Tuesday 28 May 2013

New Tenants

For the last two years, we've had a swallow's nest in the porch. They arrived in June 2011, and built the nest below, resting on the keystone on the inside of the arched doorway. That year, they seemed to raise a clutch, and departed in the autumn. Sadly, last year, one or both failed to make it back from their winter habitat, and the nest was unused.


The swallows' nest (© Ian 2011–13)

I've been hopeful that either the original pair will find their way to us this year, or that a new pair will discover the nest, and make use of it. It was unoccupied on Monday (I can be sure, as I was sweeping and cleaning the porch out), but this evening I discovered that new occupants have moved in—and made some changes.



Modified swallows' nest (© Ian 2013)

They appear to have added an extension: I don't know if this is a pair of swallows, or another species, but will keep an eye. It doesn't look (with the leaf extension) like a typical swallow nest, I have to think.

I've also put together a panoramic photo of the hillside, from while we were cutting down some of the hawthorns.


Hillside in late May (© Ian 2013)

Compare, if you like, to February's photo.


Hillside in February (© Ian 2013)

Monday 27 May 2013

Coming Into Leaf

The weather's been kind for the long weekend, meaning we've been able to get out all three days. Saturday and Sunday morning were both spent sawing, splitting, and stacking firewood, which isn't particularly noteworthy.

We spent a lot of time weeding the top bank, which is now looking immeasurably better: there are going to be dozens of foxgloves, soon, and hopefully the whole bank will look good. We planted a couple of dozen white cosmos ('Purity') that we've grown from seed, too.

I weeded around the Japanese quince while Liz began this weeding, pulling out about three trugs full of nettles and goosegrass. To start with, I cut the tips off the nettles, and started a batch of nettle cordial, using these, later in the day.

In the kitchen garden, I've overhauled the irrigation system, which is now ready to use once more (if we get warm, dry weather for any length of time!). The green roof is now well into germination, and seedlings abound. Today we planted out the five courgette plants, each under a plastic cloche. None of the curcubits we planted last year came to anything at all, so we're both hoping for a better crop this year.

The front garden received a lot of attention this morning, and we took out several trugs of weeds and rubbish from the paving, planted wall, and beds. The ivy needs cutting back (and the Virginia creeper needs more support wires, and the hanging basket that fell of that wall needs re-hanging), but they'll wait for another day. We need to replace a few things in the wall, where the plants have been overgrown by grass: possibly some dianthus we have growing from seed.

Most pleasingly, we uncovered loads of little hellebore seedlings under the acer, which I've carefully transplanted, so we now have forty tiny hellebores in a module tray. Of course, they'll take about three years to flower, but there you go.

While in the front garden, I lifted the slab in front of the gate, which was rather sunken, and have lifted it by a couple of inches: it's now level with the paving, and less of a step down from the lane.

We also went up onto the hillside. The deer/rabbit damaged stems of the Scot's pines are now all pruned out, and I've sprayed all the pines with animal repellent. A few of the fruit trees have had second ties added, further up the stem, to stop them rubbing. All the trees have now, finally, come into leaf (the walnuts are lagging slightly, but are on the way). James Grieve is in flower, as is the 'Spring Glow' plum. Only one of our established (anonymous) apples is in bloom (one next door, in Peter and Sara's plot, is), but almost all the others are in bud. Just one doesn't appear to be, yet.

As has been reported elsewhere, the cold winter and late spring means that there's a lot of blossom, so we're hopeful of a bumper crop from the established trees, and maybe a few fruits from the new plants.

I cut down several of the hawthorns that were between the apples: it's looking as though we'll be able to find space for up to another ten trees, once the hawthorns, blackthorn, and scrub is fully cleared, so we're making a start on removing this, so we can get a proper picture of the space available. I'm going to try to get out with Sigrid to clear some of the bracken and brambles this coming week, as we have visitors at the weekend, who will want to look 

Lastly: the dandelion wine, which I finished on Thursday, is now sat, bubbling away beautifully. I'm hoping to start a batch of beer, and maybe some nettle wine, in the next week or so.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Dandelions

One thing I like about writing this diary is the way it throws seasonality into sharp focus.

For example: the third week in May is, evidently, a time when—having fallen out of the habit over the winter—I suddenly need to start cutting the lawn again. It was untidy in 2010, and again last year. I cut the grass about 5 weeks ago, and haven't managed to do so since (the age old problem of 'no time when the weather's right'), and it's grown more in the past five weeks than the preceding five months.

Still, I managed to cut around the lawn, and at the bottom of the slope, yesterday evening, and finished off with the games lawn tonight. It really needs raking up, as the grass was too long to collect properly in the mower, but that's for another night.

Before cutting, though, I made the most, last night, of the sea of dandelions, and cut a pound of petals to make this year's batch of dandelion wine. This is another seasonal thing: last year was a week earlier, but similar point in the year. The petals, with a gallon of hot water poured over them, will steep until tomorrow night, when I boil them with the peel of four oranges for ten minutes, and then pour into a demijohn over sugar (3lb), with the usual yeast and nutrient.

Monday 20 May 2013

Rhubarb Crop

The recent weather's suited the rhubarb, and I was able to take a number of stems (4, totalling 900g). The Timperley Early are enormous: the leaves are up to 2' across and long! 

Timperley Early rhubarb stem (© Ian 2013)

Sunday 19 May 2013

Planting Out

A mixed day, of sorting and planting. We've planted sweet peas around the supports in the new flower bed (I'm going to have to think of a better name); about a dozen plants around each of the smaller wigwams, and about eighteen around the large, central obelisk. We've tried to pair the varieties so that they're distinct, but complementary, so we can identify which one the flowers that we like are from.

We also planted the mangetout plants ('Delikata') on a support in the herb garden, and also planted out the snow-in-summer (Cerastium) and centranthus (C. ruber 'Snowcloud') in a different square. Two squares now have asparagus peas sown in them, and we also planted the eighteen decent box plants we have, and about fifty mixed lavenders, on the edges.

That's reinforced our need for a lot more box plants!

In the kitchen garden, we've planted out thirty-odd spinach plants, and a few modules of salad leaves. The potatoes almost all needed their trenches topping up, too. Pleasingly, the onions seems to have almost unanimously found their way through the holes in the weed-suppressant membrane, and their shoots are growing on.

We've potted on forty celeriac, and Brussels sprouts and caulis, to grow on before planting out in the next couple of months.

I think there's some sign, finally, of the wildflowers on the green roof germinating, which is a relief.

Elsewhere in the garden, the second cherry (Stella) has been in flower for a couple of days, which means it's overlapped with Summer Sun -- hopefully that will mean we finally get a cherry crop. The bluebells are in full swing, which makes that bank look lovely, and the pots of tulips are going strong, making a good display from the kitchen window.

We finished the day sowing some more pots of vegetables: swedes (Golden Ball), cauliflowers (Triomphant and Romanesco), dwarf French beans (Speedy and Castendel), some ornamental sunflowers (Bicentennial and Pastiche), and then planted out a few primroses and geums (which have been around for ages: I think they're Lady Strathden, but I could be very wrong).

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Spring Creeping Forward

We were visiting Ann and Alan for the weekend, which meant nothing happened in our garden (though we did do a few bits in theirs on Sunday morning, which was rather pleasant (I'm envious of their lovely soil)). However, I managed this evening to walk round the garden, and see how things are coming on.

Spring has not made itself abundantly obvious (still pretty cold), but things are definitely livening up. There are lots of daffodils out (and many going over):


The Copse Bed (© Ian 2013)


Daffodils, including 'Minnow' (orange corona) and 'White Lion' (white perianth, creamy double corona) (© Ian 2013)


Copse bed, looking up past the new flower bed (with sweet pea wigwams) to the Colour Wheel (© Ian 2013)

I made my way down to the kitchen garden, and was delighted to find a bee busily working on the currant and gooseberry flowers. I think it was a common carder bee, but I'm not sure.



Bee pollinating gooseberry flowers (© Ian 2013)

A little further on, the rhubarb is doing magnificently. One or two of the crowns are either small, or missing, but that's not too bad: there are at least two of each variety doing fine, so I can split these later to fill the gaps.


Rhubarb growing strongly (© Ian 2013)

I remember when it looked like this:






The Rhubarb Bed under construction (© Ian 2011–13)

The first/second early potatoes are doing well, and need earthing up a bit: and the maincrop are now showing above the soil (and so also need earth filling into their trenches). The PSB and cauliflowers are going over, so we need to get them eaten. Almost all of the onions are now poking through the weed-proof membrane, which is very encouraging.

On my way back to the house, through the middle lawn, I spotted two last things. The Japanese Quince is nearly flowering, and the cherry 'Summer Sun' is flowering, which it didn't manage last year. Perhaps this year will see our first cherries, the 'Stella' never having borne any.


Flowers on cherry 'Summer Sun' (© Ian 2013)


Monday 6 May 2013

Housesitting

Jenny and Philip spent the weekend with Katie, helping sort and decorate her new house, which left us in charge of their house, children, ducks, and dog. Undeterred, we've actually managed to get some stuff done, and even visited RHS Harlow Carr, to take advantage of their spring flowers, a spring plant sale, and the chance to see my parents.


Daffodils at RHS Harlow Carr (© Ian 2013)

On Saturday, I had some child help pruning out the wind damaged shoots on the berberis and similar shrubs in the lower border above the vegetable garden. These took the brunt of the cold east wind that characterized the weather in March/April, and led to a lot of dead, brown foliage. I've cut out the worst of it (there's a bit still to go), and they look better. There's a chance they won't grow back very well, which I'm actually pretty sanguine about: I don't particularly like any of them, so it might just prompt us to cut them down, and replant with something prettier. There are plenty of options!

One of them, in fact, is another rhododendron. We have a few, but none are particularly distinguished, but the pure white rhododendrons we saw at Harlow Carr on Sunday caught both our attention. The bulbs are also looking good, although we didn't see as much of the gardens as we'd like. There's a good drift of Erythronium 'Pagoda' (I think) that was pretty, as well as a number of snakes-head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris), naturalizing happily under the trees.


Snakes-head fritillary (© Ian 2013)

The garden was hosting a spring plant sale, which had a number of different stalls. There were several offering a very pretty white pulsatilla, which I might, at some point, have to track down (Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Alba'), and the holders of the national heuchera/heucherella/tiarella collection, Plantagogo, were there.


Erythronium (© Ian 2013)

This was rather dangerous, as we then promptly overspent our pocket money on five new plants: 'Ginger Ale', 'Hercules', 'Pear Crisp' (all three heucheras), 'Brass Lantern', 'Golden Zebra' (both heucherellas).