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.