Garden covered in Snow, 22nd December 2009

Yes this is our garden 3 days before Christmas, our car is parked 2 miles down the road where we got stuck getting home last night. Our son's car stuck in driveway.

Fuschia still flowering November 2nd.

Yes my Fuschia is still flowering too, in fact this is the very best I have ever seen this plant.


and a closer view of all those lovely flowers!!

The leaves will drop soon when we get a frost, but it comes back to life in the spring. I don't chop it down and it just gets bigger every year.

Nasturtium still flowering 1st November.

I have not posted for a while, everything in the garden is slowing down now but the annual nasturtiums are still flowering today on 1st November.

No butterflies in sight now!

Beetroot Chutney recipe.

Here is my recipe for Beetroot Chutney.

2lbs cooked Beetroot.
1lb onions.
1lb cooking apples.
1 pint distilled malt vinegar.
2 level teaspoons ground ginger.
1/2 level teaspoon salt.
8ozs sugar.
8ozs raisins (optional)
Method.

-----------
Cook beetroot put to one side to cool.
Chop apples and onions and put in a pan with other ingredients bring to boil, simmer until onions and apples are soft, add the chopped beetroot and cook til it looks like chutney.
Simple! and delicious with cheese and crackers!

Harvest Beetroot 10th October

We harvested the beetroot this weekend, some are really huge.

and some are small..we have already made some beetroot chutney.
Pictures in next post.

Harvest carrots 10th October

We pulled up a few carrots today, some are quite good.

Some not so good, these will be on the dinner plate tonight!

Sedum Autumn Joy (Autumn Stonecrop)

Could anyone please tell me the name of this plant?
Thanks to Susan for naming this plant for me.

It has tiny little flowers that are just coming out now in September.

The leaves are very rubbery.

I would be grateful for your help thanks.

Back Garden Panorama Sept 2009

I took two pictures of our back garden from the bedroom window
and then I stitched them together with SERIF. This is the result.

There is really a lot more space but it can't be seen.

Japanese Lantern Plant 7th Sept.

The lanterns have now all turned orange.

a closer look....

even closer!

I put then in a glass dish, they are now for decoration!

Our front garden, a panorama Sept 2009

I took 2 pictures of our garden from the
bedroom window and stitched them together
with SERIF.
The tree in the centre is my 'birdie' tree,
where I hang all the feeders in winter.

Tomorrow I hope to put on a picture of the back garden.

Greenfinch eating Sunflower seeds.

Lovely, a greenfinch decided our garden was good for sunflower seeds yesterday, I rushed for my camera thinking he would have flown away but he had stayed and taken nearly all of them!

See how he blends in perfectly with the trees, makes it hard to see him.

Runner beans 5th September

The runner beans are still going strong even though the leaves are looking a bit yellow. We have had loads and loads of meals from them, just keep picking and they keep growing more!

The canes we had them growing up were too short
so put some string across and trained them to grow along it.

New shed finished 4th Sept.

Hubby (Ted) has finished his latest project of building a 'lean-to' onto the sheds. The result is quite good I think. As usual my 'before' and 'after' pictures coming next.

A great little extra bit of space now for the bikes and lawn mower,
and more wood to keep dry for the next project!

This was built entirely from bits of wood from skips,
and pieces of corrugated iron lying around.

Caterpillars eaten Nasturtium leaves!

Ah well, our garden is for wild life I keep saying, the caterpillars have now eaten all the Nasturtium leaves and flowers. The white cabbage fly butterfly was very busy last month laying eggs on them, now this is the outcome!From this on 12th July...but it did grow much bigger...

to this on 1st September!

and this is the culprit...

naughty...naughty !!!

New shed half built...2nd Sept.

Our new 'lean-to' shed is now half built with the
help of lots of spare wood our son brought home from waste skips.

Its rather like a patch work quilt with all the smaller bits filling the gaps.

We will soon be able to put the bikes
and lawn mower in there to give us more room in the other two sheds.

Shed extention started August 28th 2009

Well hubby has decided to put a lean-to on the end of the sheds! He cleared a space, moved the compost bin and has now got the frame up!

This is what it looks like from the bedroom window, a bit cock-eyed!

and here he is having a beer-break surrounded by bits of wood, the roof is half on anyway. Found some old pieces of corrugated iron for that.

More pictures coming soon....finished I hope, still its giving him something to do...

Pots by front door 30th August.

The pots by our front door have come on really well this year, here they are on the 7th June when I planted the flowers.

and here on 30th August, 3months later.

Its always in the shade so pictures not very good.

Wasps deterrent

Wasps are being a real nuisance now, they are looking for food and come buzzing round you when you are trying to have a late summer BBQ.
We have found that by putting out a jam jar with jam smeared round the top and a small amount of water in the bottom attracts them to that and not your food.
They crawl round the top and fall in then drown.

If you would prefer a more humane way to get rid of them, we also found that by burning incense sticks is helpful. They just do not like the smell.
Here is a packet of sticks I bought from a 99p store.

Each separate packet contains 15 sticks!

Larry the Lettuce ( topiary on a lettuce?)

It is possible to topiary a lettuce yes!

JUST FOR FUN,
yes it has finally gone to seed
..will be taking pictures of lettuce flowers soon!!

Our 'home-made' garden shed 5 yrs later!

This is how our home made shed looked 5 years ago when hubby built it....
complete with stable door!

Now we have double glazing!!
a neighbour was giving away a window,
so we put it in the greenhouse, very smart now!

this shed and greenhouse was built entirely of wood from skips,
leftover by people that did not want it.
An old shower door was used too, at the back of the greenhouse.

Japanese Lantern Plant 10th August

Our Japanese Lantern plant has flowered and now has green lanterns on it,
they will turn orange and red soon..
here it is earlier in the season...11th June...

and here on 7th August...

as you can see some of the leaves have dropped off
due to lack of water and space,
I am going to transfer to much bigger pot soon.

they are turning orange now..
TIP: if you keep them in the garden and not confined
to a pot they will 'take over',
the roots spread underground and new plants pop up every where.