A really mild month again, lots of wind but otherwise things are still growing well. Fruit trees all up dated on the website and the calendar is done for 2015. We have been confirmed at all the major shows again and just planning the displays. Chelsea has been done, Hampton Court well under way. Hardly seems a few weeks since we were building this years.
In the garden the Yacon is flowering (waiting for a frost to harvest this and the Oca), if top growth is anything to go by should be a bumper crop
A long time coming……
Oh dear, I see I last wrote on this blog in December 2013, all the resolutions about a regular article seem to have gone out of the window. Time, where does it go, here we are in June, England nearly out of the World Cup!, Hampton Court Palace Flower Show looming, halfway through the year already!!
At last the weather is warm, talk of water restrictions in some areas (after all that flooding!) plants are growing strongly, even the agapanthus are flowering which will be a first for the last couple of years when we have really struggled to make it through the displays at Hampton and Tatton due to late flowering.
We have a new show coming up too, the replacement for Cottesbrooke, this one at the well known Borde Hill Gardens in West Sussex, near to Haywards Heath. On June 27th, 28th and 29th. We shall be there with our incredible Edible plants and a few surprises including some Agapanthus. Do come along and see us at a part of the country we don’t often visit.
A few reminders about sowing and planting. Keep sowing beetroot, carrots, radishes and salad crops to maintain a supply into the autumn of fresh, young vegetables. As you harvest other crops such as potatoes, plant out the winter crops, leeks, brussels, cabbages and others. Keep courgettes picked (we don’t like marrows), and start to feed the tomatoes
New Year
Its November since I added to this blog – sorry. Here we are, Christmas has already been and gone, its Boxing Day, the sun is shining but don’t be fooled more rough weather is forecast for tonight.
For the first time in 12 years we had quite a lot of damage at the nursery, apart from trees blown over on the beds we actually had some trees snapped off and the covers removed from the shade tunnels by the severe south-westerly winds which lashed the nursery.
We will start repairs next week but that will take time so hoping that the forecast gales tonight wont materialise or at least be less severe than previous.
On a positive note the crop of Oca, just harvested, is excellent and we can now offer that on the website. The potatoes are now listed and available to order, despatch mid Jan onwards and the scary thought is that Potato Days start in just three weeks.
Clearing up the veg patch
Nice weather has encouraged us to clean up the vegetable plot ready for planting some early crops. This has meant digging the last of the potatoes, some excellent Romano, last of the Charlotte and some huge potatoes of unknown type because the chickens have dug out the label and it has disappeared. They make great roasties and jackets so will have to identify them somehow.
Still waiting to harvest the Oca however, the lack of frosts has meant they are still in full growth and the longer we can leave them the larger the tubers will be.
The mild weather not only here but on the continent has delayed lifting of trees and bare root shrubs and fruit so despatch of these will have to be delayed until after Christmas in many cases.