How does your garden grow?

[Mo]

My runner beans still seem to be standing doing nothing.
I went out to thin my Victoria plums, hardly needed to bother, just one branch where they were thickly clustered. I'll get some but probably very few to freeze. But I know that years vary so I stock up (though try to resist the urge to be like Joseph and keep 7 years supply). The Czar is doing well, need to thin that, and get rid of the suckers round its feet.
And must prune the wall plants so that I can get to the gutter, I've done a bit and it needed it.

[Mo]

Did I say I needed to thin the Czar plum. Well, I thinned what I could reach then diverted to picking gooseberries and blackcurrants. Picked a few ripe or damaged fruits last week then was busy with other things and came back to find that all the branches I couldn't reach last month I could now reach. 2 big branches were cracked and drooping in a tangle on the ground.
What am I doing indoors, I should be outside sorting it out and picking the remaining high fruit.

[Mo]

Czars picked, Victoria picked, James Grieve apples picked.
Now for the damsons. Snag - they are in the field at the bottom of the garden and i haven't been down the garden for months, and meanwhile brambles and nettles have been rampaging (does that sound familiar to anyone). Spent an hour yesterday and an hour this morning pulling and chopping and I can now soo daylight towards the sheds (not sure I can get to the sheds). However a couple of self seeded damsons have popped up in the hedge next to the front drive so I stripped one of those yesterday got a gallon (2 kg?). People at dance club and choir like my damsons on the bring & buy. so I'll see what's what, though I think the bottom of the garden flooded in winter, so they may not have done much.
Put my 'apples on the verge' stall out with a charity donations box, must go and check it

[Spreckly]

My hanging baskets are over, the back lawn which was yellow has recovered, thanks to the much needed rain. My greenhouse toms are nearly over, and my rasps, pear and apples have done absolutely nothing. The rasps will be removed, and the trees pruned.

I have asters beginning to flower, something else in a tub, with a missing label and the cosmos is still flowering.

[Mo]

When I finally got down to the damsons there were very few, so added some from the new trees and made 4 jars of jam.

[manda]

As Autumn comes upon you in the Northern Hemisphere Spring is here. The trouble with where we live is we have high wind and severe frosts sometimes up until December (last year the last frost was the 15th Dec and the first frost the 15th March!) our growing season can be very short so we have to be wary all the time growing outside.

This year so far:
Middle of July (yep late) Planted a bed (2.8m x 1.2m) full of garlic because we use so much garlic and I thought even though it's not hugely expensive (unless you want spray free organic) it's something I've always wanted to do. I gave it a good covering of pea straw and they've got through some heavy frosts and snow and green shoots are starting to appear so here's hoping they keep doing their thing.

Middle of August - planted 16 buckets each with 3 Jersey seed potatoes because last year I really wanted new potatoes and failed abysmally as I had planted them too late. Talking with a neighbour she said she'd been told by an old fella that he planted potatoes on the 1st August and covered them in frost cloth and it had never failed. So whilst I planted them a bit later (because I only found out about it) they should still be ready the beginning of December. So they are above ground in the buckets (I bury them in a trench in the summer to keep them cooler) and they're in a frame which has hoops and has a frost cloth and microclyma cover on it. I give them a good water a couple of times a week and the first shoot are just starting to appear so I'll top them up with compost this week and plant the next 16 buckets so we'll have new potatoes going well into the new year.
Once the first batch have been harvested I'll refresh the buckets and put in the main crop for the winter potatoes and then again with the second batch once they're harvested. So I think (hope) I've spuds sussed (well for now anyway)

I've planted 3 trays of onions 2 white and 1 red about 150 sets to a tray that are sprouting as we speak in the family room.

I love growing most things in containers now as it means I can keep them in the same place if I want and not have to worry about soil pests because I change the soil or use the bucket for something else with new compost added so I just rotate the bucket rather than the position....our soil is so full of stones / rocks (old river bed) it's a nightmare. I'm just giving myself time to create areas where I can build up the soil to grow things in (like pumpkins and courgettes/other squashes) and still be able to produce food. We've dropped quite a few big pines over the years we've had our land before we actually built the house and the wood has gone dozy and is no good for fire wood but will be great for a Hugelkultur bed so the plan is to build one for the squashes this year.

[lancashire lass]

it sounds like you have been very busy manda

I had a similar idea to use my brush (hedge and tree trimmings) pile as a Hugelkultur bed for growing winter squash but as I kept topping it up with fresh clippings, it never got the chance.

That's a clever idea of putting the buckets into soil to keep the roots cool in summer. You could do the same for spring as soil can be warmer than air temperature when there is risk of frost (if you put clear or black plastic sheeting over the site before planting, the sun will warm the soil up quicker and retains the heat longer because it prevents a wind chill ... the downside is that it also encourages the weeds to germinate, hence I always used black plastic)

[manda]

Good idea....we need to smother everything ... we have what is known as Twitch here (Common Couch grass) which is everywhere ...couple that with the river bed ground we have and you have the perfect storm of crappy growing conditions (Oh lucky us lol!)...so any way of growing above ground (or burying buckets in the ground) is the way to go until we can build up the soil level (and realistically that will only be in small areas because the price of dirt !).

Still it's been an interesting journey to learning more about gardening to the conditions but I'm realising how spoilt I was in our old house

[manda]

Well after having had snow on Monday night today was a lovely sunny day so I got myself out in the garden and got some tidying up done.
I've mulched my garlic and asparagus (again) after I got twitched by the snow.
I've got a big plastic box I'm using as a mini greenhouse and have planted out a load of seeds:
Tomatoes: Yellow pear, Cherry Roma and Beefsteak as a start
Squash: Scallopini, Yellow Courgette or two different varieties to see which we like better (one called Yellow Beauty, the other Solar Flare Hybrid).
Pumpkins: Golden Nugget.

I've got a load of those 6 cell seedling pots so I've filled the box with those.

I've still got loads more to plant but this will give me a bit of a start until we can get the rest of the raised beds turned into wicking beds and put the hoops on.

After last year when we were hit with frost on the 15th Dec I'm not taking the risk again. Our growing season last year was frost free from Dec 15th to March 15th...3 months - that's rubbish! So under cover everything is going in one form or another.
At the moment everything is under Microclyma and Frost cloth and it seems to be working.
The new potatoes are going great guns - I topped the buckets up to the top today so that's them until harvest now - just been give them a good water a couple of times a week and a feed as they go along and hopefully we'll have new potatoes for Christmas.
Next week I plan on planting another 16 buckets of potatoes and that should be us sorted for new potatoes. A bit later I'll plant a variety called Ilam Hardy which are a main crop to see us through the winter. I've bought a load of 20kg hessian sacks hoping I'll fill them so fingers crossed.

So now I'm aching and I'm sitting here with a glass of wine wishing I had appreciated my flexibility when I was younger lol!!
Mind you I'm happily tired - the days are getting longer here in NZ and I feel more connected to our home when that happens - working nights makes me feel so disconnected in the winter so it's been nice to get out today and feel like I've achieved something .

[lancashire lass]

"I've mulched my garlic ... (again) after I got twitched by the snow."

Garlic actually does better from a cold snap so no need for mulch - the best garlic I ever grew were planted in the winter of 2010 / 2011 (it snowed mid-November and lay on the ground + sub-zero temperatures right through to the New Year, a brief mild spell then more snow which stayed on the ground for 3 weeks) My broad beans were obliterated (under frozen ice for so long, not surprising) but the garlic, onions from sets and also from seed sown 1st week in September (should be mid-August) were absolutely fine. I've never protected asparagus but then we have never usually had extreme temperatures before and the new shoots emerged in May when risk of a harsh frost were relatively (but not completely) absent.

[Mo]

" May when risk of a harsh frost were relatively (but not completely) absent"
We used to go on holiday the last week in May. Came home one year to find new shoots on the Holly blackened by frost (Cheshire).

[manda]

That's good to know LL... then I'll remove that mulch from the garlic ...when my legs stop aching

[Spreckly]

My gravel drive, and one under my living room window have gone crazy with weeds this year. I have applied at least two lots of white vinegar to them. Today, I tried diluted bleach on the drive ( I checked on the internet first), and vinegar outside my living room window. It was a back breaking job . To my annoyance it started raining at seven o`clock this evening. No mention of rain on our local forecast. I am hoping the weed killer etc had dried before the onset.

[lancashire lass]

"I am hoping the weed killer etc had dried before the onset."

It probably wouldn't have made that much difference about drying before the rain - the bleach and vinegar change the soil pH (as well as scorch the leaves on application) Most plants tend to grow in a fairly neutral to ever so slightly acidic soil, so a drastic shift will affect how the roots take up nutrients so the only issue on this occasion is that the rain might have diluted the solutions and made them less effective.

[Spreckly]

Thank, LL. Some of the weeds are going brown, I am keeping a close eye on them.