Garden 2013 no 1

Garden 3013 no 1

It feels so good to write that…. GARDEN 2013 NO 1 

This will be brief, obviously there is not a lot to do or to see in a garden in January but the there are two things I find worth celebrating. The first is that I was well enough to brave the January cold for about an hour and go outside to the garden. The second is that once out there, I saw tiny signs of new growth. My fruit bushes are in bud. It’s early, and spring is still a long way off but it’s reassuring to see the bushes in bud ready for the spring. I did very little, I picked up some rubbish that had blown into the garden, clipped a few blackberry runners off before they embedded themselves into the ground, raked over the soil to level it off after the recent rain and wind, threw some spring bulbs into the ground and then threw handfuls of soil on top. (I’m not sure they will actually do any thing but I had forgotten about them and they spent the winter in a bucket in the shed). I’ve nothing to lose, the bulbs weren’t going to do any thing in the shed and even if they do nothing this year, they will be nicely buried into the ground by next year.

On the plus side, I’ve caught a lot of the water that’s been falling from the sky. My water butt is full to overflowing and the various buckets and bins around the garden are also rapidly filling. I’m thinking of using the wormery I bought a couple of years ago as a second water butt. I didn’t have much luck using it as a wormery because all the worms died.  I think it’s too cold here to keep worms outside and the bin has been cleaned and stored in the shed, it's ideal because it has a tap on the bottom.  I think I’m going to adapt it and use it as a second water butt, seems a shame to throw all this water away when it could be used to water the garden s next summer.

But for now, it was so nice to spend an hour outside.

Garden 2012 no 22

Garden 2012 no 21

There’s still stuff to do in the garden before real winter sets in and the ground freezes. Last Sunday I carried out boring routine tasks, I cleared the paved area of weeds and grass and removed the deep rooted weeds from around the fence. I tidied up around the outside of the fence and cut back the over hanging plants. I pulled the last of the spinach and lettuce and threw them in the compost because they were too bitter to eat. 

I’ve collected all the compost and filled up the empty tubs ready for next year, I’ll just have to feed and fertilize before planting. I missed most of the Tay berries and black berries this year because the fruit came when I was recovering from the eye surgery. The branbles were taking over and beginning to wind themselves around the two gooseberry bushes. 

My solution was to replant the gooseberry bushes in pots ready for next year and train the blackberry and Tayberry brambles around the fence where the gooseberries were. I’m hoping for a bumper crop next year because I missed the crop this year. I dug up the carrots; they were the only crop left in the ground. These are the weirdest carrots I’ve ever seen, no idea why they grew like that but the smell when they were dug up and washed was delicious. 

They may look like monster carrots but I think they will taste good.  I’m going to make carrot and coriander soup, that way their poor misshapen bodies will make no difference, as long as they taste good the soup will be good. After digging and bottling the beetroot last week I made beetroot soup using the stock the beetroot were cooked in, some red beetroot stalks, some beetroot leaves, some of my garlic, some of my red onions and some vegetable stock.  It’s a deep red colour and has a satisfying earthy taste. I ate some with home made garlic bread and saved some in the freezer

Next Sunday, weather permitting, I hope to finish off tidying up and tying back the fruit canes, clear the vegetable patch and start digging ready for the winter.

Sep 5, 2010, Multiply, Food for free,

(above; from my garden)
That time of year again; food for free

I don’t think I need many words here, the pictures are self explanatory. Its that time of year again, time to go hedgerow picking. My garden fruit  didn’t amount to very much. I didn’t really expect it to because most of the fruit was only planted this year or toward the end of last year. But; what I did harvest from the garden made  a couple of very tasty little snacks. Hopefully by next year there will be enough for a few meals.

The wild berries are abundant this year.


The Rowanberries are full and plump very early. Last years Rowanberry and Apple Marmalade is marked October 09, and here we are, at the start of September and already the Rowanberries are ripe. I had my two grandchildren staying with my and they were happy to help. Later that evening, after tea, wicked granny that I am, I sent my grandson up the ladder to pick as many of the tiny crab apples from my garden tree as he could reach. It’s always the same, the nicest ones stayed on the tree right at the top out of reach. These little apples are not good enough to eat but they add a fantastic flavour and good setting quality to preserves. And this weekend I’ve had my other granddaughter staying. I explained to her that I wanted to attempt rosehip syrup for the first time this year. She picked as many Rosehips as she could and I’m pretty sure I can make a batch of syrup from them. Once I had a bag full of Rosehips we wandered along by the burn picking the ripe Blackberries, and this afternoon she has gone home proudly clutching her jar of Blackberry and Apple jam. Can’t get a lot fresher than that, this time yesterday they were on the bush, teatime today the jam will be on her toast.

Tags: rowanberry, eco-friendly, apples, rosehips, blackberries, jam

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delete reply secretcorners wrote on Sep 5, '10 I was just thinking earlier today as I drove home from the mountains that it would be great to have some crab apple jam. Mum use to make some wonderful crab apple jam. There were several crab apple trees at Grands and I remember trying to eat them raw; impossible! However, made into jam they are both a pleasure to see (a pretty reddish colour) as well as a delight to taste.

delete reply mitchylr wrote on Sep 5, '10 Takes me back to my childhood, of blackberry picking and apple....ummm....scrumping. LOL I was out photographing at Westfield Pill Nature Reserve last week and was amazed at the amount of wild blackberries this year. Bumper crop!!

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Sep 5, '10 wonderful, sounds like great eating in the family's future. gorgeous photos, thank you. ; D

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Sep 5, '10 Delicious

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Sep 5, '10 you be jammin'! great pictures :)

delete reply starfishred wrote on Sep 5, '10 cool loretta-- here they marinare the little crabapples in cinamon and sugar and a few other spices and a little rum then they are good to with things--

Oct23, 2009, Multiply, fruit, jam, planting, fish

A Brief Update

My trip to my sisters was marred by the darn virus but we managed to get out and about a couple of times. It’s always good to see her, we live 500 miles apart and only get together a couple of times a year so we need to make the most of it.
Found this pretty forgetmenot broach in a second hand shop and just knew it destined to be mine.
There is a park with ancient woodland and it’s only a 20 minute drive from her house so off we went to walk her two dogs. Despite the chill in the air it was a beautifully clear, dry day and the autumn colours were beginning to come through. It was lovely way to spend the morning.

While away I watched a TV documentary about ‘Permaculture’, which fascinated me. In a nutshell Permaculture seems to be the practice of growing food in a way that does not require vast quantities of fossil fuels. Apparently conventional farming with all the high tec, fuel hungry farm machinery plus processed animal feeds and fertilisers means modern farming pollutes rivers, kills the land, burns fossil fuels, generally accelerates global warming and creates a massive eco-footprint. The ecological cost of our food is dangerously high but……. the good news is; there are other ways of doing things.
Seems we need to think smaller and more back to basics. Wandering ducks and chickens fertilise the land so efficiently manufactured fertilisers are not needed (free range duck eggs are a bonus), a wild life pond full of hungry frogs gets rid of slugs and snails, no more nasty insecticides.  Native trees with berries encourage song birds;  and allowing native wild plants (weeds to conventional farmers) to flourish ensures bees and butterflies return to the land in abundance.  Once there they pollinate and keep the whole thing ticking over nicely. 
The film also encourages what it referred to as ‘’vertical growing’’ as opposed to ‘’horizontal growing’’. Basically this seems to mean allowing fruit and nut trees to grow and then growing other things in layers downwards.
As well as maximising the use of land this prevents soil erosion and top soil blowing away. I have the film on DVD and if I had the faintest idea how to do it I would post it in YouTube for all to see. There are other short clips on YouTube about Permaculture but from what I can see they are not as good as the film I watched.
Anyway……………. I was inspired and had some small fruit bushes delivered almost as soon as I came home. How fortunate that this is the time of year to plant fruit. I have planted blackberries, blueberries, white currants, red currants and strawberries. I also have some tiny saplings bought back from my sisters garden, two Victoria plum trees and one damson Tree. When I say ‘’tree’’ I use the term optimistically; these saplings are barely two inches tall at the moment.
While out in the garden I had quite a lot of tidying to do before I could plant the fruit. There were fallen leaves every where AND; I couldn’t help noticing how well my small raised garden was looking, maybe you remember this was just a pile of rubble in the summer and look at it now.
Now I’m on the look out for a hazel nut tree, hazel nut seems to be the native nut tree that is the fastest growing and produces the best crop. My plot of land is tiny, but I’m going to give it a go.
I’ve already made blackberry jam this year (subject of previous blog) AND I picked a whole load of Rowan berries and made some quite sharp but delicious Rowan marmalade. I was a little concerned about using the Rowan berries due to their bad press and supposedly being poisonous. Seems the truth is that Rowan berries are indeed poisonous to humans in their raw form because they contain parasorbic acid, however…. Cooking the Rowan berries converts the toxic Parasorbic acid into harmless sorbic acid. And lets face it………….nothing gets cooked as much as a pan of jam on the stove!!
Anyway, my thinking is to get a Rowan berry tree of my own because you can never be sure what the wild berries are exposed to. The blackberries I picked this year came from the side of a railway line and the Rowan berries came from the same area. Soon I hope to be picking them from my own garden and away from any possible pollution from the trains.
One of my sisters has set up a fish tank and I told her once home I would take some pictures of my fish and send them to her, and here they are.Thought a couple of shots of my fish would be a good way to finish.  And that concludes my ‘update’. I’m now almost over the cold or what ever it was and back at work, life has returned to normal and I’m
 already counting the days until the Christmas holidays.

 

Tags: garden, sustainability, plants, permaculture, fruit, jam, fish

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delete reply madisonpooface wrote on Oct 26, '09 I love all the photos. Everything just looks so wonderful

delete reply veroniquemariquita wrote on Oct 24, '09 Hazelnuts grow wild here at the edge of wooded areas. As a kid I always tried to see how many I could gather before the squirrels got to them.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Oct 24, '09 For every one who who wants to watch the film.... I've found it on youtube http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/436/A_Farm_For_the_Future....._HAVE_FOUND_THE_MISSING_FILM If you're interested in gardening, farms, food, wild life................sustainability watch this film.

delete reply aimlessjoys wrote on Oct 24, '09 Hazelnut is my very favorite, but I'm not sure they can grow here. We have tons of pecans, though, yummy! Your gardening & fish culture looks to be going great guns! I'll keep a good thought turning for you & for those fruit seedlings, too!

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Oct 24, '09 I'm counting the days until Christmas too even though I've only been back to work less than a month (October always seems to be a log month to me). Anyway, Loretta I think you've written your blog for Blog Action Day in this post. It's good to see you enjoying your new camera.

delete reply secretcorners wrote on Oct 23, '09 Good luck on all of it.

delete reply mitchylr wrote on Oct 23, '09 Glad to hear you're over your illness. Fascinating blog. I'd like to see that DVD, I rather like the principals you outlined of Permaculture.

delete reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Oct 23, '09 What a blog, girl! Oh yes, the forget-me-not pin was meant to be yours! Glad you got out and about despite the virus. So lovely where you are, I could feel the cool air in the trees. Fascinating as always. You can upload to youtube in parts, not sure how that works, probably ahve to upload to your computer first and possibly reformat to .avi. I've been wondering about that, too. Have a great weekend. xo

delete reply spiritwalkerr wrote on Oct 23, '09 Sounds like you had a good time, minus the virus, and learned some cool things too. Yah!

delete reply starfishred wrote on Oct 23, '09 interesting

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Oct 23, '09 very interesting :)

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Oct 23, '09 very inspiring, indeed! wonderful blog, it's so nice to hear what's growing on in your world. the garden is looking fab. ; D

delete reply hedgewitch9 wrote on Oct 23, '09 Wonderful blog, very inspiring! The brooch was a great find too! Have fun with your planting.

delete reply pestep55 wrote on Oct 23, '09 The brooch is a perfect find for you /:-) Love the eco ideas... oddly the Cheasepeake is dying from farming run off as far away as PA and NY....

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Oct 23, '09 I love your pictures!! I am so glad your daughters got you a camera. The forest picture is so beautiful - haunting, like a fairy place. And making jam - I do remember when I made jelly and jam and vinegar from the black raspberries in my garden. Very nice. I missed you so much.

delete reply nessiek wrote on Oct 23, '09 Hello Busy Bee! Lovely pictures - its so lovely to gather the fruits of your labours eh? I love the brooch - its so you! :o) Nessie x