Guerrilla gardening

I've started a spot of guerrilla gardening (making use of otherwise ungardened space that doesn't belong to you).  Opposite the house is a fairly typical stretch of rough countryside road verge, mostly coarse grasses and the less attractive sorts of weed; it is occasionally strimmed by a council contractor in spring and summer but otherwise left to its own devices.  It would be nice if it occasionally had something more interesting growing in it.  I don't want it to look like a garden, just a little more cheerful!  There are a couple of good plants there already - a self-sown geranium which looks like a pale form of Geranium phaeum, and an alkanet - and I've tried to introduce the native Iris foetidissima, at least one of which is surviving - but Strimmer Man tends to cut them down before they can do anything much.  I don't want to put anything too highly bred in there, both because such plants probably wouldn't survive the competition from the weeds (or Strimmer Man) and because they would look out of place in a country verge.  The exception would be some daffodils (there are plenty of daffs, the modern large-flowered types, in the verges in other parts of the village), which would cheer the space up and would die down before Strimmer Man puts in an appearance.  I have a lot of surplus-to-requirements daffodil bulbs, dug up from the bottom of the garden, and I've started planting them in the verge; it's really a bit late in the year, and a lot of them are going in much too shallowly as it's difficult to make deep enough holes, but we'll see what happens.  They were grouped by type in my flowerbed, but as they were growing closely together they will have got mixed up as I dug them out, so they might make rather a jumble, but I hope a colourful one.  If time permits, I might also put in some of the violets that are spreading much too well down in the bottom bed, and some of the Crocus 'Whitewell Purple' which should self-seed happily around, at least until the grass gets too long for them; and I keep meaning to move some of my snowdrops in there too (that will have to wait until after they've flowered in spring).  That should provide a good bit of spring interest, before Strimmer Man strikes.

Red chrysanths

When listing the flowers in the garden last time I forgot to mention the pot of dwarf red chrysanthemums on the patio, which continue to bloom brightly.  There's also a little pot of Cyclamen coum with dark pink flowers, which is making a small but welcome spot of cheer, and as usual the pinks are throwing up some unseasonal flower spikes.  (For some reason, at this time of year the flowers open pink, whereas earlier they are mostly white; presumably the effect of the colder weather?)  Vases of cut flowers this week, however, contain the proper winter flowererers, the winter jasmine and the winter honeysuckle; the latter is making quite a good show at the moment, with lots of its little cream-coloured flowers pumping out scent whenever there's any warmth in the sun.

Lonicera purpusii, winter honeysuckle

Last week was a mix of weather, with both sunshine and rain, and strong winds; it has now turned cold, as forecast, with frosts (first ice on the pond, need to scrape the car windscreen) and bright, but chilly, sunshine.  The dahlias have finally started to succumb and some of them have been taken into the greenhouse to dry off.  The garlic was planted out before the cold really kicked in, and I've just, very belatedly, put in seeds of the autumn-sown broad beans, with a topping of good garden compost to protect them from the frost.  The beans have gone into the same bed as this year's runner and French beans, but, as most of those were eaten by slugs before getting more than a couple of inches high and the rest didn't grow well, I'm hoping that it won't matter.  I didn't dig the bed over, either; I'm giving 'no-dig' gardening a go, in parts of the garden at least.  It's supposed to be good for soil fertility, and that's something that really needs addressing in this garden.

We've cut some of the holly (with berries) and it's in the summerhouse in a bucket of water; just as well as the cold weather has attracted blackbirds, fieldfares and redwings to the tree and they've eaten most of what was left.  They're now turning their attention to the last of the apples (the last that are on the tree, anyway; there are plenty in store in the greenhouse where they can't get at them).  The smaller birds have been enjoying the fatballs, including the long-tailed-tit family; and, when the main garage door was open one day, we had a wren inside, looking for spiders and singing lustily.  Other visitors have included a bullfinch and a song thrush.  Less desirably, we had another sparrowhawk visit, from the male this time, who caught some small bird, took it down to the bottom of the garden and proceeded to eat it on top of one of the piles of branches and twigs that are there to provide wildlife shelter.  At least they are tidy eaters, and take the remains of their lunch away with them, so I don't have any grisly bits to deal with.

Preparing for winter

Storm Brian passed us by, and October was overall quite mild, even warm occasionally.  But November has brought a few night frosts and some chilly days - nothing too severe yet, and there has even been some pleasant sunshine, but it has been enough to start me thinking about preparing for winter, especially as colder weather is forecast.  I put the greenhouse bubblewrap up before the end of October, unusually early for me, but the greenhouse heater is already on and the half-hardies are sheltering inside, except for a very few plants still in mixed plantings in pots outside.  One of those is the ginger lily, which isn't showing any ill effects yet; it's sharing a pot with a dahlia, and the dahlias haven't yet blackened as they are supposed to before you dig them up.  The blue echeveria is also still outside, but tucked up against the house wall; it has overwintered there before now, but I'll keep an eye on it and move it if it gets really cold.  The other echeveria, or rather its remains, is now in the greenhouse.  That plant has had a tough life; D found it, years ago, unwanted, uncared-for and unwatered, on top of an office cupboard, and brought it home for nursing.  It responded well, and flowered, although it eventually grew into a rather ungainly plant.  For the last couple of years it has been in the greenhouse, but in the spring it had an accident: while preparing the greenhouse for our month-long absence I knocked it over, scattering its compost, breaking off most of the stems and leaving it in a pretty hopeless state.  I had no time left to repot it, so the pot and its half-uprooted contents (with hardly any compost) were dumped unceremoniously outside.  When I came to examine it last week I found that the plant had broken into four tiny pieces, all of them rooted; they have been potted up properly and are now on the greenhouse staging where I can keep an eye on their progress.  Most of the other plants are down underneath the staging where they can be watered as required, but the echeveria will need to be kept drier.

Given the lateness of the season, I'm quite pleased with the edibles coming out of the garden at the moment.  In the veg plot are kales and cabbages (the latter rather tattered, but fine for stir-fries), a couple of sprouting broccoli plants (must keep the pigeons off those), two stems of tiny brussels sprouts, leaning at an alarming angle thanks to too-low-level netting over them, leeks (but too small still to be of much use), and even a very few, very small, mangetout from a very late sowing.  In the greenhouse there are a few small lettuces, some even smaller carrots in a trough, and various salad leaves - pea shoots, rocket and mustard leaves.  And of course there are the cooking apples, of which there is a large store in the greenhouse and a few still on the tree, where the starlings have been enjoying them.  Coming along for later, there are some salad leaves germinating in one of the old growbags, and some winter lettuce seedlings planted out into the other - so there should be some greens for late winter/early spring.

Dahlias and chrysanths

Some pinks

Flower colour is rather less in evidence.  The dahlias have finished flowering; the last blooms made a vaseful with some of the yellow and red chrysanthemums, which wasn't the most tasteful colour combination but, when colour is at a premium, anything goes.  I also managed a vase of pinks, and there are still sedums to fall back on, although they are fading now.  The borage is nearly over, but I've spared it for the moment as there are still a very few flowers open, and indeed a large bumblebee was enjoying them the other day; it also found some last oregano blooms, so they have been spared too.  The 'Blush Noisette' rose still has a few flowers on, though in no fit state for cutting.  Otherwise it's the winter shrubs - Mahonia 'Winter Sun', winter jasmine, winter honeysuckle (early into bloom this year) and the winter viburnums, all of them always welcome at this time of year.  And, despite the lack of colour, the garden is looking relatively tidy at the moment; we managed to mow the lawn the other day, which must be the latest we've ever done it.  It is looking very healthily green, which may not last long if we do get a cold snap!

The wildlife is also preparing for winter.  Migrant birds are now here - fieldfares and redwings, lots of starlings and a group of collared doves - and there are more blackbirds putting in an appearance, so I'd guess that some of them are migrants too.  The mistle thrushes have been much in evidence, trying in vain to keep the newcomers off the holly tree and next-door's grapevine.  It will soon be time to cut some holly to keep some Christmas berries for us!  I put the nestbox back up (taken down a good couple of months ago for cleaning) and the bluetits have been taking a look at it, probably fitting it out as a winter roost; and the sparrows have been staking their claims to the various hidey-holes under the roof, presumably for the same reason.  There is still some insect life around; besides the bumblebee, which I'd guess is a young queen preparing for hibernation, there must be a good number of flies and the like on the plants, as we have lots of tits very actively examining the foliage.  And there has been a red admiral butterfly enjoying what sun we've had, before it too heads for hibernation.