Autumn takes over

Its November and autumn has definitely arrived, first with warmth and wonderful colours in the trees and bushes, and now with strong winds and rain. Once these winds die down there wont be many leaves on the trees and the arrival of autumn and darkness with the clocks going back makes it all seem to happen so much more abruptly. Never mind, its still a great time of year and so much is changing so quickly.



Way back in august the day lilies were finishing. Since then they have completely died away and their spiky leaves have dried and been cut back. Schizostylis fenland daybreak then took over the boarder. Now even their vibrant but delicate pink flowers have lost a bit of their punch.

Hosta's have all but gone but still strong are the Brussels. Ive had a difficult time controlling the caterpillar populations on these plants. As there are mixed in with the flowers and shrubs of the border I have not been able to net them, hence a variety of caterpillars have enjoyed a feast. Between the thick stalked leaves are small round Brussels that should provide a good accompaniment to Christmas dinner.

The parsnips have also been doing well and it will be interesting to see how large they become when harvested. The leeks are looking good and seem to have survived the attentions of what might have been leek moth. At one stage the drooping and damaged leaves looked terminal. However in recent weeks they have all bulked up.

The apple tree is starting to shed its leaves. The apples are still on the tree and have grown to about 3cm's in diameter, not big enough to eat. I shall leave them on the tree for a while but I cant see them growing much more now. I expect that a leafless tree will be putting its energies into surviving the winter, not growing more fruit.

Lastly the runner beans have been the biggest success of the year, with much eaten and still more in the freezer. I have kept some back to dry out and provide seed for next year. Only a handful of carrots made it through the season which was disappointing. However the size of some of them has been incredible. It certainly helped growing them direct into the border and not into pots as in previous years.

The August report

Its been almost a month since my last post and a lot has happened during that time. The day lilies have given a brilliant display and are just coming to the end. I have let a few flowers develop into seed pods and will try to cultivate any seeds I collect next spring.

The apple tree produced a small amount of blossom a few weeks ago. While the blossom last for only a few days it has developed into seed heads which should go on to become apples. I am surprised by the timing of the blossom and expect the weather will become too cold for the apples to grow.

I harvested the potatoes this weekend. The plants were all suffering from blight so I didnt expect to find much. However I did manage to find enough to fill a bowl or two dinners worth. That evening I boiled some of them but after just a short time they had all split and gone to water. Disaster, and straight into the bin.

The big sucess has been the pea and bean crops. The dwarf beans produce a good amount of pods. I have also been shelling peas and picking runner beans and there is a lot more to come.

Snails reproducing on the doorstep

This morning I was surprised to see two snails locked together as they reproduced. The photo clearly shows the tube of each snail entwined. They stayed in the position for a number of hours before moving slowly away in different directions.

This reminds me of the time I found two slugs reproducing. That photo is not on this blog so I will search my files and add it at a later date.

Meanwhile, the garden is blooming with huge amounts of day lilies, Hostas, Hebe and fuchsia's attaching lots of bees into the garden.

Vegetable-wise the dwarf beans have been producing a handful of beans every other day. The peas and runner beans are just starting to flower and so a harvest should not be far away.

The two leeks that have been growing since last year bolted a few months ago. I left them to see what would develop and as the photo shows they have bloomed into beautiful circular flowerheads.

The flowering leeks have also been great at attracting bees. I am trying to grow leeks again this year and so far four are growing well. I am also trying spring onions growing them all together in a large deep container.

The garlic is look good too. I had a sneaky peek at a couple of the bulbs today. They still need some time to develop fully but so far so good.

A Blackfly horror story

The last few months have seen the horrid beasts, the blackfly and on a smaller scale greenfly, attempt to take over the garden. The apple tree has been the worst affected. The tips of the branches have become a haven for blackfly, curly over the leaves and laying masses of eggs. Ants then march up the branches and seem to be feeding on the flies. I'm not sure what the ants are actually doing but they are not reducing the numbers as I first hoped.

My method for clearance is to put on the garden gloves and systematically squash and wipe them all away. As the tree is about 5 feet tall it is possible to do this by hand. While the tree is small like this I think it is important to take this much care of it. Once it is taller the apple tree will have to fend for its self but by then it should be much stronger. I have now cleared the flies three or four times over the last few months but it doesn't take long for the critters to re-establish themselves again.

The photo shows a mass of greenfly on the underside of the leaves, while ants crawl around them. More recently they have been blackfly.

I have also found blackfly on the runner beans and Rose of Sharon. Greenfly are in the lettuce but that is to be expected.

Birds in the garden

A few weeks ago I set up a Kodak Zi6 in the garden and left it to record the birds feeding and drinking. Its taken a while to edit but here is 90 seconds of sparrows and a couple of magpies.

Caterpillar visitor

Over the last few days I have noticed a number of large brightly coloured caterpillars wandering around the garden. I photographed one as it sheltered under a potato leaf. I was going to remove it thinking the leaves were about to be munched. Instead I left the caterpillar were it was but kept an eye out for any damage.

Later that day the caterpillar was still there with no damage to the leaf. The next day the caterpillar was replaced by a silky ball holding two potato leaves together. The caterpillar had formed a cacoon. It is now changing slowly into a moth or butterfly.

I have since found out the caterpillar is in fact a species called Lackey Moth Caterpillar. Although the caterpillar is brightly coloured the moth that it becomes is a very dull brown.

Blooming lovely

The warm bank holiday weekend weather has really brought the garden to life. For the first time in 4 years the clematis has flowered displaying a wonderful purple bloom. Each autumn I have pruned the branches of the clematis, as instructed in the books and each year I have been disappointed by the amount of growth and lack of flowers.

Last autumn I decided not to prune to see what happens and if it still did not flower it would be removed. Without pruning the leaves grew back much quicker this spring and there are a number of flower buds ready to burst open.

Also in flower now are Iris, Thyme, Purple Broccoli (was left to flower) and the Violet Heuchera.