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Early November
If your garden is like ours, the last of the leaves look like they are going to fall before long, and we can then
spend a few hours tidying the borders ready for the ‘what is predicted to be’ very very cold Winter. We’ve
failed to get our early purple sprouting broccoli in the ground, and I reckon it’s a bit late now. Which means we’ll
have to wait a month or so longer, before we can enjoy what is undoubtedly our favourite brassica. The problem with trying
to be organic was shown last year as the crop was devastated by a veracious brood of Pieris brassicae caterpillars while we were away. My
usual technique of pest control is what I call ‘squashology’, it’s a procedure that ends up with me having
stained fingers, but we won’t go into that! Anyway the broccoli is wonderful, being ready to start harvesting around
February and continuing until May. It’s always expensive in the supermarkets, one of our prerequisites for growing anything.
The supermarkets don’t like the stuff anyway, the leaves soon wilt, and it doesn’t look particularly pretty. But
it tastes wonderful! Just a shame we didn’t get it the ground in time!
Late January and the nights
are drawing out… a man’s thoughts turn to spring!
I
wrote on the notice board ‘Curly Kale’ to remind me I must get some seed for this delicious vegetable. Having
given the plots a thorough dig over at the end of last season, I’m hoping I can get away with what Liz describes as
a light ‘fluffing’. The number and size of plots have been reduced dramatically since having Catherine, purely
because of the time available with the little one. The year before last I built a play area for Catherine which took up quite
a bit of our vegetable garden.
Last year a bit of reorganisation and moving the greenhouse has left us with… well frankly.. for now…
probably about the right ‘manageable’ size of veg space.
This year we’re definitely growing the old favourites, runner beans, cabbage, sprouting broccoli, butternut squash,
marrows, courgettes, leeks, Swiss chard, French beans, beetroot, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, but no doubt when I’m
looking for my packet of Curly Kale seed , they’ll be something else that catches the eye! Trouble is where to put it.
To things more watery, the pond has sprung a leak… how the poor old frogs are going to fair I don’t
know! In the process of cleaning the pond out thoroughly in Autumn I guess my big feet must have pierced the liner somehow.
Of course repairs will have to wait until after the tadpoles, sometime around mid summer, probably more like autumn. We’ll
have to decide whether a complete rebuild is necessary. It would be a shame as after six or so years it’s settled in
quite nicely, and disturbing the planting and the mossy York stone would be a shame.. still
if needs must!
Beginning of March 2006.
Spring hasn't sprung.. and the grass hasn't riz... but a boy's fancy turns to birds!
A regular task for March is the pressure washing of the paths and patio, a messy job which
takes forever, but looks great once it’s done. It’s amazing how much green algae builds up over a year.
The
presence of all this sunshine gave us momentum to get out to the veggie garden, sectioning off a little bit for Catherine.
The pitch darkness of nightime came before I had finished building the fence to go around it! Hammering nails in the dark
is difficult, ouch, but I seem to do a lot of it!
As
for the serious side to the vegetable garden (don’t tell Catherine I said that), the first early potatoes are chitting
in the garage, and Liz has drawn up the plan of what is going where, considering what was in the place last year, and what
is likely to cause shading of other plants.
Catherine at work planting onion sets in her patch above... new life and old memories. Whilst
taking a pause from the hard job of digging in preparation for this years vegetables, Liz approached with
a mug of coffee, and we rested on the old fallen pear tree trunk, where we have often rested since it was felled several years
ago.
I thought in an attempt to bore you silly, you might like to hear my 'Memories of the Old Pear Tree'
| Just a month or two after we moved in in 1995 |
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| A fallen plum tree, typical of what we had to deal with |
Back in the 1920's and 30's, our garden was part of a large commercial orchard, and when we took up residence
there was plenty of evidence of its former life… old roots and stumps littered the sub terrain. It was tough digging
them out too!
We had, what we believed to be, one of the last pear trees from the orchard. Even in its final years of
life this giant tree used to yield us getting on for 100 kilograms of fruit.
| The pear tree is in the centre of this 1997 photo |
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| .... in front of the giant Sycamore! |
Over its life the tree had had much major surgery. Our forestry expert Russ told me that he thought
what had been done was too severe.. the major centre branches had been taken out by the previous owner, some of these were
25 cm in diameter. Whether this ‘major’ pruning led to its eventual demise around 6 years ago, I’m not sure,
but in it’s final years the crop dropped right off to a few pounds of pears, and then it died.
| The garden in Summer 1996... pear on the right! |
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Being a major feature of the garden, we were loathed to take it down. That added to the fact that even dead
it remained a regularly used bird roost. On one memorable occasion we counted over 30 redstarts roosting in it overnight.
They are not normally found in our ‘neck of the woods’.
One day whilst leaning against it's old dead trunk, I noticed I was able to move it… a danger
sign indeed. Branches had been falling to the floor as well, and with Catherine now toddling, we made the decision to fell
it. The decision was accompanied by great sadness, and as a final gesture it gave up it’s last crop… fungi from
it’s rotting trunk, an 80 litre bag full of the stuff!
Russ our forestry expert and I, spent sometime cutting down the main branches leaving about 3.5 metre
of trunk. The tree was close to neighbours, not to mention a standing crop of vegetables, so needed careful and accurate felling
which Russ achieved with his trusty axe! Once down we noticed the Stag Beetle larvae that had bored holes in the decaying
trunk (are they the ugliest looking thing you’ve ever seen?) Catherine was fascinated, and we carefully put them back.
Taking our ‘ugly’ discovery into account, Liz and I decided that the trunk must stay, and maybe we could use it
as a seat, a place to pause a while and reflect on the garden. As I mentioned the Stag Beetles have been in evidence every
year in the garden. In fact one night, Liz , whilst carrying a torch, was hit in the face by one!!
The end of June .. time to take to the garden to rest, potter and soak it all in. So lets soak up
some our garden atmosphere with some photos taken in the last week of June 2006. Click for a bigger view.... if you want one!
You can see lots of flower shots from these weeks in the Garden Flower Gallery.
As the vegetables get bigger and bigger....
.... the Lychnis is providing a focal point in our ponds sunny border
The pond's sunny border facing south.
Looking north to Carl's shed halfway down our top garden... a great place to sit and catch the late afternoon
sunshine. As the great Geoff Hamilton used to say..... it's our bit of paradise... take time to enjoy it!
Late July
All is well in the garden... except it's too hot, and no water. In early June we ended up investing in three
water butts.. only one has been delivered!!
Mind you there is no rain to fill them.
Back to the top of the garden
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