First Frost Mullion Cornwall 2 December 2019

Yesterday evening looking across the meadow . After a glorious sunny day with blue skies and no wind at all , not even the slightest breeze ....I just knew that we were in for a very chilly night

So I gathered together my candles , matches and newspaper at just about dusk ....

                                   .......and got all the plants covered over .

I stand some of the more tender ones on sheets of polystyrene for a little extra warmth .

                           I lit two candles in the lantern for the night.

 This was about an hour ago....me wandering around the garden in my pyjamas and dressing gown . I couldn't wait to see the frost !

                           As you can see the sun wasn't even quite up yet !

                                    I took a walk around the labyrinth .

                Ah .... but one should enjoy these simple childish delights !

Looking across to the veg garden , this is where I have planted garlic and leeks .
Some little creature has made a home for the winter here ..I put a broken pot over the top to give him a bit more shelter from the rain .   Maybe a toad !

                On wards round the labyrinth , Jack Frost has danced !

                                   You can zoom in to see those crystals !

             Sleeping Primroses encrusted with beautiful frosty crystals .

  Frosty compost where the worms are taking the goodness down to warmer lower levels where microscopic organisms are busy breaking it all down and mixing it all up .

                  The Leeks are tough and can take the chill temperatures .

  There was ice on the bird bath . I,m so pleased with myself for remembering to wrap the outside water tap !

                                          The ice was not too thick .

        I easily managed to break it up , so the birds can come and drink .

   Over all it was not too heavy a frost , but I wanted a record of when our first frost was this year .
 This will all be gone very quickly as the sun comes up .
I know that for some of you Jack Frost dances all day !
      Brrrrrr.....I,m going in for a nice cup of tea and some brekkers !

Autumn - Rest and Replenish the Earth

We're having a proper Autumn that's for sure with a good measure of wind and rain . Some are having more of their fair share of it , with the misery of flooding , my heart goes out to you .

 I met a new friend in the village this week . She had offered to share some of her Heritage seeds that she has saved with anyone who might be interested .
  Well , naturally I was very interested and how nice to find someone else in the village as passionate about veg growing as me !
 She gave me a very generous bundle of very interesting seeds ( it was like Christmas ! ) and I gave her some of mine and will be doing some cuttings a bit later on to share too . 
   I,m getting that wonderful excited and itchy feeling that keen veg gardeners get ..... I just cant wait to start seed sowing again !  I also cant wait to go and see her veg garden !
  She came and I gave her a little tour around my veg garden, which at first I thought oh ! no !  It is not the prettiest sight to see at this gloomy old time of the year......but then thought..actually , it's not so bad , I,m doing o.k with it and have plenty of things growing away out there in my living larder .
  Right now in my veg garden , I have Brussel Sprouts, Onions, leeks, celery, Purple Sprouting Broccoli , garlic , several kale varieties and parsley . In the Veg Trug I,m growing lots of Spring onions and lettuces ..although the lettuces are struggling a bit now .
 I could sow broad-beans now , but they got so covered in black-fly last year, it rather put me off growing them again .
The herb garden is a total unruly mess ....but that's herbs for you ..that is how they like to be . O.K. so I need to tame it a little !
  So everything is just growing away nicely and doesn't require much attention .
Seed sowing will begin again for me in January/February when I start off with the Leek seeds , then comes the time for sowing tomatoes and peppers and then before you know it , Spring arrives and we are all very busy once again into the new growing season .....

......but now it is Autumn and this is the time to rest and replenish the Earth .

There was a good long gap between the showers of rain and I took the opportunity to get outside and sweep up the precious beech leaves .

 Beech leaves make such a healthy mulch for the earth , they break down beautifully over the Winter months , the worms love them , taking them down deeply and creating beautiful nutritious compost .

 I filled two wheelbarrow loads and tipped them all onto the African Keyhole Veg Bed where I am layering all kinds of good things to feed the good Earth .
 Next year I will be growing Butternuts here again , they did so well the last time I grew them in this bed .  We love Butternuts !

 By this time it was getting dark . My eyes adjust and I didn't realise how dark it was until I came indoors .

 Egyptian Walking Onions , are doing well , dropping their fat bundles of red bulbils all around . They are enjoying all the rain and are getting their roots down fast .

             The sky is very dark and more heavy rain is forecast tonight ....

                              ......and tomorrow ......and the next day .....

       Through our cottage window , our Christmas tree lights are twinkling .

                             Time to go in and have a nice hot cup of tea !

Autumn Planting Onions - 4th Oct 2019

Out into the veg garden again . I didn't really feel like doing it ,  but taking down the Runnerbean frame just had to be done .
 Back in the Spring I coppiced my Hazel and Willow ....and had taken the Willow by mistake to use for the Runnerbean frame ..only realising after I had fixed it all up ......and planted out  the young bean plants ...and then couldn't be bothered to do it all again .

            I,m trying to be a "no-dig" gardener ....but these had to be dug out .
                                               One hell of a job !

 Look at those roots !  I have nowhere to plant these so they will now be left to dry out and eventually become kindling for the fire .
                  Unless you know anyone who would like them !

 The French-bean frames are fine , I used Hazel for them , some have dried out and will be cut up  for kindling and some I can use again .
 I,m going to grow Sweetpeas here on this wigwam and will be sorting out my seeds to do this later on today .
 I harvested a few more beans from them yesterday , I think I will just sow the Sweetpea seeds in amongst the the roots of these beans and keep the netting onto keep the bunnies out .
 We are forecast heavy rain tomorrow to get  them all germinating fast in the still warm earth .

 What I really needed to do ,  was plant out all my onion sets .
 I had bought double the amount of them this year , to share with my daughter .
I like to start them off in modules...it is worth the extra effort ,to get a good root system growing away before planting them out . I have found that I get  much stronger , healthier plants which grow away faster and also with a better root system the  birds are less likely to pull them out ; they mistake the onion sets little shoots for worms . Some people cut off the new shoots......if that works for you fine ..... but ...I don't do that , poor little onion sets need those leaves to photosynthesise . Anyway this works  for me !

 So I gently planted them all , about 200 of them into the still warm earth .

 I found a bit  more space over in the brassica bed where I had harvested some of my Brussels-sprouts  the other day . Sprouts now frozen and in freeflow packs in the freezer . There are still more Sprouts to come , and I,m much happier now that we are seeing less of the Cabbage White Butterflies as Autumn is now much more noticeably approaching .  ( no frosts though )
 Further up country I think frosts are beginning to happen , we rarely get frost here .

 So I planted more Onion sets into this bed . This bed was heavily manured last Winter ....and the Runnerbeans will have fixed nitrogen into the earth in the other onion bed .
  It is so important to give back to the Earth and I always make sure to do so .

                   Back aching and I still had quite a few onion sets left over .

So these I planted into the Veg-Trug , in amongst the Lettuces , Coriander and Dill . I have covered this with Environmesh just to give a bit more protection from the wind and cold .

 The big storm Lorenzo just brushed past us here in the far South West of  Cornwall . It is very warm and humid  ....but there are gloomy rain threatening clouds overhead ......which for me is good ....meaning that I wont have to water the onion sets in !

                                Very happy to have got this job done !

 I quickly threw over a spare cloche to deter the wild birds ...but once they,ve settled in they wont need any cloche .
 So now a more relaxing day .....sorting out my Sweetpea seeds  :)
   Wishing you all a beautiful weekend ! x

Veg-Trug update - End of August

 The Veg-Trug has been great growing for a fine selection of salad leaves this year . Lettuce , Spring onions , Coriander and Dill  .

I,ve managed to keep it going since Feb/March and another sowing of seeds , a week or two ago , are beginning to germinate .
 All of these prefer it to be cooler or else they will bolt  . Lettuce will not germinate at all if it is hot .

 So the trick is to keep everything cool and well watered during these hot end of August days . I,m using environmesh to keep it just slightly shaded from the fierce rays of the sun .
  We have enjoyed lots of good salads and wraps from the Veg-Trug.....and it is a nice  easy height to work with . I,m a bit worried that it will be difficult to empty and refill with fresh compost....hmmmm......we'll cross that  bridge when we come to it .

                                               Have a great week all !

End of August Veggie garden update

We,ve had a tough couple of months since I last wrote on here . . . our dear little dog and faithful Jack Russel friend came to the end of her days aged 17 years , passed away peacefully .  I am feeling so tearful ...we are all feeling so sad  ....the garden feels empty , yet the cottage feels like she is still here ...but she is not.....grieving is cruel .
 I have not been able to write ...apologies .... I know that time heals .

 It has been a struggle to carry on , but I have really tried hard to tend to the vegetable garden , we need to keep the vegetables coming  . Good  "fresh and healthy for us " food .
  See in the first photo....that is my first ever Cauliflower ! Small , but just the perfect size for the two of us ! ( and it was so good and tasty too ! )

 The recent gales smashed down two heavily laden branches from my Plum trees . ..I was so shocked and saddened when I first noticed this ....I hope the torn and jagged tree trunk can recover . Both trees were too badly torn to bind back together  and I,m not sure if I should paint the damaged parts over with something to seal the wound or  leave it to heal naturally . There are differing thoughts on this .
  I harvested a huge bowl of beautiful plums and there are many more for the birds and squirrels , wasps and butterflies to enjoy .

 In the Solar shed we are having a good steady supply of Tomatoes and Cucumbers .

    Lots of Runner-beans and French-beans , which I am freezing up as fast as I can .

                       Brussels sprouts are doing fine mostly under cover .
                                  Oh !...... but they are such a worry !

                                  Blooming Cabbage White Butterflies !
I have left a couple of sacrificial plants uncovered to try and attract them away from my main area of my Brussels sprouts crop .
 When I,m there I find myself chasing them away ....  shoo !  shoo  ! ..but I couldn't harm them .

        See how cleverly they hide underneath the leaves and lay their eggs .

 
The caterpillars  hatch out and munch away and leave all their messy droppings and very soon your brassicas are ruined ......

........but underneath the netting .....my perfect sprouts are growing  !

 Ruth Stout experiment .... in which one doesn't need the garden fork, nor spade .  You just pull back the straw with your hands...lets see .......

                       Squeals of delight at first !......but ....hmmm.....

 Not so good  lol !...next year we will go back to planting them under the good earth and earthing them up again .

 Onions ....lots and lots of beautiful onions , I cook with onions everyday , I can never grow too many .
 I am about to try a sowing of an onion called Toughball , for some fast and tasty Spring Onions .
 I got my order in for my Autumn planting Onion sets -Yellow Senshyu and Red Blood ..they should be arriving during the first two weeks of September .
   I cant believe we are nearly there already !

                            I,m really going to miss this little sweetheart .

                                            Tender French-beans
 This morning I planted out lots of Kale, Purple sprouting Broccoli and Cabbages ahead of the heavy rain that is forecast . . . . planting for my winter vegetable garden .
 More seeds to be sown on the three legged table in the Woodshed .... dont ask ... ( Husband says it will be o.k ! ....hmmmm ....I,m not so sure )  lol !
We are also very busy splitting  , chopping and stacking up logs for our Winter fuel .

    I also picked as many of the French-beans and Runner-beans as I could find ......they hide !
    The wind is picking up as I write this and I,m afraid they will be smashed down  .

   I wanted to make some Lavender bags ..but I think now the rain has come , I may be too late .  I picked a bunch to go into a vase on the table and some to go under my pillow for sweet dreams .. I rubbed my eyes and now have one very sore eye , beware of this in future ! The bees and butterflies are enjoying them  !