Through the Garden Gate--January 2023

We've had some bad weather during January.  At the beginning of the month it was very rainy, I was longing for it to stop so I could get out in the garden to do some tidying up jobs. That was not to be because after the rain came snow again. It was very cold and the the snow took some time to melt. How glad I was when finally it cleared away. It was still very cold but I could wander around the garden and I was so pleased to see bulbs coming through especially the snowdrops. The snowdrops are flowering now and seem to look better every day.

Down in the woodland bed the Witch Hazel is in flower. The variety is 'Jelena'--a bronze colour, but I'm a bit disappointed with it as it's quite a dull colour.  It was one of the first shrubs I planted when we moved here 5 years ago and I'm wondering now if I should have chosen a yellow variety which might have been brighter. 

Also in the woodland bed there are primroses just trying to flower and a few little pink cyclamen. I noticed too that the Hellebores have buds so will be flowering soon.

In the border near the kitchen door there is a Sarcococca (Sweet Box) which is flowering with pretty white flowers and a lovely delicate scent which wafts around the garden.

Some of the container plants have perked up, this little trough with white hellebores was planted up just before Christmas and didn't look too great at the time but it's looking quite pretty now.

We've been doing a lot of catching up work on the allotment now the weather has improved so not much has been done in the garden. There's a lot of dead plant material which is now brown and soggy and not very attractive looking. 

So the garden isn't looking great at the moment, I have to search around for little spots of colour. But I'm sure the weather will improve soon and I will be able to get out and tidy up. 

I am linking this post  to Sarah's blog at 'Down By the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Through the garden gate--November

November has been quite a month for changing weather. There has been snow, heavy rain, gales, frosty mornings and sunshine too. 

The garden is slowing down now and taking on a different look. There is still plenty of colour about but not from the flowers, they are gone over now. I love the colours as everything starts to fade and turn to yellow and brown, the straw coloured plant stems and blackened flower heads. On the sunny days  there is a lovely golden, mellow look to the garden.

Some might think the garden looks untidy, but I love it like it is. It all takes on another sort of beauty especially on those frosty mornings we have been having in the last week.

The leaves are falling everywhere--over the borders, blowing across the lawn, covering the paths and drive, behind the shed and tucked in amongst plant pots. They have all fallen now from the lime tree which hangs over the drive. The oak tree is still clinging on to its golden leaves and probably will do until after Christmas. 

As the garden slows down, then so can I. It's a time to have a rest from back breaking gardening and take things easy.  I enjoy going outside on sunny days to sweep up leaves or tidy up a bit in the borders, but there's no rush, there's all the winter months to get the borders cleared. 

  
The wildlife will benefit from the messiness. As I wander around the garden I often wonder what creatures are hiding underneath  the piles of leaves left to rot in a corner or the seedheads and broken hollow stems in the borders. I know there are some forms of wildlife about as Holly the cat regularly leaves them for me outside the back door!

As usual I have joined with Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly Through the Garden Gate slot

Resting and waiting

The bad weather continues, I wonder how long it will last, there has been so much rain. There's not much work we can do down at the allotment or in the garden when it's so wet.  The soil is too wet and soggy to do anything. It's really dirty weather.  But I'm not too worried, the garden doesn't look too bad, there's still autumn colour about. I don't cut back the dead plants until late winter.  The seed heads  provide homes for insects and food for the birds and some of them provide winter interest in the garden especially when touched by a bit of frost.

At the allotment we've cleared and manured most of the beds except for the leeks and brassicas, which we will be picking through the winter. The pond has been overflowing with all the rain--I hope the frogs haven't left home! We've had some storm damage, the old plastic growhouse got blown down in the gales, but we were going to pull it down anyway this winter to make way for a new greenhouse. And in the garden we have a fence needs replacing after it got blown down by the wind. All jobs for the new year when hopefully the weather will be better


I love getting the allotment beds all clear of dead plants and weeds and covered in manure or compost.  I think of it as tucking up the beds for the winter, clearing out the old and preparing for the new.   As the plot rests over the winter and waits for the spring we think about what we want to grow next year and we plan  projects. We think about what mistakes we may have made or what improvements we can make.

 So  there is now a sense of resting and waiting on the plot. Resting time for us before all the hard work starts again and  resting time for the soil while the nutrients from the compost and manure do their work. And as we wait  for the weather to improve, we also watch for  new growth to appear, we make plans and we look forward to starting work again.

 

Bad weather, lots to do

Heavy rain and strong winds have kept us away from the allotment recently. There's so much work I want to do down there still before the winter really sets in, so I watch the weather reports carefully and if there's any chance of a dry day I abandon any other plans and head off to get a few more jobs done. We had one dry but cold morning this week, so I packed up a bag with flasks and sandwiches--the house jobs would just have to wait.

Looking around the other allotments I could see that quite a few of our neighbours plots were looking very tidy, with beds manured and everything cleared away. I wished my plot looked so good. But then we are still in the process of moving stuff to my plot from Helen's plot which she is giving up at the end of the year. We have about six weeks left and as we never know how bad the weather may get--not just rain but frost and snow, we decided our first job would be to dig up the two gooseberry bushes which we want to replant on Plot8, my plot. It was not an easy job, as gooseberry plants are so prickly. Richard dug them out and I potted them up into large pots for the time being as the fruit bed on Plot 8 needs a tidy up before we can plant them. As usual it was a job which took much longer than I thought. The next job will be to dig up and move the rhubarb to my plot. I dug one plant up a few weeks ago and was amazed at how big the roots were. 

Gooseberry plants ready for potting up

Back on Plot 8 I looked at what needs to be done there. Some of the beds have been cleared and manured, but there's still a lot to do.

One bed weeded and manured

I cut back some of the asparagus foliage which has started to go yellow. As soon as it has all been cut back, I will weed the ground and cover with manure. The last time I was there I started to cut down the sweet peas,cosmos and other flowers which have now gone over, but ran out of time. Finishing that off is another  job for next time. The fruit bed is in a bad state with strawberry runners all over the place and of course there are now some gooseberry plants waiting to be rehoused there. 

The weather forecast says we could have snow at the weekend, I hope not.

Getting the jobs done

Here we are in June and still waiting for summer, will it ever arrive? This week we've had some lovely warm days and maybe summer has finally arrived. But we've had some strong winds recently which have tested the stability of our allotment plastic grow house. Fortunately Richard secured it well to a strong base. This is its second year and probably its last. The zip has broken down one side and although we could probably buy a new cover I don't think it's worth it. It's served its purpose and Richard is making a base for another grow house or poly tunnel type of structure which he will build himself and will be much more stable. We don't buy things for the allotment if we can make them.

Things are starting to grow and it's looking nice and green with rows of broad beans, peas, salad leaves, onions, garlic cabbages and Brussels sprouts. The pea and bean frames are in place and so is the brassica frame.

This week I have planted out celeriac. I love celeriac but haven't quite mastered the technique of growing it.  Last year's crop was very small, but I will keep trying. I have also sown fennel, swede, more peas and more climbing french beans.  It always seems a mad rush at this time of year to get everything in the ground at the right time.  I don't want to miss out on any vegetables because I forgot to sow the seed at the right time.  But I feel I am getting on top of things and ticking off the jobs on the list in my allotment journal.

The strawberries are looking healthy.  They have had some lovely flowers and are now starting to form the fruit.  I have put some straw underneath the strawberries in the bath and still have to do the ones in the fruit bed. This year I must remember to net them before it's too late and the birds eat them all!

January progress

January is not a good month for getting work done on the allotment. Snow and ice is often the problem, this month is has been rain and wind.  But there have been bright spells.  We've watched the weather forecasts to decide if it's been safe to go to the allotment for an hour or two.  We've managed that a few times this month and every little helps.

At the start of the month the job was to tidy up some of the rubbish still lying around on plot 8. This was mainly stuff cleared out of the old shed and wood from the demolishing of the shed. We spent a few fine days sorting through the rubbish, deciding what we wanted to keep (it might come in useful one day). We ended up with several bags of glass, plastic, metal and general rubbish which went to the local recycling centre. There is now a pile of wood waiting for the right day to have a bonfire and stacked up at the back of the shed out of the way is all the wood which we want to keep. There's always something to be made or repaired on an allotment so it's useful to have some decent pieces of wood.

We gained a few useful items as well as wood--lots of plant pots, a folding wooden garden chair, several sheets of membrane fabric, loads and loads of tubular poles and connectors which were probably once assembled as grow houses and staging. One day we will sort through them and see if we can make anything with them. It will be quite a puzzle I'm sure.

I started to clear the weeds from the new beds which had been dug over at the end of the summer. There's still lots of  weeding to be done but it's a start.

The next job was to top the raised beds on plot 10b with composted manure. This was a job we started in the autumn but stopped as Christmas took over. First job was the rhubarb bed then the blackcurrant and gooseberry bed. Finally the old roots bed which will have peas and beans in later this year. The raised beds on plot 10b now look very tidy.

The polytunnel was in need of some attention and I made a start on cleaning the inside with Algon.  I then  tackled the borders which are heavy clay soil.  I topped the beds with some manure and compost.

In the meantime Richard has made a start on building the path up to the polytunnel. This area has been causing some problems in wet weather because the soil is clay and becomes very wet and slippery. He's making some long steps up the slight slope. So far he has made a wooden frame (using our supply of spare wood of course) and is now filling in with hardcore before the final gravel topping.

 

As we come to the end of the month, the weather is not just rainy but extremely cold too. I'm glad we made the most of the fine days to get those jobs done.

A bit of fair weather gardening

 The other day one of our allotment neighbours jokingly described us as fair weather gardeners.  It was a lovely day and we'd not been down there for ages because of the bad weather except to pull up a few veg and feed the allotment cat.  But there's not much to do on the allotment when the weather is as wet as it has been lately. We can't dig because the soil is wet and sticky. We can't even go in the polytunnel at the moment because the path up to it is too muddy and slippery.

I suppose we are fair weather gardeners really. We watch the weather forecasts avidly and quite often plan the week, looking for the days when it is expected to be fine and we will be able to go down to the plot.  I'm sure most gardeners are the same.

Once Christmas was over, fired with the enthusiasm of the new year I was longing to get down to the allotment. Well we were lucky last week, we had some good sunny spells.

One of the first jobs on our list planned for the allotments this month was to manure the beds.  Being fairly new allotments they still need plenty of improvement to the soil. Some of them got done last autumn, but we didn't manage to finish them before Christmas.

We have a supply of manure delivered to the allotments every week from a nearby stables.  I was really pleased to see that the bin which we had filled last year was well rotted down, so I set to work shovelling and barrowing.  I started on the rhubarb bed, where there are signs of new growth. Then I did the fruit beds and finally some of the vegetable beds.  Some of the beds still have winter veg growing, so they didn't get done and I didn't cover the ones where we plan to grow root crops this year. 

That was plot 10b done, plot 8 needs weeding and manuring yet, but I was pleased with the work done, it all looks much tidier.