As we drew the curtains this morning and heard the rain bounce on the flat roof of our kitchen extension we knew that it was 'the other northern day'. The best kind of northern day is bright and breezy with the sun shining through clouds, or even, unusually, when there are no clouds at all, but an unbroken expanse of blue sky.
However, I must not grumble, because mixed weather patterns give us the best possible conditions for runner beans.
We grew these beans for some years on our allotment in the south and during really dry periods they suffered. My husband, along with many others, would pour cans and cans of water over them, from the top down, while the water tanks on our allotment emptied and the tiny water snails, larvae and other insect life sunk to their sludgy bottoms.
Now that up here rain falls from the sky on a regular basis we need not go down the hill and up again to secure our harvest, we merely step outside the back door and in these damp conditions patrol the back lawn for snails of the land variety and cast them into the park.
Our beans grow and swell, putting on a spectacular display of orange flowers, and our ever diligent bumble bees continue their pollinating task.
Wednesday 26 July 2017
Friday 7 July 2017
Uprooted
We have been exchanging plants with my family again. Yesterday we took over four hollyhocks grown from seed and took home two holly bushes to fill a gap in our back hedge. It set me thinking about the occasions we have planted and uprooted since we have been living here.
We arrived in late autumn 2014. This was a good season to make alterations (unlike July) as the garden was dormant. To my recollection we (i.e. my husband) removed a small ornamental tree, a rose bush and two forsythia bushes along the side of the wall which is now the home to our raised beds and kitchen garden patch. We put in strawberries, new raspberry canes and three blackcurrants. There was also a good deal of ivy growing over an old shed which we took out. We bought a new one at a discount (ex-display) and celebrated my husband's birthday with a scented jasmine to fill a gap in the bottom trellis.
On the opposite side of the garden my husband recently uprooted a camellia which had some form of black blight and put in three clumps of penstemons and some homegrown sunflowers. I also planted out some of our home grown Sweet Williams.
My latest acquisition was also free and I hope it survives. Growing in the gutter next to the electricity substation was an Evening Primrose. These easily escape into the wild, and seed in cracks and other unpromising places. (My husband has warned me that it could do so again). The weather was cloudy and it had been raining so I just tugged it up on the way home from shopping. This was not as impulsive as it sounds as I had been looking at this plant for over a year. The main tap root broke off but a smaller root came up almost entire. My husband planted it for me in a shady place at the back where we deposit dubious plants (such as our second blueberry bush which has not thrived). I keep watering it. So far it is still flowering, and although it wilts a little on hot days it seems to be fine.
As I draw this post to a close I am struck by the largest item on the 'uprooted' list, so obvious that I almost missed it. Our neighbour cut down a Leyland Cypress which once formed part of his back hedge but had grown into a tree. This left a stump of great girth, hidden by our privet bush which has grown markedly better since. The whole of our garden, crops and ornamentals, benefits from the light that has come in.
We arrived in late autumn 2014. This was a good season to make alterations (unlike July) as the garden was dormant. To my recollection we (i.e. my husband) removed a small ornamental tree, a rose bush and two forsythia bushes along the side of the wall which is now the home to our raised beds and kitchen garden patch. We put in strawberries, new raspberry canes and three blackcurrants. There was also a good deal of ivy growing over an old shed which we took out. We bought a new one at a discount (ex-display) and celebrated my husband's birthday with a scented jasmine to fill a gap in the bottom trellis.
On the opposite side of the garden my husband recently uprooted a camellia which had some form of black blight and put in three clumps of penstemons and some homegrown sunflowers. I also planted out some of our home grown Sweet Williams.
My latest acquisition was also free and I hope it survives. Growing in the gutter next to the electricity substation was an Evening Primrose. These easily escape into the wild, and seed in cracks and other unpromising places. (My husband has warned me that it could do so again). The weather was cloudy and it had been raining so I just tugged it up on the way home from shopping. This was not as impulsive as it sounds as I had been looking at this plant for over a year. The main tap root broke off but a smaller root came up almost entire. My husband planted it for me in a shady place at the back where we deposit dubious plants (such as our second blueberry bush which has not thrived). I keep watering it. So far it is still flowering, and although it wilts a little on hot days it seems to be fine.
As I draw this post to a close I am struck by the largest item on the 'uprooted' list, so obvious that I almost missed it. Our neighbour cut down a Leyland Cypress which once formed part of his back hedge but had grown into a tree. This left a stump of great girth, hidden by our privet bush which has grown markedly better since. The whole of our garden, crops and ornamentals, benefits from the light that has come in.
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