September in the garden

As we come to the end of September I look at the garden and feel pleased that it's still looking good. I've been able to sit back and enjoy the garden during August and September, or just potter around doing a bit of deadheading.

Up until a few years ago the garden always started to look quite tired and drab from late July.  So in the last few years I've  started to think more about planting for late summer colour. I've now got rudbekias, heleniums, michaelmas daisies, sedums.  This year I've also  grown dahlias for the first time in ages and I'm quite pleased with them. There are quite a few grasses too which give interest most of the year round and at this time of year take over the show as the earlier flowers die back.  I feel that I'm starting to get it right.

This month we've had such extreme weather changes from heavy rain at the start of the month and then going quite cold, to seeing summer return in all her glory.  I find it quite odd to be sitting in the garden soaking up the warmth of the sun, a very hot sun, and yet around me the leaves are beginning to take on their autumn tints. I noticed the other morning that the drive is full of fallen leaves, and I need to start sweeping them up to put in the leaf bin.
 
Tomorrow is the start of October, the weather will change again, flowers will die, but I look forward to the colours and changes to the garden it will bring.

Scary moments at the allotment

We were pleased with our work at the allotment on Sunday. We weeded, cleared the sweet peas away, and harvested. We picked beetroot but there is still plenty more left in the ground for other days. We've cleared most of the cabbages now, throwing the worst of the slug damaged ones away or taking them home for the rabbit. We also picked some purple sprouting broccoli which has appeared, very early. They are not usually ready for picking until March. The climbing french beans haven't done all that well, but there were a few to pick.  We also tipped a couple of the potato bags onto one of the cleared areas and found a good number of potatoes still in there. We're now thinking about what we can put in for the winter. Onions, garlic spring cabbage perhaps. The leeks are growing nicely, there is red cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts and the PSB.  We also have celery, celeriac, and one little squash which we thought was butternut but does not look like it.

What we weren't pleased about was the mice jumping about in the cabbage bed as my daughter was weeding there.  Even worse than that was the rat I came face to face with  as I lifted the piece of old carpet covering the compost heap! I don't know who was the most surprised, me or the rat. The rat shot off through the fence leaving me in a rather fragile state. I think it will take me a while to recover from that experience.

We consoled ourselves later by doing a bit of foraging down the lane. We enjoyed collecting elderberries, a few rose hips, blackberries and brambles.  I think there may have been sloes in the hedges too, but as I wasn't sure, we decided not to pick those. I will check those out and maybe go back another day if I'm certain they were sloes.  We left for home with great plans to make elderberry cordial, rose hip syrup and blackberry gin. Unfortunately the handful of blackberries was only enough to make  an apple and blackberry crumble, but it was very good.

Surprises

I love it when the garden surprises you.  You know when that plant you thought you'd killed off suddenly starts to sprout again. Like the bay tree I've  had growing quite well in a big pot for a few years, but which suffered badly in the cold of last winter. I cut it back as they said to do on Gardener's World, but still nothing happened until last week when I was thinking of throwing it out, but noticed 2 new leaves had appeared.  Or like last Sunday when I found all those potatoes in a bag I thought I'd emptied. Then there are the plants I've bought from plant sales, just to support a worthy cause and which I've not been able to identify, but which turn out to be real gems.


Well this is my latest surprise.  It's an Arum which a neighbour gave me about 3 years ago. It has interesting leaves from spring to summer, dark green and glossy with pale markings. For the last 2 years it has not done much but die back each summer. This summer it surprised me by flowering, which I thought was a very nice thing to do. I didn't know it would produce these berries too in the autumn. I planted it under a shrub because my neighbour said it grows in the shade. Nestling under the leaves of the shrub it brought a stunning splash of autumn colour.  It was a bit of a 'wow' surprise which greeted me over the garden gate. I like these sort of surprises.

Digging for treasure

Most of the potatoes we grow (1st and 2nd earlies) are grown in containers, either the special potato growing bags or just old compost bags. They are placed in any space available. We have them in the garden and at the allotment, lined up military style alongside the hedge or fence. They start off all neat and standing to attention, then as they start to grow and the bags are topped up with more and more compost, they start to sag and the foliage is all over the place. We're always glad when we can cut the foliage back and start to look for potatoes.

This year I've grown Foremost and Maris Peer earlies.  I also planted some Pink Fir apple potatoes in the ground. These are a main crop and  I read somewhere that if you only have space for one variety of main crop then you should grow these. They have a delicious nutty flavour.

I love harvesting potatoes,  it's like digging for treasure. You never know how many you're going to find in there. It was especially good yesterday because I thought I'd emptied all the bags of potatoes some weeks ago. I delved down into the bag just to see if there were any odd ones still in there, and found a treasure trove. I collected 3lbs altogether.

So many apples

We have a Bramley apple tree in our garden, which must be quite old as we've lived here for 27 years and it was here when we moved in. Despite its age it still produces lots of apples each year. And each year I struggle to use up all those apples.  They do at least  provide lots of food for the birds throughout the winter. As the apples fall to the ground, I collect any good ones and the rest are left for the birds.  The birds love rotting apples. The good apples left on the tree my husband picks.  We usually end up with several baskets of apples. Some are given away to friends, family  and neighbours, the rest we keep and I try to store them as best as I can.

I'm now at the stage of finding different ways of cooking these apples.
Sometimes I do baked apples. I core them and fill the centres with sultanas, raisins, currants and some syrup or honey. Yesterday I made an Apple Cake using a recipe from Greenside Up. This was easy to make and tasted yummy. I would recommend you try it.

Apple cake

I also made a Spiced Apple and Raisin Crumble based on a Delia Smith recipe but I adapted it slightly.  I put this in the freezer.

 Spiced apple and raisin crumble

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 350F (180C)

1lb/11/2lb (450 gr)  Bramley apples, peeled and sliced
1oz (25g)soft brown sugar
 1/4  teaspoon cloves
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 oz (75g)  raisins
2 tablespoon water

Place the apples, raisins, sugar and spices in a dish, sprinkle with the water.

For the crumble topping:

6oz  (175 g)plain flour
3oz  (75g )butter
3oz ( 75g) soft brown sugar

Place the flour in a mixing bowl, add the butter and rub into the flour lightly, using your fingertips.  When it looks crumbly, add the sugar.
Sprinkle the crumble mixture all over the fruit in the dish.
Place the crumble dish in the centre of the oven and bake for about 40 mins or until the apples are cooked and the top is slightly brown.

Does anyone else have any good ways of using up apples?

Holiday memories

It's a month since we returned from our holiday in Cornwall and  the weather has changed dramatically in that time. The memories also soon fade, so I thought that before it all becomes locked away in the dim and distant past I would post some of my snaps on my blog. This is also to please those who keep asking to see some of the photos.  If you don't like other people's holiday snaps, then look the other way now.

It's years since we last went to Cornwall, and there were lots of places we wanted to revisit.
We stayed in a cottage at a place called Porthallow, which is on the Lizard peninsula. It's a little cove with a shingle beach, a cluster of cottages, one pub and a craft shop. We  loved the quietness of the place.

 It had a pub called The Five Pilchards, where we went a few times for a drink or a meal, but mostly in the evening we used to sit on the beach and watch the boats out at sea.

We did lots of walking along the southwest coastal footpath. There were some stunning views and lots of wildlife--butterflies, masses of flowers bordering the paths, seagulls of course and we even bumped into some Shetland ponies along one walk which the National Trust had put there to keep the grass grazed.

We went to Marazion and walked across the causeway to St. Michael's Mount. You can only walk across at certain times of the day depending on the tides. Other times you can go across by boat.

 Penzance was a place we wanted to visit again.  We even saw a pirate ship in the harbour.

The  Lizard  is Britain's most southerly point

This is Church cove at the Lizard

Lizard point

Porthleven is one of our favourite places to visit. It has a harbour, a long beach,  lots of interesting little shops and a weekly craft market.

We visited a few gardens, of course, that's a must for us.  Bonython was lovely, you can read about it here http://margaretspatch.blogspot.com/2011/08/bonython-estate-gardens.html   The best garden was probably Trebah, which would need another blog post to tell you about. We spent all day there.

It was a great holiday and I'm sure we will return to Cornwall again sometime.

One year on

 

I realised the other day that it was a year last month since I retired from work, so I've been thinking back on the last year.

In the weeks leading up to my retirement, many of my work colleagues asked me what I was going to do with myself when I was no longer working.  I had lots of plans and projects in mind.  I was looking forward to having more time for the  garden and allotment. I was going to be looking after 2 of my grandchildren before and after school 3 days a week. I had hobbies which I'd not had much time for in recent years and wanted to take these up again, knitting, sewing, crafts, baking.  There was also the pastoral work which I am involved in at my local church.  That was enough to keep me busy for a while.

I worked for the NHS as a ward clerk on a busy orthopaedic ward. It was a very demanding and at times quite stressful job.  I was very well organised, in fact I was probably a bit of a control freak. But I really did love my job. When I went back a few months after finishing work to see my work colleagues, they were surprised when I said that I didn't miss work at all.

I was so glad to get away from that mad, manic busyness.  It was great to be able to relax and please myself what I did everyday.  I am still busy, but busy doing what I want to do.  There aren't enough hours in the day sometimes.  When I worked I often heard retired people say they didn't know how they had ever had the time to go out to work.  I now know what they mean by that.

I saw retirement as a new phase in my life, another role to take on, like starting a new job almost.  But doing what I wanted to do, not being bound by rules and regulations.  I'm still very organised,  having grandchildren commitments means I have to be and I love being involved in their lives.

As I look back on the past year  I can see how much I've achieved.

• I've lost weight and I'm more active now. I don't 'do' going to the gym--walking and gardening help me to keep fit.
• I've mastered  my camera and how to upload photos. I'm now sorting them out into folders. Still lots more work to be done there.
• I wanted to improve my writing skills. I've made  a start, here I am writing a blog.
• I've converted a spare bedroom into a craft room.
• I've had a massive paperwork clear out and reorganised our filing system for bills, statements, policies etc. There's still 2 bin bags of shreddings waiting to go on the compost heaps when there's more room.
• Done loads of knitting.
• Tackled a few new projects in the garden.

These are just a few of the things I've done this past year and there are still projects I'm wanting to get on with. Now maybe I'll start to make my plans for the  next year!

Mustard seeds

 If you read my blog last week,  fairies, blackberries and toadstools you will know that my grandchildren marked out their names in a seed tray of compost and sowed mustard seeds. I was quite surprised to see that the seeds were starting to germinate 2 days later. So today, a week later they were looking very green.

 But as you can see we overdid the seed sowing a bit!  However after a bit of thinning out, tweaking and trimming, their names are a bit more recognisable. Hoping they'll like this when they come home from school later.

I don't think I'd be any good at topiary!

Planting leeks

Last weekend's important job at the allotment was to plant leeks.  I'd been waiting until all the onions had been lifted so I could plant the leeks where they had been. We took our 2 grandchildren with us so they could help us. After I had prepared the ground I went round with the dibber making the holes for the leeks.  Both  children wanted to help with this and although I let them have a go, the soil is quite heavy in places and this proved too difficult for them. The leeks which had been sown earlier in the year in a seed bed were lifted.  This was where the children could help. We got a good system going--as I made the holes with the dibber, they followed me round putting the leeks into the holes and then filling each hole with water.  They really enjoyed this. We planted 56 leeks.

Meanwhile my husband did some weeding around the raised beds.  There are some horrendous weeds on the plot and it's a difficult job trying to keep on top of the weeding. The biggest weeds are around the fenced area  and the edges of the raised beds and at this time of year Himalayan balsam takes over. In the raised beds the main problem weeds are mare's tail and bindweed, but there are also docks, dandelions, nettles, couch grass and lots more that I don't know the names of yet.  We took the childrens' garden tools with us and the 5 year old enjoyed helping Grandad to weed. I think he just liked digging holes and raking up the gravel really!

The brassica frame seems to be working to protect the cabbages against caterpillars, but of course the slugs can still get in there, so there is  slug damage on some of the cabbages. The worst affected ones are not wasted but given to Riley the rabbit, who belongs to my daughter's family.  We may have to remove the frame soon as the purple sprouting broccoli is growing too tall for the frame.  I'm  wondering at what time in the season they will be safe from the cabbage white butterflies.

This is our 2nd year with the allotment and we have really noticed how much more produce we are harvesting. This is probably thanks to soil improvement and gaining some extra growing space. The council have delivered some free manure recently so it's been a free for all with all the plot holders barrowing the stuff back to our plots.  We've bagged ours up and left it to rot down for a while as it was too fresh to use immediately.

Our next job will be weeding and more weeding, we're determined to conquer them!

Fairies, blackberries and toadstools

For the last few days of the summer holidays I'm looking after 2 of my grandchildren. I try to make their time with me interesting, fun, enjoyable. Usually I try to make sure that my husband is available to help on some days, although he is not fully retired yet, so that is not always possible. We don't do big days out with them, the sort of thing that costs the earth, we might go to the seaside or visit some local attraction but nothing too expensive and most of the time it will be going for walks, doing things at home--craft work, gardening, shopping, going to the park. And really they seem to be quite happy with whatever we arrange for them.  They can be hard work, occasionally naughty, but it's mainly  just their high spirits which can be tiring for us.


One of my daughters bought me a book for my birthday called  'Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars' . It's a great book aimed at grandparents, with lots of activities and interesting things to do with your grandchildren. It is American so some of the things are not appropriate for us in Great Britain, but it's easy to adapt some of the activities.

Today my 7 year old granddaughter and I looked through this book and she wanted to make a fairy garden and house.  We went round the garden looking for things we could use like leaves, twigs, acorns, flowers and seed heads and some shells and pebbles from the house.

Her imagination ran wild, I just provided the basics for her as she made a garden in one  terracotta plant saucer and a house with a lounge, bathroom and bedroom in another.  We placed these in a little corner of the garden under a tree.  Meanwhile my 5 year old grandson who was not the least bit interested or perhaps did not have the imagination, was doing what he does best--running around the garden, digging and raking with his own garden tools and generally just enjoying himself in his own little world.

Not wanting him to feel left out, later on we sowed seeds in a tray with both children's names. I filled a seed tray with moist compost and levelled it off.  The children marked out their names in the compost with fingers or a twig, then we sprinkled seeds in the marked areas.  I used some mustard seeds or you could use grass seed.  This was then covered with more compost.  Hopefully the children will see their names appear as the seeds grow.

Later on we went out for a walk and picked blackberries, another simple activity, but one which they really enjoyed doing.  We even found a toadstool which they both thought might belong to the fairies.