Of Steps and Stones

We continued digging out the herb garden/knot garden a week ago, in order to get the elephant garlic and normal Pink Germidour garlic into the ground, but couldn't get any further in the time, because it's such hard work digging out all the stones. We went back to it this weekend, and spent both Saturday and Sunday mornings on the task. I'd already lifted sufficient turf, so we just had to dig over the ground to make space for three more 'diamonds' of the design, in order to plant out the Radar over-wintering onion sets (36 per diamond). There were a few massive stones, and a lot of middling and small ones: red bricks, and dressed stone as well as random field stones.

Finally, we had the ground ready, and in went the onions. Yesterday afternoon was then a plumbing/electrics session for me: replacing the instantaneous water heater, which blew up while Ann and Alan were with us, with a new 10l storage heater. Although this requires a bit more notice (about 20 minutes to heat through), it has the big advantage of only drawing 2kW, instead of 9.5kW: 2kW can, realistically, be provided by the solar panels a lot of the time, which means hot water for free. (Obviously, 4kW of solar panels would only rarely make a contribution to 9.5kW, and never meet it.) It's also rather well insulated, and the water stays hot for a few hours, so it can be run off the solar panels mid-afternoon, and used that evening.

While I did that, Liz made two chutneys: the Windfall chutney we made two years ago, and a date and apple chutney that's new to us. Both seem tasty, but of course most chutneys improve (sometimes considerably) with 12-24 months maturation.

This afternoon, we finally got round to building some terracing steps from the back patio (outside the workshop door) down to the middle lawn. The grass slope there, aside from being impossible to keep mown, becomes impossibly slippery when muddy and wet: given that it's my route from wood shelter to boiler, this was a problem. I cut level bases for two sleeper sized risers, and filled the tread with a stone/brick retaining wall (so the sleeper isn't taking the weight) and topped with soil. We've then spread weed-proof membrane over the top, and put down chipped bark. It looks an awful lot smarter, and should be much nicer for walking over. At the same time, Liz sorted out the main path through the kitchen garden, where the uncovered membrane had rucked, and spread a few barrows of chippings on that, which has been planned for years.

Lastly, this evening, we've cooked down 4kg of elderberries to 4l of liquid, as the first part of making spiced berry cordial. We've only used elderberries this year, as it's a whatever-is-to-hand recipe. In the morning, I'll add the pectolase, and then we can strain, spice and sugar it. The recipe's for 500g of sugar per kilo of fruit (so, 2kg), and two cinnamon sticks, 27 cloves, and 9 teaspoons in total of ginger, allspice, and nutmeg (proportions as I see fit!). It's simmered for five minutes, and bottled.

Mowing by Moonlight

I've just managed to finish mowing the lawn before it went completely dark. I have no doubt that it won't be a particularly well finished cut, but I needed to seize the opportunity, as I've not managed to mow it for two weeks, and it needed doing before it gets too wet, and too long.

It will probably be the last regular mow that I do this year. If there's a suitable dry spell, I'll try to cut it during the autumn and winter, but the weekly cuts are almost certain to be over now.

Yesterday evening I strained a batch of blackberry wine from the fermenting bucket into a demi-john (and second bottle!), which I started last week. It'd been sitting in the bucket longer than it should have been, but I think it's fine, especially as it's been quite cool, so it wasn't rocketing along.

The vegetable garden is noticeably slowing: the courgettes are further apart, and the beans and peas are slower. The sweet peas have almost had it, but are just about hanging on, giving us a little late burst of colour. Even so, I doubt they've got more than a week or two in them now. That said, they're the best we've had them, and it's probably no coincidence that it's also the first year we've had them in the ground, not in a big container.

Autumn, then, is nearly with us. The trees have started to colour, the apples are almost ripe, and the summer flowers are fading. And, not least, I've got several hundred spring bulbs waiting to go in the ground: probably during a week of leave in October.

Extending the Knot Garden

Ann and Alan were with us for the weekend, but as they had to set off home after breakfast, we've had a day getting on outside. We're going to try planting the overwintering alliums in the knot garden, from now on, to give ourselves a little more flexibility in getting the autumn brassicas into the ground. This year, several of these (notably the romanesco cauliflowers and sprouts) went in a bit late, because the onions and garlic were late, because of the spring. It doesn't look, now, as though the sprouts and caulis are going to do very well.

So, if we get the overwintering onions into the herb garden, the brassicas can be planted out as soon as they're big enough, instead of waiting for their space to be free. To that end, we lifted enough turf for half a dozen more 'knots', and started digging it over. The ground's horrible, though: full of stones, and so we were only able to finish two. Fortunately, that's enough space for sixteen elephant garlic, and 25 'Pink Germidour' garlic. The onions will have to wait another week.

Pressing Business

After the winds at the weekend, we went out on Monday to collect windfalls from the apples, of which there were a couple of carrier bags. Small apples are a pain for using in chutney or cooking, as you lose so much of them in peeling and coring. However, they're fine for juicing (although they do have low sugar levels). I ran 3.8kg of the small fruits through the food processor's chipper/chopper, and packed them into the apple press, which has languished in a corner of the kitchen for eighteen months (no apples last year).

The apple press (© Ian 2012–13)

The press only came with a limited number of spacers, which I still need to properly augment: this time I used some four-inch blocks of wood from dismantled pallets to pack out the pressing plate, which was enough. A good bit of handle turning later, and a long pause to let the last bit drip through, and we're in proud possession of 1.8l of juice, which I've pasteurized at 70°C, and bottled.

It's delicious, if a little acid, because the windfalls don't really have enough sugar to counter the malic acid.

Clearing a Clearing

Rachel and Philip were with us for the weekend, and (in return, I suppose, for our help with their thyme lawn) offered to help do something useful in the garden. So we put loppers in their hands, and led them to the clearing on the hillside, where we proceeded to cut down gorse, brambles, and bracken.

Apart from that, we ate a lot, and caught up. We're very grateful for their help, obviously, as the clearing is starting to live up to its name. Another day of work, I reckon, and we'll be in a position to plant out some dogwoods, which we intend to order in the next month.

Blackberries

After several sessions, I've now finished painting the window frames for the year: I've done a little over half of them, and will do the rest in the spring.

In other DIY, I've replaced the fill mechanism in the downstairs toilet cistern, which seems trivial, but will be much better: it's taken increasingly long to fill since moving in, starting at about 20 minutes, and reaching a couple of hours, before packing in entirely a week ago.

We've sown a number of seeds, including some aquilegia ('Royal Purple' and 'Magpie', as well as some free-pollinated seeds from grandma's garden), and potted up a number of house plants.

It's blackberry season: we picked a couple of ice-cream tubs full -- all from the hillside. It's been really good to step out of the house and collect so much fruit: far better than having to schlep to the quarry, or a stretch of the lane, and lovely to have it growing in our own land. It's looking like nice fruit, as well, and there'll be more to collect in a few days, I think.

Some of the weekend's been spent putting together a plan of works for the next twelve months, to include, hopefully, wall insulation, a small greenhouse for the back patio (the 'big' greenhouse on the hillside will be another few years), the work on the colour-wheel garden, and a pergola/fence structure to enclose the drive. The greenhouse, if we go ahead, will be imminent; the pergola in the next few months; the wall insulation won't be until the spring/summer.

Potatoes, Parsnips, and Planting

After discovering quite a lot of wireworm damage to a couple of parsnips, we decided to take up the parsnips (4.5kg), carrots, and maincrop potatoes, to limit damage. The Druid potatoes have yielded 28kg, from 20 plants, which is pleasing.

Although taking them up early was a bit frustrating, we've also managed to get our honeyberries in the ground, finally, and get a number of other pots planted into the front copse bed, as well as the goji berries into their new beds on the back patio. The honeyberries, and two cultivated blackberries, have gone into new small beds demarcating the entrance to the kitchen garden, which also feature willow trellis panels. I'll have to get a photo...

A heather, the forsythias, the old astible and heuchera from the pots in the front, have all gone into the copse bed—the astilbe and heuchera having been split. Some of the heucheras have gone into the hanging baskets for the winter, as the nasturtiums (which have been great) have been badly caterpillared in the last couple of weeks, and are rather the worse for wear.

Lastly, a photo of this week's sweet pea harvest: 700 stems. It's probably the peak, but we've been getting about 500 stems each of the last 8-9 weeks, I estimate, which is a staggering number of flowers. Sadly, the plants are showing signs of fatigue, so it won't go on much longer.

The sweet-pea tripods (pre-harvest!) (© Ian 2013)

700 Sweet-Peas (© Ian 2013)