Mowing Over Apples

The apple trees at Norton Conyers are groaning with fruit at this time of year, the poor creatures are bowed down with the weight of the fruit, with some of the branches almost touching the ground. This makes mowing a more challenging task, firstly you must kick any fruit away from the mowers path, this in itself can take a considerable amount of time. The grass now is thick with dew meaning soggy feet after you have accomplished a relatively clear course. Then there are the wasps, groggy with the fermenting fruit they buzz around drunkenly, so it's best to wear gloves if you have to handle any of the fruit. The branches themselves are a hazard because they are so low, meaning you must duck and manoeuvre as best you can, but I always get one or two clonks on the head either from a branch whipping back or an apple falling on my head. Is it any wonder that I always go off eating apples at this time of year!

"Autumn seemed to arrive early that year. The first morning of September was crisp and golden as an apple"
J K Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Potatoes, Pumpkins, And Pruning

The leap from summer to autumn has been swift this year, we awoke yesterday to a misty September scene and it is now dark when I get up in the morning. Inevitably this time of year sees us begin the harvest, firstly we dug up the potato crop, a good haul this year with little slug damage and large tubers. For the first time ever no one spiked a good specimen with their fork. Then the pumpkins were wrestled from their tangle of monstrous stems and leaves on the compost heap and placed in the traditional spot on the piggery wall to season. I always enjoy the sight and know I bore you with the same photo every year! Pruning the plums came next with us all balanced precariously atop the long ladders, a task I'm beginning to find easier as I gain in experience, once Alyson told me to lean into the ladder I lost my nervousness of being up high and find each year now I'm growing in confidence. The whole day was grey and sometimes wet but despite the autumnal feel the late blooms can still pack a punch and remind you of sunnier times.

"A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition"
William Arthur Ward

Happy Days Are Here Again

The schools have gone back this morning and The Teenager #1 is settled in Edinburgh for her first term at university, happy days are indeed here again! September is such a mellow month and the colours of the main border start to reflect the waining of the year with soft mauves and pale yellows taking over from the hotter colours of August. September also brings the annual yew hedge cut, which occupied us for the whole day on Monday. Everything went swimmingly apart from a couple of wasp colonies which had set up home in the depths of the yew, Nicky and I escaped with just one sting each whilst Giles got off Scot free, not bad considering he was doing the cutting. Our volunteer Susan came to help with her granddaughter Anna, and Shandy soon had just the right amount of attention befitting the most important member of the team!

"But now in September the garden has cooled, and with it my possessiveness. The sun warms my back instead of beating on my head.... The harvest has dwindled and I have grown apart from the intense midsummer relationship that brought it on."
Robert Finch

August Blues

You might be surprised to find that August is perhaps my least favourite month. As I enter middle age I find that the heat annoys me, when I was younger I could sit and bask in it with little ill effect, now it just makes me feel sticky and grumpy. I think I even prefer February, at least you know where you stand weather wise and can always retreat indoors to a log burning stove. July is glorious in the garden as all blooms look their best, and September offers new late season flowers and a wistful mellowness, but August is just sultry and bad tempered. Then there are the flies, a constant bug bear to the gardener as they zoom around your sweat slicked brow, forcing you underneath a wide brimmed hat when it is too warm to wear one. Yesterday we went balsam bashing in the woods with the plants and nettles towering above our heads, and what do I get for my pains? An awful lot of mosquito bites and those mostly in the worst places, how do they know to bite you just under the bra straps! So forgive me the lack of inspiration at this time of year as my muse leaves me, all will be well again in a couple of weeks!

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito"
Dalai Lama

Cuttings And Snippets

Our work was varied and interesting yesterday at Norton Conyers, just when you think there is nothing much to do Giles pulls something out of the bag to occupy the time. I'm not sure I will ever be able to remember all the jobs the gardening year demands, good thing there are many books on the subject. We spent much of our time taking salvia cuttings, the original plants have grown too large and it is difficult to store them over winter so each variety had to be reproduced for renewed vigour next year. I hadn't really done this sort of thing before but after a few attempts you get a lot quicker, just as well as eighty cuttings had to be taken of each type. First you collect the cutting material and place it into a plastic bag so it doesn't dry out, then you cut below a leaf node and remove the growing point before inserting it into the edge of a small pot of compost. After a good water the cuttings were placed into the cold frame and covered with plastic to save them drying out and extra shading placed over the glass to keep the heat down. Hopefully in about a month they will have started to grow roots and by next spring be big enough to be potted on.
Other news in the garden; Whilst I was away on holiday the weather was so foul no gardening could be attempted so the bothy was cleared out instead. It has always been a chaotic space filled with junk and rats, but with a little care it is now really interesting. All the old equipment looks great arranged around the walls and maybe with a little work we could get the fireplace working again and have somewhere warm to sit in the winter months. I think the garden visitors would like to look in too.

Plant news, Giles is especially pleased with the veratrum flowering in the bottom border. He thinks the colour is especially deep and a little unusual. Who knows maybe we could  have a new variety on our hands, to be called Veratrum Norton Conyers perhaps?!

"Green fingers are a fact, and a mystery only to the unpractised. But green fingers are the extension of a verdant heart. A good garden cannot be made by somebody who has not developed the capacity to know and love growing things"
Russell Page

A new veratrum perhaps?

Gardeners 3 Rabbits 0

Our fight against the garden rabbits continues, yesterday morning there were three in the vegetable patch and we knew we either had to get rid of them or lose the rest of our now depleted crop of cabbages. Cruel as it may seem the quickest way is to use the dogs and yesterday we had Shandy the mighty rabbit hunter and Bramble the daft labrador from coachman's cottage as our arsenal. Whilst Giles, Walter, Alyson and Nicky patrolled inside with sticks, I held the gate to ensure they didn't run under the netting. It wasn't long before rabbits were flying in all directions and maybe about ten minutes before Shandy made the first kill. Quickly making sure the unfortunate creature was dead it was thrown next to me on the grass and we all returned to the fray. Soon enough there was another scuffle in the place where I stood, having given it a good clout with my stick as it passed the dogs were soon on it and before they could devour it it joined the other on the grass beside me. The only problem was this poor thing wasn't dead and kept twitching and trying to get up, as the others were engaged with the last rabbit it was down to me to dispatch it, I didn't enjoy it but I also couldn't let it suffer so finished it quickly. Bunny number three followed thankfully leaving a pest free veg patch, and as Shandy claimed her prizes and took them off for burial, we stopped for a well earned tea break.
Things elsewhere in the garden are much calmer as we head towards August, one of the quietest months for a gardener, we will manage the weeds, dead head and mow until Autumn brings the harvest.

"Zucchinis terrific, like bunnies prolific!"
Anon

Make Time For Thyme

I read many magazine and newspaper articles about which are the best plants to grow for attracting bees and butter flies, and yet few mention the simple delights of thyme. It is at its very best at the moment, quietly modest in size and often unnoticed over the more exuberant summer blooms, yet there it sits with pretty pink flowers covered by our most coveted insect friends. It is a hardy plant unless you want to grow the smallest alpine species. There are dozens of varieties to choose from many that have culinary uses, insects flock to it, no pest will eat it, and it will grow in difficult soils and is drought resistant. Just give it full sun and you will be rewarded with all these wonderful properties, what's not to love!
This week the house at Norton Conyers is open for the first time in many years, and yesterday was the first day we gardeners have worked with many visitors and a tea room in full swing. Whilst the others went off to cut the meadow I managed to answer a few gardening questions, pick some soft fruit and generally help with visitor enquiries, and thoroughly enjoyed myself to boot!. During the morning we toured the house ourselves to inspect the flower arrangements made up entirely from blooms from the garden, see the picture below of the great hall looking resplendent. The house is only open for this one week, so if you want to visit ring up to book a tour and don't forget to visit the garden afterwards!

"I know a bank where the wild thyme grows"
William Shakespeare