Christmas potatoes

In the late Autumn, to make use of one of the newly made raised beds, we planted Charlotte seed potatoes, 9 in all, although one was small and did not thrive well.

Due to the warm weather the greenery grew fast and high and outstripped my efforts to earth up the sides. Once the colder weather came along, the potato growth was covered in fleece to help protect the plants.

By the time we had arrived back from China, the growth had all died down, some taken by frost and some died back naturally.

Today I thought I would see if any potatoes actually grew from the seeds- the first plant (the runty one) yielded a few small ones, and as I worked my way along the row more and slightly larger ones came to light.

By the end there were enough to have a meal of new potatoes with the family over Christmas.

                                                       Trug of potatoes fresh from the garden.

So the experiment was worth it!

Pea sticks and other animals

A few weeks back we planted winter pea plants, variety Twinkle, and with this warm weather recently, they have started growing well- so well in fact that they are twining themselves together. According to the label that came with the mini pea plants, they are self supporting if planted in a block together.
This certainly seems to be their habit from observation, but they are also pulling each other over, so we decided to put in pea sticks, which are tall twigs, to allow the peas to climb- they should reach 50cm in height when fully grown.

We were going to go to a local hedgerow and see what we could scavenge, but remembered that the hedge at the edge of the green, which was cut in such a way that the stems were bent over in an interwoven style, by being  partially cut through, and this allows side shoots to form and grow upwards.
Normally these shoots are trimmed back by the local authority to maintain a neat height, but not been done yet, so these became the source of our pea twigs.

Now we have a little forest of twigs sticking up from the raised bed, looking like they are ready to repel any invader. Hopefully the peas will begin to climb these instead of each other.

Whilst walking to the hedge, we had to stop and pick up more walnuts. The last few weeks or so has seen many of the walnuts falling off the trees (four of them) at different stages. Each tree has a different walnut size or shape. Currently we are finding mostly large walnuts, but another tree is dropping very small smooth shelled nuts, and another has medium sized nuts with an orangy tint to the shell.

We collect them  to use for cooking - to make cakes to raise money for the local church, but we especially collect them to prevent the squirrels burying them in our lawn and flower beds. We have had a squirrel invasion twice in our roof before now- but I have worked on plugging the gaps over the years to stop them getting in- seems to have worked in the last few years. They hang around our area precisely because of the plentiful supply of food.

The squirrels have poor memories, so often don't dig the buried walnuts up- some are found by rooks and crows, but many start to sprout and grow and if they get a toe-hold, can be very difficult to dig up as they throw out a long tap root which makes pulling them or digging them up a chore.

Rosie had a pleasant surprise this morning on her walk- a cat ran across her path, that always get her excited, followed closely by a monkjac deer- not sure if the two were connected, or just both spooked by an approaching dog. Luckily she was on her lead, as she pulled me along in an attempt to get to one or both. The deer must have jumped the gate to the cemetery as it was long gone, and the cat did what cats do and disappeared.

Also in the garden today, was covering the potato plants with fleece in an attempt to stop them getting frosted- they were supposed to grow and be ready for Christmas harvesting, but the warmer weather has made them grow rapidly and despite constant earthing up, the growth has exceeded the capacity to protect them with soil anymore.

And to round it out daffodil bulbs have gone in to the front garden beds ready to give a show of colour next year.

Apprentice piece and garden update

Having been very busy over the last two years before retirement the mosaic hobby I started took second or even third place to other tasks, especially last year when the house extension was built.

Last week attended the first of a one morning a week mosaic/craft course lasting 6/7 weeks (depending on the speed of the person in producing the finished articles)

Last week involved cutting up shapes from a clay sheet to be used in a future project, and making a small mosaic piece. The subject was compulsory, it had to be a heart on a wall tile base.

We all had different skills and knowledge, so some completed the preliminary design and some, like me, had to finish off at home.
The picture below shows the mosaic at the point of taking it home.

A week later allowing for an interruption to re-roof the lean to shed at the rear of the garage due to UV induced plastic fatigue, you can see the finished article.

I could tell I was a bit short on practice as I had difficulty cutting tiles in to even squares to fill in the background area.

This week it was glazing the pieces of bisque fired clay so that they could be fired again to produce a transparent glaze seal so the pieces could be used later.
Also a chance to use marble tiles al la roman mosaics using the reverse method, tiles are laid face down and using a frame to act as a mould, concrete is poured over the back of the tiles so that when released and turned over, the image can be seen.

Also a quick and cheerful small reverse mosaic using colourful small glass tiles and clear silicon adhesive to be stuck on to a glass pane, again when turned over the final image is revealed.

We have moved forward on planting up the raised beds.
The potatoes planted for a hopeful Christmas crop have shoots just peeping above the soil level. once grown a bit and before any frost, they will be earthed up progressivly so they occupy a bed of their own. We found at the local nursery, overwintering peas- initially it looked like a dozen or so, but once tipped out of the plastic tray they turned out to be nearer three dozen little pea plants. These have gone in staggard rows about six inches apart and are sharing with the rhubard plants.

Meanwhile the slugs or snails managed to eat all but a few brassica plants, so new ones were acquired and are firmly under a mesh covered cloche with slug pellets around them ( no birds or other animals should be able to get to them as the ends of the cloches are firmly sealed and the mesh pegged down.)
They are sharing the bed with the leeks and chives.

This leaves one last bed that will have dwarf french beans and also broad beans sown from seed to overwinter for next years crop - the planting is imminent..

"Slogin"

On our recent caravan holiday break we came across a really bounteous discovery of a blackthorn tree, absolutely loaded with sloe berries- more than we have ever seen in one place.

In a lane only used by golfers and caravan owners there were blackberries and sloe berries , the former were eaten with local cooking apples and the latter picked to turn in to sloe gin (or "slogin" as it is known in our household.) or maybe sloe vodka.
I fancy also fermenting some of the sloes as I understand that also makes a grand drink when mixed with higher strength alcohol.

The picking of sloes, which would normally take me some time to do locally to my own house, took mere minutes in this case. I only had to brave a guard of stinging nettles and avoid being tangled in bindweed as well, and I had probably a kilo of berries.

As I finished picking I thanked the tree for its bounty and left plenty for other pickers, feathered, furred or not, to enjoy.

Back home now, so Plan A) sloe gin is about to commence, Plan B) the fermenting of some sloes will follow, and if enough sloes are left, Plan C) sloe vodka!

This break was near the sea and Rosie's first experience of the seaside.

On her lead she was a bit wary of the water lapping at her feet, but once we were on a permitted dog beach and let her off, she charged in and attacked the sea at high speed, before running out and bounding round to go back and bite it again.

She liked running after stones thrown for her, but did not like the sand in her mouth and kept dipping her head in to rock pools to rinse it out!

As Rosie is a Springer Spaniel and Staffordshire cross, she can accelerate rapidly and dash off at high speed, so we made sure she was in a safe area, free from other dogs and people,  so that she could run freely and not interfere with others.

Back at home, we carried on planting up the raised beds, the green manure that was dug in, has completely disappeared in to the soil apart from a few harder mustard stalks, so it was easy to work with.
Two rhubarb crowns went in, one a rescued crown from a nearly dead plant- this is the granddaughter of one we bought and grew about 25 years ago, and has been moved from Buckinghamshire to Perth and Kinross and now to here- it was down to a spindly root, the rest had rotted away due to competition from shrubs and weeds.

 It was a prolific plant in the past with giant sticks of sweet and tender "fruit" but the original name has long been forgotten by us, we also bought a new plant just in case the rescued one did not survive, luckily both are OK so we have two varieties to choose from next season.

Also planted are some potatoes hopefully to be eaten at Christmas- they will need some TLC as it gets colder.

Some leaks and a divided clump of chives have gone in - unfortunately the brassica plants have succumbed to slugs/caterpillars when we were away, so we will have to obtain some more plants and make sure they are better protected in future.

I am determined to sow some autumn hardy vegetables, so will be doing that very soon- I think carrots can be successfully grown and their are others that grow quickly as well- so here's hoping!