New dawn for my New Dawn

Weather: Mild and cloudy - no frost last night


After a long absence from the blogosphere I have a lot to catch up on! I have been busy at work and gardening conditions weren't perfect in early February. See photo! In fact it has been the hardest winter since 1996.

We had snow more than six inches deep in the first week of the month and it hung around for nearly a fortnight. I am hoping it will have put paid to some of the pests that have managed to overwinter in the last few years but my main regret is that I lost several frogs in our tiny pond which I couldn't prevent from freezing solid. I am too ashamed of myself for allowing this to happen - although I'm not sure I could have prevented it - to say how many we lost....

On a happier note I hope the rose sawfly that has plagued my old 'New Dawn' rose - that featured this time last year in my blog - has been knocked back. I also made a new year resolution to risk giving it a very severe pruning this year and take out all the old wood. It is after all nearly 50 years old!


So here is the 'before' photo - although by the time I remembered to get the camera I had already taken off a couple of lower branches under the window.


I find with pruning that I start off gingerly and then it takes hold of me. Just in case I go too far and the old thing dies of shock I took some insurance out at the end of the summer - not of a monetary nature, but soft wood cuttings - and put them in a trench in the vegetable plot. I am delighted to see that one looks as if it has taken. My mother tells me that I shouldn't be tempted to uproot it yet but leave it until next spring before attempting to move it!

So how did the New Dawn prune go?


Well - better than expected. There was more new green wood than I had realised - enough to train up over the door. Time to give it a dressing of bonemeal and some compost and I will keep my eyes peeled for the dreaded rose sawfly that despite my efforts with the Derris last year still took a considerable hold.


I've just reviewed my blog posts from last February - and see I'm a little behind in the vegetable garden when it comes to sowing etc. We are creating raised beds this year and Bill has taken down a huge 'Russian Vine' which will allow much more light in so I have high hopes for it....I'd better stop typing and get out there with a spade and a rake because if the spring weather continues in this vein the soil will soon be good enough to get seeds in!

A Hellebore of a Christmas rose!

Weather: Mild and bright with a threat of a cold snap to come in the next few days.

Harvest since last post: (a month!) The vegetable garden is slowing down - we had the last pound of beans three weeks ago, 1lb 8oz parsnips (beautifully tender and sweet) 8 oz Salsify (fiddly but lovely flavour roasted), regular snippings of salad crops from greenhouse (Corn Salad, Landcress and mixed spicy japanese leaves) basil and chilis from this summer's plants now brought into the house and cropping OK on the windowsill. 1lb Leeks.



The Hellebores in the photo are gorgeous and have been flowering since the beginning of the month. These are plants I grew from a free offer a couple of years back. They were tiny and they have bhad two previous homes and this is the first time they have flowered. They are quite lovely and earlier into flower than I had expected. I don't know the variety and hope they continue to flower throughout the winter. If you've been following the blog you might recognise their position. They are in the shady area I cleared at the beginning of the year. The variegated shrub next to it is a Symphocarpus (snow berry - although this version has no berries). It is enjoying the mildish autumn we've had so far.



The other major job we are undertaking this year (we meaning that Bill is doing the hard work!) is further opening up the vegetable plot which is being shifted down the garden a bit as the huge Acer Crimson King at the bottom gets bigger and shades the space more and more.


I wasn't keen to add more paths - and thought the wide new path in front of the shed would take up far too much potential growing space but I have a feeling that the new raised beds in better light will really give us more viable growing area.


The 6ft by 4ft space beside the shed (where the green trug is) will be one of the shadiest spots and it is also particularly slug prone so I have decided that this is the spot for some 'edge of woodland' soft fruit. I know that red currants do fine in shade and I am going to try a black currant and some gooseberries in this spot. I dare the slugs to have a go at a gooseberry bush!

Taking Stock...

Weather: The tail end of an Indian summer - lots of sunny days. The forecast is stormy! Max 14C

Harvest since last post: (three weeks ago). The end of the summer veg. Spinach 14oz, Courgette (gold rush - all the green ones are long finished) 1lb 2oz Butternut Squash 2lb, Conference pears 10oz, Black Russian Tomatoes 5lb 8oz, Costuluto Fiorentino tomatoes 5lb 11 oz, Runner Beans 3lb 3oz, Chioggia Squash 25lb 10oz, Unripe tomatoes (mixed varieties) 12lb 8oz, Aubergine 2oz, Salsify (first pickings of the season) 8oz, Black Grapes 9 oz, French Beans 4oz. Plus some good pickings of parsley, thyme and bay leaves.

The leaves are turning as you can see from the photograph of the runner beans clambering in to the Crimson King Acer! The runner beans have had a bit of a late showing. They have been sparce until now with plenty appearing to have been fertilised but shrivelling and falling off rather than developing into edible beans. I know I wasn't the only grower to find this this year - although some people appear to have had brilliant crops. Why should this be?

I grew a traditional variety called Best of All - and the advice I had from several quarters was that it was probably lack of water or bad pollination. I did come across one other option on the various internet searches I did and that was that the nights may have been too warm for them. Although August was a horrible month with lots of rainfall and hardly any sunshine the average temperature wasn't particularly low - and that was down to warm nights. My walled garden is very sheltered and the day time warmth is stored in the stones creating a microclimate that must have kept the night time temperatures even higher than the local averages.

From mid September when the night time temperatures have dropped my beans have started cropping which to me points to that theory being my favourite!

I have spent this lovely early autumn weather battening down the hatches for winter and moving perennials in the flower garden. I also managed to empty one of my compost heaps so that I have space for the beans and other cuttings and clippings that are so plentiful at this time of year. The greenhouse has been cleared, as you can see, and the far end has been bubble wrapped to keep the heat in for my most tender plants.

And now is a good time to take stock of some of the successes and failures of the summer garden. The biggest failure were the Aubergines - I had six plants taking up two growbags and from them harvested barely one pound! With the grow bags at £5 each and taking into account tomato feed etc that brings them in at around £14 pounds a pound! Could it be that I ignored my In Tune with the Moon calendar at my peril here because I see from an earlier post that I didn't sow the seeds on an auspicious day for sowing fruit?

My chilis have been poor for a second year - two Prairie Fire plants have survived but I am only likely to get a dozen or so chilis and I used ten times that amount in a year. The seeds were from a two year old packet and they took little input in the way of special treatment so at least I didn't make a loss on these!

Top of my pops though this year has to be the Black Russian tomatoes. A huge crop - nearly 20lbs ripened and a further 4 lbs picked green but many will ripen. I had six plants in two grow bags so that adds up to £10 plus tomato feed etc say £15 maximum which brings them in at well under £1 a pound and they are the tastiest, juiciest tomatoes I have ever grown. They are fantastic to cook with and great in a salad - you can't ask more than that!

The Costuluto Fiorentino tomatoes had a similar if not slightly bigger crop but they were a bit dry and not nearly as tasty as the Black Russians. It may be that as an Italian variety they suffered from the lack of sun and would have had a better flavour it the growing conditions had been more favourable....on balance though I think I will try another variety as my 'red' tomato next season.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

So - what's the COSTuluto Fiorentino?

Weather: A short Indian Summer has now been followed by another dreary day but at least we've not had more than a smattering of showers. Max temperature today 16C

Harvest since last post(nearly three weeks - whoops!): Runner beans (at last a few) 2lb 7oz, French beans 1lb 5oz, Costuloto Fiorentino Tomatoes 7lb 6oz, Pears (Williams) 1lb 13oz, Black Russian Tomatoes 8lb 7oz, Spinach 1lb 6oz, Courgettes 3lbs, Butternut Squash 7lb 4oz.

It could be 'eating my words' time - or rather eating my tomatoes time. In an early season post on this blog I lamented the thought that my tomato crop was unlikely to save me any money - it would, I decided, probably be as cheap to buy my tomatoes in the shops.

Well - I have had a huge crop in the greenhouse. Nine plants in three growbags have so far (and there are quite a number still to come) yielded around 16kg. I've converted it to kg for ease of comparison with the sort of prices I'd have paid for these if I'd bought them 'ready grown'!....and I reckon that they would so far have cost me somewhere between £32 and £40 the wide range in the estimates take into acount the fact that it's difficult to find unusual varieties like these in the shops so I've not got an exact comparison. Mind you one of the reasons to grow my own veg is to grow things you can't find in the shops so I'm already a winner.

This means that with the growbags at £5.00 a bag plus seeds and tomato fertilizer I reckon I have spent out around £20.

If you take into account the electricity used to keep the seeds warm in the early part of the year that goes up a bit (a propagator shared by many of other veg seeds)....but knock off the food miles. I'm pretty happy.

And what about the taste?! The Costuluto Fiorentino have been disappointingly bland but they cook up well. The Black Russians are wonderful - every year I've grown them they've delivered. They are full of flavour and when you cook them they provide really juicy tomato sauce. I will grow them again next year as for the Costuluto Fiorentino's - I will probably sow the rest of the seed in the packet from this year and let's give them the benefit of the doubt, it may be that they needed more sun and warmth than we've had this year to develop their full potential but I will definitely be on the look out for another variety.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Pear Drops....

Weather: Horrible! Max temperature 15C Heavy Rain

Harvest since last post (10 days): Black Russian Tomatoes 5lbs,Costoluto Fiorentino Tomatoes 4 1/2lbs,Runner Beans (flowering, setting pods but pods not swelling properly and most dropping off) 10oz,French Beans 2lb 2oz, Courgettes 2lb 4oz, Aubergine 11oz,Spinach 1lb 3oz,Williams Pears (mix of windfalls and picked 26lbs, Conference Pears (haven't done well this year) 1lb, Green Toms (Costuluto Fiorentino) picked for pickles 12oz, Basil 2oz, Sweetcorn - one cob (delicious).

The big news on the harvest front this week has been the pears. Every other year this tree does really well. I bought it for Bill's birthday about 15 years ago - it's a William's pear you see.... This years fruit has a few blemishes but they are really delicious. It is a pity that the season for eating the fruit fresh is very short, so - apart from giving some away to neighbours - I have taken to looking for good recipes to preserve them.

My mother cooks hers in lemonade and they freeze well like this. I tried simmering them in cider which was lovely. I used pretty unripe pears and let them simmer for a long time so that the cider reduced by at least half. They were good.

The trouble with cooked pears though is that their texture is a bit....well.... boring. But adding crunch to them also seems to mean adding 1000s of calories. There is a recipe in Sarah Raven's lovely Garden Cookbook, which is a sort of toffee tart with lots of butter and sugar and puff pastry. In fact the photo here is the recipe in its early stages with the pears simmering in the sugar and butter. It is utterly delicious if a little sweet for someone with a savoury tooth like me...but it gets a big thumbs up. I'm sure it would freeze well - although mine mysteriously disappeared before I had chance to freeze it!

My favourite pear recipe of the year though is from an article by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published in the Guardian which I found on line - it is a Pear and Almond cake. He uses ground almonds in the sponge mixture and pears (also pre simmered in butter and sugar) perched on top of it. It is delicious - and I didn't make the same mistake with this one. As soon as it had coolled I cut it into portions, kept two for supper, and put it straight in the freezer. Not only does that put them out of sight and out of mind - the effort involved in defrosting them deters me from having 'just one more piece'!

Here today ...gone tomorrow

Weather: Cool and wet after a nice day yesterday and the promise that it will brighten up later...

Harvest since last post (four days) : 4 Cucumbers (small white now finished plant in the greenhouse overcome by mildew) Runner beans just 7oz (from about 10 plants - very disappointing) French Beans 12oz, Costuluto Fiorentino Tomatoes 12oz (with slug damage from the greenhouse) Black Russian Tomatoes 8oz (really good these - and this was a single fruit), Courgettes 1lb 10oz, Spinach 5oz (thriving now after slug ridden start) windfall William's pears 1lb ( still a bit hard but will cook up fine).


So this is why Hemerocallis are called 'day' lilies! I have waited for two years for a flower on the Millie Schlumpf (above) And what a beautiful flower. But the photograph was taken two days ago - and now this bloom and the second bloom that flowered yesterday have finished. Worth the wait? Possibly - I just hope that now it has found its footing that it will stand up to the slugs and snails better next year and I will have more than one successful stem to enjoy. The earlier stems were totally destroyed by them.

I was delighted with its delicate peachy colour that blends to a vibrant green at its heart. It had been described as pink - and I've never been a great fan of pink. Like the yellow red hot poker of a post or two back this plant was chosen to commemorate a cat ... whether that cat was called Millie or Schlumf, I'll leave you to decide!

What you can't see from the photo is that it is planted a couple of feet from an ancient stone wall where the molluscs lurk...That wall is a whole habitat in its own right. I regularly see mice in its nooks and crannies; it would be fascinating to see it in cross section as I suspect it would reveal a wildlife city from ants and woodlice to the spiders, bees and mice.

Outside? You must be joking it's August!

Weather - horrible. Cool and wet in a pattern that has been continuing for several days...

This week's harvest - cool weather is taking its toll on what should be one of the glut weeks of the year. Nevertheless:

Courgettes 2lb, Runner Beans 11oz, French Beans 1lb 8oz, Spinach 10oz, Rhubarb 10oz, Tomatoes (Black Russian - great flavour) 7oz,Costuluto Fiorentino Tomatoes (not impressed by the flavour and not very juicy - although the plants haven't been happy all season ) 2ob 5oz, Potatoes (Highland Burgundy - purple floury flesh - interesting but not overly appetizing visually once you're over the initial wow factor!) 9lb 8oz. Harlequin Potatoes (really nice salad/general potato) 5lb 13oz. Cucumber (small white) 2, Artichokes (last two) 2. Herbs used: Basil, parsley, Thyme, Lemon Balm.

When you photograph a garden it is natural to wait for perfect light conditions and highlight the good bits....but sometimes its worth 'telling it like it is'!

I did get out at the weekend - and was amazed at how much growth there had been in the borders. I usually allow the Lovage stems to overwinter but this year they had been blown almost horizontal and at 8ft they were bearing down on the Michaelmas Daisies in the same bed. When I looked at them I realised that the stems were hollow so I've experimented by cutting them into 10 inch lengths and tying them in two bundles with....wait for it (if it works this is a good bit!) ... bindweed stems!

I am hoping that these little bundles will provide homes for bees and ladybirds etc. They look fairly like the Bug Houses that you buy for just this purpose. They do smell pretty strong. Lovage (which is supposed to taste like celery but it is so strong I find it overpowering to use in cooking) has a distinctive smell. I hope the insects don't mind that! We shall see.