of which appeared early in the morning looking for trouble – one marched up to the camera pecked the lens then jumped onto the top and knocked it over!

I noticed over the last couple of days at least one house-sparrow on the feeders which is encouraging, but I wish there were more. There have been greenfinches on the seed feeders as well recently and the usual tits, though most look pretty scruffy so I think they may be youngsters.

A few butterflies about, the buddleia bushes are just coming into flower so I expect to see a lot more butterflies soon.

 

Some Proper Rain At Last

The last few days have been punctuated by showers of rain, and some long enough to really get the garden wet and recharge the water butts, so quite appreciated rally. Also, most of the rain came overnight so didn’t interrupt the daytime activities too much – which is unusual as it was a Bank Holiday here yesterday and that usually means poor weather – instead we had relatively fine weather, at least in this part of the UK.

However, for various reasons, including running a half-marathon and spending hours in a boat, I couldn’t spend as much time in the garden over the Bank Holiday weekend as I would have liked. As a result all those seedlings waiting to be planted are still waiting….

On the plus side I did harvest some rhubarb for the first time this year (just removed the cover the other day) which we’ve had in a ‘sponge and rhubarb cake/pudding’ with cream – yum. Also talking about harvesting, the salad leaves in the long container are now big enough to harvest handfuls. The row of rocket outside the kitchen will be ready soon as well.

Salad leaves – you can just see the rocket behind the container

In the greenhouse I’ve repotted some of the pepper seedlings (‘Gourmet’) – there were three in a pot so they are now in individual pots. I’ve shifted three more growbags into the greenhouse and cut the holes in one and watered ready for some more tomato seedling – well they are getting out of hand now and although I can’t grow them a ll in the greenhouse I really need to get them into growbags. One of the bags will be used for pepper plants though.

Many tomato and flower seedlings

The three tomatoes already in the growbag are flourishing:

Tomatoes – Ailsa Craig, Pomodoro and Gardeners Delight

I’ve also had to sit and prick out a load of antirrhinum seeds into pots – and there are still loads to do not just them but also- including mesembryanthemums of which there seem to be hundreds…

Outside I’ve taken a bold step and planted out the dwarf beans – and I need to sow some more now just in case!

Dwarf beans now in raised bed

The ‘Lollo Rosso’ lettuce seeds I sowed a few weeks ago are now popping up, though not in the precise row they were sown in – I suspect birds have been disturbing them. The radish, pak choi and turnip seedlings are all coming along nicely, but no sign at all of the chard so a resowing is now on the cards.

Lollo Rosso seedlings

The ‘old’ apple tree (Lord Lambourne) is in full flower, as is the new and still small Braeburn. The plum planted last year looks like it is still concentrating on growing and hasn’t produced any flowers.

Oh yes and my nicely planted carrot ‘tank’ (which is standing on bricks so the top is about a metre above ground – to avoid carrot root fly) – where the seedling were all coming on nicely, was raided by something ?magpies ?cat and all the seedlings disturbed and moved about – too late I covered it with an old fire-guard, and most of the seedlings are making a valiant attempt to recover, but there is a rather blank parch in the middle which I’ll need to resow. Really annoying and unexpected.

Wildlife

Some amazing developments – I had a trailcam in place at the bottom of the garden for a few weeks and when the results were reviewed a few days ago we discovered the following passing through the garden:

Three different cats

A rather scrawny fox

A hedgehog

And – a big surprise – a badger!

No idea where the badger is coming from or going to but it appeared on several different nights so clearly is a regular visitor. I haven’t processed the pics and movies yet, but when I sort them out I’ll post here.

Many butterflies in the sunny weather as noted in previous post, plenty bumble bees on the flowers that are out and many ‘beeflies’ arguing over their territories while hovering over the lawn. One smooth newt turned up in some compost from one of the compost heaps – I was mixing it with some bought compost (by hand) when I suddenly saw movement – so I let it go close to where it came from. Also a ‘froglet’ appeared after the rain, possibly one of this years tadpoles as they hatched early this year.

I refilled all the bird feeders a couple of weeks ago with fresh seed,peanuts and fat-balls and the tits and robin plus collared doves have been visiting recently – I would guess they all have chick somewhere nearby.

Summery Again

Thanks  to an extended period under high pressure (well a week or so) we now have daytime temps into the low 20’s (C) but night-time it drops to below 10 deg so a bit chilly first thing in the morning.

The other effect at this time of year of course is the shortening day – there hardly enough time in the evening to get things watered and one or two simple jobs and it’s already dark (before 8pm already too dark to work).

I’ve also had lots of things to do inside – like work and decorating – so outside work has taken a bit of a back seat. It’s been frustrating as well since the weather has been fine and sunny. It’s not that I don’t have plenty to do – there are over 70 ‘winter bedding plants’ in trays in the greenhouse which will soon need planting out.

Meanwhile I can scarcely keep up with harvesting the tomatoes, though amazingly by having pasta sauce made with our own tomatoes, we’ve been able to keep on top of the tomato situation. However, that isn’t so true of the courgettes, though production is slowing down now so maybe we’ll catch up.

The other bit of routine harvesting that has been handy is the raspberries – this time from just one cane I’ve had a few years, it is an autumn cropper and is quite prolific – so I’ve been able to have raspberries with my breakfast cereal several mornings each week, just picking the ripe ones just before breakfast – yum!

After finding a rather disappointing harvest of ‘Maya Gold’ potatoes from two bags the other week – scarcely enough for a couple of meals – with small portions. I emptied one of the bags with Maris Piper in the other day. This proved a bit more productive (see pic below)

Maris Piper harvest

So we had them mashed (with roast pork)

What’s the most depressing thing about wandering round the garden is the weed situation – boy have they proliferated – although the flower beds aren’t too badly affected, its mainly the areas around the raised beds and those bits I haven’t cultivated this year that are affected. I think an assault with the strimmer is called for….

I have harvested the grapes from the greenhouse  (pic to follow) but haven’t weighed the crops, seems like several pounds though. I’m now desperately looking up things to do with them – looks like gape juice or jam/jelly at the moment.

Wildlife

A major development for the birds is a ‘squirrel and pigeon proof’ enclosure to put over a ground feeding station (picture to follow) purchased from the RSPB. Within hours the dunnocks and a robin had worked out that it wasn’t a problem – haven’t seen any blackbirds inside yet – in theory they can get in. Sadly the pigeons have failed to appear (or a squirrel) since I put it out so I haven’t been able to gloat over their inability to get at the food yet.

Speaking of squirrels, one appeared last week, so the trap duly went out. Next morning I could see something was in it – but it was a hedgehog! So I rolled it out and after a few minutes it decided  the coast was clear and wandered off I have a picture which I’ll add). It does at least prove the hedgehogs are still around, so it served a useful purpose. Needless to say the squirrel hasn’t made another appearance, at least while I’ve been watching…..

Hedgehog just moving back to hide