19th December, 2009

The weather has turned very cold and frosty at night with sub-zero temperatures. So not much happening in the garden. Nonetheless, the frosts should improve the flavour of the sprouts and parsnips. I've tried a few and they do taste very good. They will be excellent for Xmas dinner. The parsnips are rather small and have bent roots. It seems the tap root goes down so far then goes sideways. Again I have to blame the heavy clay soil which the root can't penetrate. Once again, I hope that continued addition of compost will improve the soil condition.

The purple sprouting broccoli had resisted the attention of the wood pigeons, until now. I counted a flock of 22 of them which get frightened off by a buzzard every so often, but they must be getting hungry as you can see below.



With Xmas arriving I have asked for a veg cage which should be a little more substantial than my pathetic home made effort which now looks like this.



I need to get the cage over the PSB as soon as possible (Boxing day?) before my PSB is eaten away.

The broad beans in the greenhouse are thriving but this cold spell will check them back.



Finally, if you remember I made some apple and raisin wine last December after my failed attempt at crushing apples for cider. I had to resort to using wine finings to get it to clear which worked a treat and I'm glad to say that the final result is very nice! It's a medium wine that is very smooth and easily drinkable, perfect for xmas (if it lasts that long). Cheers!

24th November, 2009

The asparagus beds got a good mulching of multi-purpose compost. I didn't have any home made compost ready so had to resort to buying some but I was determined to give the beds some first class treatment as next year should see the first real crops.



As well as the onions showing fresh green shoots, so are the shallots.



No sign of the garlic, but last year they didn't start sprouting until the spring either.

In the greenhouse the spinach has started to germinate which might seem surprising but on sunny days the temperature has reached around 20C. Impressive. The broad beans have benefited from this and I've moved them to a sunnier position.



I've been doing some potting up of a succulent plant called Echeveria (not a cactus)that has thrown out a large number of sideshoots. I can't bring myself to dispose of them because they produce wonderful flowers all through the summer and maybe they would make nice gifts. They will have to rough it out in the greenhouse over winter and we'll see what happens next year.



I have some small Aloe cactus there too.

Finally, I've been splitting bulbules from the orchids too.This one is last year's which I have just left in the greenhouse to get on with it (with watering of course) and now that the shoots are appearing, I have taken pity on them and brought them indoors.



And these are the flowers of a Phalaeonopsis orchid which has been flowering constantly for several years now. Marvellous.

10th November, 2009

I spent the weekend mostly collecting leaves on yet another fine sunny day. Here they are in the plastic bags.



I cut down the asparagus to ground level and will mulch with some cheapmulti-purpose compost. I would like to use my own compost but it's not ready yet.



I pruned the gooseberries and redcurrants following RHS advice. I cut off the leader back to about 6" of growth and then cut the side shoots back by a half.



One of the redcurrant bushes was composed of 4 shoots rather than the desired single shoot. So I dug it up and indeed it was really 4 separate plants, so I have replanted these in a temporary position until I have prepared a new bed near the apple tree. I'll do this through the winter for planting in spring. This is all possible because now there is sufficient sunlight to grow plants on the south side of the garden following the hedge removal.



The continuing warm weather has helped the onions develop some strong shoots.



The spring onions are doing well in modules in the greenhouse. I'll probably plant these out in spring.



The broad beans have germinated already and I sowed some spinach in modules. There have been some frosts so the Brussels sprouts and parsnips should have improved taste I hope. I need to try some although I don't think the parsnips are very big.

26th October, 2009

I planted out the overwintering onions (First Early variety from Thompson & Morgan) along with a row each of garlic and shallots (using this year's bulbs). Within 2 weeks of planting the onions are already showing green shoots which I put down to the lovely warm weather in combination with a good bit of rain.



I sowed the Aquadulce broad beans in small pots and they now sit on a shelf in the greenhouse. I also have started to collect leaves of which I can not get enough. I am lucky to have deciduous trees at the bottom of the garden and lately they have been shedding their leaves. I filled the small leaf mould cage very quickly and there are still lots more to come. The large adjacent cage is already full of shredded Leylandii which I reckon may take several years before I use it by slowly adding it to the regular compost. So, I will have to use the black bag method again for the leaves. Other than that not much is happening.

This is the side bed with the leeks and purple sprouting broccoli behind it.



And some nice hedge clippings in front.

My compost bins are full and so with all the clipping and pruning at this time of year, I have big piles of green stuff scattered around the garden; I am trying to make as much compost as possible. Next year the beds should really benefit from a huge onslaught of added compost (I hope).

6th October, 2009

At long last it has rained which is very welcome because I want the soil to soften up so that I can plant out the overwintering onion sets, garlic and shallots. The picture below shows just how bad the soil had got in the bed next to the hedge and has developed large cracks. So still some way to go to get the soil condition right, despite my previous post where I was more upbeat about the soil in the bed where the spuds had been. It just goes to show that you can never dig in enough compost.



The chillis in the greenhouse are putting out new shoots and look in good shape for overwintering.



I have removed the environmesh covering the purple sprouting broccoli as it was restricting growth. The plants look really good and I hope it produces some good florets next spring. This will be a first for growing and eating.



The Brussels sprouts have been rather neglected because I have not made a veg cage to protect them properly. They did have netting draped over them but this has not been sufficient to keep the pests off and the top leaves have been attacked. However, there are some good sprouts coming along and there will be some for xmas. There are plenty anyway but I won't be trying any until there is a frost which should improve flavour.



I would like to be digging in more compost (soil condition permiting) but I have none so that will have to wait, hopefully there will be some in the spring. In the meantime I shall be collecting leaves for leaf mould