RHS Harlow Carr

To mark the start of a week off, we managed to get away early from work (well, I did—Liz has been off all day, cleaning and tidying!), and drove over to Harlow Carr. We picked up a couple of cakes from Betty's, and then had a wander. It was, as you'd expect for 1600 on a term-time weekday at the end of September, pretty quiet. But tranquil and lovely for that.

Acer near the streamside (© Ian 2016)

Gunnera manicata in the streamside (© Ian 2016)

A variegated brunnera ("Hadspen Cream") (© Ian 2016)

The herbaceous borders (© Ian 2016)

Molinia 'Poul Petersen' (© Ian 2016)

Another grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha) we liked (© Ian 2016)

The herbaceous borders (© Ian 2016)

Espalier trained apples in the kitchen garden: the spacing is similar to that in our apple walk (© Ian 2016)

Fruitful espalier trained apple (© Ian 2016)

Espalier apple (© Ian 2016)

Grass and Blackberries

A quick mow of the lawn, tonight: it's only growing slowly, but I'm trying to keep it trimmed whenever conditions allow, as I can't get that many cuts in before the weathers consistently too wet, I'm sure.

More pleasurably, we started a couple of gallons of blackberry wine off. 3kg of berries, topped up to a couple of gallons with hot water. Once it's at about 35°C, I add pectolase, and then leave it 'til tomorrow before adding the yeast (a general GV3). In five days, we'll strain it into demijohns along with 1.5kg sugar/vessel, and leave it to do its thing.

Apple Walk

We spent this morning tying in shoots on the apples in the apple walk, as well as putting up the last of the horizontal wires (80% of the penultimate wire tier was there, but this meant adding the last wire, which is the last tier before the apex/ridge bar). We also weeded around the apple trees, which probably took as much time to do. They now look an awful lot neater, and the walk looks really good. They could do with a last prune in the next couple of weeks, before the leaves fall, and then I'll do a mid-winter trim (to encourage buds to break at critical points) some time in February, probably.

Logs

For the very first time since the start of 2012, the driveway doesn't have any firewood on it. We've finally caught up, and got everything sawn, split, and stacked into the woodshelter. In turn, the woodshelter is full. Precisely. Astonishingly precisely.

An empty driveway (© Ian) 

And a full woodshelter (© Ian)

The last stack (on the left) can't be as tall or as full as the others, because I can't stack from alongside it—I have to build the stack as I work out, off the support frame ('ladder'). That seriously limits how well and thus how high it can be built, so it only contains about half as much firewood as the stack next to it.

Mowing

It might be the last mow of the lawn for the year. It might be the penultimate time I cut it. It could be the antepenultimate mow. I just don't know. However, the lawn is mown.

Autumn Fruit

It's been a long time, because the blackberries have been ready in August for several years, but this year it's September and they're ready. It feels more like the 'proper' time for us both, as we remember picking blackberries in September when we were small.

Anyway, we managed to collect a number of tubs from the orchard.

Start of the blackberry harvest (© Ian 2016)

And also a number of apples. These are Yorkshire Greening, from the apple walk.

Yorkshire Greening apples (© Ian 2016)

We also spent a while sorting out some firewood, and the wood shelter is almost at capacity, which is a good point to be at.

Willow Arches

The honeybees have been settling in well, and enjoying the late good weather. We had a thorough look through the hives this morning to check on them, and tidied up a few bits of extraneous honeycomb (brace comb) they'd built. Which means it was immediately necessary to make crumpets so we could have the honey contained in the brace comb for tea.

This afternoon, we've been sorting out the willows that form the arches to either end of the pond garden, and disguise the sheds on the septic tank. They had got rather out of control, so it looks an awful lot better pruned and tied in.

The Pond Garden (© Ian 2016)

The Long Border (© Ian)

The arch from the pond up to the colour wheel (© Ian 2016)

Winter Hanging Baskets Planted

After getting the plants for them a week ago, we've now planted up the winter hanging baskets. They're hanging about on the arbour, for now, until the summer ones are past their best, when they'll go up on the front of the house.

Winter hanging basket (© Ian 2016)

We also discovered that we had a bowl full of plums on one of the Victorias on the hillside. They are utterly delicious.

Victoria Plum (© Ian 2016)

Workshop

It's been a weekend bracketed by visitors: Katie and son were here Friday night, and back again tonight, breaking up a journey to the north east. Liz's parents were here for the day today, coming up for fosterling contact.

It's been good to see them all, and we've had a nice time today, especially. Yesterday was more practical, making huge progress on the workshop. We've tried to get the room sorted many times before, but have never quite got it to a point of tidiness with workspace left— there's always simply been too much stuff.

This time, though, I think we've got it under control. For one thing, this is the first attempt since the massive amount of DIY work that started in 2014 when we insulated the walls. We only have relatively small jobs to finish in the house, which means that my stocks of material and supplies have dramatically reduced. I only have a couple of cans of expanding foam, now, down from a couple of dozen. And a mere three cases of screws.

So I'm not exactly underequipped, but there's considerably less than when we had eighty-odd plasterboard sheets, rolls of insulation, dozens of timbers, cans and cans of sealants and foams, and a score of bags of plaster.

We also finally installed a wall full of shelves above the worktop that backs onto the preservatory, which is the things that's really made a difference, as it's enormously increased the storage space. There's still a number of things to sort, including a couple of the cupboards, which I think might get seriously culled. Ideally, I'd like to get the shelved workshop clear to have tools on, and the other worktop permanently clear, so that you can actually work on it. I'd really like to get a table saw, and a spindle moulder, which would enable us to make a much greater range of things. Another half day tidying, and I think we'll be in a position to decide whether that's achievable.

Foliage

We planted summer hanging baskets a while ago, and they've done well. Blue Crystal and Blue Fountain lobelia (I think), some becopa, a fuchsia. They're nice, and they've been a really welcome bit of colour on the front of the house. However, apart from (probably) the fuchsia, the plants aren't hardy, and will either die, or look rubbish as soon as it gets frosty.

Clearly, that won't do. Over lunch today, we went to a B&Q, and found a combination of foliage plants that will take the hanging baskets through the winter: a gold-edged ivy, a holly-leaved fern, a black ophiopogon, and an acora.

We've got enough of them to plant up the four hanging baskets that go on the house—we don't intend bothering with the two from the arbour for winter—and got a set of baskets so we can plant them up soon, so they settle and grow together before autumn.

Planting combination for winter foliage basket (© Ian 2016)