June: Where has the month gone?

For me, June has been a very busy month in the garden. 

On the 2^nd and 9th I took some surplus plants to sell at my local mid-week car boot sale.  I thought the stall looked very good but next year I will need to increase the range and amount of stock.  The first week I took £86 and the second £65.  I think this is pretty good considering all the plants were propagated from those I had divided last autumn.

Spraying was required on our three lawns (450sq m, 190sq m and the 210sqm lawn).  I always use lawn weed killer in an 8 litre sprayer.  I like to keep on top of the speedwell, thistle and dandelions as the seeds are constantly drifting over from the neighbouring fields.  

I also sprayed weed killer on our paved areas, the courtyard and the drive.  I find spraying so much quicker than hand weeding especially given the large paved areas I have to deal with.

In the courtyard there has always been an area I thought was unsightly, between the rose/winter border and the greenhouse.  As you can see, it is shaded by two large hollies and a Scots pine.  I thought that as weeds clearly thrive here why not perennials. 

It did not take long to clear the area of weeds and fork it over,

this barrow load of leaf mould was dug in

and the plants came from a social distanced plant sale organised by the gardening club of which I am a member. 

There were two astrantia - one pink one white, and a lamium, I also added some plants from my garden; geranium macrorrhizum and geranium maderense. I think they will all do well in dry shade. And that’s Pippin in the back ground, she is constantly by my side when I am working in the garden and sometimes gets into shot.

Once planted I spread more leaf mould around the plants to act as a mulch then added a metal orb to give height at the back.  In the photograph the orb doesn’t really show up so I might paint it.

It hasn’t rained here for I don’t know how long and the south facing main lawn (450sq m) is suffering.  We haven’t cut it for at least a month and I think the grass seed heads give it an American prairie feel to it. 

Thursday was such a gorgeous day in the garden I decided to finish it off with a bbq.  I lit the charcoal and went inside to prepare the food and, would you believe it, the heavens opened and down the rain came.  Not to be put off with a bit of rain I was inventive with the location of the bbq.  This is the open porch over the front door.

Lastly, thought you might be interested to see a handy hint which I have been doing for a few years now.  I find that with so much to do in the garden some things get forgotten such as which plants to divide in the autumn or spring.  So Instead of writing a list and putting it where it might get lost, I now write the instructions on  metal plants labels which I then push into the ground next to whichever plant needs attention. 

Happy gardening.

Changing Fruit Bushes and the Wildflower Hedge

Like so many other gardens mine is constantly changing and evolving - sometimes I have regretted putting in a particular planting scheme, or choosing a certain plant, or I have just felt like having something completely different.

In the fruit cage I have become very disheartened with my two honeyberry bushes.  Ever since I planted them (about five years ago) they have never produced much fruit and yet have put on a lot of growth.  I have pruned them, fed them and given them everything they could possibly need but to no avail - they have remained virtually fruitless.  So the other week I decided to replace them with two different types of fruit bushes.  After some online research I chose Gojiberry synthia and the Chilean guava Ka Pow (both purchased on line) - I thought these were an unusual addition in the fruit cage.

The honeyberry shrubs looked very boring so up they came.

After digging up each bush,

I dug out roughly half the soil from the planting hole and replaced it with a mixture of my home made garden compost, pelleted chicken manure and fish blood and bone, and mixed thoroughly with a spade.

I then planted the two Gojiberries close together in the middle of the bed. 

Then in the second bed, the Chilean guava.

Lastly I gave them a jolly good watering.  I am hoping that these will romp away and be more productive than their predecessors.

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The wildflower hedge is putting on a colourful display –

the cerise pink flowers of red campion,

the dainty forget me not,

the ox eye daisy,

I am not sure what this is I think comfrey, it is pretty but if it is comfrey I will have to keep it in check otherwise it will take over the whole area,

and this beautifully frothy cow parsley.

Also in flower is the hawthorne, I am lucky enough to have the pink variety.  I think this goes very well with the red campion.

In early spring I sowed yellow rattle and am now waiting to see if anything comes up.  I shall write about this wildflower hedge in a future entry.

Till next time.

 

 

 

 

 

May Catch Up

I haven’t written anything for this journal for a while as I have completely lost track of time and my To Do List keeps getting longer with little chance of getting smaller.  But just the other day I noticed that the sun had come out and then I realised that it was May.

Since my last report in March, the weather here in Northumberland has been absolutely pants.  We have had gales, rain, sleet, hail and snow – not very conducive to working in the garden.  However, I have been able to get out into the glasshouse and take the bubble wrap down from the ceiling, I gave all the plants in there a sprinkling of pelleted chicken manure and a thorough watering - now everything in there is romping away.

We have also been able to mow the lawns several times.  T wanted a new lawn mower as he found that the ride-on had a habit of turning over when he rode it down the slope to get to the front lawn.  After a lot of research he swapped the MTD ride-on for a 20 inch Hyundai petrol mower, it has four speeds, an electronic start and two cup holders on the handle bar.  Lawn mowing is really his department so I don’t know much about mowers other than here is a picture of it.

In the fruit cage, I picked some rhubarb and made crumble – sorry but no expensive rhubarb forcers in my garden just a large terra cotta pot once broken now glued together with Araldite.  The crumble was delicious.

Still in the fruit cage, I am experimenting with companion planting under the fruit bushes.  Under the blueberries, I have planted Fragaria vesca or wild strawberries, under the currants are chives and under the raspberries Achillea Desert Eve Red.  I shall be interested to see whether there is any difference in pests and diseases.

The bluebells in the wood are, as ever, beautiful. It gives me so much pleasure to sit in the wood on a sunny day with a cup of coffee.  I think it’s lovely to see the sun glinting through the fresh green leaves and to listen to the birds song – its somewhere where I can forget about the stressful things in life.  A beautifully tranquil scene to end this entry.

 

Sometimes wildlife does things we didn’t think it would do

Sometimes wildlife does things we didn’t think it would do.

Take birds and nest boxes for example.  The conventional bird box is one that is square or rectangular, made of wood and secured somewhere where predators cannot get.  But would a bird be prepared to nest in something not so conventional.

You see I discovered something last summer year which surprised me and which prompted me to ask this question and then to carry out an experiment.

In our mixed hedge, a small bird had made a nest and successfully reared some young in a small hamster house I had left in there earlier in the year.  This made me wonder what strange and quirky things would birds be prepared to make their home in.

This hedge runs between our orchard and the field next door.

I'd better start at the beginning ...............

My daughter was sorting out all the bits and pieces she had accumulated over the years for her pet guinea pigs. In amongst all the spare water bottles, food bowls and hay dispensers she found a two-storey wooden hamster house.  She was going to throw it out but I stopped her and asked whether I could have it for a bird box.

After scrubbing it with disinfectant and letting it fully dry out. I used some spare wood to enclose two sides of the upper storey and which made it a two compartment nest box.  I then wired it into our hedge (the one between us and the field next door), but as it was May I was only expecting it to be used a roosting box. 

 

Then one day in about July I was walking past the same part of hedge and was quite surprised to see some beaks and fluffy heads sticking out of the hamster box.  I am not quite sure what birds they were but eventually they fledged.  This gave me the idea to experiment on what type of containers birds would be prepared to nest in.

I put together a variety of nest boxes to see which one would be favoured most. 

Here are the four nest boxes.

 

On the far right is the original hamster house which my daughter nearly threw out.  In the picture below you can still the remnants of last year’s nesting material.

 

Second from the right is a hamster house bought online for a few pounds.  You can see that I gave it a new floor using off-cuts of wood.

 

The two rectangular boxes are not very expertly or carefully made; my carpentry skills were learnt doing CSE woodwork at school in the late 1970s

The nest box with the light yellow roof is crudely made out of old skirting board and held together with large panel pins, T very kindly cut the access hole and the landing stick is a section of used firework rocket stick.

The largest box is made out of off-cuts of tall skirting board (you can see the profile of the skirting board in the second picture) and some spare bits of wood which I found in the garage.  Again the landing perch is made of used firework rocket stick and T cut the access hole.

 

I secured each box with garden wire deep into the hedge in a stretch which is in full view of the lounge and kitchen windows.

Now I am waiting to see what happens.  As it is only February it will take a while for the smell of humans to disperse and for the birds to get used to the boxes being there.

I’ll keep you informed of developments.

 

 

Jam Making in Winter!!!!!

With the weather being so miserable outside, I often take the opportunity to do what I call “Inside jobs”.  You know the sort of thing, anything indoors which needs mending, rooms redecorated, cupboards cleared out.  The contents of the deep freeze is a good example, I have one shelf stacked with frozen soft fruit picked from the garden.  This frozen produce is used throughout the year in pies, crumbles and summer fruit puddings but just occasionally we have too much and by the beginning of the following year there is too much frozen fruit and not enough space.

 As you can see from the two photographs some frozen produce had been in the freezer for longer than I planned.  Once defrosted the fruit is safe to eat and to cook with. 

Not only did I have raspberries and tayberries which were grown and frozen in 2019 but I had frozen some blackberries in a plastic bag and failed to write a date on the bag. 

In our household, one of the food stuffs which I can guarantee will definitely get eaten is homemade jam and these three fruits will make a beautiful mixed berry jam.

Once defrosted I simply weigh the fruit including the liquid, make a note of the weight then tip it into the preserving pan; by the way I find it always defrosts to a semi solid/semi liquid state.

 

Then using a low heat the fruit and liquid is heated up and cooked through until the fruit is soft.

 Whatever the fruit and liquid weighed I then measure out an equal amount of preserving sugar.

I then add the preserving sugar to the cooked fruit and heat it over a gentle heat; I stir the jam mixture occasionally until all the sugar crystals have dissolved.  Once I am sure that no sugar crystals remain I turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a boil and boil it rapidly for about 5 – 7 minutes or until setting point is reached.

Lastly, I leave the jam to cool slightly, this gives me enough time to sterilise some preserving jars. I bottle the jam in the usual way and, of course, put wax discs on the surface to create a seal.

Delicious mixed berry jam to enjoy during the coming months – and a slightly emptier deep freeze.