New Parking Arrangements!

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Tucked Up for Winter!

After getting the lemon tree into the greenhouse and creosoting the planks, today meant a general tidy up and placing other pots in (hopefully) optimum spots. I have a few Pansies and Cyclamen to pot on but will leave them in the greenhouse. I know the Pansies are hardy but they don't like cold wet winters and so often succumb to disease. Anyway, it's always nice to keep a little colour in the greenhouse especially over the long dark days of winter! Talking of which: the clocks haven't even changed yet but darkness fell really early tonight and way before I'd finished work.  Actually, I never mind cosy dark evenings, it's just that there's not enough daylight for gardening jobs!

Winter Approaches.

Winter preparations.

A fairly filthy day this Saturday with strong gusts of wind and squalls - useless for leaf clearance! However, a good day to find work in the greenhouse and, with one Chris in Cornwall enjoying Storm Brian's hospitality, the other Chris (Genever) kindly helped lug the lemon tree up to the greenhouse from the terrace and set it up on a homemade plinth. There it will remain for the winter and we'll see if the lemons continue to ripen and if the greater humidity frees it from Red Spider Mite infestations and their devastating consequences. Placing the lemon tree in the greenhouse means more room in the conservatory for a large Jasmine, an Acacia Dealbata and lots more Geraniums to say nothing of a replacement coffee and now a tea plant!

The geraniums are all now enjoying some bottom heat! It's my attempt to provide 2 micro-climates: humidity for the lemon tree on one side of the greenhouse and a drier atmosphere for the geraniums on the other side. Each year, we lay a couple of scaffolding planks over the tomato bed which keep pots up off the damp soil. I need to move the Oleanders around and to make room for a few more 'delicates' and then it's a case of monitoring the temperature and humidity and keeping an eye on watering until things become a little more spring-like nest year.

The Charm of an Indian Summer

Garden Helper!

Wild Honeysuckle

Head Gardener has been taking a few days off from her own garden and venturing down south to Cornwall. Gardening gloves did have a short outing whilst doing some minor graveside tidying but a local robin made work very difficult as he was either perched on the headstone or the tool box!! I suppose they're used to lots of tourists.

Colour in the hotel garden

A Cabbage White sipping from a Pink Campion

Talking of gardens, in Cornwall, there wasn't the same autumn livery as up here in Worcestershire. Many hydrangeas were still blooming down there and, given that it's mid-October, the hotel garden was certainly full of colour. When walking up to Nare Point, I counted 19 different species of wild flowers actually in flower - even Dog Violets and Honeysuckle!

Back home: it's cleaning out the greenhouse, unpacking and setting in place the heat mat for the geraniums, pruning the vine and getting things organised so that the lemon tree and the oleanders have somewhere to spend winter. As the atmosphere in the greenhouse is much more humid than the conservatory, hopefully, Red Spider Mites won't decimate the lemon this winter and that it will be warm enough for the many lemons to ripen a little.

Logs, Ladders & the Last of the Apples!

Ian arrives

The VERY last apple!

Chris came back from Wales and it was another manic Saturday in the garden! It started off so calmly!  Having dropped a surprise load of oak logs from Ian on the drive, Chris took me off to Hallow to load up Clarence with another HUGE load of HUGE oak logs. Having got them all home, Chris did strimming and blowing leaves.
As for me: after clearing a raised border and planting it up with wallflowers - 2 of the best old fashioned varieties: Blood Red and Cloth of Gold. Having done that, it was out with my new Niwaki Japanese ladder and Chris trying it out to pick the apples at the very top - the ones we just couldn't reach.  We all agreed that these are the best steps ever. Being a tripod means real stability and the ability to place them tightly into a tree. In fact they're more like a portable stair case.

Niwaki steps being tested!

Having done all that, it was back to logs. A MUCH bigger job than planned as all the dry logs were at the bottom so they had to be moved, then the green oak logs, lugged round and stacked at the bottom so that the dry logs ended up on top where they will be accessible throughout winter leaving the green logs season for next year. It was dark ages before we were anywhere near finished! In fact it was 8pm - yawn! With huge slabs of oak still on the drive, we ended up sheeting over the dry logs left on the ground and postponing operations. Time for a drink and dinner! When we came back from lunch the following day, Chris had finished it all off and even swept up all on his own - bless 'im!

Just one question: why do I love to see a tractor on the drive so much?

Both garden log stores filled for winter.

COMPETITION TIME!

PEAR TREE COTTAGE PEARS.

How many 75cl bottles of pear juice from these 2 trugs of pears? The nearest guess wins a bottle - collection only! Don't count the stray apple! Results announced when pressing and bottling is completed.

Messing with Hops!

Meanwhile, this week saw the annual hop replacement in the kitchen. Hop petals EVERYWHERE!! It just rained hop petals. Luckily, I had Janine helping me. Good job it's only once a year! We returned to The Haven Farm where they sell them. Try to imagine the smell of a granary full of hop bines! I usually have some home dried contributions as well. It all adds a bit of colour on a dark winter's day.

Winning against the Weather!

Our new Japanese tripod gardening steps arrived and so we were looking forward to test driving them whilst picking the last of the apples. We unpacked them with much excitement but were very disappointed to find that they had been damaged in transit. It was a double disappointment as the couriers: Tuffnells lost the first order and so had to wait ages for a second order and delivery to be processed. A real pain when fruit is waiting to be picked - sigh! Remind not to use Tuffnells! Not be be outdone, I managed to do all of the mowing before it rained and then retreated indoors to make soup from the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse.

Making hay while the sun hardly shone at all!!

Meadow hay in a coffee bag!

I think my favourite triumph was 2nd prize for meadow hay. Not only was I up against seasoned farmers with tons of the stuff but; it was Rob and Sally-Ann who gave up a few precious hours and helped to cut it. It was only turned 4 or 5 times as we had less than 48 hours of sunshine. Because rain was predicted, I bundled it all up, lugged it into the garage and spread it out on the floor and opened every door and window! It smelled glorious and, still does! before you ask, 'Who's going to eat it?' It will be used in the chickens' nest boxes inducing them to lay even more prize winning eggs!

Prize Winning Eggs!

The girls really came up trumps! They won a clear first in a very toughly fought class. Apart from strong shells and a prominent yolk of a good colour, I'm never quite sure what else a judge looks for in eggs. You will see that one of each of every 4 shown was cracked open into an adjacent saucer. We won a 2nd a few years ago (and with less competition) but have struggled until now. Well done my little egg layers! Of course, we ate the winning eggs for breakfast the following morning!