WHAT WAS GOOD ABOUT GARDENING IN 2013?

WE HAD A GOOD YEAR, DIDN'T WE?

Now at the tail end of the year, when it is dark and wet and cold, it is nice to look back at photos of your garden.

Pleasant to do because some of the best parts I photographed, and they are good to remind yourself, ready for next year.  I will put a few of these photos on this blog.

Frogspawn, arrived late

Marsh marigolds in my pond

Lovely bees on the cornflowers on my plot

Hope the cornflowers come back next year

Potatoes did very well this year

Symptom of the dreaded brown rot on apple tree

Self sown poppies by the pond

Cucumber plants in the greenhouse

My friendly neighbour on the next plot

The squash plant

Lily, so beautiful

Two more friends on the allotment

The hemerocalis bought at Walmer Castle

Big, juicy and delicious

Pelargoniums I admired at Walmer Castle

The veronica plant hates hot dry summers, I don't

Chilies in the greenhouse, good crop

Nicotiana bought at a plant fair, still flowering in November

Nice to come home to, front garden

Virginia creeper, also self-sown (from next door)

Now its winter I must read this

Delightful stone sculpture at Wisley RHS garden

Also at Wisley Autumn Show, these cheerful local brewers

TULIPS

Late autumn is of course the time to plant tulip bulbs, and I have just bought the very last lot, half price at the Garden Centre.  These are 6 Queen of Night and 6 Ballerina, plus 20 dwarf assorted colours, unnamed varieties.  Got to get out there tomorrow and plant them, in a place where I do not remember seeing tulips last year (not an easy task).  I hope the pesky squirrels leave them alone.

FIRST FROST

The frosts have started and I just went into the greenhouse and covered the scented pelargoniums in their big pots (too big to come into the house) with a bit of horticultural fleece I collected from the allotment rubbish heap.  Hope the little darlings make it through, as most of the cuttings I took from them do not seem to have taken.  It costs quite a bit to buy new pelargoniums for the next year.

ALLOTMENT - MORE PROBLEMS!

Yesterday as it was not raining or blowing, I dug up yet more clumps of grass on my allotment.  All the grass seeds blow over from the next plot, which is not cultivated.  Then by the spring, these grass clumps are huge, with mega root systems.  I have learned this by bitter experience!

An ongoing problem, too, apart from all the other problems over on the allotment, is a very large walnut tree on another uncultivated plot.  It is self-sown, not very old but already spreading its branches across over my raspberry patch. It has walnuts every year, and every year the squirrels get every single nut.

I asked if it was going to be felled, and a member of our committee replied that it probably has a 'Tree Preservation Order' on it, thus preventing its removal.  Quite mad!  It means that nobody will take this plot and cultivate it, as the tree takes all the nourishment from the soil.

BRASSICAS AND PIGEONS

My brassicas are now cover up with an assortment of nets, bits of old plastic fencing, chicken wire and yet more nets, weighted down with old bricks -  all to keep off the pigeons.  It is so impenetrable that I have given up trying to get into it and pick a few brussel sprouts.  Will make a supreme effort if there are still sprouts left, to get some for Christmas lunch, yum!

MAY NOT BE MUCH MORE NEWS ABOUT GARDENS IN DECEMBER BUT KEEP WATCHING THIS SPACE - YOU NEVER KNOW

DO YOU HATE SQUIRRELS IN THE GARDEN?

SQUIRRELS ARE A PEST IN THE LONDON SUBURBS

Elegant protection against squirrels, the predators

 FLOWER BULBS, PARTICULARLY CROCUSES IN POTS

I have to protect them from the pesky squirrels, of which we seem to have several dozen frisking about the fences and trees.  I have put daffs and tulips, plus a few crocus and some little blue iris, in pots and have made them really decorative with these mesh things, from old appliances, which I found on the dump where I have my allotment.  Pretty ?

Little bulbs need protection from squirrels

Even so, I found one pot, where there was a couple of crocus bulbs left from last spring, had a large hole dug in it and the bulb eaten, drat!  I had to put yet more protection over it.

SQUIRRELS ATTEMPT TO  INVADE HOUSE

Damage done by squirrel getting into loft

You can understand why I don't like squirrels, apart from them eating the bulbs.  They tried and nearly succeeded in getting into our loft a few years ago, and did a great deal of damage gnawing the soffit boards etc round the roof.  It cost us a fortune to get it all repaired.

POND PROBLEMS

I wrote earlier in the year about the mega large waterlily.  The blossoms were lovely, but the waterlily had to be moved on.  I left the pot with the plant growing in it  for somebody else to use in their pond.  Maybe this is called 'pond-cycling'?

Alas, the waterlily got too big and had to go

There was a very big accumulation of leaves from the waterlily plant, which I had acquired from the allotment dump a couple of years ago. I had to brace myself and sink my arms into the pond to grab hold of the plant and heave it out.  Then I had to do the same with some very huge water plants that were also doing a take-over bid.  This is the result, not a pretty sight.  But maybe next year will be better (I always say that).

Pond minus plants and waterlily

CHILLIES

The chillies did very well, probably because it was a warm summer with lots of sunshine.  I planted the seeds in February, in my heated propagator in the house.

Beautiful chillies from February seed sowing

MICHAELMAS DAISIES

These were so nice to come home to, after our autumn holiday.  They brightened up the front garden and flowered for a week or two.  Now they have all gone to seed, and are not very pretty.

Dwarf michaelmas daisies, called Bermuda, I think

 

Wonder if I should cut the seed heads off to prevent unwanted plants?  Previous years I got lots of unwanted, self-sown michaelmas daisies of the huge type, those ones with very pale mauve flowers.  So I was stern with myself and yanked them all out earlier in the year.  It is satisfying to do this, because they pull up really easily.  Here is a photo of the garden in early October with the dwarf michaelmas daisies, but now its much less pretty!

Nice to look at, in the middle of dreary November