Here I Go Again!

A fantastic apple from one of the young trees we planted last autumn.

August is a really poor month for blogging I'm afraid due to the disruption of having the kids underfoot all the time, I'm barely able to keep one step ahead of the detritus they leave behind them wherever they go, but fear not the school holidays are almost behind us and I can feel my enthusiasm for all things garden related returning. I will be back at Harlow Carr on the 13th September to start another year of studying, this time on the practical course which will include an awful lot of plant identification, all in Latin of course, bring it on! I shall also continue to visit Spofforth on a weekly basis and hopefully help Diana tame her wild areas. I was beginning to wonder if I should have bothered turning up as I trudged up the road in the pouring rain yesterday morning, but Di still welcomed me with open arms willing to discuss future plans, we also took a trip to the garden centre where she restocked with compost so we could re-pot her Royal Sovereign strawberries. As in my garden her vegetable production has been poor this year but all the fruit continues to thrive and at the age of eighty she is still  intending to expand on the varieties she already grows. The plums are to be joined by a greengage and an apricot as soon as we have cleared the jungle from where they will live. As you can see there will be plenty more to tell you about over the coming months, so stick around!

"Live each season as it passes, breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each" Henry David Thoreau

Is there anything as beautiful as the bloom on a Victoria plum?

Tool Envy

Last week, after a disaster with a pair of loppers bought cheaply at the flower show which broke after only three go's! I treated myself to a shiny new pair of Felco ones, mouth puckeringly expensive admittedly but they should give me a lifetimes worth of service. I proudly took them along to Norton yesterday for their first outing and having earned admiring glances from Giles and Alyson they were soon cutting through a gnarly old grape vine as if it were butter. Giles was even heard to mutter that maybe he ought to get a new pair, there's nothing like tool envy between gardeners! After lunch we pinched out and stopped the tomatoes also taking off the lower leaves so all the plants energy goes into ripening the fruit, it looks like we will have a bumper crop this year. Not so the onions I'm afraid as when we started harvesting them it became apparent that many had rotted off, they were not a very uniform crop either, some reaching a decent size but looking unlikely to store well due to them having thick necks, whilst the rest were only disappointingly small. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

"Man is a tool using animal.......Nowhere do you find him without tools, without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all" Thomas Carlyle

A bumper harvest on the way

Cinnabar moth caterpillar spotted (or should that be striped) on common ragwort . It becomes a red and charcoal grey moth which flies from May to July.

Shambolic Shrubbery

A few tentative cuts start us off

If Saturday was a gentle working day we certainly made up for it yesterday, Giles led us to the badly overgrown shrubs by the coach house cottage and let us loose. I'm not kidding the nettles were seven feet high in places! Not to be deterred Alyson and I soon got stuck in with loppers and saw and by tea-break were making good progress, only two hours in to the working day we were already filthy, covered in nettle rash, rose thorns in our hair and green slime coating our arms but strangely enjoying ourselves! We cleared as much as possible by lunch only leaving the renovated shrubs and the big stumps for Giles and the chainsaw to deal with. The end result doesn't look that pretty but we have uncovered a lovely window and  balustrade and the plants will soon recover. The afternoon we spent mowing in the heat, finishing off by raking dead thatch from a recently cleared green area, a task that made me think of peasants toiling in the fields, the sun was hot and the flies bothersome so I wasn't sorry when it was time to go home, I badly needed a shower!


"Now I know a refuge never grows, from a chin in hand and thoughtful pose, gotta tend the earth if you want a rose" Indigo Girls

Alyson is in there somewhere!

Making progress

End result with mountains of shredding to do!

Dog Days

We had a gentle day at the garden on Saturday, a fact I was glad for as Dave and I had been out for dinner the night before and my head felt distinctly woolly, couple that with the fact that the weather was muggy and it was an uncomfortable start to the working day. There's nothing like gardening to soothe a throbbing head but I don't think I'll risk a Friday night out again in a hurry! I wasn't the only member of the team feeling under the weather, poor old Bisto has a tumour that we fear will soon get the better of him, he appears to be fading away before our eyes. He still likes to amble his way round the garden and can even put on a burst of speed if Shandy manages to flush a rabbit, but increasingly he is simply content to find a patch of sunshine somewhere near his master and lose himself in slumber. I guess Norton Conyers is not a bad place to spend your last days, during the dog days of August in Bisto's case, I hope there are a few more pleasant ones to come for him yet.

"Histories are more full of the examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends" Alexander Pope

Fifteen Minutes

I think it was Andy Warhol who said that everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame and thanks to Craven College I think I've just had mine. Do you recall me mentioning that a bunch of us at Harlow Carr had our photos taken one lunchtime? Well it would seem they've put me on a poster, so here it is, although I'm not sure it will encourage any more adult learners, more likely to put them off!

"Fame is a vapour, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character" Horace Greeley

A Lesson Learned

I've always been a great believer in the old adage "Pride comes before a fall" and I was proved right yet again yesterday at Norton. Every Monday is mowing day, a task which takes up nearly half the working day when you add in the outside areas like the car park which must be kept looking tidy and cared for. It was my turn to drive the tractor again, something I'm getting more and more accustomed to and by the time tea-break arrived I was quietly patting myself on the back over my nice stripes and improved manoeuvrability. I parked up remembering to apply the hand break, lower the cutter and the front bucket and remove the ignition key in case of passing tea-leafs, all was going well. After break I hopped back on, put the beast into gear and started trundling forward again only to notice something wasn't right, I couldn't tell what it was but I wasn't going very fast and the wheels seemed to be at a funny angle. I decided to reverse to see if that would correct matters and as I did so a great gouge appeared from beneath the front end, it was then that the penny dropped, I'd forgotten to lift the bucket! Blast, that's what comes of being cocky I thought as I went cap in hand to tell Giles, thank goodness I'd only done it on one of the verges and not the front lawn or I don't think he would have been quite so forgiving. As it was his only comment was that I wasn't the first and wouldn't be the last, but it was a lesson I don't think I'll have to learn again!

"Life is a lesson in humility" J M Barrie

An example of my mowing prowess!

Late Summer Languor

The garden at Norton Conyers was waiting for me on Saturday and I soon felt like I'd been away for months not just two weeks. Everything has subtly changed in that time as the vigour of early summer gives way to the languid fecundity of August and September. The colours in the borders have morphed from the gentle shades of pinks and blues into startling yellows, oranges and reds. Browns also dominate as flowers die revealing their purpose in intricate seed pods, non so eye catching as the bladder senna Collutea which puff up and rattle with every passing breeze. It is good to be back.

"The brilliant poppy flaunts her head amidst the ripening grain, and adds her voice to sell the song that August's here again" Helen Winslow

The little holes in these poppy heads are made by the tiny birds of the garden who feast on the seeds inside.

Home again

The view from the bar where we frequently saw dolphins and big silver fish leap and sport

one of the locals!

Well we made it home in one piece, not even the boy managed to hurt himself too badly for once and given the odds on that when snorkelling and playing all the sports the island had to offer was no mean feat! Kuredu was of course a paradise island with the most beautiful and interesting flora and fauna and the kindest of people, but I wont bother you with the details just share a few pictures over the next few posts. Thank goodness our first day home was a hot and sunny one as I had mountains of washing to attend to and the garden to put back in order. My vegetables have been a bit of a mixed bag at the first attempt but as all of it was an experiment to see which I would continue to grow next year it's been very interesting. Yesterday I harvested the last of the mange tout and disposed of the plants, they will need better support next season but have cropped well. My home made willow runner bean support has also failed to be sturdy enough and so it will be back to stout canes next year. All the swedes have run to seed due to the challenging conditions so I dug them up and confined them to the compost bin saving the only two roots big enough to eat, I will not bother to grow them again especially as they are as cheap as chips in the shops. My French beans are cropping too but the plants are very small, however they are a lovely golden yellow and anything that fits into a small space will definitely be grown again. I have harvested the shallots which have done well and the cabbages and onions are also continuing to mature nicely. The courgette and squash plants are growing huge now and will hopefully soon reward me with plenty of fruit.

 I think growing vegetables is a good metaphor for life, you start off full of big plans and hope, only to find there are challenges to be met along the way and if you finally get to harvest time you are grateful for anything you end up with!

"Let my words, like vegetables, be tender and sweet, for tomorrow I may have to eat them" Anon

My shallot harvest