What can I say? Its January.

   So here we are in the middle of January. Not much to write about really. I have sown some Yellow Rynsburger and Sturon onion seed in modules and some in a poly tunnel bed. The seed in the bed is pure speculation. Other than that done a little more tidying up of the annual beds and had a bonfire to get rid of the dead tops and some wood. 
   The weather continues to be wet and this week the ground became just about workable and we got a down pour. One of the culverts on the side of the road got blocked and we could not free it so we had to dig a trench along the line of the culvert to enable the water to run away down the ditch rather than over the road. The fast flowing water has made even more of a mess of the road.

Christmas Potatoes!

   First ever Christmas potatoes! After three attempts at growing new potatoes for Christmas, success! A decent amount of potatoes were obtained from potatoes planted in the poly tunnel despite the plants being killed off by blight/mould. Sprouts, rather on the small side and once again disappointing, parsnips and small carrots were other vegetables taken from the garden for the Christmas table to go with the home raised goose. I am going go give up with sprouts. Really not worth the effort and the fact that they have to be in the ground for a long time.

Christmas Potatoes

As has been the trend since moving to this part of France winter really starts to bite at the end of December. There has now been several mornings of frost.
   I come back to this blog with Christmas over and the New Year underway. Much to my surprise the weather has turned mild but still very damp with many days of  on/off drizzle. On the sowing front I am resisting sowing onion seed for another week or so.
   Nothing much going on in the garden, either too wet or frosty or something else gets in the way. There is still a lot of tidying up to do but the weather has not cooperated. Dug up some leeks and parsnips. In the poly tunnel I have forked/raked in some pot ash (ashes taken from the wood burner) into about half of the long bed. There is not a lot going on in the poly tunnel. Some fennel is hanging on as are some radishes. The spring cabbage still looks good and fingers crossed I may get one or two. My peas, due to the mild weather, are further on than I would have liked. I may try to sow some more and see what happens.
   All in all a quite couple of weeks on the garden front with more being done on the Christmas/New Year celebrating side!
   
   

Pre Christmas rush?

   Here we are at the 21st December, winter solstice. My thoughts are moving towards January and the sowing of onion seed and a distant thought about seed potatoes! Oh boy! It never stops.
   The last blog was published on the 12th. So what has happened since then? Looking back at my daily log, not a lot! I managed to move my leaf pile to its composting place before the chickens could get to it and the weather permitted. There has been more rain and the ground once again is saturated. In the poly tunnel the sweet peppers have now been removed and the beds they were in tidied up and top dressed. In the poly tunnel there is still lettuce, fennel and radishes to harvest and the spring cabbage (fingers crossed) looks fine. The purple sprouting has suffered badly from white fly and it has also grown tall due to lack of light I guess. In the outside garden I dug up some celeriac, beetroot, parsnips and turnips for stews and salads. There is less and less in the garden now. There are still some leeks, celeriac and beetroot and the rump of a row of carrots that I left in the hope that they might grow a bit with the mild weather. May  get some small ones from that row, you never know! There is spinach which is of edible size. My  nice looking broad beans are now looking moth eaten. Blooming chickens! The garlic is ok and looks like it has now slowed up a little, however, the last lot I planted is now starting to show. With there being no frosts it looks like we are going to get our Christmas potatoes from a raised bed outside of the poly tunnel. I have had the bed fleeced over for a couple of weeks now and the tops are still mostly looking heathly! Fingers crossed! There are probably one or two very small ones in the poly tunnel but not enough for a meal.
    Outside of the garden the turkeys and geese have been processed and are in the freezer. Really looking forward to eating the large goose. Good weights have been achieved with the fowl the largest turkey being 8.5 kgs, the smallest 7kgs. One of the geese came in at 5kgs which will be our Christmas dinner!

Two of four Turkeys in the freezer

    

Other things take up the time

   Well what can I say? In the eleven days since my last blog was published I have not achieved a lot at all! This time of year can be very depressing when there is so much one wants to do yet the weather is against you. Christmas is around the corner so that will also mean little getting done. Man!
   So what has been done? I have started to prune an apple tree. This work is ongoing and will take a couple of years before I am happy with the three old trees I have. Anything else done? Oh yes raked up some leaves only for the chickens to scatter them out again. Next time I will rake them up and clear them away! And that is it! Other stuff has been done, like cleaning out the chickens and processing two of the four turkeys but not garden related.

  A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to any readers!

Weather and short days

   The weather and short days continue to work against getting much done. There are many blank days on my garden log where nothing in the garden was done. Oh yes, made mince pies, cakes and Christmas puddings but no gardening! So, what little has been done? November sown radishes are being pulled and another sowing has been made and have germinated in the poly tunnel. It amazes me that they manage to grow to maturity at this time of year. A lot of tidying up done when the weather permitted, things like taking up the sweet corn stalks, some weeding and forking when the ground has not been to wet. Another bed of violet garlic has been planted as I was not happy with the first planting despite it looking quite good. The chickens did not help with this first bed of garlic. The chickens have also discovered my over winter broad beans and I have been forced to fence them off. I do not believe they have been killed off, just shocked! I managed to get my bonfire lit and I now have a pile of ashes. Horray! Trouble is I have started to build another one! I have also managed to get spring bulbs planted not without incident. I wanted to plant bulbs close to the bee hive. Of course, with my luck, the temperature got above 10C and guard bees started to appear out of the hive and they noticed me. I made a hasty retreat once one got a little to close for comfort. Later in the day I managed to finish planting the bulbs. 
   In the poly tunnel the Nigels Green Chillis have finally called it a day and I have removed them. There is radish, fennel, some lettuce and believe or not sweet peppers that can still be picked. My Christmas potatoes after showing such promise have been destroyed by mould, probably blight. I have some outdoors and as long as there is not a severe frost I might still manage to get some new potatoes for Christmas (famous last words those!).

Planting Tulips

So why so little done!

   So why is it that NOTHING has been done in the last week? Weather turned wet and so I guess that stopped the outside jobs and the poly tunnel is as up to date as I can get it. I also had to spend time with my youngest daughter helping her out in the UK so that took up most of the week. I have looked at my garden log and there is only two days where I have put an entry and they were not related to the garden. I am also reluctant to fork more ground because as soon as I do the chickens move in and just flatten the ground. Better to leave it alone and then they give up when then cannot scratch it. So, what was it I entered into the log but was not related to the garden? "British pub pickled eggs", that is what! They did not take long to do. Guess I was busy with domestic stuff. Well this week has started off sunny and looks like it is going to be so all week so hopefully the grass will be dry enough for me to mow it, hopefully, only one more time.

Weeded bulb bed

Broad beans growing away!

Darker evenings!

   The clocks have now gone back and that for a while means dark evenings and shorter days in the garden, however, the weather over the last week or so has been fantastic for October! Lots of sunshine and it has even been very warm! Surely this cannot last. 
   In the garden broad beans and garlic are growing well. My winter cabbage patch has been raided by some critter and several plants have be munched! Cannot blame the chickens this time despite the fact they have tried to get under the netting I have put over the cabbages. The turnips are swelling so hopefully I will get some.

Sprouting broad beans

   It is strange at this time of year that you think you have lots of time to do things but in reality you do not. It is dark by six o'clock and of course one does not get going until about ten thirty am and before you know it is lunch time and then you only have a couple of hours left! Still with the extended good weather I still have managed to get some tidying up jobs done. Much forking and weeding. The bonfire pile is getting to the point where I now need to light it.  I have also at last got round to clearing my daffodil patch. The soil in this bed is brown clay and hard to work. It does not help that it is still very wet and was full of buttercups.  It has only taken all summer to get to it. It was interesting to see that  the bulbs are already sprouting and are about 1/2 to 1 inch up. The daffs are ahead of the crocus bulbs which are only just starting to sprout. It is going to be a mixed up winter I fear. The ground this summer has hardly had a chance to dry out. I can recall only one period this summer where I have thought that the ground is getting too dry. This does not bode well if we have a wet winter.
   In the poly tunnel the Christmas potatoes are thriving and enjoying the mild weather. I do not doubt that we will have new potatoes for Christmas this year. Spring cabbage is established and my rescued fennel is growing away. The sweet peppers are coming to an end mainly due to mould rather than cold. Radishes are about to fill out and there is still lots of lettuce. The Nigel's green outdoors chili (been grown indoors) is still producing nice sized chili's and has really been this years success story. I guess it will go on until there is a cold snap.
   Well guess I must continue with the clearing up jobs while the weather holds as best I can.