In the Garden

Nothing really grows in our garden as the soil is almost pure clay and i'm not very good at keeping plants alive. We have lots of trees which are ideal for the birds.

Over the last couple of years i've managed to keep two fuschias alive in pots so this year i decided to try others. I've planted sweet peas, another fuschia and some sort of bushy plant in pots and they've all done well. But the thing i'm most proud of is my two tomato plants (given to me by a friend, i've never grown anything before). I have loads of cherry tomatoes on them which are just now starting to turn red (just in time for us going away for a week). I'm so excited about these tomatoes. I think i'm getting the bug for growing!
 
I am cutting off any blemished apples as the crop is so large this year - but the trees can almost see Poole Harbour and the Purbecks, so there are very few problems with frost - though the bees have to yomp from blossom to blossom in order to stick on the tree, otherwise they'd be half way down the avenue three seconds after take off.
The bees which visit my garden do not make a contented droning as they potter from flower to flower, only bees from hives with retired Olympic sprinter quality queens make it here by achieving new personal bests coming up from the valley against the wind.
 
Drummer said:
I am cutting off any blemished apples as the crop is so large this year - but the trees can almost see Poole Harbour and the Purbecks, so there are very few problems with frost - though the bees have to yomp from blossom to blossom in order to stick on the tree, otherwise they'd be half way down the avenue three seconds after take off.
The bees which visit my garden do not make a contented droning as they potter from flower to flower, only bees from hives with retired Olympic sprinter quality queens make it here by achieving new personal bests coming up from the valley against the wind.
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You should be so lucky with your apples, we have very few of our favourites Rosemary Russet, not bad with Charles Ross. but 1 pear even though it looked as if quite a few had set fruit. The badgers had been at my carrots again, they managed to move a heavy cage, so I have now put 2 over them. I will not be beaten.
 
All our trees are unhappy this year. We have three apples on one tree, no apples at all on the other two. No pears or plums at all, and not only have we no cherries, we also had to cut several dead branches out of the cherry tree (it's only a few years old).

The runner beans are fine, though I don't think we have as big a crop as usual; and we definitely have fewer tomatoes than usual.

The bindweed in the borders seems to be thriving though ... 🙄
 
Need to get out later to tidy up & deadhead flowers, hedge is starting to turn already bit unusual for this time of year.
 
freesia said:
Nothing really grows in our garden as the soil is almost pure clay and i'm not very good at keeping plants alive. We have lots of trees which are ideal for the birds.
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We have clay soil too. We used to battle with it but now go with what will grow in it.
Flowers that are very happy are: geraniums, sedums, grasses, crocosmias, …
Veg we are growing: green beans, corn, salad crops
We also have plenty of shrubs that are happy, and they definitely don’t get a lot of attention so they have to get on with it on their own. We also put in a very big pond, to break up the garden and because it only requires attention twice a year, when I get in and remove loads of the oxygen atoms.
 
Slightly off subject but the butterflies are back we had only seen whites and orange tips until yesterday when we saw Peacock ,Red admiral, comma ,tortoise shell ,and a small unidentified one which sat on the buddlia and wouldn't open its wings .We have 4 different buddlias but these were all on a very dark purple one
Carol
 
I really don’t know where they keep appearing from. We only have one plant! 😱
I’ve just looked back on the photo I posted the other day and there were 9 too! There’s about four growing, that I can see, watch this space. What the heck am I to do with them?
 

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You could always freeze some, @eggyg - though they are not as nice after freezing, they go soggy so only good for things like spag bol or ratatouille.

chaoticcar said:
Slightly off subject but the butterflies are back we had only seen whites and orange tips until yesterday when we saw Peacock ,Red admiral, comma ,tortoise shell ,and a small unidentified one which sat on the buddlia and wouldn't open its wings .We have 4 different buddlias but these were all on a very dark purple one
Carol
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Shame it is a bit late for the big butterfly count - we did ours at the end of July. I can't find our list now, but I'm pretty sure we had small and large white, peacock, red admiral, comma, gatekeeper, and meadow brown, there may have been one or two others. Friends have said they are seeing fewer butterflies than usual so far this year though, so maybe they are later than usual.
 
I made a delicious courgette, ginger and lime cake yesterday, that’s used 2! Only 16 left! Im going to thickly slice some and freeze them as suggested. I can’t do them all unfortunately as my freezer is quite full, it’s only a small one, so will squeeze in as many as I can along side the two tuns of ratatouille and two tubs of courgette and Brie soup already in there!
 
I've been eating them, fresh picked, chopped and raw in salads. That way they have a subtle flavour and a really nice crunch!
 
Bloden said:
Is that why my tomato flowers keep dropping off? At this rate, I’m only going to get 3 tomatoes from 2 plants, boo hoo.

Anyway, saw this is the garden earlier - is it big for a caterpillar (it was the length of my thumb and almost as wide)? View attachment 18314
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Looks like an elephant hawk moth caterpillar to me

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/moths/elephant-hawk-moth. Do you have rosebay willowherb nearby? It is there food plant
 
adrian1der said:
Looks like an elephant hawk moth caterpillar to me

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/moths/elephant-hawk-moth. Do you have rosebay willowherb nearby? It is there food plant
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How interesting! Thanks @adrian1der. There’s no rosebay willow herb in the garden or nearby, but our first house (20-odd years ago) was surrounded by the stuff. I found the caterpillar trying to climb a low wall to reach the safety of a patch of lawn, before a bird had a chance to grab it (I suppose). I just hope I get to see the moth - beautiful. :D
 
I luv a
Fungus.
 
Just had a morning in the garden. First time for quite a while. It’s a lovely sunny autumnal day. The plan was to harvest the cookers from the espalier, and tidy up the raised beds. Got a few apples, most will be stored until we can get some green tomatoes, we didn’t grow any this year, to make chutney. The ones that aren’t perfect will be diced and stewed for apple sauce and /or pies and crumbles.
Got the last five courgettes from our single plant and I’ve dug it up and it’s in the compost heap, it was huge! I also dug up bolted lettuce and cauliflower, absolute waste of time and space growing the cauli. I also proceeded to dig up what I thought was bolted cabbage. Luckily Mr Eggy caught me in time, it was broccoli and it’s harvested in October! Oops! 😳
And finally did a bit weeding in the borders, and then I was done in! Enjoyed it though, nice to be out without going out, if you know what I mean. I’m going for a well earned relaxing bath now and hope I can get the soil out from under my nails!
 

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This is all the produce we’ve had this year, boo hoo. I’m keeping them in a bag in a drawer until they go red. 😳 They’re meant to be beef tomatoes!4389BB3B-7160-4FBF-831F-2C12F76A8710.jpeg
 
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