I can hardly believe where this year has gone and again it is time to reflect and think on the ups and downs of the last gardening year.
My real love of gardening lies with my allotment and after a cold start it has been a tremendous year for vegetable and fruit production. We have just finished using our potatoes from store – we last bought potatoes in June – and what are left of the onions that dried so well are hanging in the garage. Many have been used to make chutneys and onion marmalade but there are plenty left for use through the winter.
As usual, I was getting impatient to start sowing my vegetable seeds when the soil was still too cold through the spring but I held back and planted in April with great results. There was a glut in my pea crop during the hot spell through July, even though I made several sowings three weeks apart. Everything else cropped steadily so that we were able to cope with the supply.
The container vegetables that included peas, mange tout and potatoes did not do as well as my crops in the ground. I think that I sowed too early (whilst I was waiting for the soil on the allotment to warm up!) and the containers did not get enough sun. The seedlings sat for weeks just above the surface of the soil and those that were planted in the ground much later, caught up and overtook them!
My efforts to attract more butterflies to the garden were a success this last summer. We counted 13 different species which was a huge increase on the previous year and had us rushing for a reference book every time we spotted something different! By far the most numerous were the Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshells, both of which rely on stinging nettles as a food plant for their caterpillars – it does pay to leave a small patch in a hedge or waste part of the garden! The Buddlejas attracted the most species along with the Sedums and Verbena bonariensis which were often smothered in bees as well. I will definitely be planting more Sedums this year!
Tulips were another big success in the garden. Although they are short lived in our shady, damp borders I would never be without them for their bright colours and the way they link spring into early summer. The cold spring meant that the pointed green buds seemed to sit snuggled amongst the leaves for weeks before slowly showing their colours, the flowers lasting for ages before a spell of warm weather finished them and left the petals on the ground like giant pieces of confetti. I have already planted several large drifts of bulbs for next year.
Better weather through the summer months after a large amount of rain through the winter has meant that most trees and shrubs have put on huge amounts of growth and I am still busy pruning and taking woody material to our local green skip. At last we have tackled the hugely overgrown Privet hedge in our back garden, reducing it to a couple of feet. It looks bare and gappy at the moment but a drastic prune was the only option as it was completely out of hand. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs is a very true saying!!
Happy New Year to you all!
