Making Christmas wreaths

Every year, in early December, my herb group get together to make some Christmas wreaths. The starting point for these is a simple ring of honeysuckle or willow. Last winter, when we cut back our willow fedges and arches, we dried and stored the off-cuts. A week before the herb group meeting, I attached several bricks to one of my willow bundles and chucked it in the top pond! A week later, I fished it out with a garden rake and wrapped it in a damp throw and some plastic. I took this to the meeting (it did look a little like a dead body!) and we used the willow to make the basis for our wreaths. Once you have the basic wreath shape, it’s just a case of attaching whatever greenery or dried bits and bobs to create something you like. Here’s some photos from the evening:

Wreath, almost finished

Wreath in progress

I love the pale holly used on this one

Sam, Debs and Sarah behind a pile of dried 'love in a mist'

Another lovely finished wreath

However, I never feel like there’s enough time at herb group, so I took my willow hoop home and had another go a few nights later. I spread a tablecloth on the living room floor and got my dried ‘love in a mist’ and oranges, along with some dried seed heads of St John’s Wort and some wheat that had been sown by the birds. Here’s my finished wreath, hanging on my front door:

And here’s some images of the work in progress:

Use florist's wire to attach small bunches of dried seed heads and dried ornage slices

Close up of the seed heads

Finished wreath

The great thing is that after the season is over, the whole thing can be composted – but I usually hang it on the door of the chicken run until it disintegrates so I can enjoy it a little longer.

The weather this week has been incredibly cold and frosty, with some snow falls too. We may even get a white Christmas! My kids are ridiculously excited for teenagers and we have spent a great day today sewing a Christmas stocking for Erin, baking mince pies and starting to prepare some of the vegetables and accompaniments for Friday’s feast.

Merry Christmas!

 

I love November

I know it’s not everyone’s favorite time of year as each day seems shorter than the last and each one colder and more grey. But it’s so quiet and calm. Working in the garden at this time of year is a solitary pleasure as all the neighbours seem to have moved indoors and taken their barbeques and radios with them. Even the traffic noise is dulled by the foggy air. But the sound of church bells seems to carry – I can hear the Boomer from Rugby School chapel and the lovely peals from the fourteenth century St Marks, although I imagine the bells are from a few hundred years later? I can also hear the cracked and flat doink of the bell from the happy clappy St Matthew’s – but I try to ignore that one. This time of year seems to me like the calm before the storm, the quiet preparation for December’s busy-ness. It’s not as busy now as it was when the children were small and we had all the nativity plays, carol concerts and school fayres to organise and attend. But I still get that feeling in November. It’s also the month when my first baby was born and the whole atmosphere reminds me of the happy times as I waited for his arrival. It’s also a time of year for snuggling down indoors, reflecting on last year’s triumphs and failures – and planning for next year.

Vegetables

This is a great time to reflect on what we did on the vege plot in 2009 and what we’ll do differently in 2010. The summer was a hectic time for me and Keith and the garden was, it must be admitted, neglected. The weeds grew and grew.

More weeds than peas!

We harvested potatoes, onions, beans, peas and not much else – oh, there’s still spinach coming. The brassicas are still waiting to be cut but everything else has gone over now. Still I did earn quite a good income from the business and pass my RHS Advanced exams -  does that count as a harvest? Next year we have resolved to spend much more time on the vegetable patch. I have decided on some ground rules limiting how much time I commit to the business, and we are resolved to avoid any major new projects like organising wildlife ponds or erecting greenhouses. We have also decided to increase the area available for vegetables by removing some of the high maintenance grass paths and edging the beds. This will cut down on the mowing needed and mean the edges are clearly defined, making weeding easier. We started this on one of the four beds, thinking we’d just experiment with it and see how it goes – but we are so pleased with how it looks that we have started on bed number two.

Doesn't it look lovely?

Next year, I want to improve my preserving skills  – we have lots of root vegetables in store right now and that’s something to be continued next year. Keith bought me a dehydrator for my birthday back in June and that’s been great for drying apples and herbs – must do more next year. I also want to get better at picking and freezing our produce at its best. We plan to grow lots of staples in 2010 – Rooster potatoes, onions, carrots, swede and parsnips, salad,tomatoes, chillies, more culinary herbs and lots of beans and peas. Oh and shallots for pickling too. So, lots of ambition there.

Other news from the garden

Since my last post we have also had to deal with a dead hawthorn tree that blew down – there was so much ivy on it we didn’t realise the tree underneath had actually died. We simply moved into the gap beneath the hedgerow it came from as dead trees are a wonderful habitat for all kinds of invertebrate life – it was alive with insects!

The new wildlife pond is looking lovely and glassy in the subdued November light – I’m sure I’ll write more about that next year as it develops.

In the greenhouse I have some perennials I grew from seed that need potting on, and lots of chillies still ripening. The orchard has lost almost all the leaves and pruning must start soon – another topic for a longer post.

Poultry news – we hatched 3 chicks back in August and they are now 13 weeks old. The time to kill and eat them is approaching and we’re both a little apprehensive! But the success or failure of that project will help us decide where to take the poultry project next as we want to build a better run for them, but the size of it depends on whether we decide to continue raising poultry for meat or just keep them for their eggs. Other poultry news is that we lost one of the Warren hybrids this month as she became very ill with a compacted crop. So now we have just one brown Warren, 2 white sussex hybrid hens, plus a cockerel of the same type – he is called Hugh and is the only chook with a name. Then there’s Wellie, the broody bantam borrowed from Sorrel, and her three edible adopted chicks.

 

Busy busy summer

Wow it feels like I haven’t been here for ages and have really neglected this. I meant to do some more with my craft blog too and haven’t done that either. But I have a good reason – I was so sooo busy.

I started a new job with Warwickshire County Council at the beginning of July. They let me just do 3 days a week until September, but with working 2 days a week at Allesley Walled Garden and doing 2 RHS exams I hardly had time to do anything else.  I also taught about 5 courses for Garden Organic. Keith was really busy too as his job involved at least 3 weekend implementations this summer so all in all, the garden got pretty neglected. The veg patch is very weedy, although we had a good crop of spuds and runner beans. The brassicas are still in situ for winter eating, as are a few carrots and parsnips. Also, I just ate the only pumpkin that grew, in a soup. But all the fruit trees got their summer pruning – the renovation pruning will continue this winter. And the herb garden looked great and attracted lots on insects – I’m planning to grow more culinary stuff next year.

Sorrel and Alex also lost the plot a bit and got involved in a massive house tidy up and some very complicated domestic problems. Al and Lucy put us all to shame by keeping their plot looking great despite the sleepless nights and colicy crying. Still, there’s always next year….

The Allesley Walled Garden sessions were quite strange. The people who employed me were very pleased with what I did, and despite having to spend hours preparing,  I quite enjoyed it. However, there were clearly issues with their advertising because hardly anyone turned up! For the family sessions, I had about 10-12 people at most, most were done with just one family of mum and 2 boys. The adult sessions were even worse because the first session 2 people turned up – but one had clearly been persuaded into it by a friend on the committee and wasn’t really that interested. The second session, only 1 person turned up. It’s very odd to teach on a one-to-one basis – I’m not sure I like it! Anyway AWGG haven’t offered this kind of thing before so I think that was part of the problem – people looking for organic gardening courses weren’t looking to them. Also, the advertising was too little too late – partly due to budgets restrictions and partly due to not having enough volunteers. And there seem to be some internal political divisions there that will need resolving before they can move forwards.

But all this did focus my mind a little on thinking about what I want to get out of Home on the Hill and why I’m doing this. At first it seemed a natural step, moving on from the chaos of Garden Organic – but it’s really hard work and quite difficult without being on site and part of an organisation. I like to be in control and didn’t feel it when teaching at either Garden Organic or Allesley. And although the pay seems good, I’m not sure the hourly rate is great! I’ve been offered the opportunity to teach at Warwickshire College again this December and January and that’s much easier – all the prep work is done from last year, the staff who support me are reliable, and the student numbers are guaranteed (well, swine-flu permitting). But that’s a salaried job, not self-employed. In my mind, it’s part of my Home on the Hill project, but not according to that tax man. Anyway, since starting my new job I’ve discovered that there are 2 community allotments in Rugby – what’s more, I can visit one of them occasionally as part of my new job. So, as one of my main aims is to help people discover the joy of growing their own food,  although this would be (mostly) voluntary work, it seems like a better way forward. And it just might lead to something interesting at some point in the future…. I’ve also been offered some writing opportunities – unpaid but interesting. So for the time-being, I’m going to teach for the college and do some unpaid work and see where it takes me.

Anyway, I think that’s enough about the gardening failure of a summer. I have lots of ideas for articles to write for here – stuff about poultry, garden planning, growing herbs, vegetables, fruit, ornamental stuff…..  And I need to work out a bit more about how blogs work and pass on an award I received and loads of other stuff.

Hopefully, some of that will happen in the next few weeks, now I have my life back!

 

How does your (vege) garden grow?

It seems like this year has been very typical so far – a proper rainy and sunny spring and now a sunny warm June. It’s made for much easier veg growing than 2007 and 2008. This year we took up half of the big lawn that the kids don’t play on anymore, and turned into allotments for Alex and Sorrel, and Alaric and Lucy. They are having a splendid start to their veg growing as everything is growing away so well. I think, if they decide not to continue on our plots (maybe because they move to houses with bigger gardens or whatever) then we’ll advertise for new allotment tenants as this seems like the best use of this space – better than boring grass that no-one ever uses and just needs mowing. But for now, it seems they’ll carry on growing here for the foreseeable future.

Here’s some pics of the allotments:

Sorrel admires her onions...

...and her red cabbage

View from Al and Lucy's end

Sorrel and Alex have potatoes, beetroot, parsnips, carrots, courgettes, onions, red and white cabbages, sprouts, tomatoes, chillies and aubergines. Al and Lucy have just maincrop spuds, runner beans, onions, sprouts, parsnips, beetroot and carrots. Al deliberately chose later cropping stuff as they were busy growing Erin too – she is 4 weeks old tomorrow!

Sleeping in the shade while Dad does the weeding

Our vege plot is also doing very well this year. We have early and maincrop spuds – earlies should be ready soon. Also leeks, onions, shallots, red sprout, sprouts, cabbage, romanescu, broccoli (I never know how to spell that), purple sprouting, carrots, parsnips, radishes (almost over now), lettuces, beetroot, chard, spinach trying to bolt, broad beans, runner beans, peas, french beans, courgettes, butternut squash, tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers and melons. But then we have more space:

Looking up with the hedge and then the allotments behind me

Looking down with the allotments beyond the hedge that Keith is trimming while listening to 20/20 cricket

So that’s the story of the veg plot and allotments so far for 2009. Will keep posting any news – hopefully all good news this year as we’re not going to have another wash-out blight-ridden summer, I hope.

 

April

Well, it started so well – even posted extra bits and pieces. Then April came around – a busy time in the garden, kids’ GCSEs, a job interview and loads of other work. So now I’m over 2 weeks late posting. Bother!

Still, due to the mayhem, I haven’t taken many photos yet in May so this post will mostly be about the garden in April. Let’s start in the orchard…

Apple blossom

The blossom was beautiful this year – the best for years. Let’s hope it bodes well for a great crop. Bees are one of the main pollinators for top fruit like apples and the problems with them are very worrying. However, this has been a good spring and, apparently, there have already been more swarms reported in Warwickshire this year than in the whole of 2008. Let’s hope it’s the start of a recovery. I know that some at least of my trees have been pollinated as I can already see tiny fruitlets like these:

Pear fruitlets

 

The allotments gardened by Alex and Alaric, my son-in-law and son, are looking better than my veg plot which I’ve been too busy to deal with properly – beginner’s luck, I say! They have spuds, onions, carrots, beetroot, cabbages, brussels, all the usual stuff. There are beans, courgettes and tomatoes in the greenhouse waiting for the end of the frosts.

Al's allotment

The fleece is covering the brassicas to protect them from pests such as pigeons, whitefly and cabbage white butterflies.

The herb garden is growing and filling out really well. I’ll include pictures next time when it’s at it’s best. I’ll also include some recipes for cosmetic lotions and potions.

Finally this month, a picture of my stall at Allesley Walled Garden Market on May 16th.

Allesley Walled Garden Market

I sold most of the herbs and some booklets.  I may be there again on 20th June, not sure yet as it’s a 36 mile round trip which just about wipes out any profit!

That’s all for April – hopefully I’ll post on time next month – which is only about 2 weeks from now! Thanks to Ian and Keith for the music to accompany my blogging:

Ian

 

 

Shed land

Another extra post – Keith asked me to post some piccies of the shed we use as an office so he can show folk. But I thought I’d take this opportunity to post pics of all our sheds. I know that seems a bit sad but actually, sheds and workspaces are a really important part of any garden. They’re where the tools live and all the work gets done that goes into making a lovely garden. They also have lots of potential as wildlife habitats. One of our sheds has a ‘brown’ roof – that’s like a green roof only made from surplus building materials like broken bricks. It doesn’t look as exciting as a green roof, but is dead easy to make and provides a habitat for creatures that like a drier environment that’s often missing from productive gardens like ours.

We have four different sheds – that sounds a lot, but it’s a big garden. First up is the office shed. This was here when we moved in in 1998 and had been used a workshop for woodwork. It’s also been used a music studio, but now we both work from home, it’s our office.

Office shed

This is in the back garden, right near the back door. It’s also where we store our bikes for trips to the pub.

In the work area in the larger front garden are three more sheds – a lawnmower shed, a tool shed and a pot shed.

Lawnmower shed with brown roof

Tool shed

Pot shed

 

The tool shed is a proper shed from a proper shed shop. The lawnmower shed is made from pallets and the pot shed from a load of junk we seem to have accumulated in the garden.

At this time of year, I trim my lavender bushes and scatter the trimmings on the floor of the tool shed as a strewing herb. whenever you walk in there, there’s a wonderful scent of lavender.

Finally, here’s an image of how they all relate to one another.

 

Herb gardens old and new

Actually, before I launch into talking about my new and old herb garden, the main news this month is that I have new chickens. The idea is to breed meat birds from them – I’ll keep you posted with how that’s going! We went to Melton Mowbray Rare Breeds auction and I bought a breeding trio (that’s a boy and two girls) of Light Sussex.

Light Sussex cockerel

 

Sorrel and Alex also decided to get into chicken keeping and came to the auction too. Sorrel only planned to buy three hens but the black and white one in the pic below was all on its own so she had to bid for it!

Wyandotte bantams

 

Right now to tell you about herb gardens. Last summer Keith built me a huge raised bed right outside the living room window to use as a herb garden. Previously the space was just bare concrete and we sometimes felt rather disconnected from the garden in the house. I’ve planted it up with around 30 culinary, medicinal and cosmetic herbs including mint, thyme, St John’s word, comfrey, sweet cicely and yarrow. This month it’s really off to a great start and I can see already that some plants will need lots of controlling – the yarrow is already invading the winter savory. But all in all, I’m really pleased with it and am sure it will look better and better as the season progresses.

New herb garden

 

Some of the plants came from the old herb garden. This is a rather grand term for a large box outside the back door! The box eventually rotted so badly I had to deal with it.

Old herb garden

 

But once I’d dismantled it, I was left with a pretty non-descript space:

Keith solved my ‘what to do now…’ dilemma with a few huge but spare pots:

Other news on the herb front is that my plants for sale are coming on well. I was a bit late getting this off the ground as it was so cold and snowy and I didn’t have a propagater – next year will be better (isn’t that what all gardeners say?)

Herbs for sale

 

Elsewhere in the garden, we’ve been tidying up lots, sowing vegetable seeds, mowing grass and all the usual springy things.

I have been working on my organic herb course for Garden Organic, and am hoping to be doing some more teaching at Warwickshire College.

 

Pinus aristata

I know I said once a month but….
I’m so excited at the early success of my ‘grow your own Christmas tree project’! My Pinus aristata seeds have germinated.

Pinus aristata seedlings

Relatives of these trees are the oldest living things on the planet – according to Chiltern Seeds, where I bought the seed from. Some specimens are over 5000 years old! Although mine are unlikely to live that long in this warm wet climate, it’s interesting (or scary) to imagine a world 5000 years hence.

 

March 2009

Well, welcome to my gardening blog. I’m going to try and update it each month. So I’ll start with a quick round-up of what’s being going on in February and early March.

About half the trees in the orchard have been brought into the pruning regime. The rest will get renovation pruning next winter, then be maintained from then on.

Have started sowing a few seeds – some salad and some tomatoes in the bedroom. But it’s still very cold so I’m waiting. Also, have ordered a propagator for the business so I’m waiting for that to arrive so I can start sowing herbs for sale.

My son and son-in-law have taken up part of one of our lawns to use as small allotments. They’ve been really enthusiastic. So far in these allotments, and in our vege plot, we have onions, shallots, garlic. Spuds are chitting in the greenhouse and I think the allotmenteers have sown some other bits in there too.

Al lifting turf

As you can see, the soil is pretty compacted but they have since added a tonne of green waste compost and made good use of the tiller they all bought Keith for his 50th birthday last summer. It’s looking really good now. More photos as things progress.

Elsewhere in the garden, I have been weeding and cutting back the seed heads that were left for the birds over winter. We’ve also chopped back quite a few trees – taken some Leylandii out right at the top of the garden, and coppiced quite a lot of ash, hazel and poplar. We have a massive stick collection!

Plans for the year include planting up this bed:

Maddi enjoys the hammock

It’s west facing, very sheltered and good soil. I think some roses (scented ones) and clematis up the hammock frame. I’m toying with the idea of putting a kiwi fruit against the fence, but I’m not sure there’s space. Also thinking hardy geraniums, alliums, Verbena bonariensis – generally a very romantic planting scheme. Also have a pink flowered elder and a Buddliea globosa to squeeze in there. Watch this space.

As always at this time of year, more plans that time to fit them in. Hey ho.