Snow and Rhubarb

 

 

This was our rhubarb, coming up nicely 10 days ago. We've had a couple of picks - rhubarb and custard and rhubarb fool - lovely! But today it's zero degrees and snowing! Last night I covered the rhubarb with hessian and fleece and I'm hoping it won't get zapped by the frost.

We don't force rhubarb because we don't see the need. Our rhubarb is really tasty and the early pickings are tender and sweet. But I guess if it's under a dustbin it is protected from the elements.

Forecast is for snow and frost for a few days, so Spring will definitely be on hold for a bit.

2021 - A Real Winter!

2020 ended with snow and 2021 has largely followed suit. If it isn't sowing or freezing it's been pouring with rain. The ground is saturated and the green pipe and waterfall have been flowing the fastest we've seen in nearly 15 years here. 

2020 was a year for records - wettest February, hottest summer. Apparently this is the coldest January for 10 years. 

These snowy photos taken on 25th January. 

View from our back door

    Across the veg gardens from the greenhouse

 

The nets over the Brussels sprouts nearly collapsed with the snow.

All very beautiful, but difficult to get much done. There were some warm spells when I spread compost over the empty beds and did a bit of tidying up.

Planted up some big pots with potatoes - 2 in the greenhouse, 3 in the annexe conservatory, but much too cold to sprout. The pointy cabbages in the greenhouse are coming on slowly and the luttuces are hanging on. The Brussels sprouts, when not covered by snow, are doing really well and we.ve had several meals with plenty more  coming on the second planting (nearest the front on the right under the snow!). Also had a few Chantenay carrots from the greenhouse.

Brrr...Winter Snow

Last day of 2020 - and very cold. 

First snow of the winter fell two days ago and lots hasn't melted yet despite some lovely sunshine at times. Makes a change from the dreary and wet wrathe we've become accustomed to.

 

View from the kitchen on Tuesday morning

 

The veg beds yesterday morning

 

Yucca and a lily brave the cold

What's growing now

It's the back end of November. The days are shorter and the light not so bright during the daytime. Last night was the first real frost of the year.

We've eaten all the potatoes we grew this year (there's four adults in the house to feed now), only a dozen or so tomatoes ripenng on the kitchen window sill, beans and the first sowing of pointy cabbages finished. So what's left:

In the garden:

• Lots of celery - great germination and planted out about 36 seedlings which have now become a forest. We eat quite a lot in salads and stews and just to munch. I've put some in the freezer for winter cooking.
• Brussels sprouts - doing brilliantly this year. We've already had several meals and will have some tonight. There are two groups, one planted out from their modules a little later so are further behind. So we should have plenty into the new year.
• A few kale plants - looking rather sad because the cabbage white caterpillars devasted them early on, but are now pushing out a few leaves which will go in stir-fries.
• A lovely patch of rainbow chard - provided many meals already and looks like they will continue through to the spring.
• Peas - an experimental late planting in the ground where some potatoes were lifted.  They are doing surprisingly well and producing some lovely, pest-free peas, though not more than a spoonful for each of us. Lots of flowers still. Next year I'll plant a whole lot more. They are frost-resistant.
• A broad-bean sprouted in the compost - so I thought I'd give it 11 more for company. I don't usually do autumn-sowing because they come up quickly and early in the spring anyway. But we'll see. Another way of using the space after the potatoes have been lifted.
• Rhubarb - is already sprouting, so covered with a good mulch of garden compost to protect from the frost and give them a boost.

In the greenhouse:

• 5 pointy cabbages in the soil where the tomatoes were earlier - 1 Dutchman and 4 "Tinty" red ones. These have been great outside all year and these late sowings into small pots seem to love their new home.
• Two little gem lettuces remaining from two troughs sown earlier. They have been doing well all summer (outside during the warm months) with successive sowings.
  
• Two troughs of mixed lettuce seedlings
• Trough of spring onions
• Trough of Charentay carrots - small but tasty.
  
• 2 large pots each with 3 Pentland Javelin potatoes saved from this year's harvest. Planted these yesterday. I usually plant up a couple of pots just after Christmas, but the weather has been so warm (except for frost last night!) I thought I'd jump the gun and try to get some earlier spuds (especially since we've finished all the store).

In the conservatory:

We have a large, very light conservatory which isn't heated, but is warmer that the greenhouse during the cold winter months. Good for starting off seeds.

• Pot of parsley seeds. The summer outdoor sowing didn't take at all, they were rather old seeds, so hopefully these will come along better. But they are very slow-growing.
• Tray of Ailsa Craig onion seedlings.
  
• Radishes - haven't grown these for a while. All the seeds germinated and are looking happy so maybe Christmas radishes?
  

Spare bedroom:

• 7 tomato plants on the window sill! I really don't enjoy shop-bought tomatoes so would love to find a way of growing them through the winter. Last year I made (at The Shed) a planter with a trellis for growing a clematis and flowering plants and in June replenished it with garden compost. In addition to the flowers up came 7 tomato seedlings. They looked pretty healthy so I potted them up and had them in the greenhouse for a while. A couple had flowers and one had two tiny fruits.
  As the weather got colder I brought them into the conservatory, but it was too cold. So I took them upstairs where it's warm and gets more sun in the mornings. I also draped some LED Christmas lights around to give more light. Initially they produced a lot of flowers which I dutifully tickled up with my Mum's paintbrush, but they didn't take. The two tomatoes are growing steadily though! There are a few more tiny buds, so maybe.....
  
  

 

 

Evening sun on the walnut trees

 

Autumn approaching

First week of September gone already. There is definitely a feel of Autumn in the air - cool wind, even when the sun shines, and earlier evenings of course. Lots of trees are showing yellowy or brown tinges and Autumn colour in the garden comes from the lords and ladies, pink autumn-flowering cyclamen, rose-hips and rose flowers. The big pink sedum, which the bees and butterflies love, is beginning to open.

View from the greenhouse across the veg plots & rhubarb

Sedum beginning to flower, rose-hips and a carpet of pink autumn-flowering cyclamen

Lords & ladies glowing proudly

Spring?

The warm weather continues - 15deg C and sunny today. The nights are cold and a big, bright moon - but no frost thankfully.

Its tempting to start sowing, but we've been caught like that before! However, broad beans are frost resistant and its good to get them going early. Sowed 8 pots of 6 beans in each. They should be fine  in the unheated greenhouse. These are seeds saved from last year's harvest - masterpiece green longpod.

The peas I sowed a couple of weeks ago have just started shooting also the Navarro lettuce and the Bedford onions in trays in the conservatory.

Start of the year

We've had unseasonably warm weather for a week or so and its due to continue for a few more days. Mind you, along with balmy sunny days we've had some early morning frosts. The rhubarb that was beginning to shoot nicely has got zapped a bit. but it will recover.

The snowdrops are a joy - bringing elegant brightness to the borders and all over the lawn.

Trying to get an early start with potatoes in the last few days of December I planted up 2 large pots of Pentland Javelins, saved from last year's harvest, and have them in the conservatory. It's too cold up in the unheated greenhouse. They have just started to show some green shoots. Last weekend I potted up some shop-bought Maris Pipers that had gone a bit green and were displaying some impressive shoots. They were not fit to eat but may make some nice new potatoes around May before the outdoors ones are ready.

I've also sowed onions and lettuces in trays in the conservatory.  The lettuces over-wintered in the greenhouse have pretty much finished.

So the seasons move on. This will be our 14th summer at Froggarts Cottage.

Picking Gooseberries in the Rain

Nothing surprising about that maybe – but this is the first significant rain we have had since the beginning of June. 

Following the torrential and unremitting rain we had in the spring, when I couldn’t plant the potatoes because there was standing water 6 inches down in the soil, we have had a very hot, almost totally dry summer. All the rain-water butts are empty so we’ve had to use the hose to water the veg and the fruit bushes and trees almost daily, heaven knows what the water bill will be. There are great cracks an inch wide and going down to middle earth in the veg plots.

So I got up early this morning to do the watering before the heat comes and was overjoyed to feel spots of rain on my face. I think it had rained overnight – the forecast promised that but I’ve stopped believing them – because the grass was just a little damp and the garden chairs had small puddles on the seats.

Sipping my morning coffee and with a background of rumbling thunder I pottered around the garden, watered and tidied up the tomatoes in the greenhouse (and picked a few) and decided to harvest the remaining gooseberries.

We have 4 gooseberry bushes. (see our Soft Fruit list.) 3 were here when we came 12 years ago, but are under the shadow of two large apple trees, plum trees and the walnut trees. One of these bushes produces a reasonable crop every year, but does suffer from the brown mouldy stuff. That’s maybe because it needs more air and light. A few years ago I took some cuttings and we planted the one which survived and flourished in a new row set between the blackcurrants, along with a couple of jostaberries which some friends gave us. This new gooseberry is doing really well and it’s that one I harvested this morning. I have taken half a dozen cuttings this year, so hopefully will have a couple of new bushes in a year or so.

After a slow start the jostaberries produced a few berries last year. This year one bush has died, but the other has provided enough for an apple, loganberry and jostaberry crumble and some to go in the freezer. Jostaberries are like large blackcurrants without the intense flavour, are a little sweeter and don’t have so many pips. 

On returning to the house with my harvest, the heavens opened and for a while rain poured down. But an hour later, the sun is shining and promising another hot, hot day.

Summer time

Clocks went forward to summer time today 

and appropriately it was a warm sunny spring day. It's the first time we've been able to get out in the garden due to the cold and very wet weather this year. There's been snow even last week, and everything is behind schedule. But this weekend the birds have started singing and things are looking up.

Yesterday I planted 60 broad beans - saved from last year's crops - in 12 pots in the greenhouse, and today I planted 48 beetroot seeds, 15 Alicate tomato seeds (favourites - tasty and good croppers) and 10 "Gardeners Delight" tomatoes which I haven't tried before. I noticed from our planting diary that most years I've had the broad beans in by early March, or even February and the tomatoes and beetroots in too. But this year it's just not felt like it was time until now.

I have some big pots of Sante potatoes in the conservatory which are now shooting nicely and 3 pots of Desiree up in the greenhouse planted a couple of weeks ago. These are all saved from last year's harvest. I've ordered up some new Desirees (red) and some Pentland Javelins (whites).

Today I was able to get started on some of the jobs in the garden. I cut back the raspberries and took out the dead canes, hoed our rhubarb bed - which are all looking pretty good - and started digging over the veg beds. The soil is pretty wet still and the green pipe and waterfall are in full flow.

Lots to do!

End of year round up

Well that was 2017!

A very strange year all round what with Trump and Brexit and the Weinstein fall-out, as well as all the problems out in the far east.

In the garden our efforts were much hampered by needing to spend a lot of time with an elderly neighbour, general care and keeping her company and also a lot of legal stuff. So the garden is a real mess - but will come up looking great in the spring as it always does.

The end of the year has been cold and wet. We had some serious snow and then rain, freezing and further snow. Today the soil is still frozen, so there's not much to be done. Yesterday while the sun was shining briefly I cleared out the spent tomatoes from the greenhouse. I was harvesting ripe tomatoes right up to the end of November.

Generally the year was fairly good for vegetables and absolutely crazy for fruit.

Potatoes

The early warm weather meant that the potatoes grew pretty well and harvested before any blight attack, and unlike last year they didn't drown. I just planted two varieties this year - Desiree reds and white Sante. The Desirees were really good with some nice big ones good for baking, the Santes a bit small but OK. There were very few worm holes or other kind of pest problem. The Desirees have kept well too.

Beans

All the beans were all pretty good - French climbing, runner beans and broad beans. This year I planted "Fasold" French beans and they were great. I won't bother with the Blue Lake again.

Beetroot

The first sowing was really good. I sow the seeds in modules and then plant them out in the veg patch. They all grew well, I think because of the warm weather. Most of the second batch are still out there, didn't grow so quickly, but will provide a few serving during January I should think.

Chard

I bought the wrong packet of seeds - Rhubarb Chard instead of Rainbow Chard - but still pretty tasty and continuing to produce dark green leaves on their red stems to replace those harvested.  They've taken a battering during the snow but are starting to shoot again already for meals during the winter.

Brussels Sprouts

Well, they started out fine, all seedlings surviving. I erected a netting cage to keep off the butterflies and pigeons and pheasants. But they really haven't done too well. They haven't grown very tall and the sprouts are the size of peas. However, we've had a few meals of sprout tops and they were very tasty. Hasn't helped that the strong winds during the autumn and the snow just before Christmas collapsed the cage!

Soft fruit

All the currants did well. We netted the redcurrants and one row of the blackcurrants and got a good crop off both. The gooseberries were good, especially the new bush which I took as a cutting a few years ago - it's really got into it's stride now. The jostaberries also produced - but I don't really think they are worthwhile. They don't have the flavour of blackcurrants.

The raspberries did very well at the beginning of the year, the fruit produced on last year's canes. This year's canes weren't so good, probably because it was cooler and much wetter by the time the fruit formed.

My strawberry plants have increased and we had some lovely fruit (Elsante). I took more cuttings.

Rhubarb

We completed the clearing of the first rhubarb bed and transplanted about 9 plants. We treated them with some care to let them get established, but still managed a few pies and crumbles and some rhubarb and redcurrant jam.

Apples

Amazing! More apples than we could eat, cook up, freeze or give away. Especially amazing because last year was a good apple year and some varieties like Bramleys tend to be one-year-on one-year-off. We have put some in store but some varieties don't keep.

Pears

The pears produced a good crop for the first time in years. They've been devastated by some fungal / bacterium thing which makes the little fruit turn black and drop off. For about 3 years I've been spraying the trees with a "winter wash" which is supposed to kill off such diseases and also eggs of moths and such which would turn into worms in the fruit. Maybe this has had some effect, or maybe just the weather - who knows?  - but I'll be out there spraying again during January and again before the blossom forms.

Plums

Mixed.  We have 4 plum trees of different varieties and a damson. One plum tree which we had given up for dead two years ago produced some lovely fruit, as did the purple plum which makes excellent jam. But the big plum tree (produces BIG PLUMS) was not so good, despite there being very few wasps this year. The wasps usually get to these luscious fruits before we do. The damsons were productive as usual, and we are enjoying damson vodka and vodka-soaked damson chocolates!

Cherries

We have a large, wild cherry tree which the birds love. We once managed to pick enough to make jam, but we don't usually bother and leave them to our feathered friends. The morello cherry produced about 12 cherries which were carefully observed and eaten by the birds when they were just ripe (before we got up in the morning). The Stella cherry is still getting going with only a few, quite tasty, fruits.

Well that was 2017 - so now it's time to start planning 2018!

Garden Gallery

Very warm, proper summer but with occasional downpours - June was a great month for the garden. See this collage of shots around the garden, mostly in the vegetable area with brilliant, self-sown poppies sneaking in.The Desiree( large reds) potatoes had masses of pretty mauve flowers. Now in July they've turned into tiny fruits. I've started lifting them and they are looking pretty good so far.

The Sante (white) potatoes are much better than last year, when they mostly drowned, but some have been chewed by slugs so I'm going to lift them as fast as I can and store the best ones in cardboard boxes in the garage to use over the winter. I've also tipped out one of the big pots with potatoes (pots pots?) and they are fine. No slugs or worms and I'm wondering if it's a better method than planting in the ground, but probably harder work filling the pots and then keeping them watered. At least the garden-grown potatoes can send roots down if there's a dry spell.

April Flowers

Typical April weather - starting the month with glorious sunshine, we thought summer was here, and ending with cold north winds, and yesterday a mild frost and snowy hail showers during the day.

It's been a glorious month for blossoms, though, starting with the tail end of snowdrops and daffodils and now the lilacs are starting to show. The apples and cherry trees are still in blossom with the pears, damsons and plums having gone over.

Here are pictures of some of the flowers in our garden during the month:

At the start of April - daffodils in the lawn among the leaves of spent snowdrops.

Snakes-head fritillaries

Bright blue grape hyacinths (muscari)

A mixture of bulbs among the herbaceous plants waiting their turn:
tulips, narcissus, hyacinth, leucojums (summer snowdrops)

Magnolia blossoms were magnificent this year, mainly due to no frost when the buds were forming.
Often the frost damages the delicate flowers just when they are ready to open.

Magnolia stellata - small delicate magnolia cousin.

Damson tree in bloom

Bright polyanthus. We also have groups of pale yellow "wild" primsroses all around under the trees.

First swallows!

Yesterday we were entertained by a small flock of swallows swooping around in the warm sunshine. No sign this morning - but the temperature has dropped significantly with a north wind and forecasts or rain. So maybe they're off a bit further south again!.

They are creatures of habit - a couple of years since we've been here I've logged the first swallows on 17th April.  But the parents fly back to Africa before the new babies - so it's a mystery how they manage it.

Spring bulbs

The Spring Bulbs are really getting under way now. The snowdrops are looking a little wind-blown now, but have been amazing this year. The crocuses are magnificant and the daffodils are just starting to open up. Some of the small ones in pots have been open for a week or so - some varieties open earlier.

Spring bulbs in the grass under the cherry tree

The last few days have been sunny and quite warm but the soil is still very wet. I dug over one of the vegetable patches at the weekend and the top part was really soggy. Need to put some compost in there before planting out.

One or two bumble bees around and I spotted a couple of butterflies. So must be Spring!

Winter pottering

The cold spell has finished and we've now got soggy grey rain which is forecast to continue all week.

Yesterday, after the frozen morning and before the rain started we had a couple of hours of sunshine, tidying up - mostly cutting back and pulling up soggy masses of leaves. I collected some lovely soil from the mole hills and used some of it 50/50 with compost from our heap to pot on 7 sage cuttings. Not much else to be doing at the moment. The next job will be to sort out seeds and make a shopping list for what we need to plant this year.

Cold and grey

The temperature didn't get above zero today. After quite a mild December and early January when we had just one day of snow this week has been pretty chilly - proper winter. This morning no frost despite the cold. We haven't had any rain for about a fortnight, so too dry I suppose.

There hasn't been much activity in the garden. Stormy weather at the start of the month flattened the cage protecting the brussel sprouts. I was worried the pigeons and pheasants would strip the unprotected plants but so far they've kept away. We're having a good feed of sprouts at least once a week.

Snowdrops are just poking up through the grass. One or two helebores are flowering. But generally things are taking their time. Last January daffodils were out up at the crossroads in Coleorton and we were pulling rhubarb. This year the rhubarb is just starting to shoot, although a couple of plants we transferred into big tubs are further ahead. I dragged them into the greenhouse to protect them from the frost.

Plenty of wild life activity. Moles are very active in the fields all around and along the grass verges by the roads. They are also busy around our bonfire and have come down the garden as far as the kitchen window. Birds visiting the feeding area include a pair of pheasants, large family of magpies, crows, wood-pigeons, great-tits, sparrows, robins, blackbirds. And a couple of squirrels. The bird table is slowly falling apart. We don't put much food out - just scraps and in the cold weather a scoop of peanuts and seeds. When we filled all the feeders most of the food was taken by squirrels and wood-pigeons and sometimes rats. There's plenty of berries and seeds in the garden and surrounding hedgerows and woods so I don't think they will go hungry. It's nice to see the birds feeding, but the bird-feeders are more for our enjoyment I suspect.

I peeped under the tarpaulin we had left lying over part of the rhubarb patch we are reorganising and found a spherical nest beautifully crafted from dried grass with a small entrance hole. I think it's a field-mouse nest.

That was 2016

Christmas is over, the turkey carcass in the pot for stew and a new year starts tomorrow.
The last week has been cold and frosty with blue skies and sunshine during the day and clear, starry skies at night. At last a bit of proper winter weather. Until now it's been just grey, wet and very warm for December. We had a couple of days of frost which is supposed to be good for brussel sprouts and raspberries. It does clear off some pests and bugs too.

In general this year has been warm with some periods of really heavy rain and then some - shorter - periods of sunshine. 2016 is supposed to be the warmest year on record for the whole world, so global warming maybe starting to kick in. Definiely been some crazy weather which is what the scientists predict.

Round up of the year in our garden:

 

Vegetables

The big success this year was Brussel Sprouts. We've carefully nurtured them, with a big cage with fine mesh to keep out the butterflies and the pigeons and pheasants. Very little problem with slugs despite the wet weather. We had a good feed off the sprout tops and pleanty for Christmas dinner. They should keep us in green veg for another few weeks.
Chard was good and is still giving a few leaves, but the second sowing just didn't take.
Runner Beans and Broad Beans did well, but the French Beans were a complete disaster.
Onions and Leeks also did fairly well and better than expected as this was our first try after a break of a few years because of the Allium Leaf Miner. I just did a few Leeks and the ones we picked early were great, but those we left in to grow bigger got the dreaded bugs again.
The Sweetcorn experiment was a flop. We had a couple of rather misshapen cobs with just half of the kernels swelled up. Tastysnack but not a meal.
Marrows, Courgettes and Squashes were excellent, especially the Butternut Squashes. They were very late getting going, with slugs giving them a hard time for a while, but eventually produced lots of medium-sized fruit with good flavour.
This year I just did Tomatoes (Alicante) in the greenhouse, unlike previous years when we have also grown beef tomatoes in the small conservatory. 9 plants produced a massive harvest. We still have a handful of small tomatoes in the fridge and a good batch of tomato chutney.
Potatoes: Not a good year. It started with drowning spuds and didn't improve much. Spuds were of modest size and some had holes in the middle, rendering them pretty useless. The best potatoes have ben from the big pots. Got 3 pots in the greenhouse at the moment and one is just beginning to sprout.

Fruit

The soft fruits - currants, raspberries and loganberries were very productive. The only thing we do to them is a bit of basic pruning and put a bit of compost around the roots each year, so they are gold-dust really.  We did put nets over the currants because the blackbirds and pigeons can strip the redcurrants and iin the last couple of years have been moving on to the blackcurrants.

The Cooking Apples, especially the Bramley, have been amazing and the red eater. We have apples stored in trays in the conservatory (not heated) and boxes of cooked apples in the freezer. This is the first year we have just left fallen apples on the grass to rot - or be eaten by birds, squirrels or mice. But the Russet and the small eating apple didn't do so well.

The Damson produced bucket-loads. Plenty for jam, mostly damson & apple, pies and damson vodka which is lovely and makes great Christmas presents in small 125ml bottles.

The small plum tree (similar but not quite the same as a Victoria) was good, but we had nothing from the the purple plum and the big plum despite lots of blossom.

Flowers & trees

The warm, wet weather meant shrubs and trees grew like crazy so lots to trim back in the autumn and massive quantity of leaves to sweep up and compost.

Wildlife

Each spring I have a bit of a panic about the bees and this year they seemed to start a bit slowly. We had a warm month and then it went cold again. But eventually plenty of bees came into the garden to forage. Obviously its difficult to assess absolutely but I have the impression that honey bees (from hives) were in short number, but bumble bees of various sorts were doing OK. The press report wasps having a bad year. I think there were fewer, especially in the autumn, but I managed to get stung stepping on a wasps nest on the rockery and there was a sizeable nest by the rhubarb.

A lot fewer butterflies than usual.  Spotted a caterpillar of the elephant hawk-moth which apparantly like fuschias.

There was a little frogspawn in the spring although I didn't hear any croaking males. During the summer we saw several small frogs and large toads around the garden and a couple of newts. A friend asked me to write a report on the changes to frogs and toads in the 10 years we've been here, so I did this blog post in October >>

November catch-up

Here we are nearly at the end of November and counting the days till Christmas.

It's been a strange month, starting off quite mild and then a few odd mornings of frost and fog and this week torrential downpours. The trees are now bare, except for the magnolia which hangs on to its heavy leaves for another few weeks. Two Saturdays ago we spent all day sweeping up leaves. Paul used the leaf blower which then sucks up and mulches the leaves, Chas got busy with the rake and I just used my hands to sweep up great bunches of leaves into the wheelbarrow. We have two black "Dalek" composters into which we put the leaves to rot down. Next year it will be lovely leaf mould. Some leaves go onto the compost heap, but they do take a long time to break down so just mix a few at a time into the general mix of grass cuttings, plant trimmings and veg stuff from the kitchen. This year there has been an amazing apple harvest and inevitably a lot of fallers, rotten ones and apples eaten by birds, squirrels etc. A lot of those get recycled in the compost too.

Just a few buckets of apples from the amazing apple harvest this year.

The garden looks a bit bedraggled with herbaceous plants in various stages of die-back. Some tall, brown sunflowers and hostas just flopped and soggy. It's not been very inviting weather to go out and tidy up. But I guess it doesn't matter too much. Sometime during the winter we'll tidy away the leaves so that the spring bulbs can come through.

The vegetable harvest is pretty much finished. There are a few Leeks (unfortunately they seem to have got the alllium leaf miner again but just slightly so the leeks are useable) and a bit of Rainbow Chard. Unfortunately the second sowing of chard didn't come up. The main crop we have to look forward to is Brussel Sprouts. After previous years when they have succumbed to caterpillars, pigeons and pheasants we built a cage with fine mesh netting and so far they are doing well. We've had a couple of meals of sprout tops and the little sprouts are growing nicely. Maybe a few will be ready for Sunday.

In the pink

This week we had the hottest September days for 100 years but this morning was misty and cold. The leaves and flowers were bejewelled with dew-drops and the spiders webs bright with fine mist. It felt very Autumnal.

But there's a way to go yet with the Summer. Garden flowers are having a final fiesta before the dark days come along and the trees take the glory with their reds and golds.

I went walk-about with the camera and found the garden was painted pink!

Bright pink roses - irridescent

Tiny cyclamen under the mallus tree

Pinky-red hydrangeas having a final fling

Pink Japanese anenomes are everywhere. They seed prolifically but cheer up the garden
after the sumer bedding has mostly gone over.

These pink roses have been flowering all summer and still have plenty of buds.

Pink sedum is a late-summer feast for the bees and other insects.