Domestic Bliss

Taking full advantage of another glorious day I was up at six and ready to leave the house with Chum when the teenager left at eight. This meant I could spend the whole morning in my garden, I decided to be ruthless and remove any plant I felt was disappointing, which turned out to be quite a lot, unfortunately I dug up someones home as you can see by this rather disgruntled toad! I hope he will find suitable accommodation somewhere else. This left plenty of spaces for my homegrown foxgloves and wallflowers which I placed in groups of three and five as instructed by our tutor, this used up every last one (sorry Mum!). Finally I cut a new straightish edge and all of a sudden I could see the potential for next year, in the spring I will divide the Aster linosyris 'Little Carlow' and fill in some of the gaps which should give more cohesion. I then devoted the rest of the day to giving the family a decent meal for once, making courgette and potato soup and an apple crumble with the produce Diana gave me on Wednesday, so I shall spend the rest of the weekend polishing my halo!

"It's never the wrong time to call on Toad. Early or late he's always the same fellow. Always good tempered. always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!"

Kenneth Grahame

Gardeners Gold!

The spiders had obviously been busy as we took our usual Wednesday morning walk, every bush and branch was festooned with their silvery threads glistening in the early sunshine. The mist hung low over the valleys and it was the epitome of a mellow September day. Diana and I were surprised just how hot the morning became as we worked our way through a list of seasonal jobs, rooting up and composting a few annual herbs and chopping down the squash and one of the courgette plants which was badly affected by mildew. Then we turned our attention to the old compost heap, at least three years old it was like extracting gold (well for us gardeners anyway) and we spread it all over the now empty vegetable beds giving it a good raking in, warm work indeed as we both broke out in a sweat! That polished us off for the rest of the day and we retired indoors for some lunch and a cool off.

"Earth knows no desolation. She smells regeneration in the moist breath of decay"

George Meredith

Outside While The Sun Shines

The powers that be have chosen to send us a late Indian summer thank goodness, just as we were all resigning ourselves to a long grey slide into winter misery. The omens were excellent as we made our way into the Bramal learning centre yesterday , there was a beautiful butterfly perched on the gate and Richard our tutor decided to change the afternoon session from surveying to garden design to make the most of the glorious sunshine. We worked hard in the morning though, learning the structure of flowers, fruits and seeds before being sent out to find different forms to dissect and categorize, there was plenty of choice as you can see. Garden design  so far has consisted of identifying the different shapes of plants and how to place them within a mixed or herbaceous border, this only served to make me realise that my garden is totally flawed. Richard has been giving us 'Top Tips' however and I'm sure if I stick to those I will be able to improve the garden next year if I dig most of it up next spring!
Pics-Flower and seed form collection, Harlow looking at it's best.

"The Indian summer of life should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and infinite in wealth and depth of tone, but never hustled"
Henry Adams

School Bugbears

Yesterday was the last Monday that I shall have as a catching up day for quite some time, because as of next week I shall be at NC. It is going to take a big effort on my part to fit in all the homework I should do as well as making sure the boy and the teenager are keeping up to date with theirs. To be fair though the teenager takes care of her own work whereas the boy is a different matter altogether. He frequently accosts me at 7.50am with some panic stricken tale of a forgotten task and could I please help him compose a poem before the school bus leaves in 20 mins! Oh well I guess we will get the hang of it eventually, he's only been there for three weeks so they are still being lenient, unlike their attitude with the teenager whom they lie in wait for to give out detentions if her top button isn't done up-very helpful to us parents that is ! Anyway enough of this waffle, I've got two new text books to get my head round now, RHS pests and diseases and Gardeners Latin, a little light bedtime reading!
Today's fungi are candlesnuff fungus and the tiny white milking bonnets, I've left my finger in the picture so you can see just how small they are.
"What we want is to see  the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child"
George Bernard Shaw

A moving ceremony

It was a sad day for our household on Friday morning as Gizmo the last of the hamsters passed away during the night. I was expecting it, she was after all about 150 in hamster years, thankfully it was a peaceful affair accompanied by a little thoughtful classical guitar music on the stereo next to her abode. She was a lovely little creature with black button eyes and a cheerful personality and I will miss her, we laid her to rest in the raised herb planter next to the shed and I surrounded her with Muscari 'Magic Carpet' bulbs, I hope someone will be as kind to me when the time comes! On a lighter note today's pictures are-jewel like honeysuckle-Lonicera periclymenum berries and a pair of nasty toadstools, a poison pie and the strangely beautiful verdigris agaric.

Life Is Too Short To.......

It is quickly dawning on me that trying to follow a housework routine is futile. In a weeks time when I start gardening at NC I shall only have three days a week to get everything else done, and when you take off a full day to catch up on homework and research and dare I suggest it, a day off to have a bit of fun, that only leaves one day for everything else like washing, shopping and paperwork. That being the case I feel it is morally wrong to devote anything but the briefest amount of time to cleaning matters! I shall no longer let it dominate my time, but squeeze the odd job in here and there when I suspect that the lack of care is becoming obvious. So apologies in advance to all who know me, time is short and the great outdoors beckons!
PS. That's as much sense as you're getting out of me this week, I'm going to the pub!

"Nature abhors a vacuum. And so do I"
Anne Gibbons

Soft Fruit Pruning

The autumn tidy up continued at Spofforth on Wednesday as Diana and I continued to put the fruit cage in order. Firstly we pruned all the currant bushes, reshaping them and removing dead, old or crossing wood, they will be much more compact and tidy next year. When we got to the blackcurrants however one of the middle bushes didn't look so good, Di told me it had started to fail last year and when we took a closer look it had suspected big bud. This is a problem caused by a tiny mite which only affects blackcurrants but it also transmits the casual agent which causes revision disease, this greatly reduces fruit yield and is endemic in much of the UK. There was nothing for it but to cut it down and remove the stump, this made a good space for a new plant next year. The time really flies when I'm with Diana and Brain and all too soon it was time to go rushing off to my doctors appointment for a tetanus jab-very important if you're grubbing around in the dirt like me! As usual I didn't go empty handed leaving with another beautiful red cabbage, some yellow courgettes, a handful of baby carrots and a lovely pot of Cyclamen hederifolium , which I hope will colonise my rockery. We have big plans afoot for the next few visits as it is time to start planting the new fruit trees-more on that as it happens.

Pics-Sunset over Bilton, yet another mystery fungi, please help if you can!

"But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day"
Benjamin Disraeli

Overheated

Phew! If I thought last week at college was a brain scrambler I certainly wasn't prepared for yesterday. Richard hit us hard first thing by handing out a list of types of plants we shall be expected to know for the exam, over two hundred different plants in Latin! We then had a quiz on last weeks topics followed by a fairly intensive lecture on plant structure and the parenchyma, sclerenchyma and collenchyma cells which make up the xylem tissue, and phloem cells. Root and leaf structure were next including the descriptive botanical terms used to describe them, light relief came with a stroll around the gardens identifying different forms. On top of all that the magic building which last week opened and shut its windows all by itself, letting in icy blasts of wind, stayed resolutely silent meaning my addition of a thermal vest to my morning attire was a mistake, I was roasting all day. Next week I shall have lots of layers on to cover all eventualities!
Pic- A mild milk cap held by Hannah, see the drop of milk on the left.
"Love not the flower they pluck and know it not, and all their botany is Latin names"
Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Order Restored ( For A While)

I don't think I paused for breath yesterday, as soon as Chum and I had our walk I went straight into the garden to tackle the bulb and viola planting. I bought nine punnets from B&Q on Sunday as they were reduced to £1.50 each, and due to the deluge we had over the weekend I thought I'd better get them planted before the rot set in, they will romp away when we get a bit of sunshine. Then I cut down the sunflowers Helianthos 'Russian Giant'-they were the seeds I got free with Gardeners World and despite reservations about sowing them at all I was pleased with the result. The heads are packed with fat stripey seeds which will feed the birds and a certain hamster for a long time to come. Then in the afternoon with the teenagers new bedroom furniture arriving at last I emptied the old chest of drawers that has been living in the hall (don't ask!) and reclaimed my old bookcase which is now stuffed to the gills with all things nature and gardening. The house almost looks tidy again, what a relief!

Excellent fungi foraging again this weekend so we'd better have another slide show-sorry!

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"The gaudy leonine sunflower hangs black and barren on its stalk, and down the windy garden walk the dead leaves scatter- hour by hour"
Oscar Wilde

Norton Conyers

Saturday found me back at Norton Conyers (NC) for a very exciting reason, I was there for a sort of interview, although Giles the head gardener and Alyson are far too nice to conduct anything so gruelling as an interview! Through the WFGA I have joined the WRAGS scheme and NC will be my placement for the next year. I shall work for two days a week (15 hours) and hopefully be taught all that needs doing during the course of the seasons, I will even be paid a modest sum! I urge all you budding gardeners out there to join this worthy charity, that includes you chaps too don't be put off by the name! I can honestly say when I joined back in April it changed my life. Anyway back to NC, if you would like to refresh your memories look up my previous post entitled "love at first sight" (July) and you will get an idea of just what a special garden it is. I cannot express how wonderful it felt to be back and to know that my feelings for it hadn't changed, it was also good to have Dave's reaction, he said that he could feel the magic too and that the last time he'd felt the same about anywhere was when we visited Staithes for the first time-praise indeed! So I start on the first of October and am thrilled to have been given the opportunity, many thanks to Lord and Lady Graham. It will provide fantastic blogging material too!

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"
Seneca

Spider Season

We were certainly blessed with a fine autumn day on Thursday, the sort of day when you step out into the early morning dew, that lures you into the garden, if you are lucky enough not to be trapped at work. September is the season for spiders, everywhere you go the gossamer threads reach out to entrap you, usually across the face, which frankly I could do without, luckily they are after smaller prey. Spiders are the caretakers of our autumn gardens, the quiet tidy-uppers who rescue us from the irritations of the late season bluebottle. Their pickings are easy now, the insects are dozy and stupid after the fall in temperature, and so I suppose we must applaud them even if we secretly shudder with distaste. I followed suit in the garden, ditching spent bedding plants and having a good sweep up as I'm not too sure how many good days we will get now.

Pics- our great British garden spider and my latest fungi find these lovely shaggy parasols.

"When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion"

Ethiopian Proverb

Wasted Day

We were halfway round the walk we do with Chum on a Wednesday before I go to Diana and Brian's, when the evil migraine fairy struck. Abandoning all thoughts of gardening I retreated back home to bed for a couple of hours. What a waste of time when I have so much to do! In the end I just took it easy for the rest of the day doing nothing more strenuous than potting on a few things and making plans for catching up tomorrow. So you will just have to do with a couple of photos of the garden. Here I must point out that from now on I shall be giving all plant names in Latin, no I haven't gone all highbrow on you but it will be really good practice for the RHS course, where not only do I have to know what they mean but I also have to write them correctly. That is the first name , the genus, being given a capital letter, the second the species, a lower case letter and any cultivar starting with a capital and within single quotation marks. All must be in italics or if written by hand underlined!

Here we go then;

Pics- This is what that miserable wind has done to my lovely Acer palmatum 'Atropurpureum' which should be a glorious crimson at this time of year, but sulks horribly when wind scorched. On a more cheerful note though the Aster lingsyris 'Little Carlow' is looking lovely.

"A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache"

Catherine the Great

Scrambled Brain Cells

The first real day of study on the RHS course found us battling to comprehend the mine field that is taxonomy and nomenclature. Gymnosperms, angiosperms, monocots and diocots, family, genus, species and cultivar all conducted in that most widely known language Latin! The old head was spinning a bit by the time we came to have a break. We were sent into the garden to collect leaves showing the characteristics of single and double seed leaves, actually easier than it sounds so everyone enjoyed a breath of fresh air. At lunch time I discovered that Mark and Lisa, who have also brought along their daughter Hannah making it a real family affair, are also mycophiles. So we swapped photos and then Lisa and I took a half hour ramble into the woods discovering some fine examples like this fly agaric and also the white one which at the moment remains unidentified, please help! Three new people have joined the class this week too, James, Anne and Melanie, the more the merrier!

"A gentleman need not know Latin, but he should at least have forgotten it"

Brander Matthews

Windy waffle

A very blustery day on Monday as the remains of hurricane Katya swept across the country, it didn't stop Chum and I enjoying our walk however. It did nearly make off with a duvet cover I'd put out to dry though and it certainly didn't help to stem the early autumn causing even more leaf drop, some of the larger shrubs are beginning to look quite bare already. I'm also sad to report that the wind blew off the last plum from my baby tree, but I did rescue it before Chum got his chops round it! See pic, I also tasted it and found it quite delicious which bodes well for a bigger crop next year. Meanwhile my enthusiasm for toadstools continues unabated thanks to a competition being run by the River Cottage team. If you go onto their website you can find a list of fungi that should be relatively simple to find, I don't want to enter as the prize is a copy of the fungi dvd that I already own, but it's still fun to try and find them all, so far I've only got one!

Pics-the plum, fairy bonnets and butter caps.

"I trust in nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility, spring shall plant and autumn garner to the ends of time"

Robert Browning

pass!

Well it's certainly been an exciting weekend, it started swimmingly with a close up hedgehog encounter, always guaranteed to enhance my mood. This was swiftly followed by some excellent mushroom hunting and identification aided by my new book "Mushrooms" by Roger Phillips, I thoroughly recommend it. Then to round it all off I had notification that I've passed my open university plants and people course-weekends don't get much better than that! In celebration, here's another slide-show.

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"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value"

Albert Einstein

The Wrong Trousers

It was a filthy wet morning for our walk yesterday but once booted and with the old pram pushing hat firmly wedged on my head it wasn't so bad, Chum's coat swiftly went curly but he didn't seem to mind either. Going for a walk has become a real necessity for me, especially now that I use it as an opportunity for finding things, it makes me smile to think of the many times I used to trudge along my head full of problems to be mulled over and didn't take any notice of what was around me. Chumdog prefers our walks now too as I'm much more likely to be photographing a flower than shouting at him for rolling in something nasty! Becoming more active outdoors has presented some problems though, I don't seem to have the right trousers! getting home yesterday soaking wet I couldn't find any thing to change into, I've got posh ones and good jeans and plenty that I've grown out of, but nothing else as my favourite gardening ones have just given up the ghost sadly. I shall have to bite the bullet and buy something suitable, but where does one go for gardening clothes? Leave me a comment if you know of any good places, I shall be most grateful!

Pics- The wrong trousers! and a freshly emerged tawny grisette.

"I grow old, I grow old.......... I shall wear my trousers rolled"

T S Elliot

Onion Harvest

The onion harvest was the first priority of the day on Wednesday at Spofforth, because the weather continues unsettled and damp Diana decided we must lift the onion sets and lay them out to dry in the greenhouse. Two different varieties were tried, the second being heat treated against disease, and looking at the results they are the ones that I shall try next year, but overall it was a really good harvest with only a handful being lost to rot. Next we took down the fruit cage, that gave me a real feeling of the seasons turning, as putting them up was the very first thing I helped Diana and Brian with back in the spring. How quickly the gardening year has passed since I left work, and how long the winter will seem without the ability to escape outside. Still I mustn't grumble, many tasks await before we can all hibernate until spring!

Pics- Diana in the greenhouse , Yew berries, the most important cancer drug is made from this tree!

"Life is like an onion; you peel off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep"

Carl Sandburg

College Induction

I've just re-discovered the joys of learning, I mean don't get me wrong, doing the short OU course was very rewarding but it didn't offer much in the way of companionship. Having attended the first day of college at RHS Harlow Carr yesterday it was a real pleasure to sit in a room with like minded people and discuss plants, whilst looking out over a beautiful setting which will be used to teach us. I feel very lucky to have been given the opportunity to indulge my passion and would like to say a big HELLO to Richard our tutor, Trisha, Deb, Mark and Lisa, Eunice, Christine and Rob who will be taking the journey with me, good luck to you all! After all the introductions and questions we took a ramble around the gardens testing our novice terminology and trying to take in the vast amount of subject matter we must get to grips with, I can't wait for a proper lesson next week, it's certainly going to be an interesting year!

Pics- fairy ring and Stipa gigantica

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere"

Chinese Proverb

Off To A Flying Start

I was up at 6.15 yesterday morning to make sure that all was in readiness for the son's first day at big school. I had quite a lump in my throat to see him look so smart, and even the teenager was being kind, helping him to tie his tie the cool way and allowing him to accompany her on the bus, how quickly they grow up! Once I'd seen them safely out of the door I had to clear the teenagers room so her new carpet could be fitted, this duly happened everything being finished by 9.30. Then for the first time in weeks I could make inroads on the mess in peace and quiet, I even found the time to tidy up my plant pots, make the tea and pot up some new violas. Spotted these little nasties in the back garden, the very poisonous destroying angel fungus, definitely not one for the pot!

"Life has a way of setting things in order and leaving them be . Very tidy, is life"
Jean Anouilh

A Makeover!

Hello everybody and welcome to the new look blog, I hope you like it. The beginning of a new school year seemed like a good time for a change and today, as something slightly different I thought we'd have a slide show. Apologies from the mycophile in me for the preponderance of fungi pictures!

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"The earth was made so various that the mind of desultory man, studious of change and pleased with novelty, might be indulged"

A Pat On The Back

Friday 2nd September 2011

Just to confuse you all I was at Tate House yesterday, Yes I know it wasn't a Monday but it is the big opening of the sensory courtyard on Saturday and everything has to be just right. For once we were blessed with a decent warm and sunny day, the best one in ages, we just hope for a repeat performance at the weekend. Everyone scurried around trimming and tidying, all the raised beds and pots have been dead-headed so no traces of decay remain and with a bit of luck all the remaining buds will be open for the big day. I bit the bullet and disposed of all the blown cauliflowers and just as we were wondering what to fill the gaps with Nick appeared bearing trays of homegrown seedlings, his timing really couldn't have been better. Between us it is quite amazing what we have accomplished in such a short space of time and I think we all deserve our pat on the back on Saturday. More about the opening with pictures on Monday.

Today's pics- First of the apple harvest at Tate House, ladybird on variegated sage, very long amaranthus tassels!

"Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment"

Thomas Carlyle

Brassica Massacre

Thursday 1st September 2011

Despite Diana's best attempts Mother Nature is waging all out war on her brassicas. We decided to unfleece them yesterday to see how they were doing, unfortunatley it quickly turned into a lesson on pests and diseases of the brassica family. Some of the plants at the edges were looking sickly so we pulled them up only to be confronted with the dreaded club root. It was soon apparent that much of the crop would not produce anything edible so all the earlies came out only leaving the vague chance that the winter cropping varieties will come to fruition. I have to admit I have my doubts, as when a plant is weakened by one attack it seems to be susceptible to anything else nasty that is hanging around. We also found evidence of brassica aphis and white fly and "redistributed" many cabbage white caterpillars into the bargain. Diana says the club root fungus can stay active in the soil for several years and can be transferred from bed to bed by boots and birds feet, so I don't know if she will try again next year, I wonder how I will fare in my raised beds?

The only decent thing to come out of the whole plot yesterday was this charming little self sown flower, I haven't been able to identify it so if anyone out there in cyberspace knows please leave me a comment.

"On every stem, on every green leaf and at the root of everything that grew was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis or other expert, whose business was to devour that particular plant"

Oliver Wendall Holmes