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Weekend 7 September
On the plot,
More rain and even more rain this week. The ground on our plot and in our garden is like mud. We have done very little in the way of gardening as to walk or even stand on the soil would cause more harm than good. Last year at this time, even after all the rain that we had we were complaining that the ground was too hard and dry!!
The grass is in danger of turning to mud too. We only managed to cut half of the grass before the heavens opened and put an end to our efforts.
At the moment we are concerned that the soil won't dry out sufficiently to allow any autumn or winter digging to take place.
We have visited the plot to harvest but most other work has had to be put on hold. I did manage to dead head some of the battered and beaten flowers and remove some of the black-spotted leaves on the shrub roses. Most of our visits, however, in us being soaked to the skin.
The remaining potatoes are almost impossible to dig up - fortunately they are the ones that were planted to break up the soil and improve the texture so we are not too worried, although it would be good to clear the ground.
We have had our first sweet corn which was a treat. We also harvested our first Rob Splash climbing French beans, although when they are cooked they are just Rob beans as the flash disappears completely.
In the garden,
Amazingly the birds are still intent on bathing. At certain times of the day there is a constant stream of sparrows heading to our bird bath. Once the bath is full of birdlife (and I mean full), birds are waiting in nearby bushes to pounce in as soon as a space becomes available. They can hardly fly once they have flapped and splashed, left and returned to flap and splash again.
The ginger is in flower - it has really enjoyed the wet weather.
In the greenhouses
Only really the garden greenhouse in production now. The chillies are doing quite well but at the moment it looks as though we will be harvesting them green. We also have a few sweet peppers and the tomatoes continue to ripen. We are also still harvesting grapes.
The penstemon cuttings still seem to be holding their own.
Out and about
The trees are now preparing for the onset of autumn as many look to have set seed pods and berries.
Weekend 14 September
On the plot
More rain again this week so it has again very much been a gathering exercise, although we did manage to get all the grass strimmed. The weekend also had a few hours of what almost seemed like summer. It had grown too long and was also too wet to use the lawn mower. I have resorted to welly wearing. I’ve never known a year like it for grass growth – usually there is a bit of a lull but not this year.
Usually we store carrots in the ground through winter but this year some are already rotting due to the really wet ground conditions. The potatoes that we haven’t yet managed to dig up are also wet and soggy. The runner beans however are thriving!
We have grown cosmos for several years ago and each year have several self sown plants. This seems to have resulted in some really pretty colour combinations, due I assume to cross-pollination, so this year I have selected the most attractive plants to try and gather seed. I have tied a piece of string round each flower that I want to save seed from so hopefully I won’t dead head it. No doubt any resulting plants will not be true to form but it will be interesting to see what I actually do get.
The asters are now in full flower.
The hazel bushes that we have as shelter when parking the car now have formed immature catkins. Usually the bushes provide much welcome shelter from the sun but this year that has hardly been necessary. The bottom branches have been removed as they were in the way and meant the bushes took up too much space. The trunks have now formed some very useful straight poles which will be thinned out next year and used to maybe construct some structures that will support some of our plants.
In spite of the very wet soil we have managed to do a bit of weeding at least the weeds seem to come our fairly easily.
I have transplanted quite a lot of the self-sown poached egg plants but there are still hundreds coming up under the roses. They are supposed to attract hoverflies, ladybirds and lacewings which in turn should repay us by controlling the greenfly. That’s the theory anyway.
We also made a new friend - the newt that was unearthed whilst digging over a bed. Also unearthed was a cache of slug or snail eggs which I hope the birds found and took care of for us.
In the garden
Noticed a water lily on flower – it must be all the rain?
Many plants seem to have really enjoyed the wet, cool weather. I can’t remember when the crocosmias were as full of flower.
As the hazels on the plot, the garrya is producing immature catkins and the ivy are flowering.
We planted some Verbena bonariensis seeds, since they have cropped up all over the garden including in between the pavers of the drive. Incredibly the seed catalogue states that for successful germination some experience is useful. I suppose the plant knows best though. Also a plant that seems to have seeded itself everywhere is the hardy cyclamen. We planted one pink and one white tuber a while ago and now have all shades of white and pink appearing all over the garden. Some have even made it to the plot where they have naturalised in the grass.
The Michaelmas daisies are beginning to flower.
Some plants seem to have become very confused. One of our rhododendrons has one or two flowers and the hostas are sending up more flower spikes after having gone through the whole flowering routine once. Again in spite of the really damp weather the slugs appear not to have caused as much damage as in previous years.
One day we had a very small hedgehog browsing where the seed had fallen from bird feeders. We took pity on it and popped out some more appropriate food but must admit to a bit of concern. It did look fairly small and to successfully hibernate hedgehogs do need to have gained a minimum weight. Just hope he/she achieves it as otherwise in spite of being out during the day – which is often a sign of an unwell creature – it did seem fairly healthy.
The ginger is continuing to flowers well – it really requires you to get close up to the flower to truly appreciate it.
The choisya also has a few flowers.
We harvested our one and only fig so had to share it which left little with which to judge the taste. The medlars are still going strong but apparently we have to let them blet before eating - whatever that means, so it will be a bit of trial and error
In the greenhouses
The garden greenhouse:
The chilli ‘fruits’ are continuing to grow larger but they are still green – not sure whether they should be as big as they are. They are growing bigger than the sweet peppers.
Some of the penstemon cuttings that I took have definitely rooted.
We have cut down all the tomato plants and removed the tomatoes so hopefully the green ones will continue to ripen. The ones in the garden greenhouse were spared the dreaded blight!
The plot greenhouse:
Has more or less been relegated to a storage area!
Out and About
Unlike last year at this time the countryside still looks green and lush – except for the fields that are looking rather brown and bedraggled.
The days are definitely shortening though – if only we could have the long daylight hours throughout the year winter wouldn’t seem half as bad!
Last two weeks
On the plot
The few rainless days last week has meant that we have managed to rotavate a few of our now vacant beds. Some areas though are still very wet. We continue to gather berries. Other than that the only real activity on the plot over the last two weeks in September was the gathering of some produce to take with us on our holiday to the VAR region of France
In the garden
When we got back from holiday the main thing that I noticed were the Michaelmas daisies on flower and things have taken on an end of season look.
In the greenhouse
Thanks to, Neil our postman for looking after our greenhouse for us whilst we were away and generally keeping an eye on things.
Out and about (in France)
It’s our first September holiday in France as we usually have our holiday in August when holiday destinations are heaving.
The first glitch was in that we had booked to travel via the tunnel but the freight train fire put paid to that plan and we were transferred to the ferry.
We stayed in a villa near to Lac St Cassien which took quite a lot of finding. Along with our holiday documents were the directions for finding the house. Even before we set off we guessed that the directions left a lot to be desired but hadn’t banked on being given the wrong road number and the necessity to look out for two crucial signs which had unfortunately been removed. Consequently we failed in our first attempts to locate our destination. Even Sat. Nav. is no help when you haven’t even an address to help. We rang the owner of the property to say that we were lost only to be greeted by a voicemail message. Sheer desperation finally led us to the only track that could possibly lead to the house. Ignoring the sign forbidding entry, we eventually found a house which looked like the one in the brochure photograph but the house was empty with no-one waiting to greet us. We thought that, as we ended up being late in arriving, the owner had given up waiting until we found a note stuck in the grilled window of the door. The note told us where to find a key, to settle ourselves in and that the owner would pop along to see us later that evening. Hoping that we had found the correct house and we weren’t going to have to explain why we had claimed squatters’ rights in someone else’s house, we did just that. The house itself was a renovated shepherd’s dwelling which had been added to.
The main door was actually a prison door complete with a viewing grill! The house was set in extensive grounds which were more scrub-land than garden which is typical of the area although there was one rather incongruous clump of hardy cyclamen and a solitary sedum in a small trough by the door. We had a few partridges visiting the ‘garden’ from time to time. It was probably one of the few places safe for them in France at that time as we frequently heard the sound of hunting nearby. We also saw a few jays which we rarely see at home.
During our walks around the nearby lake we were surprised to find clumps of autumn crocuses growing wild in the verges. Also what appeared to be large clumps of small white flowers turned out to be small white snails clinging onto bare grass stems. Goodness knows what the snails found so attractive as the stems could hardly have been an adequate food supply.
On our homeward journey up through France one thing that really strike us was how the colour of the soil changed as we passed through region after region. In some parts it was golden yellow, in others red, or even white. The trees were well into their autumn phase. In the sunshine the colours were really dazzling but unfortunately the photographs taken from the car window didn’t really capture the intensity of the colours. The sweet corn had been harvested and the remaining cropped plants were left drying in the fields where eventually they would be shredded and I think taken away as silage. Surprisingly it seemed that some fields had been planted with my favourite crop – oil seed rape. No doubt this is set to become the scourge of the French countryside too. It was in full flower which was reminiscent of England in May but here it was in full flower in September in France.
Other things of note on the journey were the incredible number of wind farms in northern France – they really seem to be springing up everywhere. As usual birds of prey of various types were stationed on posts along the sides of the motorway and we spotted a few buzzards and maybe one eagle (in the Alps) using the thermals to soar up into the sky until they disappeared completely from view. We also were surprised to see about half a dozen of more herons plodding around in a field of cows which was nowhere near any water. Not sure what they were doing or what the attraction was. Did they find something good to eat in the cow pats? Interestingly French cows are mainly yellowy-cream or white – just like the soils!
