Froggarts Cottage Garden

Spring has sprung...

2012-02-23T13:28:00.000Z

or is it teasing again?

It's a lovely day - warm, sunny with a gentle breeze. Crocusses are blooming and the snowdrops are even more glorious.

I heard the cry of buzzards and looked up and saw two of these beautiful birds sailing effortlessly across the sky. Frogs have woken up and are crooning in the pond (well they are croaking what sounds like a gentle love song!).

And I've just seen the first bumblebee of the year!

Winter reading

2012-02-20T16:26:00.002Z

Winter is a good time to plan for the coming year and get some new ideas. Time to read some of the books I've been given for Christmas or bought and have stayed on the shelf. In general I'm not a fan of the gardening "experts" in newspapers and TV. They make it seem such hard work. But it's good to do a bit of learning from people who've done it before. I've really enjoyed reading On the Plot with Dirty Nails by Joe Hashman

This little book from Joe Hashman is a gem. It's a diary of bits and pieces of gardening information, tips, observations, and recipes week by week during the year. Interestingly Joe Hashman starts his year in February, perhaps because January doesn't really do very much. It's even too cold to weed and tidy and even February he does a lot of "tidying". It's a good book to dip into and wonder if I should be digging the bed yet or what seeds to sow. Not a book to read from start to finish in one go.

Rockery Heathers

2012-02-11T13:26:00.000Z

We escaped the snow that was threatened this week. We just got a sprinkling on Thursday night, but it has been very cold - minus 5-ish overnight. Today the sun is shining and the sky is blue.

Bright purple heather flowering in February despite the frost

One of the cheerful spots in the garden is our rockery which has a number of purple, pink and reddish heathers. I was advised to trim them over after they have flowered, but I tried it on one and it took 2 years to regain the level of flowers I had when I just neglected it. Maybe I did it at the wrong time but in future I'll leave them alone and just prune from the base to keep them in trim.

I took these photos of the rockery and heather a last week before the snow.

View of our rockery in February 2012

Snow

2012-02-05T23:42:00.003Z

Heavy snow last night - about 6 inches - but a beautiful sunny day and the snow has melted quite a lot. Not much to do in the garden but tidy up. I was emptying old pots into the compost heap and a robin flew from the laurel bushes and briefly perched on my hat!
It's very cold tonight but jut a tad above freezing.

Am I a galanthophile?

2012-02-03T13:46:00.000Z

We have snowdrops everywhere. Patches in the borders are mostly single and fairly tall and coming into bloom. We have swathes of snowdrops planted in the lawn (term used rather loosely for our grassy bits between the beds & borders) which are doubles and much shorter. They are still mostly in bud and they make finding a safe path to walk on the grass somewhat difficult to avoid treading on their heads.

In a couple of weeks they will be in full bloom and gorgeous like this photo taken in February 2008:

Snowdrops are fascinating and very beautiful. The BBC website has an article about snowdrops and snowdrop fanciers apparently called "galanthophiles" www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16789834

There are over 2000 varieties. I know ours are quite different and obviously increase by seeding (that's because we can't cut the lawn until after the daffodils have finished flowering) so maybe we have some new varieties if they cross-pollonate.

Arctic Cold

2012-02-02T10:34:00.000Z

It's very cold with clear blue sky and plenty of sunshine. The fountain and the pond are iced over and the frost is not melting in the shade during the day. Little specs of snow are falling.
The bulbs - daffodils, hyacinths, bluebells - are still pushing up but with no sign of flowers. However, the snowdrops are doing fine and the helibores are blossoming. I'm glad I dug up some snowdrops and put in a pot for Mum to enjoy (she can't get out in the garden now).

Birdwatch Results

2012-01-30T12:36:00.001Z

Photo by Nigel Blake
(from the RSPB website)

It was a rather disappointing hour on Sunday morning 9.50 - 10.50. The weather was grey, frosty, slightly misty and windless and I think our usual birds were huddled away trying to keep warm.

The results during the hour were:

Dunnock           2
Great Tit           2
Blackird            2    (a pair)
Woodpigeon     1    (There's usually about 8 sitting in the walnut trees. I think they may have been on the sprouts which I can't see from the kitchen window!)
Robin                2
Blue Tit             2
Magpie              1
Carrion Crow    1

No woodpecker, chaffinches, collared doves or long-tailed tits which we usually expect. Just after the hour a flock of about 8 noisy Jackdaws descended. The numbers are a count of how many birds are seen at the same time.

Lettuce seedlings

2012-01-29T10:51:00.000Z

Tray of lettuce seeds planted two weeks ago and placed in the boiler room (it has a window) have sprouted. These are Tom Thumb - small round lettuces which we'll grow on in the conservatory and then plant out.

Birdwatch

2012-01-27T13:34:00.000Z

The RSPB are holding their annual Big Garden Bird Watch this weekend. All you need to do is spend an hour on Saturday or Sunday looking in your garden and recording what birds you see and send your results in on-line. More here:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

I'll have a go - although it's sometimes frustrating when regular visiting birds don't turn up to be counted during your hour! I'll report here on Sunday evening what we see this year.

First snowdrops

2012-01-21T16:45:00.001Z

After the cold snap last week it's much milder and Spring is now continuing apace. Thr rhubarb is looking a bit chirper and snowdrops are starting to flower.

Snowdrops

Hedgehogs

2012-01-20T13:15:00.004Z

We've seen no hedghogs here since 2007. One of those we rescued from a post-hole. The little chap had fallen in and couldn't get out. More recently, the only hedghogs I've seen locally have been squashed on the road - and those have not been so many. Froggarts Cottage is surrounded by a field used to graze cattle with old hedges all around - ideal habitat for hedgehogs one would think. A friend gave us a "Hog House" for Christmas a few years ago which we put by the hedge and covered with leaves but it's not been used.

A Prickly Affair by Hugh Warwick

This is a fascinating little book from a dedicated hedgehog researcher A Prickly Affair by Hugh Warwick Really interesting. Apparently one of the main predators of hedgehogs is badgers. There's certainly badgers around here, there are sets along the hedges a couple of fields and a main road away but I've never seen any in the adjacent fields.

A piece on BBC News interested me both from the hedgehog and the environment change point of view.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16597723

"Hedgehog numbers fell in the last 50 years, largely due to land use change. From an estimated 30 million in the 1950s, the UK population shrank to about 1.5 million in 1995, and has almost certainly fallen further since then."

The climate thing is interesting. Last year was definitely drier and warmer than previous years despite the very cold spell at the start of the year. Each of the 5 years we've been at Froggarts Cottage have been quite different weather-wise so it's difficult to spot a trend. For a couple of years we logged when we planted vegtables and when and how much we harvested. I think we should be a bit more diligent and note when fruit blossom opens and fruit sets and so on. Otherwise we're relying on our imperfect memories.

There's a link on the BBC story above to a site http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk where people can log sightings such as "first snowdrop", "first elder flowers".

Fox and Frost

2012-01-17T10:35:00.001Z

Last night the security light came on and I looked out the back window. A very fine-looking fox was boldly staring back at me. A beautiful, well-fed creature. He trotted round the bird-table and picked at some bits then looked back at us and trotted off through the hole in the hedge into to the field. I usually put out any kitchen scraps for the birds and any interested wildlife. There's never anything left in the morning so I hope that even though I don't get to see them very often that some animals, birds, slugs whatever are getting an extra boost. I'm really concerned about lack of hedgehogs. I've not seen one here for 4 years.

It's been very cold for the last 5 days. The nights have been minus 6 degrees C and although the days are sunny the frost has only melted where the sun has been shining for a couple of hours. We are on a south-west slope which means we don't get sun-up until quite late and the sun dips behind the trees quite early on.
The rhubarb - which I covered with fleece at the beginning of the cold spell - has suffered. I'm sure it will recover as soon as it turns warmer, promised for Wednesday / Thursday.

More worryingly the camellias are frozen solid. Last year's minus 20 temperatures killed off one and took out all the buds on the remaining 3. They are supposed to cope with a certain amount of frost. A neighbour's tree has flowers already.

Rhubarb & sprouts

2012-01-06T13:23:00.001Z

This morning was lovely and sunny with no wind. After the last few days of near-gales it was lovely to be able to go up the garden and see what's going on. It was still very cold with the grass crunchy with frost and leaves edged with white.

The bulbs are starting to come up big-time and the lilacs and magnolia stellata have healthy-looking buds. Rhubarb is about 8 ins high. I may cover this tonight to protect from any heavier frost. They are from Siberia so are fairly robust and can stand a little cold. Maybe some rhubarb fool next weekend! I don't force rhubarb. I don't really see the point. It comes up beautifully pink and usually we are picking some by early February. We have 8 plants, 5 of an early variety and 3 ones that come up later on.

I picked some brussels sprouts. They are Bedford type which mature later. We had enough small ones for Christmas dinner but we're looking forward to more and bigger ones in the next few weeks. They do seem to be getting shorter! It looks like pigeons are sitting on them and pecking the tops. Our local wood pigeons are like small turkeys so the poor plants are bending under their weight.

This afternoon the clouds are rolling in again and more winds are forecast for tonight.

Warm New Year

2012-01-04T11:41:00.000Z

A New Year and a whole new weather pattern to come to terms with! Every year we've been at Froggarts we've had different weather. Last January was sooo cold. This year, despite the strong wind over the last couple of days, it's relatively balmy. The helibores are already in flower. Blackbirds are singing and a great tit has started building a nest in the boxes under the summer house roof.

Dying conifers?

2011-12-17T17:23:00.000Z

We have an ornamental hedge with an arch made from conifers - not actually leylandii but similar. Last year one side started going brown We thought it might be because of the very dry conditions. But even with the wet autumn the brown patches have now extended to the other side. A single conifer bush also went brown and died two years ago and I noticed one or two other conifers in local gardens appear to have a similar problem.

Maybe related - but probably not since they are a different species: in the spring of 2010 our prized Dawn Redwood failed to flourish. It's deciduous and it just produced a few stubby little leaves in the spring instead of the usual lush green needles then it died completely. I know the redwood needs lots of water so could be the result of drought. It is apparently not susceptible to diseases of conifers (which it resembles but isn't the same species).

Spots of colour in the grey

2011-12-06T23:26:00.001Z

It's been a mixture of bright sunny frosty mornings and grey damp afternoons. A few snowdrops are poking up under the lilac tree and in the lawn - a bit optimistic since they are forecasting snow. In February and March the lawn will be a carpet of white. There are a few bright spots in the garden: yellow winter jasmine, half a dozen pink roses over the arch, a few geraniums (which I'll bring into the conservatory at the weekend) and some yellow daisy-like flowers. I don't know the proper name for these flowers which are self-sown.

Know your onions (and their predators!)

2011-12-05T16:32:00.001Z

This is a photo of a fine specimen we grew in 2009. Last year we had no onions at all. All the onions (Ailsa Craig) and shallots (saved successfully for many years) went rotten and soggy. We put it down to the very cold and wet summer. We had plenty of leeks though. In previous years we'd had a really good harvest which kept us in onions all year. They kept really well hanging on strings in the (unheated) conservatory.

Undaunted, this year we sowed more Ailsa Craigs and leeks (Musselburgh) and planted them all out lovingly. We bought more shallots (Longor). The shallots were good - we lifted them in August and we got some onions, but about half were showing signs of rot again. But the real horror came when we checked the leeks. They hadn't really been growing well. We thought this was due to the drought earlier in the year. But when I pulled up a few of the biggest ones, with a view to Cock-a-leekie soup, I found they were infested with little white grubs. Research on Google quickly came up with "allium leaf miner" which is apparently a fly which lays eggs a couple of times a year in onions, shallots and leeks (all alliums). The RHS has a good description here http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=643

This nasty beastie seems to be a new migrant to our shores and we in the East Midlands are particularly suffering. The rotten onions last year were probably a result of infection following the damage by the flies.

So all the leeks got burnt. We've made the decision not to grow leeks next year, but we'll try growing onions in a different spot and under cover when we first plant them out in May. With a bit of luck we'll harvest early before the second egg-laying season.

Even colder....

2011-12-01T18:01:00.001Z

Definitely getting colder - but no frost I think tonight. However, I've collected some potted geraniums and put them inside the conservatory. They're fairly hardy with a slight frost but don't want to risk losing them. We bought 100 "plug plants" this spring and they've mostly grown up into nice plants and are still flowering to give some autumn colour in the garden.

I pulled the fleece over the late-sown lettuces which have only just got into their stride and are doing well in the kitchen garden. I picked 3 and put them in the fridge just in case!

Cold sunny day

2011-11-30T17:12:00.001Z

A beautiful autumn day - sunny but cold. There aren't many leaves left on the trees now. We cleared a lot of leaves at the weekend, especially the heavy leaves from the magnolia which tend to just lie on the lawn and kill the grass.

There are a few snowdrops beginning to push up under the trees and in the lawn. maybe Spring isn't so far away. But I'm reminded that this time last year we had inches of snow that didn't clear till after Christmas.
Every year we've been here has had a different pattern of weather. This year was very, very dry and with this following last winter's minus 20degrees spell we lost quite a lot of plants. Unlike most of the country we had a very bad fruit harvest this year. Only 1 of 6 apple trees produced any, even the reliable crab apple failed to produce, and we had no plums and no pears. There was plenty of blossom so maybe it was the cold wind or the lack of rain or lack of bees. Lets hope next year is better.

This is our 6th autumn at Froggarts Cottage

2011-11-29T12:47:00.000Z

Every year has been different. Last year was deep in snow and very cold. This year is relatively mild, wet and windy. The soil is wet for the first time all year. Living in the East Midlands we are still practically in a drought.