Hmm, so much for daily checking on the Cox’s Orange Pippins (planted only last year) to ensure harvest before they drop … I found this beauty on the ground. I suspect the local magpie. But it was unmarked and completely perfect.
And the Meyer lemon tree has been happily enjoying a sunny corner all summer, fruits now nearly ripe.
I had forgotten that I planted a tiny little melon seedling in the glasshouse… then mistook the rampant foliage for the adjacent cucumber… So it came as a great surprise to find a cluster of melons hidden amid the leaves. Beautifully scented and juicy.
Weeding in the brassica cage, I came upon this fine fellow under a large cabbage leaf. So pleased to see that at least one of the disappeared tadpoles had made it to frogdom! Such a miraculous transformation.
Ever since falling in love with one in the entrance to the large glasshouse at RHS Wisley, I wanted to grow a brugmansia. When I finally achieved my dream of having a “proper” glasshouse myself, a seller on ebay provided a small plant that I nurtured carefully over many months … with only a poor little stick to show for it. Fortunately, it finally dawned on me that perhaps the etiolated disappointment was due to nocturnal slug activity so I transplanted it to a nicer pot and positioned it more tactically. Success!
Starting at the top by the house on a beautiful summer’s morning…
In the far corner of the glasshouse is the peach tree….
Such a joy – all planted last year and now first flowering, despite the aphid invasion…..
And saving the best till last – over 50 buds in its first year!
The ancient pear tree nearest to the house has been bedecked with blossom this year – in the breeze it looked like a snowstorm!
Not enough growing space for all the seedlings being potted on in the glasshouse + scruffy looking grass in what is supposed to be a “meadow” = opportunity for more raised beds! Now just need to import more loads of compost to fill them….
The glasshouse was looking somewhat unkempt. A sunny day brought a surge of energy. Everything taken outside; inside cleared of cobwebs, dead leaves and general debris. Windows and shelving cleaned and then everything returned to its place. So glad I brought the kitchen table from the old house.
Out with the pickaxe again! This time to break up the rubble compacted by the landscapers along the edge of the bed outside the stable annexe. I wanted to plant a little lavender hedge but knew the drainage would not be sufficient. It was a tough job for such a short little ditch… but revealed plenty of stones to line it with to create what I hope will be a welcoming home for the lavender plants.
I also moved the standard Olivia Austin rose which had been in too much shade. Fresh new growth appeared almost overnight!
This is what it looked like a year ago:
And this was almost exactly two years ago! The little crabapple tree has happily survived all the chaos.
I am greedy. For plants and for their produce.
Hence the purchase of two damson trees (Merryweather and Farleigh, both AGM varieties) when there is really no more space for planting. Necessity provided the answer: grow them as cordons against the vertical supports of the vegetable enclosure so they don’t create unnecessary shadow.
Pick axe, heavy spade and determination, daunting volume of excavated stones, bricks and builders’ junk, muddy knees and strained back – then a starter indulgence of micorrhizal fungi, Climate Compost, leaf mould and manure to aid the roots before they have to find a way through the harsh terroir beyond.
Unpromising tufts above ground revealed pale treasures below. Tender & True parsnips grown from direct sown seeds last spring and rather forgotten about since.
and a few last carrots Lila Lu from Vital Seeds
There are four of them, each a different variety, lining “Dingley Dell” leading down to the stable annexe. They must have been planted originally as espaliers; you can clearly see the distinctive shape high up, way above the wall – presumably they didn’t have dwarf root stock in the 1800s. So high that it’s pretty well impossible to reach the fruit to harvest, even with a special expandable pole fruit picker. Instead, I scavenge daily for windfalls which can then be quickly peeled, cubed and gently poached with maple syrup into a delicious amber confection, delicious with cream – or made into a cake.
Along with species-rich turf, germinating grass seed and several new trees, the installation of hornbeam hedging has transformed the poor battered ground in the lower garden into a green and pleasant land.
And the pond is now home to some welcome tadpoles, gifted by kind neighbours.
Huerto 
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