Garden Visiting In January

I don't often visit gardens, Daniel and Eleanor were never keen to traipse around looking at flowers so it's something we've rarely done. Now that Mick and I have time to do things on our own, I've decided that I'm going to try and visit a garden each month this year.

Whilst looking on the internet for somewhere to visit in January, I came across Wentworth Garden Centre. It's set in sixteen acres of walled and landscaped gardens, built in the 18th century by the Fitzwilliams of Wentworth Woodhouse.

The gardens are now being restored by the garden centre, and after our visit there yesterday, I have to say that they're doing a fantastic job.

We haven't had many frosts this year, but I would say that yesterday was our frostiest day of the year. It hung around all day.

The garden centre charge £1.50 per adult admission to the historic gardens and as you walk through the gate, the first thing to greet you is the maze. The replanting of the maze is one of the recent projects to be completed after it was grubbed out shortly after the Second World War.

We weren't very successful in getting round the maze, we ended up exiting the same way we went in. I should think that this would be a firm favourite with children.

The creation of a deer paddock is another project which has recently been undertaken. I should imagine that children would enjoy this area of the garden too.

As we walked further round, we came to a place where you could stand right next to the fence and one or two of the deer were very inquisitive and came to see us. One even waited for her nose to be stroked.

Some of the walls in the garden are hot walls and once contained heated flues. Fruit such as pineapples, peaches and apricots were grown in glasshouses which were erected next to these heated walls.

There's different areas to the garden, all with a different feel to them.

I didn't know what this was until I read up on it. It's a bear pit and the chamber has contained bears within living memory.

There's stairs to climb inside the pit and then you exit in an elevated part of the garden.

I also had to look up what these openings were. Any Ideas?

Here's a closer look. They're actually duck houses which date back to the Victorian period. They housed ornamental varieties including Pintail, Widgeon, Teal and Black Swans.

There's a few odd looking statues dotted about the garden.

I like this one though, sheltering under a tree at the end of a rill.

Wildlife habitats and feeding stations were evident throughout the gardens. Log piles had been left and plenty of bird houses and seed and nut holders were scattered about. They're obviously paying off as there was beautiful birdsong to accompany us on our walk.

We saw three squirrels chasing each other along the ground until they climbed a tree, swirling and twirling as they went. I was too slow with my camera to catch them in the act.

It was a lovely place for a visit and we'll definitely return later in the year to see the gardens again in a different season. I can tell that spring will bring plenty of colour, there were already lots of bulbs beginning to show themselves.

After visiting the gardens, we headed for the garden centre. There's plenty to see here too and it was very busy. In the grounds are a restaurant, a deli, an ice cream parlour and a farm shop. There's craft units in the courtyard and even an adventure playground, among other things.

There was a farmer's market in the car park. It's there on the second Sunday of the month and has stalls which include local venison, ostrich, kangaroo, honey, preserves, artisan cheeses and organic vegetables.

After we'd visited the historic gardens and garden centre, we made our way in to Wentworth village. You can read about that on my Through The Keyhole blog.

All in all, a lovely, but chilly, day out.

Abandoned Veggies

When we took on our new allotment, it had just about all been cleared. I mentioned previously that lots of soft fruit bushes and canes have been left behind, but nearly all the veg which had been growing had been lifted so that the majority of the plot is now bare. There's one exception, parsnips. They don't look much more than weeds at this time of year, but it's what's underground that matters.

The previous plot owners have left absolutely loads of parsnips behind. If I'd been them I'd have been tempted to lift them and take them with me. In fact, that's what we did on our old plot. Parsnips were the only things we had growing, so we didn't want to leave them behind. Delicious they were too. On our new plot, there's two full rows left, and we've already dug up and used an extra half row.

They've grown really well so it's a shame that the old plot holders aren't reaping the rewards of their hard work, but I'm not complaining, this lot should keep us going for quite some time. I keep lifting more than I need for one meal so that I can par boil them and freeze them for use later, otherwise they'll end up going woody before we get round to using them all.

As you can see from the photos, they're a great size. At least I know that parsnips should grow well on the plot for me.

Christmas Presents

I was very lucky this year, Santa brought me lots of lovely things for the garden. I'm sure the birds will be delighted as some of my gifts will benefit them.

I absolutely love this birdbath. I'm still deciding where in the garden to place it. I'd like to be able to see it from the window so that I can enjoy the birds taking a dip or having a little drink.

It's got such lovely detailing on it, these are little leaves draping from the sides in to the bowl.

Even the stand is decorated.

I got another birdbath to hang on my feeding station. I'm going to wait until the strong winds we're currently experiencing have died down before hanging it though as it's ceramic, I don't want any accidents.

There's a cute little birdie on the side.

I think my seed bill is going to go up, I've got another bird feeder to fill now. This feeder comes apart for ease of cleaning which will be very handy, it's so hard to give some feeders a thorough wash out.

I already have a Super7 electric propagator but it can be a little restricting. It's ideal for windowsills as the seed trays are only a quarter size, but it's not very good if you want to use your own pots. This new electric propagator will be much better for starting off larger seeds, or for things like cuttings.

I'm not a huge fan of roses, but I do love pale yellow ones, especially with single flowers. I was really taken with Golden Wings when Sue showed a photo of it on her Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments blog. It was included in the post, Flowers on the plot - Self sown and roses, and I commented then that I really liked it but didn't have anywhere to grow it, but I put it on my wish list all the same. I was thrilled to bits when I opened it up on Christmas morning, I'm just going to have to find a space for it now. It's going to look beautiful when it blooms.

I love the fact that it's fragrant too.

I shall have to take care when planting it, just look at those thorns.

I've mentioned before how I have a thing for pigs. Mavis, my pig from Mevagissey, recently featured on my Meet Mavis post. Now, she has a little companion.

This is Joffrey, my little Micro pig which Daniel bought me for Christmas. He came in his own little carrier, and when opened up, you can see that he was comfortable as he was nestled in hay.

How cute. I can see a little collection in the making here.

Didn't I do well? I've been thoroughly spoilt, as usual.

I'm Giving Up My Allotment

Yes, I'm really giving it up. Actually, this was decided in October but the key to the site will be handed back this week. It's the end of an era.

Don't worry, it's not as drastic as it sounds, I've already got a brand new plot and I love it.

This all came about a long time ago. My allotment is on a very small site, there's only six plots on it. You have to go down a ginnel to reach it and it's tucked right out of the way behind some houses. I was there on my own one day doing a bit of weeding. When I looked up, I saw a lad mooching about nearby. I was a little taken aback and eventually he made his way through some bushes which run along the side of the site. About five minutes later, a couple of men came running through the site. When they saw me, they asked if I'd seen a young lad. Apparently, he'd been trying to break in to one of the nearby houses and the men were giving chase. This episode really unnerved me and since then, I haven't liked to visit the plot on my own. With it being such a small site, it's extremely rare that anyone else is there when we visit so it's quite lonely.

There are four allotment sites in our area, all run by the same association, so Mick had a word with the secretary who put our names on the waiting list to switch sites. We've waited quite some time, but we got a phone call in October offering us a plot on a different site. In fact, we had a choice of plots, but we've really struck lucky with the one we've taken.

It's really been looked after and has only been given up because of ill health. There's a blackberry bush, currant bushes, raspberry canes, gooseberry bush, a strawberry patch and quite a large rhubarb patch. All the fruit is tied in to frames where necessary and looks very neat and tidy. There's also a shed on the plot which Mick's very pleased about. What is it about men and sheds? It will come in very handy anyway.

We'll have to wait and see what the soil's like, but our first impression is that it's better than what we've been used to on our other plot. We've been told by a plot neighbour that it was looked after really well so I'm hoping that there's plenty of nutrients and fertility in the soil. Our old plot used to flood quite badly until we ran a drain along the side of it, but even then, there were places where we still encountered standing water. The new plot looks to drain well.

One thing which will make life much easier on the new site is mains water. We didn't have access to water on the old site other than what we managed to collect ourselves so it will seem a little strange being able to water our plants without worrying we're going to run out of water.

The new site is much larger than our old one and there always seems to be someone around, so I should feel more confident about going down there myself. Mick's uncle has his allotment on this site and he's down there most days. The gardeners we've met there so far have all been so friendly.

Mick's spent a couple of days over the festive period clearing everything from our old plot. We'd only planted a gooseberry bush, a blackcurrant bush and a rhubarb crown a few months ago, so he's dug those up and potted them up until we decide where on the new plot we want to plant them.

The photos in this post were taken on 26th of October 2013 when we signed up for the new plot.

It's all really exciting and taking on a new plot has renewed my enthusiasm. I'm looking forward to getting stuck in now. Roll on seed sowing time.

Two For Joy

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.

Photo taken at Temple Newsam on Saturday.

Wishing you all a joyful, happy and healthy 2014. Hope it's a great growing year for us all.

Blog Of The Month - Review

This year, I dedicated one post each month to Blog Of The Month. This is where I featured a blog I was enjoying reading. Some of the blogs I featured were new to me, others were ones I'd been reading for a while. I hoped that by doing this, I might introduce some of my readers to other, interesting blogs, though I know that many of you already read the blogs I featured.

I thought I'd list the blogs I featured each month in case any of you missed the original posts. They're all definitely worth a read.

January - A Whole Plot of Love
February - Annie's Little Plot
March - Gardens and Wildlife
April - A Rich Tapestry
May - Dig The Outside
June - Rusty Duck
July - Above The River
August - An Urban Veg Patch
September - Living On The Edge
October - The Urban Cottage
November - Grow My Own Eden
December - A Gardener's Weather Diary

If you haven't yet visited any of the blogs I've mentioned, I can highly recommend them. Do pay them a visit, and don't forget to tell them that I sent you.

I should just mention that the photo which accompanies this post has nothing to do with my Blogs Of The Month. I snapped these daisies yesterday at Temple Newsam, the grass there is covered in them.

Monthly Plants 2013

This year, I took the late Geoff Hamilton's advice and purchased a plant each month which was in flower for my garden. I hoped that by doing this, I would have something blooming in my garden every month of the year.

I thought I'd list the plants I chose, firstly so I've got a record all in one place, but also to give other people an idea of plants which will be flowering in any particular month.

January - Cyclamen
February - Primrose
March - Pulmonaria Angustifolia Blaues Meer
April - Arabis Spring Charm
May - Aquilegia Vulgaris Clementine Purple
June - Scabiosa Columbaria Barocca
July - Lewisia Special Mix
August - Liriope Royal Purple
September - Dianthus Sunflor Charmy
October - Salvia Nemorosa Ostfriesland
November - Sedum Spectabile Brilliant
December - Hellebore

I'm pleased with the plants I've chosen throughout the year, they've added more variety in to the garden as well as plenty of colour.

As you can see from the photo, the cyclamen which I bought last January have survived and are ready to burst in to flower again ready for January 2014 so my plan is really working.

I've enjoyed visiting a nursery each month and choosing which plant to buy. It's definitely worth doing if you want year round colour in the garden.

Merry Christmas

Holly, snapped on our walk at Lotherton yesterday.


I'd like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. Hope it's a good one.

Hellebore For December

This year, I'm taking the late Geoff Hamilton's advice and visiting a nursery each month with a view to buying a plant which is in flower for my garden. Doing this should ensure that I have something blooming in my garden every month of the year.

I've seen snowdrops in flower starting to appear on blogs, and as I have very few of them in my own garden, I thought it might be nice to acquire a few more as my December plant. However, after visiting numerous garden centres and nurseries, I've been unable to find any which are already blooming. In fact, only one of the garden centres I visited had any at all. It was time for plan B.

I had to go in to Leeds today, very last minute Christmas shopping. It wasn't as busy as I'd expected actually, which was good, and I'd only got a couple of things to buy so I wasn't there long. I decided to pop in to the market and I managed to find this beautiful hellebore for the princely sum of £2.45. I'm not very knowledgeable where hellebores are concerned, so I don't know the variety, but as the sign stated it was a Christmas Rose, it may be helleborus niger. With only a few days to go until Christmas and with a name such as Christmas rose, I thought it would be fitting as my December plant.

There are very few seasonal flowers for sale in garden centres and nurseries in December, at least in the ones I've visited, but it's at this time of year that my garden needs something to brighten it up. I think the best place to look for plants at this time of year could possibly be the internet, unless I travel further afield to specialist nurseries.

I knew that December would be a challenge in itself with this challenge and I was right.

An Early Christmas Gift

A friend called round on Tuesday to drop off some Christmas gifts. Among the gifts for me was one I had to open immediately, this beautiful orchid. I already have two orchids, they've been in flower every Christmas for the last five years, but this is the first Christmas they haven't flowered so it's nice to have a new plant which is blooming for the festive period. It's a Phalaenopsis or Moth Orchid, and contrary to what many people believe, they're so easy to care for. I water mine once a week by allowing the water to run straight through and drain off, they don't like to stand in water, and when they've finished flowering I cut the flower spike right down to the base. This encourages them to send up another flower spike and they begin to bloom all over again.

We haven't spent any time at the allotment lately. November and December always seems to be such a busy time of year for us, not only with Christmas on the way but there's always lots of family commitments around this time too. I'm hoping that the weather stays mild over the festive period, with Hubby off work, we should then be able to get a few jobs done.

The wind's back again. We had some big gusts last night as well as a torrential downpour, and it seems as though the windy weather is here to stay for a while yet. A couple of panels have blown out of the greenhouse again, but I don't think it's worth putting it back together just yet, no doubt it'll only blow out again in the coming days with the wind that's forecast. It's lovely and sunny here today though, but very cold.

Self Watering Planters

I've been eyeing up Mark's tomato planters for a while now. Mark blogs on Mark's Veg Plot blog and has mentioned these planters a few times. They're self watering planters and are supplied with a feeder tube and reservoir. They work by holding water in the reservoir which is then delivered in to the compost by capillary action keeping it consistently moist. At the beginning of November, I noticed that there was an offer on Amazon, the 40cm planters were reduced to £5.87 each from £7.99 and the matching drip trays which they stand on were reduced to £2.99 each from £3.99. Hubby said he'd treat me, so I ordered three and I'm now looking forward to trying them out next year. I have to say that this size is quite large and will take quite a bit of compost to fill them, I think I could have possibly gone for the 35cm and they'd still be large enough to house a healthy tomato plant. Anyway, there should be no excuse for my plants under performing next year, certainly not down to watering anyway, these containers should ensure that the plants get exactly the right amount of water when they need it.

The wind did get up again over the weekend, though it was only in the early hours of Sunday morning and it was nowhere near as bad as we'd had it the week before. It's a bit gusty again today, but not too bad, and the greenhouse is still standing, thank goodness.

I've noticed lots of blue tits around again just recently. They seemed to disappear for a time but there's plenty of them back on the feeders again. They're a regular visitor to my window feeder, it's lovely to see them at such close quarters. I got my window feeder for Christmas last year and I can highly recommend them. There's lots of different types, but they all cling to the window with suction cups and once filled with a little bit of seed, the birds just can't keep away. I've had blue tits, coal tits, great tits and robins on mine, and even gold finches on a couple of occasions. A regular visitor is the collared dove, I have them queueing up for a turn. I'm so impressed that I've bought a couple of them as gifts this Christmas, I hope the recipients enjoy them as much as I enjoy mine.

Thinking Ahead

I've already bought or ordered just about all the seeds I need for next year, so I already know what I'll be growing. I suppose there'll be one or two extras which creep in nearer the time, but the staples are already chosen. I've decided to cut down on tomatoes next year, not the number of plants I'm going to grow but the different varieties. There's only three types which I've bought, though an extra one or two more might be added later. The first is Ailsa Craig. This is a medium sized tomato and one which is known for having a good taste. My dad is a fan of this one and always used to grow it, so I'm sure he'll be pleased to see this on my list. The second is Gardener's Delight, a must have as it's a variety which rarely lets me down, either in yield or in taste. This one is a cherry tomato and delicious when picked from the vine and popped straight in the mouth while still warm from the sun. The last one I've chosen is Totem, a bush variety. I grew this last year and was so impressed with the yield that I'm growing it again. The plants were literally covered in medium sized fruit which had a good flavour. I also like the fact that bush varieties require much less maintenance than cordons. I still had to give the plants some support by the way of a cane as the huge amount of fruit produced on the plants made them inclined to be top heavy and topple over, but there was no pinching out of side shoots or tying in as they grew. I usually grow a plum variety but haven't been very successful with any I've tried in the past. San Marzano are a favourite but they always ripen very late in the season and have never given me a very big crop so I'm not going to bother next year. One which I may grow again is Costoluto Fiorentino, a beefsteak variety which I grew for the first time this year. It was just like biting in to a very ripe peach, it was so juicy and sweet. I have a few seeds left so I may give them another go.

Hubby had some trees tidied up at work so he asked the tree surgeon if he would bag up some of the resulting wood chips for him. I've now got quite a few bags of the stuff which I'll be able to lay out some paths at the allotment with. I know that some sites have wood chip delivered free of charge, I wish this happened on our site as I could certainly make use of some more.

The fence panel which got blown out in the high winds last week wasn't as damaged as I first thought. After Hubby nailed the top back on, it slotted back in to place between the concrete posts, so that's saved us a bit of money. We managed to find all the bits of the greenhouse which had blown in to various neighbour's gardens and that's also been put back together. How long it will stay that way for remains to be seen. More wind has been forecast for this weekend, though I'm not sure if it will hit this part of the country, but stay safe, wherever you are.

Blog Of The Month - December

This year, I'm dedicating one post each month to Blog Of The Month. This is where I feature a blog I'm enjoying reading. Some blogs will be new to me, others may be blogs I've been reading for a while. I hope that by doing this, I can introduce some of my readers to other, interesting blogs, though I know that some of you will already read the blogs I feature.

It's a two for one this month. My Blog Of The Month for December is A Gardener's Weather Diary which is written by Martyn. Martyn is the husband of Sue who writes Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments. Many of you will know Sue already but if you don't, you're in for a treat this month as there's links here to two great blogs.

There's so many topics which crop up on Martyn's blog. As you might imagine going by the title of the blog, Martyn follows the weather quite closely and he blogs about the trends he's noticing. It's really interesting, we don't live very far away from each other yet we can often experience very different weather. Martyn sometimes blogs about things which Sue's already blogged about, or vice versa, yet the posts come from very different angles which are always interesting to read.

One of the things I love to read about on Martyn's blog are the birds which he and Sue encourage in to their garden. There's even a camera rigged up to one of the bird boxes so that the babies can be observed hatching from their eggs. Unfortunately, this particular bird box was unoccupied this year, but I'm hoping that a bird takes up residence ready for the next batch of eggs to be laid.

Martyn sometimes touches on his other hobby, steam engines. There's some fabulous photography on the blog of engines he's captured chugging through the beautiful Yorkshire (and beyond) countryside, though I should point out that Sue takes many of these photos too, she's a dab hand with the camera.

If you haven't yet acquainted yourself with Martyn's blog, do pop over, you're in for a treat. I've only touched on a few of the topics which Martyn blogs about here, there's also lots of posts on days out which he and Sue have had, and of course, lots of things about the allotment. Don't forget to tell Martyn that I sent you.

Edible

You may remember the post I did in October about the squash I managed to harvest this year. I'd grown Crown Prince and Queensland Blue and managed two of one variety and one of the other. The Crown Prince squash didn't actually look the colour they should, so I think the seeds I sowed were from a totally different variety, though which, I don't know. I decided that I'd still give them a go and see what they tasted like, I didn't know if they'd be edible or not. You can see that there were lots of seeds, but once scraped out, there was also plenty of flesh. It was cubed and roasted and it tasted delicious. It's a shame I don't know what variety it is as I'd grow it again. I suppose I could save some seeds, but there's no guarantee that they'd come true.

I've had a couple of trips to garden centres recently but you'd think you were in Santa's grotto rather than a place which sells plants. Most things have been pushed aside to accommodate everything you need for Christmas. I do enjoy looking around all the seasonal paraphernalia but I just wish that they'd remember that they're there to sell plants and gardening equipment too. Christmas seems to take over and there's very little else for sale.

The weather here today is terrible. We've got high winds and rain and it doesn't look as though it's going to let up any time soon. The wind got up during the night and we woke to a greenhouse without a door, a side panel out and half the roof missing. I suppose it'll be in one of the neighbour's gardens but I'll wait for the wind to subside before I go looking for it. There's also a broken fence panel so we'll have that to replace. I don't think we've got it as bad as the people in Scotland, and it's expected to hit East Anglia quite bad later on today. I hope everyone's safe.

Up Too Soon

These crocuses aren't supposed to wake up until late winter or early spring, yet here they are poking their heads out of the soil already. This variety is Advance, one I haven't grown before, but its lilac outside and yellow inner drew me to it. It looks like I might get to see it sooner than I thought at this rate. They're tough little things so I'm sure they'll survive whatever winter throws at them, even though they're already shooting.

Last week was a busy week here so nothing at all got done in the garden or on the allotment. I haven't even started digging it over for winter, behind with everything again, as usual. Getting the digging done in autumn is a good idea if the soil is clay as it is on my allotment, as the frost over winter helps to break up the clods of earth. It's something that I don't stress about these days though, I know from past years that whatever doesn't get done now will get done later.

We've only had a couple of frosts so far this year, November seemed to be mild in comparison to other years. I wonder if we're going to be hit with a cold spell soon, it doesn't look as if the next few days are going to change at all going by the five day forecast.