Friday 30 August 2013

Survey

It's the time of year to take semi-ripe cuttings of perennials, so yesterday, with the help of a fosterling, I took a number of pots of lavender, box, willow, dogwood ('Midwinter Fire'), Cornelian cherry, and a yellow-flowered herbaceous perennial from Jenny's garden the name of which constantly eludes me. They were all treated with rooting hormone (apart from the willows), and are in warmed propagators to give them some warmth and humidity. Before that, then I painted half of the window frames on the front of the house, and Liz weeded, as well as painting the trough planter for the goji berries.

We spent most of today on the hillside, which has been strimmed again. It might need doing once more this autumn, but that might not happen. Having done so, we went around and painted the trees with an anti-deer concoction of chilli powder in oil. Hopefully that will help keep them away: they've browsed the leaves from one of the tall shoots on one of the Victoria plums. While going round, I used a GPS app on my phone to take a reading of each tree's location, as we don't actually have a plan of which tree is where. I'm not sure it's worked perfectly, but it provides some idea.

Location of the Fruit & Ornamental Trees in the Orchard ( Ian 2013)
I'm going to work on plotting it with labels, too.

I also measured the length of the putative apple walk we're thinking of building in the 'top right' (left in the plan above) corner, which an avenue of trees leads you towards, and which takes you up into the first clearing. It looks like it'll be about 24' long: as we're planning trees 6' apart (probably with imitation 'trunks' intercalated), in an arch 8' across; each tree can then be espalier trained 3' each side. That makes for five trees up each side, so we need to start planning varieties -- and digging two planting trenches.

Finally, as we went round, I've done a bit of work training the primary laterals on the fruit trees which are tall enough, so that they're more, well, lateral. For example, most of the plums have reached a height where their leader shoot was cut, which promotes several new shoots to break into growth at the tip (about 6' tall). These will be the primary framework of lateral branches, which will ideally be reasonably horizontal (for many reasons, not least that this makes a larger crotch angle between trunk and branch, which is much stronger, mechanically). However, they start life really vertical, and need to be tied down, which I've done with guy twines.

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Mulberry

It's been a busy couple of days, but it somehow doesn't feel like we've got too much done.

Today was mostly spent getting the mulberry ('Jerusalem') in the ground. We had to take down a hawthorn that occupied the spot (we didn't feel it was earning its keep, and it was rather prominent), which was straightforward. Digging the hole went reasonably well, until I uncovered two massive stones: one about 250kg, the other about 100kg. Eventually, we managed to drag them down the hill to the boundary (using fence posts as sleds), where the bigger will hopefully form a bridge over the ditch, and the smaller will be incorporated into the wall as I rebuild it.

Once they were out of the way, we followed the same protocol as before: big hole, incorporate compost, ensure there's good drainage with a ditch leading out, and then a square metre of weed-membrane on top. An eight-foot post and 35cm diameter chicken-wire cage completes it. We'll water it in for the next week, to help it establish, but it's looking good.

I then made a wooden planter trough that will sit on top of the (somewhat pointless) gravel bed outside the workshop door, on the back patio. There's nowhere near enough soil for anything to grow, but with an extra 30cm deep, 30x170cm trough, we'll have somewhere to plant three goji berries we bought in January last year, and which have been consigned to pots since. We'll give the wood a coat of fence paint on the inside, and line it with plastic.

Yesterday was a day in the kitchen garden: weeding, turning the compost bins (almost full), cutting down fruited raspberry canes to make space for the new canes (next year's crop), lifting the rest of the onions (which went in in mid-May: Rumba, Fen Early, and Red Fen). They're now in the woodstore, on racks, to dry off.

Monday 26 August 2013

York Gate

David and Ann were with us for the weekend, and having dropped them off at the station, we carried on to visit York Gate Garden, which is on the outskirts of Leeds. It's on a similar scale to our own garden, and is pleasingly divided into a number of smaller gardens, which is the kind of approach we're trying to take. It had a pretty pond, a nut walk, and a productive kitchen garden.






York Gate Gardens (© Ian 2013)

And, inevitably, a small nursery. We picked up three alpine Lady's Mantles  (Alchemilla conjuncta), which is more delicate than A. mollis, with leaves that are more divided, and silver edged. It is, apparently, less prone to seeding everywhere, and is better behaved.

Having got home, we pottered in the garden, including a contemplative look at the games lawn: Liz is floating the possibility of cutting an oval flower bed in its centre, and making the surrounding beds that bit bigger. Doing so would prevent badminton (but the combination of warm, dry and still weather necessary for a reasonable game is extremely rare), and formal croquet; but modified croquet, boules, lawn darts, and similar would all be possible. And it would make more space for plants, and probably look more attractive.

I also hooked up some new watering equipment, which arrived last week: a timer computer, which can set water going up to eight times each day, and an automatic distributor from Gardena. The latter's rather clever: each time the water comes on, it sends it out the next outlet of six, in sequence. By connecting each irrigation zone to a different outlet, and using the computer to turn the water on (and off) the same number of times, each zone will be watered. It will mean I only have to turn the water on/off once, instead of five or so times, in an evening, and the kitchen garden (and green roof) will be watered. It will also mean that the watering can be done while we're away, without laboriously inconveniencing a neighbour.

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Swelling Apples

A four day weekend allows you to get a lot more done.

On Friday, some of our time was occupied by a wall insulation surveyor, which may or may not come to anything, and taking the car to be serviced. We managed, though, to get some planting out done, around that: the plants from Tatton Park, and others, are now in the ground, which they'll appreciate

Saturday, we dodged showers to mow the lawn, weed, and pot up a number of perennials that have arrived (all little plugs: delphiniums, echinacea, penstemon, and salvia)—this also meant potting on some of the 96 lavenders which arrived in June, and which have filled their 30mm modules. We then spent the evening with Cath & Jason, which was relaxing.

On Sunday, we went on a trip to Harlow Carr. Part of the impetus was the £5 voucher for the cafe which they kindly sent us. I bought a vanilla slice (iced mille-feuille and crème pâtissière) and a raspberry tart (shortcrust, with white chocolate crème pâtissière and raspberries on top, with a piped white chocolate garnish), which came to £5. Coincidentally. They were truly delicious.


Helenium in late summer borders (© Ian 2013)

The main borders are looking glorious, full of late summer colour, grasses, and the slightly lower light of August.


Main borders, Harlow Carr (&copy Ian 2013)

I've admired this bench before, and still like it. We're thinking about how to incorporate something similar into the edge of the games lawn.


Bench in Scented Garden (© Ian 2013)

We also rather liked these sinuous bean supports, and admired some 'Lupini' beans nearby.


Bean supports in Kitchen Garden, Harlow Carr (© Ian 2013)

On the way out, through the garden centre, we couldn't help but notice that the top fruit was on 50% off sale—much as it was last year, when I bought a walnut. No walnuts, this time, but a half-price quince (which I manfully ignored, as it was Leskovac, or Serbian Gold, which we already have)—and a mulberry, 'Jerusalem', which I couldn't leave, not for £22.50.

It'll go on the hillside, of course, probably to replace a prominent and only briefly attractive hawthorn. Around it, the older apple trees are all nicely loaded with fruit, which is gradually ripening. Weeks until the apple harvest, I think.

We got home, and made a batch of Danish pastry dough. Today, we've spent the whole day tidying the garage and workshop, which are now really pleasingly organized. In between, we turned the pastry into pain aux raisin, which are lovely, ready for visitors over the next month or so. Altogether, a pleasing, tasty, and plant-filled weekend.

Sunday 11 August 2013

Onions, Potatoes, Gooseberries

We've had a day of mixed maintenance (that's probably the best way to put it). The first of the summer onions (Fen Early) have collapsed, which means they're ready to lift, so up they've come. They're not particularly big, unfortunately, and there's only about 65 (I planted 100 sets), but there you go. I think the cats walk over that corner of the beds, which probably hasn't helped them.


The cats' garden skills are not impressive: Chess 'incubating' seeds (© Ian 2012–13)

They went onto a rack in the wood-shelter (a great secondary use for it!), replacing the Radar onions which came up three weeks ago. The garlic is probably also dry, when I have time to plait it.

We then put stakes in alongside the Brussels sprouts and kale (which don't like getting rocked by wind, of which we get plenty), and planted out some spare January King cabbages. I sowed a tray of Frostie spring cabbages earlier in the week, which will fill that bed.

These went straight in where the second early potatoes, Kestrel, had been, which we lifted his morning. They've yielded about 15kg, which makes them slightly more productive than the Lady Christl. Fortunately, they show no sign of blackleg, which lost us about a quarter of the Lady Christl tubers shortly after lifting.

After that, we had a mammoth fruit picking session: I've picked the rest of the gooseberries (barring a few handfuls), and Liz collected another big bowlful of blackcurrants. There's still the same again to ripen, and many more blueberries, which are gradually colouring up.

Once we'd had lunch, we planted a few things in the copse bed: our hydrangea (H. aborescens) 'Haye's Starburst', the three heucheras we bought at Tatton Park, and another that we had previously, along with a handful of stipa (S. tenuissima), a winter box, and a 'Pink Lemonade' blueberry (which has pink coloured fruits). Two more pinkberries went into the quince bed, which already has heucheras, stipas, and winter box, which means the two beds should feel coordinated.

Lastly, we've started clearing a few spots in the long border, taking up spent foxgloves and Lady's Mantle, in order to make room for the other perennials from Tatton Park: we hope to get them in the ground next weekend.

Saturday 10 August 2013

Apple Cheese

An unexciting day, spent sawing, splitting, and stacking a couple of cubic metres of firewood. Good to have done, but not scintillating.

More pleasing was making apple cheese last night. Last weekend, we thinned the apples on the established trees, which had set a lot of fruit: far more than the one per spur recommendation. Accordingly, we took off a number of fruitlets (about 3kg), which we didn't really want to waste. A look through the various preserving books we have led us to a crab apple cheese recipe, which looked promising, unripe apples having a lot in common with crabs, I reckon.

Anyway, it was simple enough to make, though a bit time consuming (in a waiting around way, rather than actual work). I trimmed the stems off the apples, chopped each in two, and put in the preserving pan. After just covering with water, the apples were simmered until pulpy, and then pushed through a sieve. This was surprisingly productive: we only threw away a couple of mug-fulls of fibrous matter. We weighed up, and added the same amount again of sugar, along with a half teaspoon each of cinnamon and ground cloves per 450g. Gently brought to the boil, and then set it reducing.

The normal recipe is to boil until you can leave a clear spoon track, but I didn't want to overdo it, and the cheese was pretty deep. It's not, therefore, set as thickly as it should, and would probably be too soft to demould in the traditional fashion for a cheese. Nonetheless, it's gone a lovely rich red-brown, and tastes lovely (a little sweet for Liz, apparently, but I like it). It's made about a dozen jars, of about 350–400g each, which is probably a year's supply.

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Barrelled

A little while ago, I started a bucket of 'Harvest Mild' beer, which has been gradually fermenting. The specific gravity, when I checked it last Thursday, was low enough for transferring to a barrel, so I did so this evening, adding 2oz of sugar (for a secondary, carbonating ferment). It will probably need two to four weeks before it's at its best, and we'll use some, I expect, for curing hams next month.

It's about the same time as barrelling a keg of beer last year, though this is a different variety. Last year's barrel is finished; there are just some dregs left, which I should get out of the barrel, which I'm hoping, all being well, to fill with cider in a few months.

Sunday 4 August 2013

Cambridge Wedding

We went down to Cambridge late on Thursday, returning early today. The main reason for the trip was David and Anne's wedding, on Saturday, but we wanted to take the opportunity to meet up with other friends who were going: hence going down early.

Friday was spent pottering round Cambridge, going through some of the colleges, and lazily eating lunch, before going across to Rachel and Philip's for dinner. Their thyme lawn is looking really good, and the plants are just starting to touch in a few places.

The wedding service was in St John's College Chapel, and the reception (drinks; cake; 'breakfast'; ceilidh) was at Sidney Sussex (the college kitchens are closed for refurbishment at St John's). Our gift, finished and wrapped on Thursday morning, survived the journey.


Self-assembled picnic hamper (© Ian 2013)

Both colleges looked lovely, with a red-and-white palette. David always smartens up well (tails can only help!), and Anne looked lovely, in an ivory dress with some nice embroidery and a surprisingly well-behaved train.


Bridal bouquet, at the reception in Sidney Sussex gardens (© Ian 2013) 

We headed back to Katherine's rooms at about midnight, after a lovely day (and an excellent meal), and came home around lunchtime today.

The sweet peas are looking excellent, having not been picked for a week.


Sweet pea wigwams (© Ian 2013)

We then spent an hour or so cutting sweet peas, and then collecting gooseberries, the last of the red & white currants, some of the blackcurrants, and some raspberries. It's a multiple-night job, I think: the gooseberries are all ready to pick, and the blackcurrants are starting. The blueberries are gradually ripening, too.