Garden 2013 no 9

Garden 2013 no 9

The harvest is completely finished and I seem to have spent the last month or so re-painting my blue gates, fences, doors and garden edging. 

I’ve not done the outside painting for a couple of years and the blue was looking quite worn. I figured if I do it this year and give every thing a couple of coats, maybe it will last another two, or at a push, even three years.

I painted the fence my daughter made a couple of years ago and I painted the new gate that her partner made earlier this year. The old one blew away one stormy day. 

This one has gaps between the wood so the wind blows right through it instead of blowing it off its hinges. It also has a wide strip of rubber nailed to the bottom that touches the ground; this stops the rabbits from coming under the gate into my garden.

I still have all the white walls to paint and retouch, but I’m having a bit of a break from garden painting for a while, I’ll go back and repaint the white later. This hansom couple were loitering in the fence, I didn't see them at first. Glad I noticed them before painting them. They even posed or a photo before diving for cover.
 

I’ve been so busy since retirement I’ve realised I have to prioritise on my activities. The two things I really want to spend my time doing is travel and painting, and I don’t mean painting garden fences either, I mean painting canvases. Therefore the plan is to cut down on the gardening for the next year or so. I want to dig the little vegetable garden and turn the whole thing back into lawn. Actually I’m quite looking forward to it. My lawn never was the pristine golf course sort of lawn, it always was a bit lumpy and bumpy and then I dug up most of it and turned it into a vegetable plot.

So if I carefully dig and level the whole thing and seed it, sometime next summer I should have a pristine lawn that needs a gentle mow every couple of weeks. Or at least that’s the plan. I’ve even bought this little machine to help me.

Before starting the painting I cut back the Tayberries.

I read up on this and found out that you have to cut back in the autumn after the fruit has finished.  All old wood has to go and the strong new canes have to be tied up and trained ready for the fruit they will produce the following year. I know I’ve done mine a bit early but I’ve already had quite a lot of fruit from it. There was some fruit left but it had something wrong with it. The fruit that was left was small, green and hard, and instead of ripening it was going moldy and rotting on the cane. I’m not sure  why this happened, maybe because I didn’t cut it back as I was supposed to last year; but I hope by cutting it back and training it along the fence, the same thing will not happen again next year.  Anyway………..if I had left it until all those little green fruits had gone mouldy and fallen off, I wouldn’t have been able to paint that bit of the fence. I’ve also been dead heading the buddleia, I know this has to be pruned back in the spring not the autumn, but I hate all the old, dead, brown flowers so I cut them off as they appear. I think this actually makes the flowers last longer, as soon as I cut the dead ones off, new ones appear. But, I’m sure I’ve seen the last of them for this year. I’ve cut the bush back a little, just enough to get rid of all the dead flowers and next year, I’m going to prune it quite hard to make sure it doesn’t grow too big and get too out of control.

The other thing I’ve been doing is using the harvest in the kitchen.

I have made loads and loads of rhubarb chutney ( with added red wine),

more jars of pickled onions than I can possibly eat and a whole batch of carrot and coriander soup for the freezer.

I’ve also made more herb oil. The herbs, onions and garlic all came from my garden and the red chillies came from my daughters greenhouse. I can’t grow chillies because I don’t have a greenhouse.

I tried to grow them in the windows last year but even that didn’t work, they really need the warmth of a greenhouse to grow properly here. I have a freezer full of fruit and only half a pot of jam left which means the next big kitchen venture is going to be a mammoth jam making session.
So; that’s my garden almost ready for winter. I still have the white painting to do, and I would like to get the lawn sorted out before winter, but apart from that, the garden is definitely winding down for 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--

Feb 17, 2010, The Yogurt Maker

The yogurt maker arrived, its very simple, not sure why but I was expecting something far more complicated than this. Apparently all I need do is put a couple of teaspoons of live fresh yogurt into the glass containers, top up with sterilised milk and plug in. It doesn't have a timer, you just plug in, switch on and time it, then switch it off. It doesn't seem to be a very exact science, the instructions read 'between 8-9 hours if the milk is from the fridge, between 6-7 hours if the milk is pre-heated and then cooled. Think I'm going to wait until the weekend to try this out. I bought a timer for it and I'm sure once I've figured out how long it takes I'll be able to go away and leave it; but I think I'll be around the first time its in use. I'm looking forward to this, home made yogurt sounds wonderfully wholesome.

Tags: yogurt, cooking, kitchen

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delete reply mitchylr wrote on Feb 18, '10 Seems hi-tech isn't always necessarily the best.

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Feb 18, '10 I've had one of these for over 20 years. Yes,they are simple and make nice yogurt.

delete reply djdx wrote on Feb 18, '10 Yogurt making is simple, although things can be less than optimal at times. We have an old set that consists of ceramic mugs and a double aluminum container which one fills with boiling water to keep everything warm, generally overnight. The commercial yogurts add powdered milk and other stuff to get them thicker. Lukewarm mis best to start so that the culture is awake but not killed, like yeast. What I like best about homemade yogurt is the little line of cream that forms on top. :-)

delete reply msowens1 wrote on Feb 17, '10 so cool..... what a great treat maker! we'll be looking forward to hearing your concocted flavors! coffee and carmel are great flavors..... ;-)

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Feb 17, '10 congrats. i'll take some triple chocolate yogurt, please. ; D

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Feb 17, '10 yum :)

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Feb 17, '10 Oh you will so love it! And you'll be able to add all kinds of things: honey, fruits, herbs, whatever you want. Ever have honey mint yogurt? To die for.

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