Ladybird Ladybird Fly Away Home

I left the house with trepidation on Monday at 7.10am, leaving the children in charge of getting themselves off to school without losing the dog or burning the house down, Dave having been given a day pass to go on a jolly to Staithes the day before. I'm pleased to say nothing untoward occurred so I could get stuck in to the days gardening with gusto. Initially the weather was wet and blustery so Giles gave us a cushy number picking peppers in the peach house, but the bullet had to be bitten eventually and we trouped out to the peony border to survey the amount of tidying up ahead of us. That pretty much took care of the rest of the day, as once strimmed, we gathered armfuls of debris for the ever enlarging compost heap, and then tackled de-tangling nettle and bramble roots from amongst the peonies. Unfortunately most of the ladybirds of North Yorkshire had decided to hibernate amongst the plants and it wasn't long before we were covered head to foot with them, I haven't seen so many since that summer back in the seventies when people were sweeping them into piles in the streets, the image above isn't mine I'm afraid but you get my drift!
Best plant discovery yesterday-Lotus hirsustus, nice hairy silver grey leaves, pea-like flowers in summer and ovoid reddish brown seed pods in autumn.
"Ladybugs all dressed in red strolling through the flower bed. If I were tiny just like you, I'd creep among the flowers too"
Maria Fleming

Pics-late season colour on the cut flower border, and gateways and vistas no'4

Autumn Tidy Up Continues

My second Saturday at NC couldn't have been more different weather wise, it was quite cold early on and I was beginning to regret not putting a long sleeved top on, until we started work that is when I soon warmed up! The first task of the day was clearing the peach house border, many of the plants needed thinning or putting else where. It was a great opportunity to learn the names of a few more specimens, my favourite being Parahebe perfoliata which is a sub shrub with glaucous leaves which surround the stem and produces sprays of blue flowers in spring, an AGM it is a fine looking thing! The only downside to the morning were the midges which drove us mad biting us through our hair, so when the rain came it was almost a relief. We continued with the autumn clear up after lunch in the spring border, steadily removing the weeds and the rotting apples which had fallen from the tree above, the sweet sickly stench is something I don't think I will ever forget. When four o' clock came I was damp, muddy and tired but surprisingly still in love with gardening!

"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity"
Edvard Munch

Autumn Walk

Just a short post today folks, as I've run out of energy and inspiration. What a dramatic change in the weather from the start of the week, we must have dropped ten degrees at least. On our walk yesterday Chum and I got buffeted by the wind and then soaked by heavy squalls, it was the sort of day when you get a rainbow every five minutes. By the way Chum is well and truly in the doghouse for raiding the bin bag and devouring three stale cheese muffins yesterday tea time, needless to say he didn't get any dinner after that lot so now thinks that nobody loves him any more! Never mind it's Friday which means the supermarket trip and he always gets a pigs ear after that!). If there were any fungi to be found we didn't see them as all of a sudden the ground is covered by a thick layer of leaves and nuts, all we need now is the first frost and it will really feel like autumn. We took delivery of a load of logs late yesterday so let the weather do what it will!

"Bitter-sweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter"
Carol Bishop Hipps

An Apple A Day

After weeks of planning it was finally time to plant Diana's grafted apple trees on Wednesday. Luckily we were blessed with a fine day so the soil was nice ans light for me to lift as I am chief digger! Di sorted through her stock setting aside any promised to other people and those she has decided to plant into the bottom orchard, we will probably plant those next week. She chose eight good looking trees for us to plant next to the new fence and we proceeded to settle them into their new home. It was hard work, but very satisfying to see them in place. Brian got busy making rabbit protection but it will probably take him a while to finish, he is nearly ninety after all! Here are the varieties that went in.
Sturma pippin-A Victorian dessert with good keeping qualities.
Braeburn hilwell-A commercial dessert from New Zealand.
Norfolk honey russet-a dessert with a good sweet flavour
Rosemary russet-I couldn't find anything out about this one!
Ashmeads kernel-A very old apple with a drab appearance but a pear drop flavour.
Chivers delight-A dessert sweet juicy and crunchy.
Annie Elizabeth- A culinary apple which keeps its shape when cooked.
Gascoynes scarlet-A dessert which produces a pink juice.
May they thrive and produce many apples!

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is now.
Chinese proverb

Dave spotted this last scene, it makes a lovely picture, I have entitled it 'Retired'!

AWOL

It was a bit of a shock to walk into class and find a lady sitting in Richard's place yesterday morning. Her name was Jo and she had come to the rescue because Richard had a cold and lost his voice, despite being retired and having just moved into her new home which is mid renovation, she had stepped in for us so we didn't have to miss a lesson-very nice of her. She carried on with the garden design theme covering site analysis and design considerations, showing us the symbols to use when we make plans of our own. She also gave us a little shopping list (it's amazing how many things I've found I just can't live without since staring this course!), circle template, flexi ruler, coloured pencils. geometry set and pigment liners, apparently this is all we need to to become garden designers, although I have a feeling that there is a lot more to it than that!
Pics-Just a couple of beautiful autumn coloured plants from Harlow Carr.

"In garden arrangement as in all other kinds of decorative work, one has not only to acquire the knowledge of what to do, but also to gain some wisdom in perceiving what is well to let alone"

Gertrude Jekyll

Border Patrol

Day two at NC and we went straight to work clearing and weeding the cut flower border, starting with the sweet peas which have now given of their best, much to Lady Halena's dismay. Never mind for next spring she will have lots of sweet williams to keep her going until the summer. Alyson and Nikki then went off to cut the grass, Alyson with the walk behind petrol mower and Nikki on the tractor, they were trying to get me to have a go but it is an expensive piece of kit and I haven't driven for ten years so I demurred, I will do it though when I'm back driving again! Giles and I then had a break by picking the espaliered pears, they were still hard  but he says they can turn in a matter of hours so are best ripened inside. After lunch we cut the pumpkins and placed then in the greenhouse to mature and harden off, each one weighed a ton, I shall have muscles like Popeye by the end of my training! We finished the day by continuing to tidy the herbaceous border, thinning out the self sown seedlings of foxglove and Nonea lutea which are vigorous spiny little devils and removing a fine crop of groundsel. It will be interesting to see just how many weeds return before winter sets in for good.

Pics- A workers tools, pumpkins and vistas and gateways (v&g) number two.

"There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat"

Ralph Waldo Emmerson

The Old Apple Store

Saturday was the first day of my trainee ship at Norton Conyers and it found me back at work along the iris border. Last July the WRAG girls helped to divide and replant one side of the border and so this time we tidied and cut back the other side, it soon became a very unseasonably warm day but Alyson Nikki and I persisted until the job was done. Alyson and I did have an hour off mid morning when we helped Lady Halena to plant dwarf tulips and violas in the pots in the courtyard, they smelt heavenly in the warm sun. In the afternoon we picked apples, both cookers and eaters, Giles who is by far the tallest amongst us climbed up into the trees and dropped the best fruit for us to catch. These we laid out on the racks in the ancient apple store. We eventually went three stories high which should be plenty for the house to use. All too quickly the day passed but I confess to being relieved when it was time to leave, it had been so hot I was looking forward to a cold shower, who would have thought  that the first of October would be hotter than August!
Pics- Sempervivum oozing off an old stone pillar. The last pic has given me the inspiration to run a series entitled 'gateways and vistas of Norton Conyers, so look out for plenty more in the next few weeks.

"Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed"
Robert H Schuller

"Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love"

Song of Solomon