Four-and-twenty blackbirds

Ok, not quite four-and-twenty, and not baked in a pie, although the apples that they've been eating could have made a great many pies.  But this morning I counted 15 blackbirds in the garden, mostly eating the cooking apples brought down by the gales, with others heading for the holly tree and its berries and yet more just hanging out round the summerhouse.  The weather did indeed turn cold at the weekend, with a light covering of wet snow on Saturday morning and temperatures down to minus 3 overnight, and the birds suddenly became a lot more interested in the food available in the garden.  I've salvaged a good few apples and stored them in the greenhouse (mostly for feeding to the birds later in the winter), and several stems of hollyberries have been cut (and are also in the greenhouse, as the coolest mouse-proof place for them).  Besides the blackbirds, the fieldfares and redwings are also about and busily stripping the holly, and this afternoon I was scolded by the green woodpecker when I went out - so it's also still around.  We also had a female bullfinch one day, and a family of goldfinches picking over the Big Yellow Thing, whose seeds they're particularly fond of.

Although I haven't yet got round to clearing the summer pots (too many non-gardening things in hand at the moment), the argyranthemums et al seem to have survived the cold.  A little more leaf-clearing has been done, and some desultory tidying up, but the only major gardening achievement this week has been making a start on replanting the gooseberries, which have layered over the years and become very congested.  This was prompted by the discovery of a dead juvenile pigeon under the holly tree and the consequent need to find somewhere deep enough to bury it.  It now has a bit of gooseberry bush on top of it, in a position where I will be able to continue digging up the row without disturbing it.

Back to damp and windy weather again now, a bit milder but very November-ish, and no change in sight for the moment.  At times like this a little Christmas cheer in prospect seems very welcome!

Clearing up

Back home after a trip away, to a lawn covered with fallen leaves.  The weather during our absence was mild and intermittently windy, and all the ash leaves are down (apple and hazel leaves still to fall).  Since our return it has been mostly wet and windy (very windy recently), so there hasn't been much opportunity for clearing up.  The lawn is now clear, and two leafmould bins filled; the veg patch and drive are still to be raked, although the wind is sweeping the leaves into convenient piles for me. 

The wind is also blowing down the cooking apples; quite a few are already safely in store, leaving plenty for the blackbirds, the green woodpecker and the fieldfares (who have arrived while we were away).  The eaters were picked and stored before we left; quite a good crop of decent-sized fruit.  The birds still have plenty of fruit and berries and are showing little more than polite interest in the bread and seeds put out for them; that may change at the end of this week when the temperatures are set to fall.  We have a robin coming regularly to the patio, and a wren has been coming to bathe; there have also been plenty of tits (blue, great and coal) as well as the family of long-tailed tits dropping in from time to time.  The sparrowhawk flew over the other day; it has obviously been here while we were away, as evidenced by some partridge feathers on the lawn.

Besides the leaves, there is a lot of other clearing up to do in the garden.  The remains of the annuals have been composted (the courgettes and aubergines having gone that way before we left).  Nearly all the bulbs are still to be planted, too, including a batch of Alliums intended for the bottom border.  I did manage to partially overhaul that border before our departure, splitting the Francoa, moving some of the drought-haters such as the Astrantia and potting up some others, and planting out some new arrivals in the hope that they might do better in that situation.  I hope I can remember where everything is so that I don't disturb them while putting in the bulbs.


There are few flowers about: still some Nerines, a nice display by the dwarf red Chrysanthemum and a rather less impressive one by the big yellow Chrysanth, a few rather tatty Argyranthemum flowers in the pots, some belated pinks and late marigolds.  Otherwise it's the winter shrubs: Viburnum 'Dawn', the winter honeysuckle and the winter jasmine.  Some primrose flowers by the gate as well.  In the summer pots, there are still a few flowers of Nasturtium 'Milkmaid' which I sowed in situ to provide some late colour.  The flowers were supposed to be white but in fact are pale yellow, which worked very nicely though actually they came too late to have much effect; they really came into their own as foliage plants, however, providing good filling and contrast with the other contents of the pots.  I'd never really thought of Nasturtiums as foliage plants before.

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are fruiting madly (but not very flavourfully).  The contents of the grow-bag vacated by the aubergines have been supplemented with some of my home-made compost, and some small lettuce plants that were in the cold-frame have been planted in there, for winter salads; I'm sure you're not supposed to re-use grow-bags in that way, but I'm giving it a go.  I want to try to make better use of the greenhouse this winter, not just for keeping tender plants ticking over.  Most of the cuttings taken in late summer (Argyranthemums, Osteospermums, Penstemons mostly) have been potted on and are tucked under the greenhouse staging, except for the Southernwood (Artemisia abrotana) which is prone to damping off and which has gone into the draughtier conditions of the coldframe, alongside the sweet pea seedlings.  Looking at the forecast, I need to get the greenhouse insulation up and the heater up and running before the weekend - winter is coming!