Week 12 in the gardens of the west- 22 July

We can't keep up with it all!

20 bags of red currants 14 of red gooseberries 4 of green gooseberries 4 of black currants and more still to come... The Bramley is brimming and the mulberries are getting bigger and slightly pink. It feels like everything is rushing faster and faster.

There are new flowers every day - pink love-in-the-mist:

butterfly gladioli,

bright daylillies, the first of the sunflowers - a dark chocolate variety,

the bright white of the old Michaelmas daisies 

and the wonderful helterskelter tassles of the teasels. 

The vegetables are in abundance too - the best brassicas ever including some very presentable cauliflowers and hispi cabbage, a mountain of peas and a great tangle of pumpkin vines now enveloping all the tiny crannies of old potatoe and broad bean plots. 

Beautiful (but sort of useless for eating) glove artichokes.

Good week in the garden - rain and sun, good for the garden.

The flower project week 3

The Garden:

What a wonderful week. The garden has just exploded with spires of aquilegia,

bright two-toned colours of valerian in the walls around the little pond at the front of the house,

the allium heads sprouting colour, 

and the yellow-white foxgloves are beginning to flower today.

The Cutting Patch

Highlights of the week:
1. Planting out the 19 dahlias -most are in the cutting patch, with an overflow in the allottment  triangle and side bed and a few in some great pots. The cutting patch is now absolutely full to the brim with possibilities...

2. The beautiful buttercups in the field. Somehow the sheep have grazed the pasture in an odd way - we have a wonderful sweep of yellow in the third of the field nearest the house and the remainder is a waft of grass heads.

3. The conservatory's heat is bringing on the peppers and squashy-marrow things, which are waiting to be planted in holes in the forget-me-nots.

The Allotment

Casualties - no really major ones on things planted this week. The sunflowers and gladioli are slightly munged by slugs and my saved runner seed has had really poor germination. Otherwise the night patrol to remove snails and slugs and the constant picking off of aphids from the peppers and broad beans is keeping everything in an equilibrium. Coffee grounds don't seem to work at all on slugs.

Disaster - M diagnosed systemic fireblight (Erwinia amylovora) in Joes apple tree. We were very shocked as the 'treatment' was to remove it and burn it immediately as it is likely to infect our Bramley. Let's hope we got it in time.

S's orchard highlights:

Growth has been generally a little slow with little rain this week, and germination has also been poor. Larkspur has been particularly patchy but the gypsophilia  looks good and is a wonderful addition to bouquets with its frothy whiteness and filling out with fluff. 

The most exciting event of the week - the giant bee swarm! The noise was obvious first - a low pitched continuous and dense hum and then a menacing black cloud. S and her friend ran for it! P

Highlights: 

1. The iris display has  continued but the last bunch was cut today. The sweet Williams have taken their place  in the flowering line and are about to burst into pink and white and red. It's their second year and although they are not meant to be quite as good second time around these ones look promising. 

2. The carrots in the bin are coming on great - we're not sure of the variety but they are sed given by P next door who has open sown them in defiance of the badgers. It will be an interesting race to see who  gets the carrots first in each plot.

3. During the extensions on Church road S and R transferred a wheelbarrow full of daylillies (Hemerocallis) and Solomon's seal (Polygonatum)  in a bed on the side of the allottment - all looks very promising 

4. There is masses of white loganberry blossom with lots of the bees - yummy there will be a great crop if we can protect them from the birds. 

Casualties :

This is the first year of the precious Willam pear and it had 100 tiny fingers of pears formed BUT all had tiny little holes in leading to and empty nest of blackness. Some of the pears had the nests full of tiny little white maggots - galls of the pear midge (Contarinia pyrivora) . We've taken all of the little pears off and disposed of them wel away form the tree to halt the cycle. 

Aphids (aphodadidae) have attacked one of the young apple trees so it is covered in ants milking the aphid infestation - soapy water isn't really doing the trick. S and R plan to reduce the infestation next year by growing  Morning Glory and alliunms/onions near by, neem oil sprays or thyme/rosemary/peppermint/clove oils 

Interesting story of the week:

Solomon's Seal is named for King Solomon. The Hebrew God gave him great wisdom, and he had a special seal to help him in magic without demons coming to him. Legend has it that he placed this seal on this plant when he recognised its great value. Apparently you can see the seal on the rootstock in the circular scars left by the stem after it dies back!