ALMOST SNOW

Again we are nearly snow free (though not ice) because it all falls on the pennines and Lake District when it come from the Northeast.

Plants that have survived till now finally

succumbed in last night's severe frost. Green things are bent and wilted, final leaves falling.

R loves the snow but I find it a nuisance - getting about is difficult - no one salts the minor roads and they become polished glass.

Of course there are times when it is beautiful as in this picture of out great sycamore at night with flakes falling.

However the ground is frozen and plants cannot go in - the ones that came late when I was ill. They are in the shed but that will be below freezing in this weather so fingers crossed that they survive.

So, feed the birds, watch and wait.

THE WILD GARDEN

I have just stuck this on the Gardener's World site -

"Every garden needs, at least, a rough patch if it is big enough - or even if it is not.

A wild area can be just as beautiful - I must admit I abhor the park bedding planting - must be a bit of Jekyll crossed with John Muir?

The unburned bonfire now has a dilemma - I cannot set fire to it now because of hibernating hedgehogs etc - and by the time they emerge birds will be building nests in it. So the heap will have to be left to slowly rot - at least till September."

This image is, of course, from the summer - the footpath sign is over the fence. There are planted willows now growing to improve privacy.

The garden does have other more tamed areas but no formal bedding - you can check this by looking back. Probably the most managed areas are the vegetable beds but even there they are not the rigid lines one might expect of allotments and Victorian walled gardens.

Oh! And it is also a fallacy that a wild garden means doing nothing - if you do it will probably be taken over by brambles, nettles (some needed for butterflies etc) and such.

GARDEN PREDICTION - HARD WINTER TO COME?

Outside it is very cold - first really hard frost though the sun is now shining.

The birds are active and I noticed that all the berries on the top of the cotoneaster - the flat one - have been eaten but the ones underneath that are harder to get at are still there.

Well, why waste effort if you do not have to.

There are Pigletty Haycorns under oaks and large bunches of keys hanging on the ash.

The rowanberries have been stripped by redwings and the hazelnuts taken and buried by both the jays and the grey squirrel.

A few rosehips remain and the hawthorn is covered still with its small red berries.

Flowering plants with good seed heads have been left as have the grasses so the frost and sunlight can lift the garden at this time of year.

Everyone seems to have waxwings according to the television - but us.

I wait in hope.

UP THE GARDEN PATH?

You would think - make a path, then it is done.

No way - the one above is a path made by a builder, hoggin and side boards and hardcore and so on. It still needs weeding and the moss loves it.

In the wood the paths are of grass or wood chippings so need mowing and renewing all the time.

By the pond in the boggy area I put down a stone chipping path which sank into the bog without trace. So I had to build a wooden boardwalk with old scaffolding planks. No doubt one day I will walk along it and disappear into the mire up to my knees, (or just disappear).

On other paths and around the veg and fruit beds I have used slate chippings but even this needs weeding and topping up.

Then around the house we have stone paving which needs power washing and weeding and repointing.

Finally from the house to the cattle grid is tarmac. Great you say, at least that is the real thing - BUT - needs sweeping and the moss is staring to make an appearance.

This whole problem is known as Path Entropy - each path has an inborn programme to return to jungle.

So, unless you slave away, there is little chance of leading anyone up the garden p...!

GARDEN FUNGI AND ALL THAT ROT

As I am rotting away I thought I would talk of exciting things like hyphae and spore bodies - fungi.

The first is that horror of horrors - the Honey Fungus. You cannot do

anything to

prevent it other than try to keep trees

healthy as the thing is everywhere. Infected trees as our ash should be cut down.

(It is a sort of silvan Scent of New Mown Hay - book by John Blackburn).

Ash wood is good for a log burner so at least we get some warmth from it.

You can eat the fungus - it is edible - but I have not tried it.

Then a fantastic fungus - one of my favourites suddenly appeared in the middle of a

hoggin path. Do not ask me why it has come up there, I do not know.

This is the Orange peel fungus.

This picture is of it on moss covered wood as the specimen in the path is a bit feeble.

Some of the paths in the wood have as their surface wood chippings and in the autumn we get some interesting toadstools.

The two small images at the bottom show some of these.

Of course we have others like the Coral Spot and so on.

The only fungus I have had is Athlete's Foot. At least that did not look like this!

THE AUTUMN GARDEN - SPIDERS AND HAWS

It is a wild day. The heavy rain has passed but the wind is roaring over the house and through the trees.

Saw my first flock of redwing - here for the abundant berries.

The hawthorns are heavy with haws which some say indicates a cold winter ahead. Personally I would have thought it reflects the seasons past and pollination, frost damage to blossom and so on.

The garden seems full of birds and we have had the male greater spotted woodpecker back but this time on the feeders just outside the kitchen window. He is becoming bolder.

This is an old radio which currently lives out side the house on a windowsill in the covered area by the kitchen.

As I have outside electric sockets, in the summer I can listen to the cricket and sit in the sun.

A spider has set up house inside the radio - somewhere sheltered, dry and safe from predators. The latter essential as this is near the bird feeders.

The garden is looking a little unloved and untidy as I have been sidetracked by journeys to Manchester. At least there is nothing that a bit of hard labour will not cure - when I can motivate myself.

BARE TREES

So the storm came last night - well a bit of a gale - and blew off most of the remaining leaves. The Prunus shirotae still has some.

The colour is spectacular but, nearby, the Great White Cherry is still resolutely green.

The big willow tree at the far end of the bottom hedge (actually it may be a sallow) still has yellow autumn foliage but the ash and sycamore leaves are long gone.

Sycamore is so disappointing for an Acer - such dull leaves - though I suppose the bright red young stems in the spring and early summer are okay. We have, of course one huge sycamore which scattered its winged seeds everywhere. I spend a big part of the summer pulling up seedlings.

The second picture is a close-up of the shirotae showing similar red leaf stems.

The feeders are plastered in tits - blue, great and coal - though there are other birds - see before.

Perhaps we should change the name of the house to The Tittery?

Perhaps not!

WATTER AND PUMPKIN

Rain, rain, rain and floods.

Unblocked the stream in several palaces - leaves and silt, dislodged turf from the bullock invasion, cobbles and twigs, watercress plethora.

Now the water is running down the bed as it should.

Halloween is past and here is our giant pumpkin as carved by Gary Gifford, street performer extraordinary.

What you cannot see is that he has drilled the fruit with many small holes which, when lit, would have radiated light in all directions.

The medium size one went to grandchildren in Manchester.

The smallest one was turned into soup after being roasted in the oven.

There is no definitive recipe. R did it and added a bit of this and some of that. Paprika was definitely in there as was vegetable stock.

It tastes Okay but as I am not a fan of pumpkin - except for carving for Halloween - it will do for us hot on a cold day.

It has always puzzled me how something that looks so wonderful can taste of so little.

It must be what you add that does the trick.

Pumpkin vindaloo? Then it would not matter too much of what it tasted.

A TRAVELLING MAN

Manchester yesterday, Manchester today - travelling, it is tiring so the garden gets ignored. Thank heavens I have done the last grass cut before the spring.

A sunny item - this is the sundial which came from R's father's house in Liverpool and has been set into a piece of sandstone rescued from the barn conversion at High Greaves.

As the clocks have changed to winter time I need to adjust the angle of the dial.

The picture was taken just after we moved in in 2007 but the sundial is still in the same place near the house.

A not so sunny item - this is the top wood at dusk on a dark and dismal wet day. At the moment mornings are a bit like this but one struggles on!

The birds are consuming huge amounts of seed - we must be feeding everything for miles around. I need to get to West Cumberland Farmers for another sack of sunflower seed.

I buy in bulk as it is cheaper - I find the garden centres and big DIYs are a bit of a rip off.

We have most things now but I am still waiting for the first Nuthatch. I know there are some not far away but they have not found us yet.

It is time to watch for winter visitors - Redwing, Fieldfare, Brambling etc.

NUTS

The little grey tree rat is back, burying peanuts on the banking, or digging up peanuts it has buried, or digging up peanuts the jays have buried.

It seems fearless.

We have planted some crocuses for naturalising in grass by the cattle grid and around the gooseberry bushes. They were a gift from K and S.

I have been having bonfires - but not of wood and so on - of old bank statements and receipts. The ash can go on the blackcurrants as they like potash.

The hour change has passed and afternoons

end too early now.

Yesterday we had several really heavy downpours in the morning and much of the grassy areas are sodden. The stream was blocked by leaves in the wood and overflowing but this has been dug out.

The leaves on the Rosa rugosa have surprised me by being intensely yellow. I suppose they have been before but have not caught my eye.

Virtually no wind today - one good gale will strip the last trees.

WAY IN MAN!

This is the gate to our "drive". The inverted commas are intentional as we do not own the drive, it belongs to a local Trust who would not sell it to us.

They also turned down a cattle grid to improve access so we replaced a small stile on the left with a gate and removable post. Not brilliant but does make it wider.

The signpost indicates that this is a bridle way and we do get the odd mountain cyclist and horse rider along it.

The little sign is on the post for the electric gate button and was done by yours truly. Damian Hurst eat your heart out.

Please excuse blogs if infrequent but have to travel up and down to Manchester a lot in next few weeks - to Christie's for tests and then, I presume, a blast of the old radioactivity.

Funny, but R's mother's maiden name was Christie!

Not that there is any connection, of course - just a pretty remote coincidence.

A DIFFERENT SORT OF DIGGING

So autumn is here - even to sycamore leaves.

This blog may stutter for a while as I have blackspot on that organ which which males have much trouble as they get older and I am off to Christie's in Manchester today.

Unfortunately my problem will not just drop off like a leaf and then wait for the spring to start again.

Watch this space.

LAST CHANCE SALOON

There is a deep frost forecast for tonight, many flowers will soon be gone. The valerian by the gate is blooming again lavishly and the Kaffir lilies still have a good show.

R weeded whilst I removed the last broad beans, chilli and squash plants - now badly frost damaged and dug up the sweet peas as they have stopped producing flowers. They all went onto the rubbish mountain by the veg beds.

New plan - the compost heaps by the shed are to go and be moved down to the vegetable area where they will be rebuilt. This will mean we can plant more shrubs and flowering plants near the car parking area and remove the unsightly heap of old veg and eggshells.

I have dug over those areas where there are no overwintering plants - leeks, broccoli etc - so that the frost can get in and break up the soil.

I have noticed that some of the wooden bed surrounds are rotting despite them being old scaffolding planks. They will need replacing.

We continue to collect sticks and twigs that fall off the trees and the heap is now 6 feet high. Time for a bonfire but before we light anything will have to move it sideways to let any creatures escape - e.g. hedgehogs. Having said that have not seen a hedgehog in our garden but we did see a fox cross the road in front of us last night not far away.

Chickens and ducks beware.

Story - when we lived at Torver in the Lakes my father had ducks and each night he would put them securely in a duck house (nothing to do with MPs). OPne night they just would not go in and every time they approached the entrance they would all suddenly slip by on one aside or another. After two hours and in darkness he gave up telling them they would have to fend for themselves.

In the morning the fox had been - carried away one and bitten off the heads of all the rest. It is this mass slaughter which is so upsetting - okay Mr. Fox, you are hungry - take one but why kill the lot?

BANKING

Nothing to do with aeroplanes so will not interest Ni.!

With the growth of the plants, especially the grey foliage ones that survived last winter, the dry banking bed in front of the house is becoming more mature.

The soil tends to wash down onto the path - you can see the resulting moss - so it does not get much of a fork over - more a weed and some really old horse muck. (Which reminds me not to put muck on the grasses - they like the soil poor like many wild plants).

I have to admit to a bit of weedkiller to the path.

I have just removed many of the stakes placed to support young trees - several were rubbing despite fancy ties and the garden looks much better without them.

Back to the banking - Lamb's Lugs and lavender, sage and senecio (except they now call it brach - something or other now), pittosporum and and nasturtiums (some going gooey with the frost), and red berries on the contoneaster.

This is the flat one -horizontalis - which was given to us when we moved in and is getting too big - needs moving but as the berries are so bright will get a reprieve - for now. We have the other one on the grass bank.

The variegated plant on the left is mint and perfectly usable though I prefer the softer apple mint.

Before it is too late I have harvested the mint and, after chopping it, rammed it into an old Hellman's mayonnaise jar, then topped this up with vinegar.

TIP - if you like mint sauce sweet then add 1/3 raspberry vinegar to wine vinegar for the preservative - you can do this for other pickles, especially beetroot.

Nao. could this be a sales ploy?

FIRST FROST

Last night was the first frost. This affects the lower part of the garden and the far end which is shaded by trees. The upper slopes are frost free as the cold air runs downhill into the bottom and they get the first sun.

This will spell the death knell for the nasturtiums which will go all slimy. The sweet peas will also fade away - in fact they have almost stopped flowering now.

Sixty per cent of the ash leaves are off the trees and gathering in corners.

The pumpkins and so on are dead (or nearly so) and the last fruit is stored on the table outside the kitchen doors.

The marrow in the picture went to the Harvest Festival at the church on last Sunday. The small butternut squashes are awaiting some sort of decision on their future. The small pumpkin is for us, the large one for J and W, our grandchildren, for halloween.

So how do you transport a pumpkin.

The one in the car seat was the largest and went for Offstedding at a local school which, I hope, it passed.

Then it returns to the grandchildren of a friend - S - where a local talented craftsman and street performer will have his his wicked way with it - all carving and candles.

Half the leeks have bolted and their cores will be hard but I hope we can salvage something - more soup on the way?

I have filled in or repaired the bullock prints in the lawns. Repairing is a bit like doing the same for a huge pitch mark in a golf course green - but not with a tee peg but a gurt fork!

COWS AND NOT A YACHT IN SIGHT

I heard R stirring and turned over.

She brought me a cup of tea but I wanted to stay asleep.

Then I heard a cry of anguish.

"Bullocks."

She was by the bedroom window.

"Bullocks!," she said more loudly.

I struggled from my bed and there in the garden were two bullocks.

(For information one was a Friesian, the other a Hereford.)

The first image shows the way they came and a deposit they left.

And they leave tracks in the lawn - a huge repair job.

They broke the barbed wire in the field and scaled the meagre hedge, (which is being laid later in the autumn when the trees are dormant).

We rang the farmer and B and M came out.

A simple shake of a sack of feed from the field and both were back over the hedge.

Heads were shaken.

When the hedge is laid a netting fence and barbed wire will be incorporated in it.

This is not the first bovine invasion, it has happened before - so that is why we are having the hedge relaid.

Comes of living in the country, I suppose.

So out with the bucket of soil and seed, the spade and fork, and try to repair the damage.

At least they did not eat the leeks and last of the sweet peas.

SO WHAT DO I LIKE IN OCTOBER

Apart from leaves going red, yellow and brown there is still quite a lot still in bloom -

So here are some -

Nasturtiums not yet hit by the frost and gone all gooey are on the bank bed in front of the house giving a bright splash of colour.

Kaffir Lillies in a large clump in red, pink and in between colours.

Not forgetting the wonderful Cosmos still shining in the sun.

Geraniums flowering for a second time having been clipped after first flowering.

And so on.

Frost due tomorrow night?

As we are on a hill I just hope it will run off and we can have flowers for a bit longer.

PET HATES

I do not like Gladioli like this - can just about deal with the odd colour but a couple of years back got a free bag of glads with an order.

The pale lilacky, mauvey ones were awful.

They got deposited down the banking under the sycamore in the nettles and never appeared again.

There are still one or two that appear like this one - the colour clashes with everything.

Then there other dislikes - I can just about tolerate dahlias if they look a bit like daisies but the pompoms and cactus sort are a travesty of a flower.

R dislikes begonias - the bedding sort - they do not go in a garden with a wildish feel. You can get away with wallflowers and sweet williams - do not plant in regimented rows and blocks but municipal park planting - no thank you.

Some plants look like artificial versions of the real thing - too in and cross bred.

Mind you if a true blue rose came along - well .....

SOURCES OF IDEAS

Some practical, some not.

The willow tunnel in the garden - see previous blogs - was inspired by a strange mixture of ideas.

I had seen willow, both alive and dead, woven together in Scotland at the Spring Fling.

I had walked through the famous laburnum tunnel at Bodnant.

And I had been to Aberglasney in the early days - see above.

We had, in the days before digital TV, watched Welsh television on the analog channels and seen the restoration of Aberglasney from the start. Of course, with the better service we have now, we can't get Welsh TV any more.

Then we went - in fact we have been at least twice - on our way to Pembrokeshire in the summer.

Then there is the pond.

I would love to have a pond like the Pin Mill one at Bodnant but I have not the manpower nor the space. In fact we only have one man and one woman power.

I suppose I could ask them to lend it to me as they are third cousins, (Bright), but it might be a little difficult to transport.

Mm! I don't think we could get it through the gate.

DAFFS

I wrote this post some time ago - about a month - and forgot to post it so here it is

Today we are going to plant daffodils.

Got a cheap sack and they may not flower

brilliantly the first year but after that will improve.

The first image is of the garden before we came showing daffodils on the banking to the right of the house. Most of these were untouched by the build and still flower every spring.

These can be seen in the second picture just after the build and in the month or so after we moved in.

T. the previous owner, planted a variety of

bulbs which flower in succession throughout

the spring.

This gives us flowers for the house for almost two months.

Today we intend to plant under the white birches, by the entrance gate and on the banking near the Wendy House.

They need to be planted quite deep - maybe 8" - but as the soil is not that deep everywhere we may have to compromise.

Oh! Yes - the sun is out, it is dry and not RAINING!!

DISTRACTIONS

Other things have arrived to drag me away from the garden - health!

Managed to mow some of the lawn today. Also have weed killed the paths - I know not organic but sometimes needs must. At least it will keep things in some sort of control for a while.

The willow trimmings will just have to wait for the chipper and become woodland path.

Still have a sack of daffs to go in - job for the weekend before the hospital beckons on

Monday.

This sign was painted for us by my brother-in-law Roy Brown. He exhibited a a painting this year at the Royal. Not many people can say they have their house sign painted by a famous artist!

The photo does not do the colours justice.

So, the blog may be a little intermittent in the near future - partly because I may not be doing a lot in the garden.

The mowing will have to be done somehow as the grass is still growing though some areas are now out of bounds as so boggy. The weather is supposed to get to nearly 70F this weekend!

Wait till the low pressure which has given us the southerly air flow passes and the wind switches to the North.

ps Pumpkins picked and on the table outside the kitchen for final ripening and hardening.

WATER

As it is raining again I though I would talk about water!

Not the supply from out borehole, not the pond but the "stream" which is really a drainage channel from a ditch in the field above the house.

The first picture is of the area at the top of the garden. The stream runs across from right to left halfway up the image.

Beyond that is a small channel to collect the water that comes under the wall from next door.

In the foreground is another channel taken to divert water from a spring in the field into the stream rather than let it soak down into the garden and make paths and grass boggy.

When the stream leaves this top area it tumbles down a fifteen foot slope over and under tree roots.

This shows it with water - we have had a roaring flood as last year when the floods inundated the Lake District and nothing at all in the late spring this year after the lack of rain.

Areas of the garden are still boggy after rain and I have another drainage channel behind the copper beech hedge.

Yesterday I mowed most of the lawn but some was wet underfoot. Actually the grass was still too wet and clogged the mower so now I have green finger nails.

Perhaps I am going mouldy with the rain?

GETTING THE CREEPS

So the garden is bare and let's put in a few creeping ground cover plants.

One of the best is Creeping Jenny though R complained that it had taken over the end of one of the paths and it has to be trodden upon. That is OK - tread on it.

The red flowered strawberry here was given

to us by Sylvia and has taken over a soilless bank where nothing will grow - even weeds struggle. It has flowered continuously from the spring but does need a bit of runner pruning to keep it within bounds.

On another bank I put in 5 ground cover roses which are now becoming a nuisance. Unfortunately weeds do grow through them and they are a PAIN! to remove as the rose is particularly thorny.

Of course the nasturtiums creep everywhere.

This one has insinuated itself through a variegated Pittosporum but the effect is quite pleasing.

And then there is Geranium Johnson's Blue which is not a creeper but great for ground cover spreading wildly and suppressing all weeds.

After three and a half years the flower beds are getting rather overcrowded - time for a sort out - but where to put all the discarded, thinned plants. I do not have the heart to throw them away.

I feel another bed coming on. This beditis has ramifications- weeding, dead heading, muck spreading. Soon I will need some treatment.

Ps. The sun is out.

RAIIIIIIIIN!

There are weeds growing in my hair and toadstools under my fingernails. My skin is going wrinkly - I know it is aged decrepitude - by it is soggy too.

Having said that did manage to dash out

yesterday and prune the growth off the top

of the willow arch -a killing job with arms

above the head - like painting a ceiling. I meant to use the wands and twigs and so on but they lie on the lawn (uncut because too wet) in the rain.

This is nothing to do with the garden but have been doing a bit of my sister-in-law's family tree - yes K the one who suggested this Blog to me - and found that her ten greats uncle knew my nine greats grandfather!

I know - nothing to do with gardening but as her ten greats uncle was Oliver Cromwell . . .

This picture shows one of the few redeeming

pictures of rain in the garden - alchemilla leaves spattered with jewels.

Back to the nitty gritty and do we have a bonfire or do I chip the smaller sticks and use them on the woodland path?

Or do I chip the willow?

Sounds like a cue for a barn dance.