Garden 2014 no 1

Sunday, 23 February 2014

Garden 2014 no 1

The spring flowers are blooming and what better way to spend the first semi decent Sunday afternoon of the year than out in the garden? Not that I did an awful lot. I had already decided to cut back on the garden this year and spend more time painting, but it still needs a little TLC.

Today I cut back the flowering shrubs ready for summer. The buddleia was so tall last year I found dead heading difficult, after today there is more of it in the garden waste bin than there is left on the tree. Hope I wasn’t TOO enthusiastic.


Apart from some vigorous pruning, the only other task I tackled was a general tidy up. The garden was swept clean of leaves and general debris the wind had blown in plus some bits of broken wooden boarders that I found scattered around.

I noticed the rhubarb was sprouting so I covered them with pots, if the weather holds I’ll get the first of this years crop with in a month or so.


Oh………..and I couldn’t help noticing all the buds on the cherry tree.

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.

Garden 2012, no 21, Cooking with the Harvest

Garden 2012, no 21

Cooking with the harvest

It’s as if someone flicked a switch, the first two weeks of October were like a real Indian Summer; and now its cold, wet and miserable. The season changed in the blink of an eye, like flicking a switch. The heating is on, the winter woollies are out and the soup is on the stove. No more nipping out across the road to the shop in your indoor clothes, now its coat and shoes just to put the rubbish out. If you need milk or bread, or any thing else from the shop, remember to pick it up on the way home from work. Because once  indoors, it’s into the baggy, warm, indoor clothes, turn up the heating, close the blinds, close the curtains, lock the door and turn up the TV to drown out the sound of the wind.
Fortunately; I found time in my busy schedule to harvest every thing from the garden.  I’ve picked the last of the beetroot, last of the onions and last of the fruit. Actually, there are a couple of lettuce and spinach plants left in the ground, but they are old and taste bitter, so for now, they are staying in the ground until I get out and start digging.
I’ve done lots of cooking with the produce. I’ve been saving the fruit in the freezer, especially the rhubarb, until I had harvested as much as possible and could use it all together in a huge end of season jam making session.  

The Rhubarb was mixed with the fallen apples from my friends’ garden, I had bags and bags of apples, none of them fit to eat raw but perfect for jam making. I used some of the apples, all of the Rhubarb, a couple of lemons  and a generous amount of ginger and made jam, eight large jars of it, and it tastes delicious. I did have a little help with the labels.
And once that was done, I made sweet white jam. This time I used all of the gooseberry, all of the white currant and some more of the apples and another couple of lemons.

 No ginger this time, this white jam has a delicate sweet taste that I wanted to keep. There wasn’t as much white jam but poured into small jars it went a surprisingly long way, I filled 11 small jars in total. 
The fancy white frills around the tops are just paper cup cake cases placed upside down over the top of the jars before the lids are screwed down.
On to the Beetroot;
It was dug from the ground, boiled in the pan and bottled in spiced vinegar. 

This time I made another 5 large bottles of beetroot. Last time it was 3 large bottles and 4 small bottles, not a bad total for such a small garden and difficult year.
The last of this years cooking with produce wasn’t exactly cooking. I made eight bottles of infused olive oil. Which; I hope to use both as a salad dressing, and to cook with. Each bottle was filled with extra virgin olive oil to which I added one sprig of rosemary, one sprig of mint ( chocolate mint), a couple of garlic cloves, a couple of slices of red onion, and a few pieces of chopped red chilli. Every thing except the chilli came from my garden and the chilli came from my daughters greenhouse.
I still have quite a lot of garlic and some red onion drying out in the kitchen. At the moment I’m not sure what to do with them but I’ll probably just store them in the cupboard next to my potatoes that are already stored

So………..grand total for this year is’ bottled beetroot, pickled shallots, two lots of jam, herb oil, stored potatoes, stored garlic, stored onions, a bag of frozen broad beans and a bag of frozen spinach.  What I need now is a fairly dry day at the weekend to start weeding, tidying and digging ready for next year and before the ground freezes.

Aug 3 2012, the garden and other bits

My mouse broke during the week and I’ve not been able to get on the computer for a few days, it makes you realise what a big part of your life the computer is when its not there. Anyway……………..I have a new mouse now and every thing is back to normal. We have had some fantastic weather here this week; in fact it’s probably the best weather we’ve had so far this year, which is not surprising because school holidays finish in other 10 days which means kids, teachers and I, will be cooped up indoors while the sun shines outside. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing this will be the last school holiday for me……..I shall be retired before the summer holidays start next year I will be free to enjoy the sunshine when ever it comes.

I’ve spent a few days in the garden enjoying the summer colours and continuing to harvest what I can.

As well as the fruit, salad and a little veg I’m working my way through the herb garden. I freeze all my herbs now; I think they retain their taste better than dried herbs. This was one days harvest, more broad beans, rhubarb, spring onions and radish, plus a little fruit and some herbs. From left to right the herbs are Fennel, Lovage and Chives.  I’m freezing the fruit as I collect it and eventually I will have a jam making weekend.
And some flowers, I like flowers indoors but prefer ones  a little on the wild side, especially if they were grown in my garden.

Friday was my big day out to St Andrews with a friend. The sun brought the sailing boats out and I just loved sitting watching, it was a riot of colour.

The little sailing boats were so many different colours and to add to the scene, the families of those sailing protected themselves from the wind on the beach by big, multi coloured, canvas wind breakers.
To finish off the perfect day, we went to the St Andrews Museum and saw the Samuel John Peploe art exhibition, what a great painter he was.

To round up the week there was a family BBQ at my daughters house to celebrate her birthday. I just loved her chicken cake, it had little chicken candles and pictures of her chickens inside the chicken house. This is another cake made by my friend, her business is blooming now she is really busy and becoming quite well known around the town.

And when we came home, a perfect sunset through the trees.

Prev: Sometimes life in my head is not easy.............muddled thoughts for today.
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delete reply artprevails wrote on Aug 5 Your blog is so pleasant...a day in the life of Loretta. That cake is amazing! The bouquet of flowers is so lovely, could you lend them to me for my table? *grin* What do you do to the herbs to prepare them for freezing? Do you just put them into the freezer in an airtight bag as they are?

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Aug 5 love the chicken cake :)

delete reply pestep55 wrote on Aug 5 The garden is looking beautiful, sounds like you've had a full week. Happy b-day to your daughter. That cake is fantastic, no surprise that business is doing well, wow! Your herb and sail boat pictures are great /:-)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 starfishred said all lovely loretta our weather has been good to-- love the cake the sail boats wonderful Hi Heidi, and thanks, yes its great to finally get some decent weather and be able to have proper summer days out.

delete reply starfishred wrote on Aug 5 all lovely loretta our weather has been good to-- love the cake the sail boats wonderful

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 mitchylr said Glad to hear you've had a good week. You've done better with the weather than me, I've had rain several days this week. Great harvest from the garden. Are you going to use any of the sailing photos as the basis for a painting or two? Hi Mitch,, yes we have had a really good week, but its overcast again today so don't go getting too jealous. Ans yes..........I took the sailing pictures as inspiration for paintings. I wish I had more with the colourful wind breakers in because those on the beach next to the bright sails was a fantastic sight.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 brendainmad said Hope you continue to have good weather for the rest of your holidays. thanks, I'm hoping so too, but like I said, its usually really nice in June before the schools finish, and then nice for a couple of weeks once the school goes back. Guess its sods law. :-))

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 sunny21144 said very nice pictures Hi, and thanks

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 hedgewitch9 said That was a tremendous day!! I LOVE the cake!!!! :)))) Thanks Emma, yep I've had a really good couple of days

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 remixedphoenix said Bought a fishing rod, hope that helps. lol................sounds like you need one of those little notebook thingies...........can take them and the internet anywhere

delete reply remixedphoenix wrote on Aug 5 forgetmenot525 said it makes you realise what a big part of your life the computer is when its not there Feeling that... keeping the laptop off a day or two is almost as hard as giving up smoking! Bought a fishing rod, hope that helps. All I need is some decent weather lol

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Aug 5 Hope you continue to have good weather for the rest of your holidays.

delete reply sunny21144 wrote on Aug 5 very nice pictures

delete reply hedgewitch9 wrote on Aug 5 That was a tremendous day!! I LOVE the cake!!!! :))))

delete reply mitchylr wrote on Aug 5 Glad to hear you've had a good week. You've done better with the weather than me, I've had rain several days this week. Great harvest from the garden. Are you going to use any of the sailing photos as the basis for a painting or two?