#gardeningSE26

[Tim Lund]

On such a lovely warm afternoon, it seems absurd to be thinking about the winter and next year's planting, but I am, as more of the plot is now empty, or covered with annual weeds such as this



and here my burn pile for sometime this winter



I'm also still feeling sorry for myself, with my shoulder still painful. I have an appointment at Lewisham Hospital this week, so hope to learn how long before I am am back to normal. Today, just testing the strength of a piece of string by pulling it apart caused a jarring which led to pain lasting a minute or two. Digging I have to be very careful to avoid any similar abrupt movements, say when a clump of roots eventually comes up. But for this, more of those weeds would have joined these in my compost bins,



and I might have got round to turning them so they compost better, but I have not.

OK, enough of the self pity.

I got round to putting more vine eyes in the walls of my shed so that I could tie in the canes for next year's tayberries and blackberries, on the west side



and south and east respectively





I also noticed that the blackberry seems to be able to grow from underground stems as well; in this picture,



the dead looking stump in the middle is from where I planted it originally, some years ago, before putting up the new shed, with paving slabs right up against it. It responded first by coming up about a foot to the left, from which this years crop came, and today I noticed it's also coming up a foot to the right.

I also got round to cutting back this year's raspberry fruiting canes, leaving just these for 2016



and then decided to work in the gooseberry hedge idea I had a couple of years ago, when I found some low gooseberry branches which had trailed on the ground had rooted. If they are so good at rooting, why not use them to make a potager style hedge, where previously I'd edged my plot with thyme and hyssop.

This year, for the first time, these new plants had fruit, but also started to grow out over the path



but rather than just cut the longest stems, I dug a hollow either side along the line of the plant, and bent the branch down into it,



holding it down with a peg





then covering over while making sure the ends were above ground



There are also some other prunings in this, which I'm going to try to grow as cuttings. In the interests of science, I'll try some with hormone rooting powder, and others without.

There is still produce coming back, including the unfeasibly large squashes



which we're just hoping are edible. Those chillies are, and very hot, and more where they came from



Chillies are definitely worth growing - far more, I'd say than other members of the same family, such as sweet peppers or aubergines. The other things in the previous photo are chick peas - not really worth the effort - and chard, which is always worth growing.

Another relative success this year has been the leeks, which I grew in the garden,



rather than the allotment, where by this time, in previous years, the outer leaves were starting to go a bit slimey - I guess some fungal disease which had got in the soil. Looking it up, in the hope of finding out how long I'll need to avoid planting leeks in my allotment, it seems that the disease is Leek rust, since I also used to get these yellow patches



That article doesn't give a time before growing again, but it doesn't sound as if it will need to be too long, so maybe next year leeks in another bit of my garden, and then back to the plot.

As for the salad crops by the kitchen, the nasturiums seem to be taking over

[Tim Lund]

Still absurdly nice weather for the time of year, and having had a steroid injection, my shoulder is not quite as disabled. More to the point, it seems exercising it, and accepting a limited amount of pain, is a good idea, so for the first time for weeks I've been wielding fork and spade.

Some plants for autumn planting have also arrived, in particular garlic, with instructions to plant as soon as possible. Last year, from two bulbs, I had 19 cloves, which I realised allowed a hexagonal pattern with a central clove surrounded by two hexagon rings, of 6 & 12 cloves respectively, so making up 19.



This year, to my joy, four bulbs produced exactly 37 cloves, so allowing another perfect hexagonal pattern, but with an additional ring of 18 - since 1 + 6 + 12 + 18 = 37.

More prosaically, by the time the aqua dulce broad beans arrived, I'd used up all my root trainers for the remains of the winter hardy peas and sweet peas I'd grown last year, so I've had to order some more. Already the peas are germinating. I'll grow some of them inside a greenhouse, but most I'll plant out on the plot; it doesn't really matter if they don't come to much there, since I can consider them a green manure, helping fix nitrogen in the soil.

I also repotted the Zelkova I'd thought to try cultivating as a bonsai - this is an earlier picture



and found it very pot bound - here's how long its roots were when uncurled



Anyway, I've now given it a root prune, and repotted it, but this time in one of these things



whose fabric walls are supposed to air prune roots when they get to the edge, rather than wind round root bound. I'd have thought that will limit the plant size - well, over the next few years, we'll see.

On the plot, I've mainly just been tidying up, and removing the as yet uncomposted top layer from my compost bins. If I'd done things properly, turning it regularly during the year, it might all be ready for giving plants which need extra help,



but it isn't, so the rest has to go in some temporary bins, made from an old builder's bag, and a not very stable bin assembled from sides of brown plastic.





I also got round to pruning the gooseberries, which had grown large, dense and very prickly. On one I cut out all the older wood



but I wonder if this was too ruthless, so for the other I just trimmed out branches which would trail on the ground, or were crossing with younger branches - so the one on the left here



Incidentally, that bit in the middle is another self layered plant, which I have now dug up to extend the idea of a gooseberry hedge elsewhere



With all this gooseberry pruning, the burn pile is growing -



but the rules are that it can't be burnt off until after the clocks go back.

Elsewhere, I have been doing some foraging, both for quinces



and damsons





The damsons are remarkably sweet - added sugar not at all necessary. Their pectin content, however, must be quite high, since in the time it took to get all the stones out of a batch being made into jam, they had sailed past the setting point, and the product isn't that easy to spread. Tastes good, though.

As for the quinces, here's the juice being drained from the pulp,



and now it is cooling in its jars, ready to be offered to various family members for Christmas - and eaten here as well.

[Tim Lund]

The main activity today was digging over the weedy area of the plot - as of two weeks ago



so that now it looks like this



Having done so, I calculated that it had taken me 2 hours for c. 15 square metres. Given the other parts which will also need digging over for perennial weeds, I reckon that means about four more such sessions. I'd not used this particular patch for growing anything this year, because it was slightly lower than the rest, with clay nearer the surface, and poor soil quality. So I'd used it for storing the stable manure I'd had delivered last autumn, with the idea that some of it would add to the organic matter. And it has, rather better than I'd feared; the soil came up in large clods much less than previously, and when I kicked them, they generally broke up into finer grain fragments. Yesterday I got round to planting a packet of Aqua Dulce broad beans in root trainers, and new I feel confident about planting them out when ready in this patch. A week or so ago, I'd also planted some over wintering peas left over from last year (Douce provence) in root trainers, and pretty well all seem to have germinated, so I'll have to find somewhere for them. I think I should also try giving them netting to climb up - something I've not really bothered with hitherto, just making do with twigs from apple prunings.

Otherwise, it's been a matter of cutting things back, such as the fig, and border shrubs. I also decided that some roses, which had been in the garden ever since I moved, weren't really worth the effort, being rather straggly, and mildewed. To assuage my slight guilt about this, and also out of interest, I took some cuttings before grubbing them up; if they take, I'll feel a greater sense of ownership of them, and probably try to find them somewhere better to bloom. However, some space created when repaving the front garden has just been taken by the two vine cuttings which took this year, and I failed to find other homes for. I've not given up on my existing vines, which are now three years old, but I suspect they're not getting enough sun - especially the one behind the fig tree.

The main part of the front garden is still looking cheerful with dahlias, which I grew from seed three years ago, just for interest, but I'm coming round to understanding whey they are general favourites; they are cheerful, keep going for months, without needing much work, and only need lifting in winter to protect from frosts. I also have some kale there, which has been good value, although now it's getting to the end of its useful life. So, in a few weeks, the main bed will again be bare earth, and will largely remain so until May, since it's there that I'm planning to grow leeks next year, keeping them away from the allotment, where there seems to be some fungal infection in the soil.

Earlier in the year I tried growing some freesias, before realising how difficult they are to grow, requiring a period of heat to break dormancy. None grew, so I planted some monarda / bergamot in the same area. Well, these are now dying back, but on looking at them, with the idea of moving them to a border where they could settle permanently, I saw three distinctly monocotyledon shoots among them, and for a few minutes wracked my brains to wonder what they might be; the gladioli were close by, but the ends weren't pointed, yellow flag seeds itself elsewhere in the garden, but it didn't look like that - and then I remembered. Since they are not frost hardy, I guess I'll have to take them into the greenhouse over winter, but that was a nice surprise.

[Tim Lund]

More getting ready to winter this week, and thinking about what needs to be done before the next season.

Here's one - pruning my apples



which now my shoulder is recovering, is becoming more feasible.

I also pulled out the black plastic, which is there to suppress weeds, and weighted down the edges with earth, to stop it blowing all over the place when gales come.



I had had a whole lot of rubble sacks on it, which I'm sure would have blown away, but I wasn't sure where to keep them without becoming a haven for slugs and snails. So I hit upon this idea



these posts being heavy iron tubes which has anchored by old shed in the ground. Today I had decided to use them to mark the boundary with my neighbour's plot, and used the auger to sink them in deep enough to stay firm.

I also took down the canes which runner beans should have been clambering all over, but failed this year. I think I'll keep the main frame in place, but dig a trench between them to be filled with compost, and try growing them in the same place next year. I didn't get round to digging over where the dubious looking, oversized butternut squash* grew this year - that will be next week's task, I guess, since I'm planning to plant out the overwintering peas there, and they are coming on nicely



The broad beans, however, have yet to germinate.

There are still a few beetroot left



but today I harvested all the chillies - which will go in the freezer.

* On the subject of those butternut squash - they taste great, so they will get get another outing in 2016.

Back home, thanks to getting involved with the RHS Wild About Gardens Week, I have, with my neighbour's permission, been cutting a hole in the fence between us:















Hope they can get over the bottom wire

[Tim Lund]

Apparently it's been the warmest November day ever, at least in Ceredigion, but it was fairly warm here in SE London, allowing a couple of hours work turning this last week



to this



although I'd stress that more than what you see in the barrow had been removed - there's been at two or three round trips to the compost bin. The main things I wanted to get rid of where dandelions, and the deep rooted bindweed, which seems a speciality of the site.

This is the ground where I'd grown the squashes, and for them I'd just covered the surface with rotted down stable manure, and today was the first time I'd forked it over this year. From what I remember of how it had been, the condition was significantly improved, and although in parts a mid heavy, there were at least a fair number of earthworms working away at it, and I hardly found any of the yellowing native London Clay. In other parts the soil was positively friable, which, with the sun having dispelled the earlier mist, made it feel good to be down there.

Next to the spade in the picture is a roll of pea netting, but putting that up is for another day. Previously I'd checked how many pea seedlings I had to plant out



and there are 84 of them, which by good luck will need almost exactly the the five metres of pea netting I bought. Using pea netting is new for me - previously I've just used twigs, but I think this may be rather inefficient, so I'm going to try to do things more scientifically in 2016. I'm also wondering whether these nice young plants aren't going to be something of a temptation to scavenging winter pidgeons, so maybe I'll net them too.

Some of the peas have already been planted out - but this time in a greenhouse



with a gap that will need filling courtesy of leaving the door open, and a cat thinking it a suitable place to mark as its territory.

Meanwhile, the broad beans have now germinated



so these are going to need planting out too. I'm also going to have to spend some time in November cycling over to some stables where there is rotted horse manure for the taking with a whole lot of plastic sacks, fill them up, and then come back with a hire van to bring it back to the plot. In previous years another stable has delivered trailer loads of unrotted manure, but no longer, so let's see how this works out.

I also noticed this week - and a careful look here will confirm - that the garlic I planted has started to sprout



but it will be a while before I can say how many of the 37 planted are showing.

To finish, just some pictures, first three Autumnal ones



(that's fig in front, with most of its leaves fallen, framed by the mulberry behind, which is in turn framed by a massive poplar tree the other side of the Sydenham to Forest Hill railway)



These different shades are on a 'family' pear, in other words one where different varieties have been grafted onto the same rootstock. It's the Williams which have the lovely dark red.



This is a vine I grew from a cutting this January, which also looks good at this time of year.

And then some flowers still going strong - especially the cosmos, which I don't think is meant to get this big - I guess it's evidence that I have managed to raise the fertility of the soil where I put it









and finally a winter savory, which I bought to replace a couple of plants lost this year. Good to see it flowering.

[Tim Lund]

This weekend I got down to the plot both days, on Saturday carrying my 84 pea plants, which are now planted out here



with a regular pattern between the rows where boots and knees have compacted the soil as I put half of the plants on the inside of the netting. Let's hope they survive. It's not saying much, but they looked ok today, after just 24 hours.

Going home, as often happens on Autumn evenings, the twilight was beautiful



Today the weather was more overcast, and I mainly got on with clearing more ground, this time where the runner beans had been so disappointing. Some kind of bonus, I guess, was a hazel that had appeared, presumably thanks to a squirrel burying a nut there.



I also noticed that the canes on the blackberry (and the tayberry, but not shown here) are still growing, so drooping down, soon to need training further to the shed wall, as they loop back to the right.



This year, I thought I'd noticed the tayberry not bearing fruit towards the end of the cane, so I was wondering whether there is a point at which it makes sense to prune it. Looking this up on the RHS website gives no support to this idea, so I guess the thing to do is look out for where there is blossom next year.

[Tim Lund]

This week I've managed to get my autumn sown broad beans down to the plot and planted out. I probably should have hardened them off, since they look rather tender here



and will probably get blown about a bit, and knocked back by frosts, but even so, they'll recover. I think the main thing is that they have a good root system.

Looking up, I can see my apple trees need pruning, with lots of shoots springing up from the main branches, and crossing each other.



I'm going to have to get a long arm pruner to get these, although some I'll be able to do by climbing up into the tree.

Meanwhile, the lower ones at least I've managed to prune.



With the broad beans, I'm impressed that I got 100% germination, and I'm also getting 100% sprouting from the 37 garlic I planted in these concentric hexagons. Although a couple aren't distinguishable here, they really are there.



These are some lavender cuttings, previously just stuck into some compost in a plastic pot, but I transplanted those which were taking into these root trainers, so that when ready to plant out, the root systems would be better developed, and not entangled



I also potted on those sweet peas from last year's seeds which did germinate - nine plants will probably be enough for 2016



These are a couple of tender plants - freesia & French tarragon brought in to the greenhouse for the winter





and here the apple tree in the garden, which I can get to by step ladders and clambering, so as well pruned as I know how.



Finally a chrysanth. I've not been that impressed with them this year, unlike the dahlias, and have thought of getting rid of them, but I might let this one survive where it is.



BTW, for rather more impressive coverage of gardening, there's a highly recommended series "The Secret History of the British Garden" which just started on BBC2.

[Tim Lund]

This weekend has been mainly about getting a whole lot of rotted horse manure - 35 sacks of it to be precise



except that lifting and then carrying a full sack was more than a ten stone weakling such as I was up to, and about half are only half full. The cost of horse manure is all in the carrying (and storage), in other words, stables are happy to you to take it well rotted, if they have any, free. I'll maybe check how much I could have got it for it I'd paid, but I suspect not much more than the cost of the van hire, so I have to see the pay off in all that good exercise I got - and the good they will do my plants.

It was also our first frost of the year, and the clear end of the season for the dahlias



so these are now all lifted, and starting to dry off in the greenhouse



I also decided to lift the gladioli, which didn't look frost damaged, but are hardly going to do much more this year, and will not be happy in cold, damp soil. The last time I tried growing them, they all died over winter, so this time I hope to do better. I've also just been reading an RHS manual on the subject and am feeling a bit intimidated; seems I will need to improve my greenhouse hygiene, and use some fungicides on them.



I recently read of an unlikely comment about gardening, in St Augustine, along the lines of gardening helping thought about the nature of things, which is of course true, but it sounds as if he was actually able to graft things, something I've always thought of as too difficult. I feel challenged, so that's something else I'm going to try in 2016.

Apart from that, I've also done most of the pruning of my apples now, although by the time I finished it was getting dark



and when I come back, I may feel there's some more to do.

I also checked on the peas & broad beans I'd planted out, both before and after the frost - they seem to have survived, so not hardening them off doesn't seem to have mattered this time.





However, with the mild weather we've had until now, the rhubarb seems to have got confused



And lastly, here are some beetroot, still being harvested

[Tim Lund]

Not much gardening at this time of year, but still some photos

[Tim Lund]

Another week without visiting my allotment - but that's not too critical, at this time of year. At least I hope so - when I do get down there again, I hope the pigeons haven't pecked away at all the foliage of the over wintering peas I have there.

In my own garden, there are still, amazingly, a few raspberries coming



this a recent variety called Polka.



The Thompson and Morgan seem to be rather underselling itwhen they write

Once established, each plant can produce up to 2.5kg of large, deep-red berries with a deliciously sweet flavour that can be harvested from late July through to October.

We're also still getting rocket and mizuma



and parsley



But the main thing I was thinking of today was what might be called fungus gardening, a kind of variant of wildlife gardening. Anyone who's read my recent photo blogs for Dacres Wood Nature Reserve, or this post on my personal blog

Fungi & climate change

may already have the idea that I'm obsessing about fungi these days, but it's been going on for a while - at least since I had a huge old plum tree taken down, and rather than have the logs taken away or burnt, I sunk them into the soil, with the idea that they would eventually rot down - and salve my conscience about releasing so much CO2 into the atmosphere. It's been some years now - I've forgotten exactly how many - but they are now producing these displays which I think are interesting in the same way as flowering plants





and, in a cut made in the old stump, for the glyphosphate or similar systemic to seep into the root system



(It's not been entirely successful - some suckers of that old tree are still appearing)

But there's far more woody material produced each year than I can deal with like this, so each year I normally burn some off, and here I've been getting it ready in a newly acquired incinerator



(I used to have a dustbin style incinerator, but the base rusted away - this variety, which can be disassembled, and stored away somewhere dry seems much more sensible.)

But even with this stuff burned off, there's plenty of small twigs on the ground, which will somehow or other, I assume, get broken down to organic matter in the soil.



but what is the best way to do this?

If the twigs are small enough, and there aren't too many of them, a compost bin is probably the best way



which will eventually, after being turned over and forked through a few times produce something like this



which can be spread out on the garden, with the woody bits remaining, like this



of sieved like this, as compost for the overwintering peas in the greenhouse



although noticeably not sterile - those of lots of tomato seedlings also coming up.

There's also this, from LB Lewisham's excellent citizens' free leaf collection service





but I wonder if there isn't a way in which twigs and larger bits of wood could be buried, so not looking untidy, in conditions which encourage fungi which will rot them down (burying should mean they can stay damp and dark), and with specific fungi introduced which will do this as quickly as possible. It could also be a way of growing edible fungi, such as the oyster mushrooms another nearby gardener has found growing on his planters,



although that needn't be the main point.

Something else which I've only recently registered is that it's not that unusual for fungi to benefit plants, helping their roots absorb nutrients. Previously I'd thought this was just something relevant for freakily hard to grow things such as orchids, but according to this Wikipedia page, almost all plants use fungi.

(There is a location I know of locally where a wild orchid grows, but I'm asked not to reveal it!)

Well, that's one to research - how to get a good selection of fungi in the garden.

I might still, sometimes, want anti-fungicides, such as when trying to protect my dahlias over winter



but keeping them dry is obviously a far better thing to do.

For my gladioli corms, which the books say I should keep in dry sand over winter, I've had to bring some sand into the greenhouse to dry on these trays,



with the door kept shut to deter cats, who would have their own ideas of what it was for. Some of my gladioli corms are enormous, and according to an RHS book I have, there's a technique for splitting them up, but it involved dusting the cuts with a fungicidal powder. When I ask for this at Shannon's however, I'm told they are all off the market, and the current RHS advice makes them sound fairly scary.

Life would be easier, of course, but for the nagging feeling that the garden should look reasonably tidy, not so much the plants, but the various bits of plastic, wire mesh and breeze block.



As can be seen here, we've had the idea of screening it off - here with some bamboo - even though there wasn't soil there for it to grow in - it was the base for an old shed



So it has to go in these planters - which may not be a bad idea, since bamboo is fairly invasive. OTOH, I may try to get rid of that concrete, so that I won't have to keep watering them

I also had the idea of screening the breeze block of the compost bins with some left over sandstone slabs,



although, as can be seen, one of them broke. This may not be a long term solution.

In front of them, there is also this tarpaulin covering up some left over sand, which eventually will get spread over the garden, to off set the general clayeyness of the soil.

I also have this patch where I throw terracotta pots when they break, with the idea of creating another ecological niche.



Fifty to a hundred years ago, rock gardens were popular, but hardly now; with this, I've not yet made any attempt to introduce species which will thrive in these conditions, just waiting to see if anything emerges. What you see there are cyclamens and ivy. I also notice that cyclamens manage to spread in the area of grass I have (I don't think of it as a lawn).



I guess that by seed dispersal, although I'm not sure I know what a cyclamen seed looks like.

Two last bits of more conventional gardening - I was happy to see the freesias I'm over wintering coming up with more shoots



and also signs of life on the rose cuttings I took



I noticed this hazel stool, which I must have coppiced a few years ago, was growing stems of different ages -



which I don't think is normal. I think I might coppice them again this winter; the stems rot down slowly, so are good for small stakes.

Finally, some rosemary, where the blue flowers can be seen. Not shown here are some chrysanths, where I noticed a bumble bee collecting nectar - yes, this is December. I wondered about whether any insect would be collecting from the rosemary, and indeed there was, not captured in my photo.

[Tim Lund]

At last, today, I managed to get down to my allotment, the first time in three weeks, I think. At this time of year it doesn't matter so much, although it's obvious better to get things done sooner rather than later, even if nothing much needs doing for the next two months.

The ground was fairly damp, which is a reason for not walking on it too much; the effect of the compaction from where I'd knelt to plant my peas can be seen in the knee shaped puddles here



But the peas are OK, as are the broad beans



I dug up the last of the beetroots



and might as well have done the same for the chard, with any leaves we don't need immediately being put in the freezer



but that's just a matter of time.

I did a bit of digging out of perennial weeds, like dandelions, and also some more pruning of the apple trees - about which I always feel a bit unsure. I have an idea of how a well pruned tree looks, so no crossing branches, and weaker shoots cut back, but am I doing it too much, or too little? It's the sort of thing I can imagine there are courses for, but which, to perfect, takes either a lifetime of orchard work, or a rigorously scientific modern horticultural training - both of which I will have to pass on.

And no one's yet told the rhubarb it's still only winter

[JRobinson]

Tim, you might find this link on Hugelkultur/peramculture very interesting in terms of how to compost you woody garden waste.

[Tim Lund]

Jon - thanks for that link - definitely of interest. It's a shame I didn't see it before I burnt off a whole stuff in my garden and allotment this last week.

I'll not be continuing this thread in 2016, but I'll probably do some gardening blogging on my own site, where I can at least get portrait photos to show correctly.

Thanks to those of you who have commented on it, and I hope it has been of interest to others as well.