It's been a while since I've posted any garden news, this is not my favourite time of the year for gardening and family-wise things are a bit all-consuming at the moment. However this morning I ventured out to the kitchen garden with a pail of vegetable peelings for the compost heap and had a quick look around at the vegetables still in the ground.
I selected a leek and some baby turnip and a large celeriac. The celeriac had the most wonderful celery scent when I pulled it from the ground. This is the first year I've grown it and despite it's long growing season - in the ground from June to December - I'll definately grow it again as it was so trouble free; other than keeping it watered and a bit of earthing up to keep it white there was nothing to growing it.
The turnip are somewhat disappointing at the moment and I don't expect them to grow much bigger through the Winter so I'll harvest them and use them as small, whole turnip. So now off to the kitchen to get warm and start using the vegetables...
A major piece of the garden hard landscaping has reached a significant point in its progress...all of the paving and the main structure for the roof are finished. The Party Patio is a large area sitting in one of the sunniest spots in our garden next to the Goathouse. It will be used to share meals with friends and for general entertaining.
The Handyman and I spent time yesterday evening reviewing his handiwork and considering the next phase of the project...the outdoor fireplace for those chilly evenings when you'd rather be outdoors but the temperature drives you in.
We spent time considering the size and visual weight of the fireplace and laying bricks in various mock-ups, we also referred to the fireplace in the dining room for proportion; books, magazines and my ideas scrapbook were strewn around the dining room table...we both love this process of design and build; it seems to work well for us to date...time will tell wth this project.
Whilst walking around the patio thinking of the options I really noticed for the first time the shapes made by the wooden joists, all contructed by hand by the ever versatile Handyman, the shapes against an October sky I thought were very evocative of the skill that has gone into creating the structure.
Now how to plant up the borders that will enclose the patio? Time for me to get the gardening books out and develop a planting plan over the Winter months.
The time has come to clean out the greenhouse, first removing the exhausted courgette plants. These two have provided lovely baby courgettes and giant marrow for many a meal over the months from late June to September and, with two large marrow remaining, will provide some more food for a little while yet.
Then it's the turn of the four tomato plants, one each of four varieties: Gardener's Delight - a prolific small-fruited variety, Totem - a bush type, a beefsteak and a plum tomato - varieties unknown. Lots of green fruit especially on the Gardener's Delight. I could leave them a little longer on the plant to ripen but the next few weekends are busy with friends and family and if I don't get the greenhouse sorted now it will be the end of October...so looks like Holly Grove Kitchen will be making a batch of green tomato chutney sometime soon.
The last of the onions drying out on the greenhouse benches are gathered up and together with the garlic bulbs this makes a substantial basket full of produce from the greenhouse.
I'm already thinking of
how I might use the greenhouse - a 6' x 10' unheated type - over the coming months starting with a couple of growbags of lettuce to overwinter, some broad bean seeds to start off and, of course, to shelter the fuchsias in pots before the first frosts.
So, with my Harvest Festival basket and thoughts of new plantings I set off for the HG kitchen...
Our Summer bedding in pots around the outside walls of the house is still looking good. Every year I pot up some pelargonium plug plants, bright red, for the Handyman. They are his favourite and remind us both of lovely times in France. This year's plants had a bit more of an orange tinge than we like but they have performed well in what, during July and August, was a wet and sometimes chilly Summer. They have loved the warmer and much drier weather of September and appear to be putting on a final flourish. They can be overwintered from cuttings taken in August or September, but I have so much to do within our acre that I usually compost the plants at the end of the season. Perhaps when I give up the day job and I have more time for the garden I'll try my hand at pelargonium cuttings.
The other regular visitor to our pots in Summer is the Busy Lizzie, Impatiens walleriana. Preferring a cooler sight, though they will grow in full sun, I set the pots along the back wall of the house - east facing - so they get the morning sun but sit in shade from about 11.30 onwards. They are such a cheery plant, covered in muti coloured blooms. Again, though they can be propagated by cuttings, my preference is to buy them as plug plants in the late Spring.
Various fuchsi
as join in the Summer colour, some hardy and some not. The hardy ones will be taken to the cold greenhouse to overwinter in their pots and be planted out in the garden borders on the arrival of Spring, the others will be added to the ever expanding compost heap.
For now I'll enjoy the final burst of colour from this trio of lovelies!
Just had to quickly share this photo of our enormous sunflowers (self-seeded in the kitchen garden from last year's seedheads). They are over 8 feet tall and looked beautiful against the azure blue September sky.
Walking through the lanes this morning on one of my, now regular, foraging trips I noticed a crab apple tree in the hedgrow. On closer inspection the fruits were ripe enough to come off in my hand with a gentle twist of the stalk.
I took one of my foraging bags, better known as small freezer bags, from my pocket and collected about 2 pounds in weight.
On reflection I should have waited for my return trip to gather the apples as I now had to carry them with me on the rest of my walk.
The real purpose of my trip this morning was to gather a couple of bags of pine cones that I had seen on a walk earlier in the week.
Under the branches of five Scots pines in amongst the pine needles lie masses of disguarded cones. I like the idea of a few pine cones on our open fire in the midst of Winter. I've no idea if this is a practical idea but I'd like to give it a try.
So with two carrier bags of pine cones, two pounds of crab apples and a small bag of blackberries - well, you can't go foraging at this time of the year and come back without a blackberry or two - I wandered home to look for a recipe for the crab apples.
We have two cats whom we live with at Holly Grove. They came to stay with us just over 2 years ago when they were about 15 weeks old. I say about 15 weeks as we don't know exactly when they were born. We adopted them from a cat rescue centre, they were such timid little things; born on a factory site to a feral mother they were not used to human contact.
But now 2 years on, what a difference, they rule the roost, though Bobbins (the tabby) is still unsure of strangers, our Tootsie (black as your hat) loves people and is as soft as butter.
We get such pleasure from watching them cavorting around the garden and they keep the mice and rabbit population at bay - no mean feat in this neighbourhood!
With the temperature reading -10C I pulled on several layers of clothing and ventured out to see if I could identify his paw prints in the snow - eureka!
We see lots of wildlife here at Holly Grove but this is the first time we've seen a fox visiting us - makes me glad we've got no chickens!
