Salad chat update

My salad growing has not been good in the last few weeks.  The seeds I've sown have not germinated or I suspect have been eaten by slugs early on. We've had so much rain, that when I have been able to get out into the garden there have been so many other things to see to that the salad has got neglected.

There are  still salad leaves for picking--red salad bowl, watercress, mustard and rocket. The rocket and mustard have flowered and look very pretty! I can't remember when I last bought any lettuce.                

 I haven't done well with the sowing of new salad leaves. In fact things were so bad that when I went to the garden centre the other week I bought a tray of salad leaves to plant in the hope that they would be strong enough to resist the slugs.  Well I planted them and they are still there so there's hope yet. They might do bettter than my own sowings.

In the cold frame the cucumbers produced some tiny fruit, but some were chewed at by the slugs. And after the heavy rain this week the plants looked so bad that I decided to give up and throw them out.

The good news is that we have a growhouse now at the allotment and I'm wondering if we might be able to grow some salad in there during the colder months. Also at the allotment the fennel we planted last month is looking good. Some of the beetroot we planted earlier in the year didn't get thinned out so we harvested them as baby beets and they were lovely in a salad.  There is plenty more beetroot both at the allotment and in the garden cold frame.

 In the next few weeks I shall be sowing some winter salad leaves and start sowing seed for microgreens and pea shoots again for the cooler months.

For more information on growing salad crops and recipes to try check out the 52 Week Salad Challenge posts on  veg plotting's blog

Polytunnel or greenhouse?

 

The work on the allotment polytunnel is nearly finished. Last weekend R started covering the frame with the sheeting and he managed to do all but the door.  On Sunday morning he covered the roof and in the afternoon Helen and I couldn't wait to get started so we moved in to dig over the soil. We plan to have a flagged path in the middle with a border each side.  The soil is like the rest of the soil on the plot--heavy clay.  So we will have to incorporate plenty of organic matter to break the clay up before we can plant directly into the soil.

I brought some pots of chilli plants from home and put them in there standing on some wooden boards and Helen planted up some potatoes in bags of compost.  We've both tried before to grow potatoes a this time of year for cropping at Christmas, but without success.  We thought we would try them under cover this time and see if that works.

Working away in the growhouse we were full of ideas and plans for what we could grow in there.

Since then we have had two days of continuous heavy rain which has certainly tested out the drains which R has built recently. Unfortunately the rain was collecting on the growhouse roof in places so some adjustments had to be made.

So there it is, still things to be done, but very nearly complete. Most of it has been made from the frame of the old cabin. We've had to buy the polythene covering and a small amount of extra wood.

We're now trying to decide whether it's a polytunnel, greenhouse or growhouse. We originally set out to have a polytunnel, but it's not really a tunnel. It's probably more like a greenhouse. Polyhouse maybe?

Autumn glow

This week the weather has been very showery with occasional spells of sunshine. So I've not been able to do much work in the garden or at the allotment. The allotment work at the moment is mainly digging. Wet weather and digging don't go well together especially as the soil is clay which becomes very sticky and slippy when it's wet.  In between the showers when the sun has come out it's been lovely and I've dashed into the garden to do a few jobs like weeding the salad beds and cutting back a few dead plants. There's a lot to be done and these short quick sessions are not enough, I could do with a few fine days to have a good tidy up.

A week or two ago I was thinking that the garden was looking a bit dull, but I've started to see more colour appearing recently. The sedums are going pinker each day and some plants are beginning to take on their autumn tints. Sometimes I look out of the dining room window at the back garden and there seems to be a lovely golden glow about it, a mellow, autumn glow.

I've noticed a few gaps in the borders where a bit of colour wouldn't go amiss now that some of the summer flowers have gone over. I put some dahlias in, but felt there needed to be a bit more. So I bought some heucheras from the market this week. They are really useful plants, most of them are evergreen and there is such a variety of leaf colour, you can always find one to fit a colour scheme. They are also not too fussy about where they are put, they will grow happily in sun or part shade. I was going to buy just one plant but I was spoilt for choice with the colours available. There was an offer on if you bought three, so of course I had to.

I bought a pinky orange one, which I planted in the top border to contrast with the dahlias.

There's a yellow one, which I've put in the yellow border.

This silvery, green one  has lovely pink flowers.

They look good  from the dining room window, and they look good when the autumn glow descends on the garden.

Allotment planting and clearing

The allotment is coming along well. We have planted leeks, swede, kale, spring cabbage and fennel in the last week in the new raised beds.  It's good to see it's starting to look like an allotment in some ways.  In other ways it's still looking a mess. But I have to remind myself that it's only 3 months since we took on this plot and when I look back on photos from the beginning then I can really appreciate how well we have done so far.

Fennel

Last weekend as well as planting vegetables,  Helen and I tackled the top end of the plot where there are a mass of brambles, nettles and much more.  It was very satisfying to attack these weeds and make our way up the plot into this jungle like territory.  We found some good things like a buddleia bush and a variegated holly.  We decided to leave these in place because we want to have an area for flowers which will attract wildlife. We'll probably leave some of the brambles at the back of the fence too. We're still not sure what our plans are for this top end of the plot, but when it's all been cleared we'll have a better idea how much space we're dealing with.

The top end of the plot

Meanwhile  Richard has been constructing what will be a poly tunnel/growhouse using the wooden framework from the old cabin which was taken down from the front of the plot. The framework was finally in place this week and next we have to buy some polythene covering. 'Buy?' we cried. 'Oh dear we will have to spend money!' But having been able to do so much so far by using materials we have found on the plot it seems hard having to go out and buy something.

Our homemade growhouse

This weekend Richard and I started clearing the area where the old cabin was. Here we plan to have some raised beds. Although the area is fairly weed free having been undercover from the cabin, there is an amazing amount of rubbish. There were probably about a hundred bricks which had been used as supports. Those have been stored in another area. Bricks are always useful for building paths, walls etc. There was lots of wood, some useful, some too rotten to be of any use. Lots of stones too, boulders and smaller stones all which can be used around the plot.  It was hard work moving all this stuff out of the way and there was just so much of it we didn't seem to be getting anywhere. We haven't finished but we've made progress.

What a mess!

There is a drainage problem on the plot as it is on a slope so Richard is building another drain before he puts  the raised beds in place.

 I ended the day by walking down to our old plot and picking some cabbage, beetroot and climbing beans. I also picked blackberries from the lane along the way. 

September flowers

Since I started taking photographs of the garden throughout the year I've found it really useful to see how the borders change with the seasons. Early on in the year when there isn't much in flower, I can look back on last summer's pics and see how full they will get.  That helps to curb my desire to fill up all the spaces with more plants. It helps me to see how new borders have progressed since the previous year and it also helps me to identify plants. A green shoot which appears in the spring may not be a weed after all but a plant which lost it's label after planting last year.  I've destroyed many a new plant in my enthusiasm to tidy up a border of weeds.

This week I have been looking back at my photos of  last September in the garden to see how it compares to this year. They looked to be more colourful last year. But I have moved plants around this year, so that will have made a difference.

I wandered round the garden last weekend trying to spot the good bits in what I felt were rather dull looking borders. And I did spot some bright areas.  I noticed there were lots of butterflies and bees about. If there are bees and butterflies then there must be flowers.

I planted some dahlia plants earlier in the summer, but some of them got eaten by slugs so I bought a couple more last week to brighten the borders up with late summer colour. The ones with the open centres are more bee friendly than the cactus type

This year I planted some more plants in the yellow border.  This helenium is looking very bright now. I didn't realise how tall it grew though.

Some time ago I made a 'wish list' for garden plants and amongst them was helenium and echinacea purpurea. I bought three echinacea at a plant fair in the summer and was pleased to see they've settled in.

The sedums are starting to flower, the bees and butterflies love them.

 This clump of marguerites is still looking good, there are others around the garden which have not done so well.

Persicaria takes on some lovely autumn tints.

It is still only the middle of September so I'm hoping that over the next couple of weeks the garden will take on some more late summer colour.

What's looking good in your garden at the moment?

Making leaf mould compost

After the really wet summer it was good this week to welcome the sun back and to enjoy some gardening. At the weekend we had an allotment day and a garden day. We've been spending a lot of time at the allotment this summer and the garden and house jobs have been piling up. So my husband spent Sunday afternoon cleaning out the gutters whilst I caught up with garden jobs.

I had to start with my least favourite of gardening jobs--weeding and sweeping the drive. There are a couple of borders either side of the drive which look fine in the spring with snowdrops, daffodils, muscari, followed by bluebells and aquilegia. Later on when the overhanging trees come into leaf and overshadow the borders, nothing much will grow there. One border is full of ferns which completely take over. I've tried various plants but they don't survive in the dry shade conditions. So for the rest of the year this area is quite dull looking.

There were a lot of leaves on the drive and as I swept them up I thought that this was the start of the autumn leaf clear up. Leaf sweeping is an ongoing job throughout the autumn, not just on the drive but also in the garden as there are lots of trees around We have a big leaf bin next to the drive made out of an old wire compost bin. It provides us with lots of leaf mould. All we do is chuck the leaves in and hey presto months later it turns into wonderful compost. As I tipped the leaf sweepings in I noticed how much compost there was in there which was ready for use. That would be useful for the allotment on the raised beds.

Leaf compost is good for improving the structure of soil, it can be used as a mulch or it can be made up into a potting compost mix. It is really easy to make. Collect fallen leaves from the garden or even from the streets. It's best not to use evergreen leaves as these take a long time to rot down. A wire bin is ideal to use, you can make one out of chicken wire. Or the leaves can just be put into bin bags. Make some holes in the bags with a fork, water the leaves if they are dry, tie up the bag then store in the garden in an out of the way place. The leaf mould is usually ready to use in about a year.

I think some bagging up of compost needs to be put on my jobs list for this week.

Foraging

At the top end of our allotment there is a jungle of weeds.  We are working  up that way in our clearing sessions, but as yet it is a mess. Amongst the mess are blackberries ripening daily. There aren't very many, I've only picked about 6 so far, that's not enough to make a pie with. We're going to let them ripen and then pick them before we finally cut the mess down.  There will still be blackberries to pick though, because I've found some more nearby.

The allotments are situated along a lovely lane, full of wildlife and I went foraging along this lane last week. There I  found an abundance of blackberries. I was in blackberry heaven as I picked. I was dreaming of blackberry and apple pies and crumbles using the apples from our apple tree in the garden, blackberry jam, blackberries mixed with the raspberries from the garden and blackberry gin.

I need to be quick though because other people know of this blackberry place, I've seen them walking down the lane with carrier bags. But I think there is plenty for everyone and I mustn't be greedy.

The down side of this blackberry picking is the scratches and nettle stings to my arms, so I have to remember to wear long sleeves when I go there.  I've also found that the best ones are always just out of reach.  So I take a small rake with me to pull the branches down.

I'm doing well, I've picked lots now and they're in the freezer ready for when I  have a baking session. If  I don't bake soon I may just have to go out and buy another freezer because I'm running out of blackberry space.