I am not short, but I am busy. The deputy gardener spent some time at the plot on the weekend:
- Planting raspberry canes (Autumn Bliss and Glen Moy)
- Covering the dug beds with cardboard boxes, weighed down with bricks.
Meanwhile, I tried to find the camera-PC lead. No luck.
In the garden, the dahlias are very sad and brown (and waiting to be cut and covered), although one sweetpea is still struggling to bloom, and the rudbeckias show no signs of wilting. yet. But winter is mere days away…
We planted some rhubarb crowns last Saturday, in a new bed. Dug it over (him) and weeded (me), then fed in lots of manure and plunged the soggy-looking crowns into the ground. I couldn’t quite work out which end was up, so I am hoping they will do the thinking for me. I am very much looking forward to oodles of rhubarb, although we are not supposed to pick it during the first year. (I bet we do. Just to taste.) It was Timperley Early and it came from Marshalls.
The broad beans have appeared and are unfolding – it always amazes me how much can burst out of a teeny little bean! There is plenty to come, you can tell. And apart from that, I’m afraid there isn’t much action down on the plot. We are expecting fruit bushes and trees any day now, so they’ll go in soon. And the next big job is covering as much as we can with cardboard, having decided that weeding every week in the cold isn’t much fun. And not very rewarding either when the soil is empty.
In the garden, I am trialling some lettuce – Arctic King. I planted this two weeks ago and it is growing v-e-r-y slowly. They’re growing in a big trough which is nestled in to the back of the house, and I covered the surface of the soil with ground coffee, which is working so far against you-know-whos.
I did take some pictures, but I have lost the camera lead. The garden is still looking very beautiful – the dahlias only finished this week, and the rudbeckias are blooming cheerily. My last sweetpea didn’t even finish until last weekend, which I was pleased about – I will be sowing some late next spring for an extended season.
And… well that’s about it for now. Autumn is growing tired, the golden leaves have turned to dusty brown, and the chestnuts are shrivelled inside their once-glossy little shells. It will soon be dropping its head for winter’s watch, I think. For holly and mistletoe and frost sweeping over the hills! Hurray for the seasons. Whichever one we’re in is usually my favourite – apart from a rainy winter day, which is nobody’s favourite.
I have words to write and chestnuts to peel… so I’m taking leave now!
