November notes

Any quote or poem that mentions November usually includes the words damp, dismal, foggy, or dull. Well, I suppose given the last few days they may have a point. Emily Dickinson, whose poems I have never seemed to take to, despite thinking that I should, describes November as "the Norway of the year". Has the Eurovision Song Contest been going that long? I have never been to Norway, but I would like to, and I imagine it is a fine place during this month of Remembrance, Thanksgiving and my birthday.
So - instead of a trip to Scandinavia, I offer you a trip around my garden on this bright(ish) November afternoon.
Above is my front door, complete with my new planters. I also bought a couple of juniper trees to put in them, with a vague image of a Country Living magazine cover in mind. In a year or two - decorated with homespun twiggy stars, dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks maybe?


We are lucky to have a large conservatory which looks right out onto the fruit trees. It's a great space, and we always feel in part of the garden. I bought some new bird feeders and a nice selection of seeds, nuts and fat balls for the coming winter. The window feeder was a great success last year, and much time is spent sitting watching the birds going about their business.

A shy violet primrose peeks out from under the plum tree. What an uplifting sight!

Some pea shoots - escapees from the summer harvest, poking up in the new garlic bed.

A robin in a pear tree.

This is my bean trench for next year. Kitchen waste goes in, some soil goes on top and big fat beans will come out in the summer. Simple!




Glorious orange calendula. I always grow this, and intend to harvest the petals to make an infused oil. Somehow, though, I can never bring myself to pick them - I love to see their cheering colour when I walk down the garden.



My intended asparagus bed. Definitely a work in progress as you will note. All weeds will be eliminated and kept out by a weed suppressing membrane. Seaweed has been collected and will be dug in to the bed ready for the crowns to be planted in early spring. They can grow it in Perthshire, so I don't see any reason why it wouldn't grow here. Watch this space.



Just one raspberry plant escaped the clutches of the hens. It almost escaped me too, but I spied it in beside a clump of tall nettles. Gardener's perks ;)

Still seeing red!

Gorgeous tomatoes picked from the greenhouse today. Mostly Roma, but a couple of Sioux in there too - the ones that made it to the kitchen that is. There are still quite a few on the vine just turning pale orange, so a few Indian summer days and there will be even more passata!

First Frost

We had our first ground frost last week.

I like a winter that has some hard frosty weather.

It makes the kale taste sweeter and kills off all the pests.

Bean yesterday - garlic tomorrow.

I had lots of help clearing the bean bed today.

James really worked hard and we had a great time. He put his new (to him) trike and trailer to a lot of use.

He loved helping to fill the wheel barrow with mulch.

And now we have a beautiful bed ready to plant our garlic as soon as it arrives. Once again I have ordered from The Really Garlicky Company. I was so pleased with my harvest this year - definitely the best I have had. The bulbs are strong with nice fat cloves and they taste great. I have sent away for 40 bulbs this year, so should get around 150 cloves from that.
I love gardening - there is always something new to look forward to. With 3 of us now working the plot who knows what we can achieve next season!

Winter Wheat - a straw revolution

I've decided to try growing some winter wheat, so we combined the two beds used for alliums earlier this year and broadcast the seed today. I was very inspired by reading Masanobu Fukuoka's short book - The One Straw Revolution, so I also sowed green clover seed before covering the bed with a straw mulch. The theory, at it's most basic, is that the straw, clover and wheat will act as a weed suppressant, and later when the wheat is harvested the straw is laid directly back on the soil and another crop sown with a green manure. The late Mr Fukuoka planted rice followed by barley, so I am unsure really where I am going with this experiment. I have discovered this wonderful website which I will be perusing over the winter, an hopefully emerge next spring with a clearer idea. Meantime, I just need to keep those hens away from what must look like paradise over their fence!

Mixed beans

We have had a mixed result with our beans this year. The broad beans (super aquadulce), earlier in the year were a great success. The runner beans (Scarlet Emperor) are still coming in thick and fast, although getting a bit stringy now. When they get to this stage, I pod them and cook the beans in their candy pink coats, removing them later to reveal the tender beanlets, which are then turned in some olive oil and garlic. A wee bit more work, but definitely worth it.
French beans (Aguillon) have been OK - a few delicious side dishes have been provided but I did not plant enough, and my successional sowing plans did not quite get going. Also, I put them in the wrong place and they became overshadowed by the runner beans and the peas - oops! Next year they will be given a lot more space.
Climbing beans (Barlotta lingua di fuoco) looked very promising. As with all the other beans, i started them off in root trainers in the greenhouse. Normally with borlotti beans, I have trouble even getting any to grow at all, so I was very happy when my 16 plants were ready to go out. Very slow growth though and the harvest has been very disappointing. Many of the pods were empty and it looked like some kind of weevil had got to them. You can see in the photo how skinny they are, but we did add what we harvested to a risotto today, so they didn't go to waste. James helped me pod them and I told him the story of Jack and the Beanstalk as we worked.
Maybe I should be like Jack's mother and just throw the beans on the ground next year!

Winter sowing

As the beds are cleared and the summer crops eaten, seeds are being sown for winter consumption. Rocket, corn salad, lettuce and spinach are already showing above ground, while more lettuce, winter hardy spring onions, endice and chicory are cosy under their poly tunnel. I may be a bit late with them, but hopefully the extra protections and a few warm days will bring them on. Winter purslane and land cress have also been sown. Along with the chards, kales, brussels sprouts and leeks, this should give a fair selection of green stuff to keep us going until spring.
While clearing a patch of ground the other day, I came across some parsnips growing away under their 'mulch' of chickweed. I had given up on them in late spring, so I was very happy to see the, Only enough for 1 meal, but very welcome nonetheless. I noticed some scorzonera plants growing in the rose bed too - they have obviously seeded from a few years ago!
I will be ordering the garlic bulbs in the next few days and hope to get them in a bit earlier this year. I was so pleased with my harvest this year - seed was from The Really Garlicky Company - and it has been a great success. That is probably all I will plant out now, as I don't think their is a great time advantage in setting out broad beans and shallots now. They don't tend to overwinter well in this area anyway, so clearing and mulching for the rest of the beds.
Oh yes - I am going to give winter wheat a go. Hoping to get that in very soon - this weekend even. So, although one season draws to a close, there is always something to look forward to.

A little bit corny.

So, I couldn't wait any longer and decided to harvest some of the sweetcorn. I had been feeling the cobs for a few weeks and definitely detected some knobbly bits, but the ends still felt a bit empty. Anyway, on went the pot of salted water, and when it was at a nice rolling boil, James and I headed down the garden path to harvest our long anticipated corn feast. Hmmm - quite a few cobs still with no kernels, but we managed to find 4 fairly well filled ones. They were so sweet James didn't see the point in cooking them and had a large bite from the one on the far left. He was persuaded though, and we headed inside where the cobs were lightly poached and served with some good salted butter.
I am hopeful that the rest of the cobs will still mature and fill out a bit. The variety was Extra Early Sweet, so they should be ready by now. I certainly spent a lot of time shaking the pollen on to the tassells to ensure kernel development. I will give them another couple of weeks and try again. Then I will decide whether it is worth growing them again. Going by taste - well, yes - it was absolutely worth it. Those fresh crisp kernels were just so delicious. I'm not sure, however, if the yield can justify the space in the bed. Maybe Scotland is not suited to sweetcorn growing?

Having said that,however, why was it that when the new Organic Gardening Catalogue arrived yesterday, the first place it opened at was the sweetcorn page?

And pray, what more can a reasonable man desire, in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of ears of green sweetcorn boiled, with the addition of salt?

Henry David Thoreau.

Growing and learning.

James has developed an interest in real gardening - as opposed to running around, or using it as a background for his various construction projects. No - this was spontaneous, and yet he has obviously been observing us planning and working.
I had cleared the last of the potatoes - leaving the ground nice and clean, ready to get some winter salads planted. I went off to do something else and didn't really pay attention to what he was doing.
"Look Mummy - tomatoes!" said a, very pleased voice.

I looked around and saw that he had picked a couple of courgette flowers, and raided some plant labels from the next bed, and 'planted' them.

Later that night I asked him if he would like to plant anything else. He though for a minute and said
'More tomatoes.... and macaroni"
So, yesterday, that is just what he did.
He sowed some Gardener's Delight tomato seeds,

and then the macaroni.

He was very careful about planting each macaroni 'seed', covering them with soil and then labelling the patch.

Pasta and pomodori - what a classic combination.
I love the way children learn. It is such a privelege to be there.

Lush

I am always struck by how much the garden seems to have grown after we return from a holiday - even if it is only a few days away. Everything seems so lush, green, and bursting with growth. The end of summer is always one of the high points for me in the garden. As we have such a short season here - late start, early finish, there is a concentration of ready produce around this time. Right now we are still harvesting blueberries, peas, french beans, courgettes, early carrots summer cabbage, cauliflower, calabrese and turnips. There appear to be vast tracts of kale and chard, while the sprouts are showing their tiny little buds of Christmas deliciousness. The runner beans seem to grow an inch every half hour at the moment - and we are very glad, as we all love them. The sweetcorn will be a week or so yet (sigh and I have not started to lift the maincrop carrots - the savoy and winter cabbage have hopefully survived without too much caterpillar damage, although I did net the purple sprouting broccoli. Leeks are looking good, and in the greenhouse there are still a couple of cukes, some tomatoes waiting for a blast of sunshine, and some precious pumpkins and squashes.

Beans and courgettes, picked by the Gardener's Boy, destined for a risotto that was so delicious, I can't describe it.
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