Ooops! Forgot the title..

   The weather continues to be clear and sunny with a hard frost in the morning. Most mornings have been -3C at the front of the house and the ground is now unworkable because it it frozen! I cannot win at the moment.
   Having -3C every morning with frost has meant that my celery is now done for. The fennel is just about hanging in there and the root crops, parsnip, turnip, swede, orbis and beetroot are surviving. The few parsnips that I have dug up have varied between being very good and completely destroyed. The long period of soaking wet ground meant that some had started to rot and those are a complete right off. I have been raking up leaves and I have mulched the strawberries. I have also started a new leaf mould bed using the well rotted stuff on the poly tunnel beds. The plum tree that had broken branches due to an overweight of fruit has been trimmed and pruned. I need to get pruning the old apple tree! Despite saying to myself that I would get rid of it I have staked up an old pear tree. It has produced a number of new shoots which have fruit buds on them so I will give it another year. I have also had to stake up one of my new apple trees which is top heavy and leaning in the wrong direction. 
   The days are short and despite the sunshine not a lot gets done. It will soon be mid-winter and before I know it I will be sowing onion and tomato seed. Christmas is now just a few days away and the turkeys and geese have been dispatched. Looks like we have some very good birds this year.

Two geese and four turkeys.

Crack on!

   Gee! Two weeks has past since the last blog, not that there is much to say. The weather has taken a turn for the better. Cold, yes, frost yes, a little sunshine yes, but rain no! Hooray! Just need the ground to dry out a little and I will be able to do some forking. Famous last words those. Of course the frosts have got harder which means the ground is hard until the afternoon and of course once you get past three o'clock french time the day is pretty much over! Pah!
    Our eldest home reared chick now nicknamed by me as Big Chick, has been confirmed as a cockerel! He was spotted being seduced by a brown hen.
   In the poly tunnel the potatoes planted for Christmas have shown. I do not think we will be eating them for Christmas but if I can protect them we could have new potatoes early in 2014. Some french shallots (torpedo shaped) that I planted to see what might happen are starting to show. Winter leaves are now being picked and very nice they are too.  I have a good crop of coriander and the kohl rabi are swelling nicely. I am hopeful for a couple of spring cauliflowers.
   In the outside garden I have been trying to gather up fallen apples and rake up leaves. The chickens have other ideas. The oak tree is dropping leaves but there is still a lot to fall. I want those leaves for the strawberries!
   Heath Robinson has nothing on me! I fixed my front gate which was had a broken slat and the gate was sticking. Bit of spare wood, sand paper, some wood screws and old bit of plastic pipe and hey the gate closes without sticking or falling apart! 
   So all in all I have spent more time putting up Christmas decorations than doing gardening. Such is the way of things. Still, there is plenty to do if I get the chance so onward to Christmas!

Still too wet but improving!

  What can I say? Very little done over the last week. Too wet. The ground is too wet to do any work on. I have cleared the perennial beds and tried to light a bonfire a couple of times with limited success! Of course, soon as I wrote that the weather has taken a turn for better! Dry, overcast and a cold wind but at least the ground is drying out a bit! I have apples still to pick and weeds that need removing not to mention a vine to prune and bullock hoof impressions and mole tunnels to fill in to mention some of the tasks still waiting to be done and Christmas is around the corner!

Clearing the perennial beds and bonfire

   Unfortunately the farmers bullocks got out of their field and wandered into the garden. Ten or more bullocks weighing probably half a ton each wandering around on saturated turf did not do the ground any good at all! At least I was able to keep them off the majority of the garden but there are some hoof prints in a couple of the plots. Minor damage to the garlic and the rest is just cosmetic. Where they walked on the grass though is a mess and will require some tender loving care in the spring. Man! Bullocks and moles not a good combination.
   Autumn/winter animal husbandry moves on. The white turkey was starting to unsteady on her legs and was being picked on by the others so we decided to dispatch her. After processing we got 6kgs (14lbs) of meat. Next to go will be are old cockerel, Wally2, who is looking his age. One of our chicks who we believe is a cockerel will replace him. Coq-au-vin is on the menu! 
   In the outside veggie garden last of the early leeks and carrots have been pulled. Spinach, fennel, orbis,beetroot, celeriac (small but edible), celery, carrots, leeks, Jerusalem artichokes still available. In the poly tunnel I have planted french shallots (as an experiment) and there is lettuce, cauliflower, kohl rabi, celery, fennel, sweet peppers and herbs. Not a sniff of my Christmas potatoes. What is the betting that they grow straight after Christmas. 

Sometimes the weather works against you!

   Not really a lot to say this week. The weather has really been against me. Wet, cold and on/off rain. The ground is wet and sticky and I really need to leave it alone, however, I had to rescue my over winter onion seedlings so a small patch was hand forked and weeded. Unfortunately I only rescued eight plants! The chickens had struck and eaten/scratched up the rest!
    In the poly tunnel I continue to pick sweet peppers, red and green ones. The end is close though as I am now picking quite small peppers. The kohl rabi is promising and fingers crossed I may get a cauliflower or two come spring. There is some lettuce, winter leaves, coriander and parsley (curly and french). The asparagus is going over inside and outside the poly tunnel. Guess it will not be long and it will be sprouting again! I have top dressed a couple of the beds.
   Outside there are leeks, celery, small celeriac, swede, parsnips, orbis, large turnips, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots to harvest. I will probably dig up the artichokes and use them to expand the bed this year. Depends I guess on how many there are. The garlic and field beans are standing up to the weather just fine. I think I got my garlic in at the right time as at least they had time to sprout before it got really wet.  Runner bean sticks have been taken down and the remaining beans (variety Czar) left gathered, dried and hopefully will be used as "butter beans". The Champion of England pea poles have also been taken down and a few peas gathered for seed. I have been very pleased with this variety of pea and even more surprised that I managed to get a autumn crop off them. I have gathered a lot of windfall apples but there have been so many apples this year. I am now waiting for the trees to loose there leaves so that I can get on with pruning. The plum trees need attention as they had so much fruit some branches broke. The grape vine is now loosing its leaves but very few grapes are being eaten by birds. Last year they took the lot in a very short time. Chickens love them though!
    How I managed I do not know but I got the grass cut! High setting on the mower but least it took the worst off. Several stops to clear out the blade cover of wet cut grass! Hopefully, fingers crossed etceteria no more grass cutting till next spring.

Rain runoff pouring down the road

Water flow down the lane at the side of my property

   

Rain? More like the tropics but not so hot.

    This week continues to be wet. The weather is on the mild side but with lots of showers. This means the ground is still unworkable and although the grass needs cutting I cannot do it! Water is running on the surface of the ground and in places it it decidedly muddy.
    I have at least managed to plant my large bag of narcissus and small bag of english daffodil bulbs. Assuming that the mice do not have a winter feast of them there should be a nice display come next March.

Bottle cloches

    In the poly tunnel the sweet peppers are still clinging on. The peas I sowed are now showing and are covered up with bottle cloches. Other crops in the poly tunnel are fairing well. Kohl Rabi and cauliflower are doing ok. No sign of my christmas potatoes! Hey ho! Another failure at this. Next year I am going to plant early potatoes for christmas rather than second earlies or main crop.

Front to back - celery, fennel, corriander

   In the outside garden the only real work being done is either picking up windfall apples or pulling carrots, swede and turnips! The ground is so wet that to walk on it invites clods of wet sticky dirt on my boots. So, it is left for the weeds and boy they are still growing.
   The final four table chickens have been despatched and processed. The freezer has at least 20 chickens in it!
   Well, I guess what I need to do is to plan where  next years sowings and planting is going. It certainly does not look like I am going to be doing much else for a while!

Still wet...

   Another wet week with little being done, however, I did manage to get one day to wash inside and the outside of the poly tunnel. It is always surprising to me how dirty the cover gets. I now need to disinfect the inside and I am waiting for a dry day to do it! I have sown some dwarf peas in the tunnel for over wintering (round peas not wrinkled) and they have already sprouted. I have sown them in such a way I can put "plastic bottle cloches" over them. I have also sown some spring cabbage in their too more in hope than expecting anything much. Kohl Rabi and All the Year Round cauliflower are growing well along with the sweet peppers and various herbs.

   The frame supporting the Champion of England peas finally collapsed under the pressure of size and weight of the peas and the high winds. No damage to anything else. I just need to clean up the mess! My over winter onion seed that was ravaged by the chickens looks very sad. The germination has been poor (not helped by the fact they were germinating and the chickens struck!) and I am thinking that I might move those that are big enough to another bed or inside the poly tunnel.

   The new season has opened up with the sprouting of the garlic and field beans. Yes, field beans not broad beans. Field beans are related to broad beans but are a smaller plant that does not grow so tall. It is the bean that farmers grow apparently. They are still supposed to crop quite heavily.

Field beans and garlic for 2014

  I have managed to spend some time starting to clear the bank where I want to plant my spring bulbs. The ground is very wet here and quite heavy. This is the second year of clearing this area and it is most definitely easier this time.

  So, lots to do but time is now against me. Once November is here the temperatures will start to go below freezing making it more difficult to work the ground. Better get my skates on!

Wash out...

   Only a short write up this week. It feels like it has done nothing but rain over the last week or so but of course there has been the odd day or few hours where it has not rained or drizzled or been too wet to do anything in the garden. The vegetable beds are still pretty much unworkable being very wet. It makes no sense to even try. Having said that I have noticed that the garlic is up and the over winter broad beans have sprouted.
   Autumn is very much under way. The leaves are turning quite quickly now with more autumn colours showing. 
   I continue to pull carrots and pick haricot buerre, variety Minidor. The haricot have been very prolific and I have been very pleased with them. They are a dwarf variety but they are just jammed packed with beans. The grape vine has produce a lot of fruit and much more than we can eat. The chickens like the grapes and I have been surprised not to see the birds eating them more. In the poly tunnel I have transplanted in a few fennel and a couple of celery plants. The sweet peppers in the poly tunnel are still producing much to my amazement.
   Moles are a real problem this autumn. I am going to have to do something about them I think. They are making a real mess of the house lawn and I can see that I am going to have to do some serious repair work in the spring.