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 26 First snow in the garden.

It’s December and I guess it had to happen. We had our first light dusting of snow. We were promised a lot more over the following few days but it didn’t happen.
There was light, fluffy, white, dust sprinkled every where. It sparkled in the sun, was very pretty but not too cold. 

That was a week or so ago, now we have rain, rain and more rain. It’s not so cold, but its no where near as pretty either.

Garden 2012 no 25.

Garden 2012 no  25

My garden is cold, wet and resting, as gardens do this time of year. The last of the yellow and orange leaves of autumn will fall soon and then the garden will be in deep hibernation for a couple on months.

But look what’s happening indoors……….

Garden 2012 no 24; My Autumn Garden

Garden 2012 no 24

My Autumn Garden

 
I’ve not a lot to say today. I was stood by my garden gate waiting for the taxi to take me to my drawing class when I realised how much colour I have in the garden. 

I’ve never noticed the autumn colours in the garden before, maybe all of my tree/ shrub planting over the last few years is finally paying off. 

Garden 2012 no 23

Garden 2012 no 23

It’s November, it’s getting cold out there and my gardening days are almost done for this year. Today I dug over the other small plot. Sometimes I wish I had a bigger garden and then I remember I couldn’t manage a bigger garden any more. When the weather is warm and dry enough I actually quite like this time of year in the garden. Its tidy up and put away time, and I find it quite satisfying to be tidying up and getting ready for the next year. I now have both little plots dug, weeded and de-stoned. If the weather is kind I expect I’ll go out again and give it another dig and remove some more stones.
I’ve been removing stones all year, I don’t know why but I kept them, well there’s nothing I could do with them and I’ve no where to put them so I had to keep them. And this is it, a whole years worth of stones, where on earth did they all come from? And what am I going to do with them? If I keep accumulating them at this rate I’ll run out of places to keep them. I think my garden produces stones better than it produces any thing else, shame I can’t use them.
My daughter came to see me while I was digging, she has offered to over winter the geraniums in her green house. I use them to deter pests and as a bonus, the flowers make the garden bright and cheery. But geraniums don’t survive much more that the first frost and there was ice on my pond this morning. I usually bring them indoors and they flower all year. They look great on the window sills but the down side is they smell awful, my charming granddaughter tells me geraniums smell like cats pee, she has a point. So problem solved for this year, I’ve dug them up, re-potted them and on Tuesday they will go to the green house for the winder, lets hope there is no severe frost before then.
I offered her some strawberry plants, mine threw out a lot of runners this year but she said her strawberries did really well and then were all eaten by her dogs before she could pick them. She refuses to plant any more just to feed the dogs. I guess I can understand that. I’ve re-planted the best of them and it looks as if I’m going to have another two tubs of strawberries next year which will be great for the jam making.
After that I did a little cutting back and trimming up on the shrubs, swept piles and piles of leaves into the compost and then called it a day. I may go out there again next weekend and dig it over again, or take some more weeds out of the slabs, or tie the last few bits back, or maybe trim some of the fruit canes back, or just do some more de-stoning. There will always be odd little jobs to do if I want to, but generally speaking, I guess I’m done for the year. It’s a bit sad when the garden closes down for the winter.

Garden 2012 no 23

Garden 2012 no 23


This is it in brief………………….
It’s that time of year again,
It doesn’t look much but,
I did this.

It was cold,
I was exhausted
I had this.

And now I’m heading off to a hot bath
The end.

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.