16 August in Coombe cottages garden

Best flowers - gladioli! They are fantastic still and nothing like the gaudy single toned things we think of. They are butterfly faced patterned in pink, orange and gold. A couple bent and snapped so we just HAD to then pick them and give them to Tim and Alyson who have so very generously given us Poppet, an adorable 7 week old black and white kitten who is drawing us away from the garden...

Best fruit - the mulberries are dropping so the nets have gone down this week. As they ripen they become semi-liquid  and then drop. As the tree is as high as the house there is no way we can attempt to pick - the only picking technique we know is to wear waterproofs and shake the free then pick off the ground.. So we wait for them to drop and 'pick the nets' morning and night, filling the freezer, giving them away and eating them at every meal. They have to be used within 8 hours of picking or they go really very mouldy so a lot do reach the compost heap..

Best vegetables - not a great summer for us overall but the 2 cucumber plants in the conservatory have produced 6 huge fruit already and are keeping going. Wonderful flavour. Courgettes a-coming too!

Unwanted guests - do we have Spanish slugs? We are getting a small child's seaside bucket of slugs every time we pick at night. There seem to be a huge crop of large orangey 8cm ish ones around - the grass is littered with them disgustingly, as well as the normal slightly stripey 2 cm ish ones, the big black squat ones and the tiny white ones. Apparently Spanish slugs are bigger than our usual ones so maybe they have reached Winscombe...We think we will have to do a slug identification course. Control  is by physical removal to a salty bucket or by our resident toads. The toads seem in good heart so were not sure what's going on this year but the dahlias, winter salad greens and squashes are all getting quite a lot of damage. The mizuna has completely disappeared! 

Mulberry folklore: Pyramus and Thisbe, the ill-fated lovers of Roman mythology, are said to have met their tragic deaths near a white mulberry tree. The mulberry tree, being sprinkled with their blood, bore red fruit forever after.

The Garden Project Week 2

2 CC

Well it's been a week of drama - a brief frost, hail storms, slugs and snails, bright bright sun and torrential rain! However the cutting patch at Coombe Cottages is almost completely planted, and now only awaits the bounteousness of dahlias coming from Parker's Bulbs to complete the plan. (They came today! Slight mistake where E managed to order 20 tubers... but we'll find space!)

We also have cosmos waiting to fill in any bare patches, and some self seeded sunflowers to transplant for gaps. It all looks highly expectant!

Casualties at CC - so far pretty minimal all things considered - a lot of slug and snail munching of sunflowers (particularly the 'Teddy Bears'), 2 wind snapped Russian Giants before we gave them a little more support, and in the veg patch the blue lake climbing French are just toooo cold...

Fab plants of the week at 2CC - the absolutely glorious nodding spires of aquilegia and the blue clouds of forget-me-nots filling every corner of the garden, the Mulberry starting to unfurl her leaves and the huge stalks of rhubarb we've been eating for breakfast.

And at The Orchard Garden:

S's allotment is already well established, having been a cutting garden last year and inspiring 2CC's Sun Bed. It has a wonderful lines of permanent flowers. The anenomes, tulips and narcissi are finished but now are making way for the most beautiful irises! You pick them all tight budded and spiky green, and they burst into vibrant purple and yellow. Plenty more to come thanks to Poundland!

Further down the allotment R is busy with the serious business of growing veg. And the even more serious issue of keeping The Badgers At Bay! Last year, we saw the strawberry fortress and this year S sowed the Carrot Castles (in bins). All are growing happily safe from The Badgers.

S's plot has flowers that are biannual and here come her wonderful Sweet Williams looking healthy in their second year.

Interesting Fact:

Aqualigia Vulgaris, is also called columbine and granny's bonnets. The scientific name comes from eagle, because the spurs on the back of the flower look like eagle's talons. Columbine is because the petals represent five doves, nestled together. It is said to be the symbol of Aphrodite and the Nordic God of the heavens.