Garden

[bunn]

Normally by this time of year the garden is starting to manifest itself in its form of a giant hairy green monster thing with attached feelings of guilt, reminiscent of the Greenwitch. But this year things are still under control: there are jobs to be done, but nothing that requires a machete. The lawns are even mown! And the apple blossom is really fabulous: just hoping it will hold off raining for a few more days to let Henlady's bees from up the road finish their job.

I think the fig tree is early this year: it's already covered in thumb-sized green figs. I wonder if that's because I pulled the late-season figs off at just the right time? More likely the weather though.

There was a minor cockup on the squash plant front, when I fell over holding all the seedlings and the labels went *everywhere* but fortunately, all the plants survived. So I shall not know which varieties do particularly well, but at least with a bit of luck I should get some squashes.

The lime tree I bought as my Millennium Tree has miraculously survived being strimmed to death by Polo, and is now looking really healthy. They are supposed to do well as coppice stools: maybe I should cut it down again next year.

The jobs to be done:

Cut the bottom half of that annoying hazel hedge that is such a git to get at.
Mulch and fork over the remaining beds ready for beans
Plant beans
Acclimatise squash and pumpkin seedlings to outdoor life
Plant out squash and pumpkin seedlings.
Burn all the bramble roots we have dug up so far.
Attack that hedge on the rightof the back garden that is now 5 feet too tall with the pruning saw.
Mulch the strawberry patch.
Plant out the peppers in the greenhouse.
Get the wormery producing plant food as well as compost.
Attack the beech hedge back right with the hedgetrimmer


I don't think I realised when I had a garden that was fenced, just how great fences are. Or walls. Or any kind of perimeter that doesn't GROW all the time!

Comments

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm squash soup. One of the many nice things about autumn.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm growing all these squashes this year because last November I couldn't find one in the shops. Well, that's not quite true: I found one in a supermarket, but it was imported from Brazil and cost some absurd sum.

This year I aim to be self-sufficient in squashes!

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Great idea. We get an organic vegbag once a week, which sometimes has a squash in itin the autumn. We tend to make soup simply because we love it so much. It is the same with Kohlrabi- we don't getthose very often so I always end up making the same thing.

I did try a supermarket squash last year. We ended up throwing the soup out because it tasted of nothing.

Our garden is really not very big- we're going to put a small lawn down and I'm going to plant some soft fruit but that is it. Our main aim is to have somewhere for the children to play.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I reckon soft fruit is great for kids - sweet enough that they will actually enjoy picking and eating, and expensive enough to be worth the effort!

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much why I want to do that. Space is so limited that anyhting I do plant has to be worth while. Also non-poisonous. I had to get rid of a honeysuckle last year because no 2 son was getting rather too interested in the berries!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

The first sentence is a very accurate description of our garden all year round. Are you sure you don't want to come to Wightfrag? We'd let you in every now and then, and even let you eat a bit...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I have seen your garden, and I know this to be untrue :-p

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Ooh, is this going to turn into a game of reverse one-upmanship: "My garden's more disastrous than yours'?" :-)

Our garden is moderately unwild and unwoolly precisely twice a year: Just after my mum has visited, and just after the annual pre-Wightfrag cleaning frenzy. For the rest of the year, it gets only very occasional grudging bits of attention when we notice that we can only just see the tips of the cats' ears as they wade through the lawn.

[chainmailmaiden]

The apple blossom on 2 of my trees has been very good & very poor on the other but generally they seem to be settling in very well in Kent.

We've still got loads we want to do to the garden, but none of it is very urgent. So long as the lawn gets cut once a week, things will tick over until we can devote more time to it. It makes a nice change from the garden in W'stow, which though small, was filled with rampant fast grown bushes and seemed to permanently need a trim.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Lovely icon! Which floppy ears are whose?

This picture, however, just reinforces my belief that these dogs are attendants of the Celtic Lord of the Underworld. The one on the right looked particularly pointy and Dark Minionly.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Azure is on the left, and Mollydog is on the right. I think they look celtic and mysterious too. At least they do when they aren't upside down and waggling their tummies at you.

(I was very pleased with them for doing such a good stay on the hilltop while I took photos. I would have liked them to stay standing up really, to get the long legs in, but I haven't trained them to do that yet - and anyway they are too lazy to stand up if they can lie down.)

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

Completely off topic, but have you come across this?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

No I haven't, is it good? The reviews seem a bit mixed - sounds like a love it or hate it kind of book?

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I've only seen it in the new titles catalogue, and it isn't the kind of thing my library buys, so I don't know!