Winding up for the winter

Well what a year. Nothing to do with crop failures, but the personal front has been nothing short of tragic.

We lost Mum in February, her mum - my Nan in August and then on 11/11 we lost my Dad.

So I'm sitting here in Sidcup once again, planning a funeral and thinking back a year ...... if we knew then what we know now, I'd have given up before I even started.

So this winter is going to be very quiet. The lottie had been pretty nearly put to bed a month ago, just a wee bit of tidying up to do when I get home.

I'd cleared out the g/h on the plot before I left too and deposited all the spent compost in various raised beds at the lottie. The soil levels are rising steadily.

I'm even going to have to start a blog for the Sidcup plot and I've got a fair size garden, room for a few raised beds and already got a greenhouse in place which doesn't need much apart from a good old wash.

So folks, I truely hope you've had a better year than me and mine. Look forward to seeing you all in the Spring when hopefully my life will be back under control and I will have a masterplan for the three plots !

Take care of yourselves and have a Happy Christmas !

RIP Dad, no more 3 putting now eh ? ...... "Yeah yeah yeah"

Ron Bryer
21/3/28-11/11/08

A month in 60 seconds

Great weather for the majority of the last month which is very odd. OH now settled in the big smoke has been getting mainly rain where as I have been getting mainly sun ! Most satisfying.

In no particular order:

Rhubarb going great guns. Can get one more useful size pull.
Tatties looking fine and lots of growth. "Earthed up" as much as I can given the room constraints which is basically chucking sieved compost lumps at them.
Witchhazel in full leaf now and going bananas. Mum's looking after it well.
Nearly killed the christmas tree by not watering, so now I've got this spindly brown thing with green shoots at the end.
Forsythia cuttings looking nicely settled in.
Love-in-the-mist taken well.
Courgettes have produced one bloom which had a tiny bump, but not managed to get to fruit stage yet.
Pansies nowhere near as prolific as up the lottie.
Petunias going bananas, need constant water checking.
Clematis x 3 should really get a move on.
Various marigolds potted on for the greenhouse, with some still waiting to go up the lottie. Not as many succumbed to Mr Sluggy this year, the pellets are helping.
Finally got rid of the perpetual spinach and replaced it with cauliflowers in that bed. One had bit the dust, or something bit it !
Strawberries are fruiting nicely. Nothing to eat yet but showing great promise. Have cut a couple of runners off already. Surely that's a bit early for runners or do they send them out at any time ?
Magpies have discovered the fat balls which is a shame (beautiful villains). Lots of wee grey feathers found by the bird table. Methinks Mr Cat or Magpie got more than the fat ball that day.
Lilies are all waiting to burst their buds. No sign of the lily beetle which Dad is suffering from darn sarf. Glad they haven't found my stash yet. No doubt they will do in time.
Fruit trees all a bit disappointing. A way to go yet but only a handful of fruit on each of the many different varieties: blueberry, red currant, black currant, gooseberry ........
Carrots in buckets, bit sparce after they first got cooked, but hopefully i'll get some decent size ones. Thinned the four rows in the bath and covered them back up with fleece. Leeks seedlings in same bath could probably do with pricking out, but as I've not decided where to put them, they can stay put for a bit.
Sweetpeas down the side of the fruit tunnel are climbing up it fairly well although lack of direct sun may account for the lack of explosion that I would have expected by now. still got some seedlings to plant out. will take them up the lottie. Got some perpetual sweetpea seedlings still in 3" pots. could put them over the lottie arch but they just don't look big enough yet.
Moved bird box for next year. Gave it a good wash out and have put it on the front of the shed. Am going to some ivy to plant above it to give it some shade.
Baby great tit visited today with ma or pa. flapping it's wings like crazy. The birdies are coming back in general although the two nests the blackbirds built in the hedge appear to have bitten the dust before getting to fledgling status - them pesky magpies again no doubt.
Got brave with the electric hedge cutter and done as much of the hedge at the bottom of the garden as i could without reaching too far. Me up a ladder with a dangerous machine is ... well... dangerous. Must move the compost bins before i can get into the corner.

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are looking good. Totem is flowering all over the place, no signs of setting yet though. Sub arctic plenty really does not like heat and goes all wilty on hot bright days, recovering when it gets cooler in the evening. May bring them out onto the deck now we've no chance of frost. Gardener's Delight are behind the other two. No flowers yet.

chillies and peppers have suffered some pretty serious damage. Can't see anything but something's been attacking them. Mutant scrunched up leaves and black dotty marks on the original full size leaves. I'm thinking spider mite, but just can't see anything. Am spraying with washing up liquid to see if they'll recover. Shame cos they have got a few buds and were going really well. Think it's time for a sulphur candle in the autumn. Although I had a clean out, I never had time to give the g/h a deep clean this spring. Think i'm suffering from that.

Parsley needs potting up before it bolts. 3 x basil in pots looking good.

Cherry tree has nice green fruit. Wonder who will get to them first once they're ripened !

Bonsai tree isn't dead yet and seems to like sitting in a constant half inch of cooled boiled water. Before I have my first morning cuppa i poor whatever's left in the kettle in it's oven dish that is handily the same shape as the bonsai pot ! I keep trimming and clipping and it's looking OK actually.

Am always out of time though, and everything is a bit of an effort this year - hence no daily pics or blog updates. Could do better !

Now for the lottie blog .... ta ta for now.

xxx

Weird old day

The OH moves darn sarf today. Dull and overcast outside, bit like my mood.

Still, I found these pics to cheer me up.






















Gonna be a weird one.

Suffice to say, I've been busy

All those New Year's Resolutions about "thou shalt keep the diaries and the blogs up to date" have kinda taken a back seat to "doing".

But I have:

• a couple of flowers on my strawbs in the raised beds under fleece
• put in the tatties
  
• built a shade/fruit house from two rose arches and debris netting (got to think of a way to keep out the birdies (if they ever come back to me) but let in the bees)
• moved the carrot bath into the bashed g/h to become a chilli/pepper bed when the time comes
• planted up 6 hanging baskets in a blue/white/purple theme
• started moving the lilies to the deck
• moved the Sub Arctic Plenty and Totem toms to the fixed g/h but looking at them this morning, think they needed their fleece jackets on last night (why oh why do I believe the weather forecast temps)
• tidied up Mum's pansies
• look with awe at Mum's witch hazel that is now in new leaf
• brought the clematis to the deck
• put the courgettes in fixed g/h
• not eaten one bit of the perpetual spinach despite there being tonnes (may not bother again next year - I mean if he doesn't like it ... what's the point)
• got turnips/sweetcorn/peas/marigolds/sweet peas/beetroot/nasturtiums/kohl rabi/love in the mist/radishes/3 x varieties basil/parsley in between both g/h
  
• been looking at the rhubarb thinking "should I pull now or wait a bit"
• got a sore wrist from trimming the lawn edge (another reason to hate lawns)
• sown 2 varieties of runners and 2 of dwarf beans (currently in the propogaters)
• planted up the lavender cuttings I took at some stage in the past
• ditto rosemary (although I don't know why as my mummy rosemary bush is still coming on nicely)
• been looking at the cherry blossom and thinking "maybe this year if the absent birdies don't get there first"
• am concerned that the magpies have already found this year's black birds nest - there was an awful fight out there yesterday
• been putting out food for the birdies in the hope that they'll come back eventually. No chance of blue tits nesting again this year although there have been a couple of visitors to the garden. Will move the box next year and see if it's just in the wrong position.
• have seen a couple of bees (and wasps grrrrrrrrrrr) and the occasional slug (usually first thing in the morning when it's half way across the office window - yeuch !
• given up waiting for the compost bins to do their trick and bought in a load of shop bought on Saturday
• cut the yellow tulips for indoors as they look so lovely and bright and sunny. I left the orange ones outside but they're gorgeous too.
• potted up the chillis/peppers but have kept them inside for the time being.
  

Having spent all this weekend out there, am going up to the lottie today to see how everything's doing up there.

Why can't life be one long bank holiday ?

Laters.

Closing of a chapter

Finally we were able to say goodbye to Mum on Wednesday of this week. It has been a long time coming and very emotional.

So now the wagon train is packing up and about to head north again. We had two major family birthdays this week, my 50th on Thursday and Dad's 80th yesterday which were both very enjoyable, but now it's time to think about returning home. Naturally, the day we have chosen, is also the day sleet/snow is forecast ! Just luvverly !

The sub arctic toms are growing steadily away, being turned every couple of hours so they get the light equally all round. One more sub arctic, the tardy one, to pot up before we leave. 4 Totem have now germinated, but don't appear to be as far advanced as the SAT even though they were sown on the same day. 4/5 Gypsy peppers finally made it through and really do need potting on quite quickly but that will oop north.

Mum's Love-In-The-Mist have germinated nicely now, pretty evenly across the tray. All the broad beans could really do with being in the ground now, but they're looking pretty good so at least I'll have something to plant out in the allotment when I get up there.

Oh, I forgot to say ................ I've given up the evil weed ! No, silly, not mare's tail ..... I stopped smoking on 19th March, day of mum's funeral and day before my 50th. Seemed like a reasonable day to pick ! Not doing bad so far, bit of a struggle this morning though, so just off to find my patches !

Watch that wind out there, looks pretty blowy today.

xxx

Bit blustery but no damage

Blessed be. We seem to have survived intact both north and south.

A tardy tomato and pepper plant have now poked their noses through as have the Green Windsors.

The only thing left in the propogator are Mum's Love-in-the-Mist which have begun to germinate and there I must stop sowing otherwise I'll not get everything in the car.

Some of the toms could really do with potting up but that will have to wait until Easter Monday when I'm back oop north.

Blue tits are still decorating their box and we even had a chaffinch drop by the other day.

Have been trying for day's to get over to Mum's place and give her borders a bit of a prune but always get side-tracked and end up packing and sorting rather than being out in the garden. There's one bush in particular that I want to take an interest in and will take pics and post to try and ID it. Pinkish blossom and smells of almonds apparently ........... watch this space with your Botanic book at the ready.

Cheeriebye.

Full of surprises

That's the toms and chillis germinated. The rate isn't so hot, about 3 in 5. Was a little dissapointed in that but that will do for the time being especially if they all get decapitated on the journey back, then I won't have lost so many.

Discovered an envelope of Green Windsor broad beans that I sent Mum last year so have sown 6 of them.

And the blue tits have moved in which is so exciting. I've never had anything nesting back at home so to watch these wee things popping in and out is just great to see.

Due to get the worst storm this winter over the weekend. There goes the remaining panes of the greenhouse at home ! Fingers crossed for minimal smashage!

Good luck folks and batten down the hatches.

Kicking my heels

As I'm not going to be getting back home until the end of the Easter weekend, I thought I'd better get on and sow something.

I'd got the other half to bring me down a few seed packets on his most recent trip, so off I trotted to my favourite shop in the world and bought some seed compost and a new cheapo leccie propogater (always thought I should get a second and now I have!).

So on 27/2 I sowed some Totem and Sub Arctic Plenty toms. After last years debacle with the toms, I decided to limit the number of varieties grown this year. I grew Totem the previous season and was pleased with the results. Not an astounding quantity, but then what am I aiming for ? Feeding the street ? I think I prefer bush varieties, being more easily kept under control so Totem is underway. Sub Arctic Plenty caught the imagination, setting easily in colder weather, which will suit me down to the ground back up in Glasgow. From memory (see packet is elsewhere as I type and blowed if I can remember where I've put it !) they are a bush/tumbling variety which will lend themselves to my topsy turvey bucket idea if I ever get it off the ground. If not, they can go on some staging in a black bucket.

My only cordon variety this year will be Gardeners Delight basically because they were my heaviest cropper last year.

Upon the recommendation of someone who memory escapes me, I decided to try some Gypsy peppers this year. So they are in the third container in the prop.

So that's me started !

Also done this week was to pot up my Aquadulce Claudia broad beans sown on 21st (?) December which are still stuck down south. I have 6 very healthy plants, one of which is reaching for the stars. I've pinched them all out hoping to keep them to a reasonable height for transporting home dans la petite rouge voiture neuveau. I carefully separated the roots and have stuck each of the loo roll inners in individual smallish pots. Obviously this is an experiment borne out of necessity. I'm hoping that by the time I get them back up the road, they will have got a nice little root system that won't mind being transplanted.

I hate to think hoe my second sowing (oop north) are doing. Poor wee things were all leggy when I left. I really have noticed the difference in light levels/temperature between the two regions and the effects it has on my babies. Perhaps there is a good reason to move back south !

I've still to sow The Sutton bbs, but hopefully I'll still have time when I return home.

Mum gave me some hyacinth and allium bulbs last autumn which are in a pot on the patio down here. The blue and pink hyacinths are coming through nicely, with one blue one having a double bloom.

The forsythia is beginning to bloom down here and I'm wondering how my cuttings are getting on at home. They really should be in the ground already so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'd like to get going on some more sowing, but the poor car would object, so I'm having to keep my hands in my pockets ....... for now !

Right, that's the mobile's battery about to chuck it, so better get this posted.

xxxx

My Mum - Janet

Sadly passed away on Saturday last.

Since the end of October, I've more or less decamped down south to help my Dad take care of Mum (and also look after him) but managed to get back north for 3 weeks at the end of January.

We've been coming down every weekend since and the weekend before last, Mum was just so unwell that I stayed south again. Eventually on the 23rd February at 10.15am, she eventually gave up the battle and went peacefully before we had got up to the hospice to see her that morning ! Contrary to the last. Didn't want to upset us, I guess.

So, goodbye Mum, see you later and love you loads. Will look after the fuchsias and little red car, I promise, cross my heart. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Janet Bryer
30/3/32 - 23/2/08

At last, a bit of action !

Got home from work early yesterday and the sun (yes, you heard it here first), the SUN, was still out, so out came the secateurs and I attacked the privet hedge that escaped a prune last autumn.

Still nowhere near completed but I felt rather virtuous that I'd actually set foot in the garden again.

Tonight was even better (if you can call another smashed greenhouse pane better). I must have missed an unsecured one during the last inspection. This time it's one of the triangular ones - goddammit, so a bit of sawing to shape will have to be done with a sheet of perspex rescued from the other battered g/h.

Still I had a good hour out there, tidying, sweeping up the smashed glass, throwing stuff in bins and a bit of a fork over of various beds. Composted some Pak Choi that had been sitting there doing nothing but feeding the slimey ones.

The soil that I'd forked, appears to have plenty of worms doing their stuff and is nowhere near as clay-like and heavy as when I first started two seasons ago, so something must be going right.

I've decided that given my limited free time for the foreseeable future, that I'm going to have to rather ungraciously decline her upstairs kind offer to look after her garden this year. So the carrot bath and compost bin will have to come over to my side of the plot and I think I've located their new homes. To be fair, her side is much improved on when I first arrived (a year earlier than her) and she'll just have to learn to mow the lawn and cut her bloody hedges herself.

I'll do her a favour and sow some nasturtiums and calendula in a month or so, and from then on she's on her own ! She's got a couple of nice shrubs now and if my forsythia cuttings raise themselves from the twigs they have become, she's got a reasonable start.

Am back off south tomorrow morning for the weekend and hope to bringing home new wheels - I've promised Mum faithfully that I'll look after her baby for her, so that will be a huge help up here as I've only managed to get to the lottie once since my return.

Mum's Primroses are blooming delightfully, but the pansies don't appear to want to know. Perhaps when the temperature rises a bit, they'll put on an energy burst. All Mum's presents are now rather special and I'd hate to see them all bite the dust. The wallflowers out in "her" side bed are a bit hit and miss as well, but they'll stay there forever and hopefully by next year there will be a lovely show.

Clouds are looming big and dark now ........ tut tut rain again ?

Cheerio for now.

Ever get the feeling you're being picked on ?

If there's not enough of a crisis to be dealing with darn sarf, I've been laid low with a really nasty man-flu type bug leaving me with not enough energy to raise a smile let alone any children in pots !

The weather (whilst not as bad as elsewhere in the country) is pretty pretty rubbish.

The greenhouses are still waiting to be repaired. Have got spare clips now, but no enthusiasm to get out there in howling gales to replace the unbroken panes. The current gaps in the glazing appear to be allowing the wind to blow straight through without causing damage to anything else.

The car has now died which creates it's own problems and highlights how reliant I am on the damn thing.

Just to show willing, I sowed a tray of Lettuce Valdor seeds the other day which are meant to be sown over the winter. Can't see any sign of spring, so perhaps I'm not too late.

Observations from the window:

Blueberry Chandler has some nice new buds on the bush. T'other blueberry (Sunshine Blue ?) remains in leaf and green.

Rosemary bush is looking just fab and appears to be coping well with the not so Mediterranean weather that we're getting atm.

The perpetual spinach could really do with being cut back (or eaten even) but the fact that it has lasted thus far without being demolished by any animals or inclement weather really has encouraged me to get another bed going.

Got a free pack of Tomato Sub Arctic Plenty with GYO mag this month which is the first useful pack of seeds that I've got excited about for a while. Masses of early, large cherry fruits which don't need pinching out and like cool weather ..... that'll do for me ! May try a few of these alongside the other cherry toms in baskets that I was going to try this year.

So that's about it for the time being. Really need to get a wiggle on and get myself sorted, but for the time being ....... back to bed with Richard Hammond and a cup of tea!

Happy weekend people !

xx

Hi hunnies - I'm HOME !

Got back into Glasgow about 7pm last night. I knew I was in Glasgow - it was raining.

Even in the dark, I had to have a stroll around the plot - CARNAGE seems to be an appropriate word. WAR ZONE are two others that immediately sprung to mind.

Both greenhouses took direct hits a couple of weeks ago and the saintly other half managed to clear up a couple of bucket loads of pea size smashed toughened glass last weekend.

I seem to have got back into the routine of early morning visits to the computer and am now going through a pile of mail ....... most of it seed catalogues.

Just got to find the enthusiasm again. Right - sleeves up and let's go !

xxx