It's all about size

Our rhododendron and azalea collection dates back to when the garden was originally laid out, from 1910 onwards.  The colour starts in late winter (depending on the temperatures) and there is a continuous succession of blooms right through until summer.  After a dull, grey winter, they are a blast of vitality and the acidic soil at Springfield has enabled them to flourish.

Not sure about the colour combination but it wakes us up in the morning!

Rhodies in particular are heavy-weights and if given their head, they start throwing around too much weight.  And that’s the problem, isn’t it?  When we moved here, they had been allowed to grow unheeded and we set about pushing them back and showing them the colour of our loppers.

But the time came when an annual moderate pruning was not enough.  So this summer Doc has almost massacred them but finally we can distinguish each tree and walk between them.  They don't look pretty at the moment and they won’t flower next season but this is a price worth paying for reclaiming the garden.  They won't die though, they are already sprouting green shoots and before long they will be back in the business of providing colour, but on a smaller scale. 

There was over a foot deep of leafmould around these thugs, the result of decades of decaying leaves, spent flowers and twiggy bits.  When Doc dug all this out, he found lovely stone edges to the beds and the path between the rockeries is actually much wider than we thought it was which is going to be very useful.  (Though we will need a fence to keep people from falling down the banks!) 

 

We can use the leafmould as a mulch elsewhere in the garden and it will be rich in nutrients.  Doc has piled up the largest logs to feed the log burner next year and the rest of the mountain of debris has been burned on a bonfire which lasted 2 whole days.  He calculated that he had walked 4 miles, barrowing it all down to the bottom of the garden. It is one of the reasons he is currently so slim!  I feel guilty that my disability meant my only contribution to the mammoth task was to trim the leaves from a few branches.

The process has been cathartic because we feel that finally we own the entire garden, not just part of it.  We are busy planning what to do with the banks now we are back in control.  One of our ideas is to create planting terraces with sleepers so we can plant some attractive ground cover plants, bulbs and so on.  Without planting pockets, new plants would be washed down the banks in the rain.  We also have plans for a garden room with a retaining wall at the back of it so this will be a major project.  It is going to take some careful thought and of course, we must keep on top of the rhododendrons....

Size is the current theme because we have had great success with the carrots.  I know that baby, sweet carrots are best but since we find growing carrots quite a challenge, we are proud of this particular whopper.  With such a cold spring we thought germination would be impossible and even when we did see some growth, we did not water the plants very much, nor did we get round to installing a baffle to deter the carrot root fly.  However, nature has provided and this carrot was perfect and has lasted us for 3 meals!  We are hopeful that the white carrots (parsnips) will be just as productive.

Death in the air

It started with a whisper of a whiff.  At first, I thought it was the smell of soil clinging to the potatoes in the vegetable rack, or a potato that had rotted.  Or maybe it was the large basket of beetroots?  However, by the time I had made another batch of beetroot chutney, the whiff had become a pong.  Doc thought it was the smell of the house martin droppings outside, wafting in through the vent in the pantry.  So he scrubbed, scraped and disinfected the vent as well as the path outside the kitchen.

The path was clean and smelled sweet, in fact we could have eaten our dinner off it but the pantry was now so putrid it made us feel sick to go inside.  Something had to be done. 

We took everything out of the pantry which was a large task because although it is a small room, it is much like Dr Who's tardis.  Doc made remarks such as “Are you hoping to use this lot to barter with the barbarians as they rampage through the valley...?”  I got to work with the disinfectant, explaining that there is nothing wrong with having a well stocked larder.  (Although I have thrown out some jars of herbs and spices which had use-by dates too embarrassing to mention.) 
Doc opened the window and it was then he noticed a yellow, damp patch in the corner of the windowsill.  We lowered our noses and the smell was even more intense.  Doc is a GP and said he had smelled the smell before.  It was the smell of death....decaying flesh..... (who would be a doctor?)

With a little investigation on the internet, we discovered that it is not uncommon for small mammals such as mice to find their way into the cavity walls of a house, get stuck and die.  Perhaps they are searching for cheese?  Apparently, it takes weeks and weeks for a corpse to complete the decomposition process.  So we have to let nature takes it course, or hire a builder to break the wall apart and retrieve the rotting mass.   

Doc has installed blocks of activated charcoal and is researching some odour sucking crystals in the hope of managing the symptoms of this horrible problem.  Currently, the contents on the pantry are in the dining room so we feel as though we are camping out.  I am concerned that the fruit and vegetables from the garden will suffer in the warmth of the kitchen.  The fridge is stuffed full!

On top of this, I was terrified out of my wits the other evening.  I was reaching out for the toothpaste when I found a large insect crawling up the tooth mug.  On closer, but very tentative inspection, the little critter appeared alien to me.  It had a black body with a waist, lacy wings and bright orange legs.  Sticking out of its rear was what looked like a long, nasty sting.

The words ‘don’t panic Mr Mainwairing’ came to mind, so I breathed deeply and coaxed the little beastie into a glass and covered it with a flannel.  I carefully took it downstairs and although Doc was not visibly concerned, I noticed that he held the glass at arm’s length.  He released the insect outside, slammed the door shut and we went to bed.  I could not sleep though and was convinced this tropical killer had arrived via the supermarket shopping. It could have arrived in the bananas.

Next morning, Doc found the creature in the utility room so it must have crawled under the back door – though of course it could have been its twin.  This time, there was no holding back.  With a sharp tap, it was dead but not so squished that my TV CSI training could not be put to good use.  I initiated a thorough investigation, beginning with the obligatory photographs and several searches on the Oracle.

I soon discovered that the offending insect was a Pimpla Instigator or ichneumon fly and there are many different species.  They are totally harmless, nectar feeding insects but we are consoled that lots of other people have reacted in a similar way, with the same results.  

Our visitor may not have killed us but it does have a rather grisly habit. The so-called sting is actually an ‘ovipositor’ and the female uses it to inject as many up to 150 eggs into a defenceless caterpillar. The grubs grow inside the caterpillar, gradually eating their way to the outside world.  So, far from being a nuisance, our fly was probably killing off the caterpillars that eat the vegetables we are trying to grow!  

 

Fruits of our labours

With my ailing foot, harvesting the fruit and veg is something I can get my teeth into and that is exactly what I do with the Japanese Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius). There is something magical about popping these small, sticky, ruby coloured clusters of unctuousness into your mouth, straight from the pink, prickly stems.  Not many of these delicate little fruits make it back to the kitchen but this season’s crop is the best we have seen, so there is a bowl of them in the fridge to have with our muesli tomorrow.  And there are lots more to ripen. 

Wineberries are an unusual fruit with a glossy appearance and a definite sweet red wine taste. They are exotic in their appeal but are remarkably easy to grow – either in full sun or partial shade. They are similar to summer fruiting raspberries in that they fruit on the previous year’s growth.  Unlike raspberries though the canes are long and arching – so we tie them into a trellis but if you have the space you can let them run free, though they will not be well behaved!  If you bend a stem to the ground and weight it down with a stone, it will root very easily. 

You can use wineberries in cooking as you would raspberries, but we never do.  They have such a wow factor that we think they are best served as they are. I can never understand why more people don’t grow them. 

 

Pear Envy

Doc and I are trying to keep up with the harvest and it feels good to wander back up to the house with a large trug laden with our own produce.   Wandering up and down the garden is all I can do at the moment because I still am finding walking a challenge – and our plot is inconveniently on a hillside!  5 months ago I experienced a stress fracture in my left foot and although the fracture has healed, I am still hobbling about in pain.  Complications have set in and I have no idea when I will be fit again.  Thank goodness for Doc’s support, he is literally a tower of strength.  We always thought we made a good team.  He starts a job and I finish it or I start a job and he finishes it!  He is relishing the extra time he spends in the garden, having recently reduced his day job to half time.  He is outside in the fresh air most days, doing something or other - and of course playing golf!

Anyway, I can manage the harvesting (apart from the runner beans in the high reaches of the cane framework!) and I particularly love picking juicy, ripe tomatoes which have been warmed by the sunshine. Everything is at the peak of freshness and tastes far better than anything you can buy in the shops. 

Not everything is doing well– and I don’t just mean the cucumbers.  We seem unable to grow a decent pear tree, let alone encourage one to bear any fruit.  When we moved here, there was an old pear tree but we did not know the variety.  It was huge, far too huge to ever harvest fruit from it.  However, this was an irrelevance because even if it occasionally managed to grow fruitlets they always fell to the ground before growing to any appreciable size and it always looked tatty and listless.  We have since had this tree felled and Doc plans to build a fruit cage in its place.

A few years ago, we invested in 3 new pear trees for the orchard – a Conference, a Concorde and an Onward.  None of them can do anything but struggle.  They have weak, spindly branches and all show bright orange spots on the leaves in summer and autumn.   As for fruit, the Onward is boasting a pair of pears, but they are so small I fear they will blow off in a gust of wind!  No chance of pear and walnut tart, I am afraid.

The orange spots are a rust fungus which feeds on the host plant over an extended period, without killing it. It is not able to survive on dead plant material.  Pear trees are deciduous so it must either alternate with a different, perennial host such as a Juniper tree, or produce resting spores to pass the dormant season.

A common alternative host for the fungus is a Juniper tree and yes, you’ve guessed it, our neighbour has a Juniper tree!  Non-chemical controls, like removing infected areas of the tree and dead leaves are unlikely to be effective for us because the spores can easily be blown backwards and forwards, across the garden hedge.  We could consider an alternative site for a pear tree but we don’t have anywhere suitable.

If we really want to enjoy a juicy, home grown pear then I think we would have to resort to chemical control of this pest.  We are still thinking about this one.  Perhaps we will have to resign ourselves to becoming a pear-free zone......

Still, there are lots of plant species we can grow.  Until a free packet of seeds prompted an experiment, we did not think our garden would suit Morning Glory.  They are an annual climber and need warmth, masses of sunshine and a sheltered spot.  We have given them a nice arch with a south facing aspect.  However, it does get windy and it was very cold in the spring.  I raised the plants in the greenhouse and when I finally plucked up courage to set them free in the garden, they sat and sulked for several weeks.  Our patience is rewarded though because they look lovely at the moment.  They are such a welcome splash of colour in August, a real bonus, and they look much nicer than the pear trees!

 

And then there is August....

I've heard that the test of a good gardener is to have a garden full of colour in August because there is a natural lull between the end of the summer show and the onset of the autumn bloomers.  August is the month that usually has the least rainfall so many plants avoid flowering during this period - though currently our garden is enjoying a period of heavy downpours!

Although we try to balance the planting at Springfield, it is a challenge to achieve the full on pizzazz of spring and early summer.  You have to look a little harder to find colour and interest at this time of year and if it wasn’t for the energy and abundance in the vegetable and fruit garden, seeing the Foxgloves droop, the dancing Osteospermums fade and the rose petals fall,  I could feel dispirited.

We tend to have a tidy up in August and this can lift us.  Hedge cutting begins in earnest and I have several sessions deadheading the roses to encourage a late flush of flowers.  Hardy Geraniums benefit from a good hair cut and will often come into flower again later in the year.  We also prune back the cordon apple trees, shrubs and those perennials which have finished flowering.  If you don’t cut back Alchemilla (Lady’s Mantle) it seeds everywhere and will take over the garden the following year.

Growing bedding plants in containers and baskets can keep the colour going but we have a large garden as it is, without adding to the surface area and there is enough watering to do in the vegetable garden.  We do have two lovely hardy Fuchsias outside the front door though and they flower all summer and into the autumn.  I rate them as ‘Good Doers’ for any garden.  They have the bonus of being happy in shade and I over-winter them in the greenhouse ready to flower again the following season.

The Viticella group of clematis flower at this time of year and we have Etoile Violette which has small purple flowers to perk up a trellis. It is growing through a young Wisteria which because it is young, is all leaves and no excitement.  The combination always finishes up as a tangle at the end of the season but it’s worth it.

Salvias and Penstemons flower in August but can get lost in a large garden so we love the Buddleia which we let rip.  It has huge arching stems and long purple flowers which compliment the silvery leaves.  The Crocosmias enter the stage in August too, as do the cheerful Heleniums,  Asters and Sedums. 

So we do have August colour but it is rather restrained and the plants are dotted all over the place.  I think we need larger borders at Springfield so we can plant large swathes of the later flowering perennials and perhaps give some space over to some more large shrubs to continue the interest.  Gardens never stand still.  I will add my idea to the list! 

Catching up ...

Even the keenest gardeners need a break from their gardens.  We have been away in Northern Ireland, visiting family and we had a wonderful time with our Granddaughter, Olympia.  However, it was good to see the garden again and we always feel privileged to come home to Springfield’s abundance.  We arrived back feeling refreshed; inspired by other gardens we have seen on our travels and saw the plot with ‘fresh’ eyes. 

However, the joy of exploring the garden soon gave way to the realisation that we had to work hard to catch up with nature.  We did not expect to see quite so much growth - very hot weather tends to slow the garden down - but it seems to have done the opposite.  The Green Fingers Award of Garden Merit definitely goes to our lovely neighbour who was stoic with the watering cans.  Emily is a novice gardener but managed everything wonderfully well.  We cannot say thank you enough.

Emily helped herself to produce but there were still masses of fruit and veg to harvest.  The lettuces went berserk (anyone fancy a sack load of salad?) and there were tomatoes, spring onions, courgettes, peas, strawberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, parsley, potatoes, onions and beetroot.  And of course, as the trugs were filled we have had to either cook and eat the bounty, or freeze it - or as I was doing late last night, making beetroot chutney. (There is only a certain amount of goats’ cheese and beetroot salad that 2 people can eat.  There is a vegetable rack full of courgettes too.

The cucumber plants are noticeably less productive this summer as they do prefer cooler conditions but there are enough fruits for our needs.  They keep much better if you store them in a cool larder rather than the fridge. The summer cabbages have not hearted but the red cabbages though are growing okay. The pumpkins are swelling nicely but the butternut squash are mostly foliage with just a few flowers and fruit.  The late raspberries are just starting to fruit and today we had 4 each on our muesli, topped off with what felt like the equivalent of a whole punnet of strawberries – each!

The stars of the show were the luscious cherries.  There were not many but they are highly prized as they are so expensive to buy in the shops.  A couple of years ago, we bought a Stella cherry tree to train into a fan up a south facing trellis.  This variety has an RHS Award of Garden Merit and is grafted onto dwarf rootstock to keep it under control – cherry trees can otherwise grow to an enormous size.  The tree is renowned for producing lots of sweet black/purple cherries.  However, as you can see from the photo ours is not a Stella tree.  It has large, RED fruits with a delicious sweet-sharpness.  It tree must have been labelled incorrectly and we are hoping that it is not a too vigorous variety.  It is very healthy apart from some ants and aphid attack but I put a sticky collar to discourage the ants and had a good session squishing aphids.  I am thinking of naming our tree: Serendipity.

Summer is simply not summer without the gorgeous scent of sweet peas drifting around the house and garden and my free packet of mixed seeds has done really well.  (Thank you Gardeners World Magazine)  We picked so many of the flowers before we went away that the smell in the kitchen gave us a headache!  Sadly, those plants which were setting seed got missed and this reduces flower production.  However, there is still a presentable show and my favourite colour this year is the stripy pink one.

 

I am sorry I can’t linger here longer (I would like to improve my blog and find out why my followers have disappeared from view.....) but there is still work to do in the garden. But it is joyous, simply joyous to bring in the harvest.  I must remember to dead head all the roses and cut back the hardy geraniums so that (hopefully) there will be another flush of blooms later in the season.