1 November
The garden is looking more and more like a demolition site as we are restyling the area around the pond. This involved breaking down a pergola, smashing up walls and generally creating a scene of devastation – it’s set to get worse before it gets better!
2 November
The bubblewrap protection that was used to protect some acrylic sheeting bought to replace a broken pane in our greenhouse roof cam in very useful. Having enjoyed the fruit of out peach tree (the one that started life thinking it was a nectarine) we really want to give it the best chance of surviving what could be another freezing winter and so I’ve used the bubblewrap to lag the pot in which it is planted.
Although the kiwi Issai has been moved into the greenhouse for winter I decided to lag its pot too. After wrapping a few layers around each pot I still have some left so will use that to throw over the young perennials, raised from cutting, whenever a keen frost is forecast.
4 November
As bonfire night approaches it isn’t just fireworks that can provide colour at this time of year. We still have plants flowering in both the garden and on the plot. Some of the annuals are making up for lost time as they we very slow to germinate and grow in the really dry soil.
The trees are joining in too with lots of beautiful leaf colour.
The garlic cloves planted in pots and tubs in the greenhouse are growing really quickly – the protected conditions have got them off to an early start.
6 November
Although there is no sign of the garlic planted in open ground of the plot, the winter onions are now growing well and the peas that we have planted for over wintering are through so I hope the slugs leave the young shoots alone!
7 November – 14 November
In the garden the emphasis has turned to demolition as more parts of the garden are subject to our urge to redesign. The focus is on the area around the pond where arbours are being destroyed in favour of plans to erect a summerhouse. You can read all about our ongoing progress with this project here.
In the greenhouse the emphasis is on clearing out and tidying up.
A culinary highlight was our first taste of pumpkin pie which was actually made from one of our Crown Prince squash – it really didn’t taste anything like we expected. The nearest description would be that it was really similar to an egg custard tart. See here
15 November
Another area of the garden that was the victim of our redesigning purge was a border under our crab apple tree – this turned the corner a while ago and is at the replanting stage. For a while now I have been trying to get hold of a hydrangea quercifolia and resorted to asking a local nursery to order one for me. I’m happy to say the nursery came good and we have now planted our newly acquired specimen. I can now consider which other plants I need to plant in the area next year.
It seems strange to be dead-heading flowers in November but the recently planted pansies needed some attention.
We haven’t yet had a real frost so we had left the medlars on the tree but the time came to pick them before it was too late. As last year we only have about a dozen fruits but that is plenty as to be honest we are at a loss as to what we will do with them. We could make medlar jelly but we don’t really eat jams and jellies. Our medlar is really grown as an ornamental tree rather than for its rather strange fruits – read more here.
The indoor light garden that we bought last year has been really useful for raising early seeds but now I’ve decided to see whether I can put it to good use during winter by growing some Salad leaves and micro-herbs. I’ve planted some mixed lettuce leaves which germinated after only a couple of days so they are off to a promising start. I’m starting with basil and coriander as micro-herbs so fingers crossed – read more here.
19 November
We haven’t been to the allotment for over a week so needed to pay a visit if only to harvest some vegetables. Incredibly I also picked a handful of autumn raspberries.
As well as harvesting we removed the broken section of the Victoria plum tree and also weeded around the winter onions and garlic which were in danger of being swamped by chickweed.
We harvested the first of our parsnips but the highlight had to be that for the first time in three years we have actually managed to successfully grow sprouts. We sowed a club root resistant variety which despite the strange season seems to have done the trick.
20 - 30 November
Not much really to report for the end of the month other than a bit of tidying in the greenhouse.
One highlight was that the cyclamen that I raised from seed are now all flowering and providing some most welcome colour to the windowsill.
The lettuce seed that I planted under the indoor light had germinated within a couple of days and are still growing away well. The coriander and basil took a little longer but have germinated and are doing well.
The main garden work has been preparing the ground for our prospective summerhouse. More about our progress can be read here.
Our complete harvesting and planting lists can be accessed form these links.
