Autumn colour in the Windy City.

I was slightly apprehensive to be in the Capital when the 'Superstorm' was due, and at six o'clock this morning it was quite wild but a bit of an anticlimax after the build up, and London has managed to survive reasonably well. Trees are still standing (mostly) and even still have leaves on. 

I was worried that this was going to be one of those autumns that happens overnight - trees in full leaf, then trees stripped bare, with no colourful in between bit, but on venturing out in North London this morning I still found plenty of colour so I thought I might share it sharpish just in case the storm gets any more super. 

Magnificent Maples

Rusty Rhus

Golden Robinia

More Maple

Beautiful Burberris

Deep Physocarpus (I think)

Multi colour Maple

Whirling Sycamore leaves

And added to all that I found lots of berries, so many in fact that I think they will have to be another post. So, on with the half term break, and the sightseeing and I will just have to wait and see what the storm has done to my garden back home in Cornwall - are there any trees left standing down there?

Rainy day words of wisdom

Whilst meandering around the web on this rainy morning, I came across The QuoteGarden, a website full of classic words from gardeners, or about gardens. So I thought I would share some of my favourites:

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done. ~Author Unknown

Damn! No avoiding it today then.

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt. ~Author Unknown

Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes. ~Author Unknown

Very true - except I don't get tomatoes. I do get beans though, so I epitomise the saying full of beans 

(most of the time)!

Despite the gardener's best intentions, Nature will improvise. ~Michael P. Garafalo

Oh yes - all your work is only a suggestion, which may be completely ignored!

Gardens... should be like lovely, well-shaped girls: all curves, secret corners, unexpected deviations, seductive surprises and then still more curves. ~H.E. Bates, A Love of Flowers

Bless H.E.Bates, he can always be counted on to be saucy. Let's amend it to Gardens...should be like the lovely, well shaped girls that garden them!

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown

How often has this been true. I also find that when something appears and you can't identify it, if it is growing strongly and happily it's bound to be a weed. If it's 'weedy' and pathetic it will be that very expensive plant that you've nursed, feed and nurtured for ever!

Check out the website for more pearls of insight, you might find something to inspire,

 challenge or just make you smile.

The Quote Garden

Now the rain's eased off so I'm off to the Garden Centre to buy grit in preparation for more bulb planting - anything to avoid housework!

Lovely snack (for a Borrower)!

So yesterday was a very productive day in the garden. The Flaming Parrot Tulips are in, as are the Ixiolirion (see post). The fading Ipomeas have gone along with the disappointing sweet peas ( I've had it with sweet peas - I am now officially giving up on them!)

And in the veg bed the Cobra French Beans have gone after an amazingly productive year, the Calabrese (broccoli) have gone (enormous plants, low yield, I wouldn't recommend it for those with limited space like me) and I decided to lift my carrots. 

Now I'll admit that the carrots were planted late, because of the cold spring the onions and garlic ran late and they were in the allotted carrot space. So they were finally sown in early July and I wasn't expecting them to be ready before autumn, but they seem to have done nothing since about mid August, so I decided that harvest time was now.

I wasn't expecting much but.....

...and those were the largest ones which makes it even worse when you see the next shot with 

the scaler in!

Yes that's a 1p!

And as if Borrower (tiny 3inch high people who live under the floor boards - it's a book, not just my insanity) size carrots wasn't insult enough, they were meant to be Purple Haze! As the name suggests - that means they should have been purple, although you could argue that they are so small they just create a sort of carroty haze rather than any edible carrots, so half of the name is spot on.

Last years carrots were a real success, but this year they were a total waste of space. However, I will persevere for another season with Purple Haze, but I might also sow some orange and yellow mix, like I did last year. That way I might just get the odd carrot that's human size!

Right, now all I have to do is plant the overwintering onions and garlic in my newly cleared bed, re-organise the sunny border, dig over and re-stock the shady bed, finish sowing next years perennials, ponder whether a pond is an option, plant bulbs......

Hope you had a good gardening Sunday!

Jolly evenings viewing!

Last night I watched Channel 4's 'River Cottage to the Core'. It was all about changing the way we eat, and grow, fruit. As you would expect it was full of fab recipes and footage of idyllic orchards and vegetable beds. 

But it was also launching Hugh Fearnley Whittingstalls new plan to raise the profile of fruit amongst the next generation. He has teamed up with the Woodland Trust to launch an initiative to give away thousands of free fruit trees to schools. Last nights show showed a group of school children in Coventry planting their mini orchard next to the tennis courts, and a very good idea it is too. He is also looking for crowd funding to spread the scheme further. If you want information on getting trees or raising money for more trees go to:

River Cottage Fruitshare

This was the first of 4 episodes and I am looking forward to seeing what else Hugh comes up with to convert us all to eating and growing more fruit.

If you missed the show you can catch up with it on 4 on demand here:

River Cottage to the Core

Then I turned over to BBC1 to watch 'The Great British Year' which has reached summer. Again, there was lots of lovely footage of landscapes, animals and weather, but what stuck in my mind was the footage of one of my arch enemies - the garden snail! They were like an army invading the cabbage patch after a summer shower. If you need any convincing that snails are the work of the devil then watch this!

Annoyingly, although this shows how destructive they can be it also makes them appear strangely appealing, in a sort of laid back, Eeyore-ish way!

You can catch up with the whole episode on BBC iPlayer here:

The Great British Year - Summer

I do like to be beside the seaside

On a wander along the front at Falmouth's Gylly Beach we spotted some late colour and interest. Exotic and structural plants lifting the lowering skies with their autumn efforts.

Most exotic was Facicularia Bicolor a spiny plant from Chile. With huge rosettes of green spikes and a centre of bright red surrounding a purply blue flower, these plants are supposedly not frost hardy. But these were enormous and have been there for years, so the Falmouth ones are made of tough stuff.

Further on was a Ricinus Communis (Castor Bean) with it's gorgeous big bronzy leaves with pinky red veins, and clusters of red, pompom seed heads (which are really quite poisonous so best used at the back of the border out of reach of inquisitive children). There were also still flowers on the tall, graceful red stems. Apparently these plants are usually grown as annuals in this country, but I'm going to keep an eye on these to see what happens. If the Fascicularia can survive, then maybe these can too.

There were some lovely grasses swaying in the breeze and their muted colours complimented the coastline colours and autumnal skies beautifully.

And then we finished off with a Gylly Beach Cafe Brownie and a hot chocolate to celebrate the safe arrival of my new nephew. That's how to wet a babies head in style!

In with the new!

The Daisy! duo had a lovely day on Thursday with a trip to Bodmin Herb and Plant Nursery to look for plants for my redesigned shady bed. I had a list, (I have a planting plan and design, and have researched my scheme) but somehow I have come back without a few of the things on that list and added a few extras. It's funny how often that seems to happen!

I'll share the plans for the shady bed on another occasion, I'm still clearing the area at the moment, so we're a way off. But I have a growing selection of gorgeous plants that love and can't wait to plant.

So here is where we are so far:

Heuchera, Ligularia, Rudebekia, Telimia, Echinops, Euphorbia, Pennisetum and Veronica.

This forms the main group of perennials I need, but I had less success with the more structural shrubs. I shall have to keep looking - what a shame!

We're loving Heucheras, these four are, clockwise from top left - Midnight Rose, Sugar Frosting, Licorice and Berry Smoothie. They give good colour all year round, form very pleasing mounds of foliage and produce graceful tall flower sprays. Great value (and these were 5 for £15 - bargain!)

Alys Fowler wrote an article for the Guardian extolling the virtues of the ever expanding Heuchera family, so we're not alone. One can never have too many in my opinion.

I have to admit the Echinops and the Euphorbia Glacier Blue were not on my list but I couldn't resist (oh, and the Knautia). Coming across plants that are still giving their all despite it being past their usual season is always a very persuasive reason for buying them and that was true of the Echinops and Knautia - I'm sure I can find somewhere for them.

 

And then on Friday I was just passing my local garden centre and I spotted some Sedums being sold off. It would have been rude not to buy them so, to be polite, I did!

These are: left - Spectabile Brilliant and right - Autumn Joy, I can't wait to get them in!

Bodmin Nursery

That's determination for you!

Last week I put up a post about the above Liverpudlian Strawberry plant. I was convinced that that was the end of that, but this morning as I passed by I noticed this new flower and not just that but a couple of buds too!  

You can tell this plant hails from up north - they're hardy up there and don't take kindly to being knocked about!

I like this determined little plant more every day!

My tree is better than your tree!

Now here is a bit of mellow fruitfulness! 

Mind you the emphasis isn't so much on the mellow and more on the mad fruitfulness. 

This is a Conference Pear and the lucky owner puts down her success to liberal doses of chicken poo! It puts my own Pear harvest see post to shame really, my 6 were all eaten pretty much at one sitting in a frenzy of pear related hysteria! This harvest will need some thought:  Sticky Pear and Ginger Cake, Pear and Cranberry Pies, Spiced Cranberry and Pear Relish, Pear and Chocolate Pudding, Pear and Toffee Muffins, Roast Pork with Pear Sauce. These recipes can all be found on BBC Good Food, I can't vouch for them all because I haven't tried them but they sound quite fabulous and now I'm starving!

Right, I'm off to find me a flock of chickens in preparation of next year, and to try and persuade this lucky tree owner to hand over a few of her pears. I can't possibly wait a year to try Sticky Pear and Ginger Cake, ooh and there's a Mulled Cranberry and Pear Punch to wash it down!

Damn you rain!

This morning this was the last flower, just unfurling on my lovely new pink Strawberry plant. 2 hours later and look - pounded flat!

The plant, which doesn't actually fruit - it's all about the flowers, was planted from my Mum's garden in August and has been settling in ever since, flowerless. This was to be expected and I was fine with that, plants need time. But a couple of days ago I noticed a solitary bud and I thought bless it, it's going for a last fling before winter. 

A very short fling as it turns out!