Violet’s Garden Diary

Have finally cleaned the propagator and modules, and warmed up some compost, and Annabelle helped to sow the first batch of seed for next year. They were (6 cells each):

• Aquilegia McKana hybrids - haven’t seen last year’s lot flower, but hope that more will always be welcome somewhere
• Aquilegia own seed from the Yellow Star. Interestingly, the seeds were much larger than the commercial McKana’s in the packet
• Lovage, from own seed
• Honestly, the last remnants of the Island seed

All gone in under the lid with the heat on, will see what happens

The snow did come, a whole half an inch along roof edges, before being promptly washed away by the rain. Managed to get out for long enough to plant out the mixed anemone blanda, some round the edge of the hosta pot (new suggestion from the Garden article, apparently they work well in terms of seasons), and the last few round the cherry. The cherry hadn’t been tied in properly, naughty me…

The seed-raised dahlias have mostly been frosted back, but I was quite surprised to find the ones that were crammed into a pot had pretty decent tubers (I just wanted the pot back), so I’ve kept them in the garage, just to see what happens.

The small salad leaves on the window sill are pretty pathetic by now - we have had some eating out of them, but they are so leggy and pale, I am just not impressed.

Bulbs:

• Crocus Grand Yellow in the triangle lawn, to come before the grape hyacinths. Annabelle helped to back fill the holes. Haven’t manages to get of aconites yet.
• Fritillaria uva-vulpis - in pot, just to see what happens, and couldn’t quite work out where to put it.
• Chionodoxa luciliae Snow Glories (purpley in the picture, but we’ll see what they are like to real) - pot as well, the rockery wasn’t quite in a fit state to dig. Did find the first cyclamen in it though - very beautiful indeed, but a bit too close to the Jacob’s ladder, and so hard to see.
• Narcissi Hawera - half of these had gone mouldy (quite late for them, so fair enough), so they went in a pot as well. Brought in the Paper Whites from last year, just in time - snow promised tomorrow.

Put the small anemones to soak, for planting tomorrow.

Stuck some more of the mysterious succulent babies into a small pot - the last one got given away, so I was back to a single plant. Must get round to identifying it one of these days.

The first of the amaryllis has shot the spike up. The sweedes are ready to harvest. Flower-wise the bright red kaffir liles are still going, the odd marigold, and the Dawn Viburnum has finally done its thing properly, with plenty of little florets on the bare branches, although I wouldn’t say that end of November is quite spring, but they are most welcome anyway.

We also tidied up the strawberry plants, the remontant one next to house is still flowering, silly thing, and Annabelle so liked the red frost-touched leaves on the other one that she made herself a little arrangement out of them.

Harry helped to take down the bean-den, and dug up a whole load of carrots, mostly from the tomato bed. They were a reasonably good size, but about half had significant carrot-fly damage, and a couple were badly split. Still tasted pretty good though.

Amazingly, we are still getting the odd courgette, and a few raspberries and strawberries. Fig has lost most leaves by now, and the silver birch is turning.

With a heave and a hay-ho, Maria and I have raised the strawberry growbag to double the height, and found 4 absolutely monstrous slugs underneath. No wonder they were getting so eaten. And also lots were going rotten even before they got pink. But it will all be better now. Except the tomatoes…

Also cleared away the last peas, all horrible and mildewy.

I’ve blinked, and the blight didn’t. So the tomatoes have had it. Suppose they’ve lasted quite well, compared to last year. Will probably get another handful before they expire.

The bean den is at its peak, they are all really fat, but not stringy. Pretty impressed.

The courgette has started producing marrows, due to the same blink, and can’t really keep up with them. Have had some really good raspberries, although in small quantities. Strawberries are really suffering from slugs and snails, cause they are so low. Have picked most of the apples, and they have been really amazing - very large and sweet, and quite a few of them. Some of the leeks are ready to pick now, although we haven’t yet, what with all the courgettes and beans.

Annabelle has been star helper today: we’ve trimmed herbs, including a pretty brutal hacking on the rosemary, which was sticking too far out into the path. We’ve collected both coriander and lovage seed, and sown Giant Winter spinach (2 half rows, in the sunniest available bed, as instructed on the packet) and the last few sprinklings of mustard, some in the cleared grow-bag and some in a wettish bit of soil. We’ve even got round to layering the penstemons, although the blasted pegs turned out too long for the pots, even though I specially chose the deeper pots. Never mind, as long as it works.

The lemon balm had gone ever so manky on the top, with most leaves peppered with brown holes and unusable, so that got a serious trim. Quite a lot of the apple mint is covered in mildew, as are most of the peas, especially the later sowing. One of the cucumber plants is all mottled yellow, I am hoping that’s just mildew as well, and not something more serious.

We picked a Lakeland lettuce today, which was a lot easier to wash than the really crinkly Cos, but still quite a pain. And enough carrots that I got to try one (still the Fly Away), and I didn’t think they were anything special, compared to shop ones. Maybe that’s the price you pay - the pests don’t like it much, but neither do you… Or maybe I’ve just gotten spoilt somewhere along the line.

So we actually did some proper gardening!

Maria helped to weed the veg patch, which needed it badly. I also summer-pruned the espalier apple, and bent down the new tier, a bit late and with a temporary string rig-up, but it’s something. The apples are nearly ready, we’ve had a few windfalls and maggoty ones, they were pretty good. Finally cut down the original planted canes of the raspberries. The Polka has plenty of strong new canes, about 5ft high, and a bit of air round the bottom should do it good. Only picking a handful of berries from it each day, as there are only 5 plants. The Galante is playing catch-up, it might actually survive, who knows.

We had two good-sized carrots yesterday from the little row next to the herbs. These were sown near the end of April, called Fly Away, and they were indeed remarkably clear of carrot fly, so far. Also good pickings from the bean-den, although had to get the stool out to reach the top runners - they’ve gone way beyond the 8ft canes, some are dangling down and curling back up themselves. Tomatoes and cucumbers keep on coming. Somebody (possibly Tigger chasing a mouse, but I have no proof) has knocked off the one pepper that had set so far, it was barely two inches long. We did eat it, just to see what happens, but it wasn’t very nice.

The new Gertrude Jekyll is absolutely splendid - the colour shines from the across the garden, and the smell is detectable from meters away. The stems are a bit lax, it has to be said, but I am hoping that this will become less of a problem as it matures.

Still plenty of work for the weekend, hoping that the weather holds out, that is.

The season is progressing, and I can’t keep up, as usual. The purple beans have finished, but the climbing ones have started just about in time to take over. They are much thinner than ones we’d had before. Broad beans all cleared out now, they’d got rather over-ripe and floury by the end. Steady stream of tomatoes, and quite a lot of cucumbers, although the round ones are somehow much smaller this year. Have done the first borsch of the summer. Bit of a herb shortage at the moment, most of the tonnes of dill have gone to seed, and there isn’t much to replace it, apart from a few very tiny parsleys, although they are getting established now. Courgettes have started, a bit late really. The remontant strawberry keeps on going, but quite a lot of the fruits hang right down to the ground, so will have to raise the bag higher up next year, somehow. Blueberries are few, but the bush looks in reasonable nick.

The streptocarpus didn’t die afterall, but one of the African violets has rotted off at the base. Dahlias are pretty splendid by now, except for the three in a single small pot, which is too small for them. The annual rudbeckias are gathering momentum, and the colours do work well. The perennial ones are barely flowering at all, except for a new self-seeded one by the pond. The poor pond is completely swamped in duck-weed…

White phloxes have just started in the last few days.

The feverfew and campion out the front, by the cycle path, are completely dead - it must be very dry there. Although the fuschia is surviving and even flowering, but is pretty small.