A proper December

Back in the day, November was chilly and December even more so.  Taking part in Bonfire Night activities, in early November, meant donning warm clothes and gloves, which were generally de rigeur until about March, or sometimes April.  In recent years, winters have been becoming milder, and we’ve got used to plants overwintering with little protection.  Some years I’ve left my echeverias outside, their pots moved up against the house wall for shelter.  Last winter I left some dahlias in pots on the patio, with no special measures to keep them warm, and they survived.

But then, occasionally, the weather just likes to remind us that we can’t take things for granted.  December this year has been cold, and last Sunday we woke to about 18cm (7 inches or so) of snow; there has been no further snowfall, but temperatures have only occasionally risen above zero Centigrade (and then only by a couple of degrees) and at night have fallen to -9C at times.  The roads have been treacherous, so I’ve been confined to the village, living (rather comfortably, actually) out of the stores in the freezer.  Yesterday a rapid thaw started, with rain and significantly warmer weather, and today all the snow has gone, leaving us with milder but very windy conditions. 

Frosted glass in the porch

When icicles hang by the wall ,,,

The birdlife has been very glad of the cooking apple tree; they've eaten all the apples that were still on the tree, and we’ve taken a few more out of store for the blackbirds.  It has been too cold to keep putting drinking water out for them; it froze within a couple of hours.

The last apple on the tree

So, what of the plants?  The greenhouse temperature has fallen to below -3C, which the dahlias (brought in there to dry off) will not like, and the top growth on the hedychiums is looking decidedly peaky.  Last year I dispensed with the greenhouse’s bubblewrap protection over winter, but this year I’m regretting not having taken any steps to protect the more tender plants.  Too late now, I suppose, although the meteorologists are hinting darkly at more cold weather to come, so it might still be worth putting the wrap up.

But, despite the past week’s freezing temperatures, life in the garden still goes on: under the snow, the hellebores have been pushing up buds …

Hellebore buds under the old leaves

 

No gardening today! (eom)

 

No gardening today ...

... and no bird bathing either!

Foggy November, frosty December

Woodpigeons in the fog

True to form, November slid downhill from mild and wet to chilly, foggy and damp.  The last days of the month were marked by dismal, dank fog, with the sun occasionally peeking through but to no great effect.  The pigeons gathered high in the trees to enjoy what little sun there was, and the sparrows, dunnocks and robins enjoyed the fatballs and crumbs put out for them; Lefty became a regular on the patio for breakfast.   Then one day into December, officially winter, the temperatures dropped, the weather came from the east and north and overnight minus temperatures (and not much more by day) became the norm.  Clear, sunny weather but feeling cold.  The berries on the rowan and holly trees were eaten weeks ago, so the cotoneaster berries and cooking apples – the eaters were boxed up for safety some time back – have been the main attraction for birds in search of food.  Fieldfares and a host of blackbirds flocked to the apple tree and to a pile of partly-damaged apples left out on the terrace up by the house, with occasional forays by robins, tits and chaffinches (there aren’t many cooking apples left on the tree now, although I have a few in store).  A female blackcap was feeding on the apple tree a couple of weeks ago, though I haven’t seen her since; blackcaps have been noted staying the winter in the UK in recent years instead of migrating to Iberia, and it was a bit late for this one to be on passage unless she was heading for the south coast.  I hope she stays here over winter.

Diners on the terrace

At least there have been no further avian flu casualties as far as I’ve seen.

I haven’t yet finished weeding the veg patch so no compost has been spread on the beds yet; as a result no garlic or beans have been planted / sown, though there will still be time for that when the freeze lets up.  The tulip bulbs are also still waiting to be planted, though the saved sweet pea seeds have been sown and are germinating on an indoor windowsill. 

There are still a few last flowers blooming in the garden, though they won’t last long in the frost.  Fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’ was in flower until the past few days, and one last ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ rose is holding on, battered but unbowed; and I picked the last nerine stem for a vase the other day.  There are winter flowers too: Rosemary ‘Miss Jessop’s Upright’ is providing some colour in the front garden, along with Mahonia ‘Winter Sun’ and the winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum).

Rosemary 'Miss Jessop's Upright'

Jasminum nudiflorum

Fuchsia 'Hawkshead' - before the frost

Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll' - hanging on in there

Pandemic

No, not that pandemic, but the outbreak of avian flu that is particularly bad across the country this year.   Migrant birds may have brought it here – seabird colonies and flocks of wild geese have been much affected – and it has now reached our parts.  It’s highly contagious and apparently birds die very quickly after catching it.  The estate next to the village brings in large numbers of pheasants for shooting, which have come down with the disease; they roam very freely around the area, spreading the flu to at least one of the village farms, whose hens all died yesterday.  500 of the pheasants have also died;  the prospects don’t look good for the other chicken flocks round here (and our local supply of eggs will be disrupted for some time).  Fortunately hardly any pheasants and few partridges have been wandering into the garden this autumn, so perhaps our land isn't badly infected.

But I wasn’t entirely surprised to find a dead woodpigeon under the holly tree today.  It hadn’t been attacked; it just looked as if it had just keeled over, so I’m assuming it was another casualty of the flu rather than a victim of a predator.  I found it a burial place in the front border by the wall.  But we’re hoping that our many other birds in the garden and beyond stay clear of the disease, especially the birds of prey such as the kites which might scavenge on the carcasses of the dead pheasants.  Ultimately, though, there’s not much we can do about it.

Our lame woodpigeon Lefty is still hale and hearty, and has been clearing up the dropped scraps under the fatball container when the sparrows are having their fill.  We’re hoping he’ll make it into 2023 when he will be at least 10 years old (we first noticed him in 2013, see the blog from that year).

Lefty and the sparrows

The weather has been on the mild side for November, but rather wet on the whole.  While stacking firewood for the winter, D noticed that the birds had been making use of the woodstore over the summer – there are two nests tucked up under the roof on top of the wood.  We left them there at least for the time being in case they are of use as a winter roost!

Nest in the woodstore

Returning home

Back home after more travels, this time to eastern Europe, where the weather was unseasonably mild and sunny (whereas at home it was wet and windy).  It seems that we’re not the only ones returning to the Cotswolds from the northern parts of Europe; the fieldfares and redwings have arrived in our absence.  At the moment they are mostly turning their attention to the rowanberries, in competition with the blackbirds and starlings, who are taking a dim view of their presence, as is the plum tree woodpigeon who is also trying to shoo them away when it finds them perching in his tree.  I wonder if the blackbirds are also migrants?  We haven’t had much blackbird activity for several weeks – a pair had been feeding on the cotoneaster berries in the front garden but staying away from the main garden – so perhaps these are a different pair.

Rowanberries in the garden

The apples will need to be picked and protected from the birds now that the weather is turning cooler, although some of them are still ripening on the trees, especially the Coxes.  I mentioned in the last post that the Blenheim Oranges were particularly large this year; the biggest eventually turned the scales at just over 500g (about 1lb 2oz).  And there are plenty of cooking apples to store for the winter.

Big 'Blenheim Orange'

Apples still ripening on the cordons

The dahlias haven’t produced many flowers this year, which is my fault as I haven’t planted them out properly.  Something else that falls into the ‘must do better’ category for next year.  There have been three fine ‘Café au lait’ blooms and a few on one of the Bishop’s Children plants.  I’ve always preferred the single dahlias over the showier doubles, but having cut a few doubles in a neighbour’s garden for a village event I’m at least partly won over; this one is past its best, and the photo doesn't do its colouring justice, but it had lovely delicate blue-tinged edges to its petals, and I could be persuaded to grow it in future.

Big dahlia from Liz's garden

Work to be done

 

Nerine bowdenii

The hiatus since the last post is partly due to a holiday (in the UK), partly due to time spent doing other things (cooking and freezing the tomato glut, among other jobs) and partly due to inactivity on my part.  I haven’t been very busy in the garden this year; must do better over the winter.  The successes, such as the excellent show of nerines, which have been keeping us in cut flowers over recent weeks, don’t feel well deserved.

Actually not much has been happening on the plot over the past few weeks apart from autumn closing in.  The weather has been mostly mild (apart from a couple of frosty nights), with some lovely pleasant, sunny days and some wet ones – nothing too dramatic.  Despite the heat earlier in the year, there has been no Indian summer.  The autumn colours are turning nicely and leaves are starting to fall; the autumn sedums and the winter-flowering viburnums are blooming and there are a few cyclamen under the holly tree, whose berries are colouring up well.  It’s only a matter of time before the fieldfares and redwings fly in from northern parts and start feeding on them and the apples.

It's time to get the autumn jobs done but, as always, I’m behind with those.  The overwintering broad bean seeds only arrived in the post today, likewise the sweet pea seeds, but I already have garlic cloves saved from this year’s crop and seed of winter lettuces left over, and they could have been sown (but haven’t been).  Part of the reason is that this summer’s crop needs to be cleared away first; but the frost hasn’t yet polished off the courgette plants and summer beans, and I’m loath to cut them down prematurely.  There are lettuce and radicchio still going great guns.  And my lax gardening regime this year has resulted in quite a few weeds that need to be removed so that the beds can be mulched ready for the new crop.  Much space in the greenhouse is taken up with the tomato plants, most of which only have a few green fruits still on them, but the ‘Gardener’s Delight’ still has huge trusses of unripe fruits and isn’t ready to be pulled out.

Tomato 'Gardener's Delight' 

On the subject of fruit, the apples are still ripening on the cordons but we’ve started picking the earlier varieties to store them away from insect and bird attack.  (Finding somewhere to store them safe from mouse attack is another problem.)  The crop is enormous, as are some of the individual apples; ‘Blenheim Orange’ has produced some of the biggest eating apples we’ve seen.

Giant 'Blenheim Orange' apples

Earlier in the month we took advantage of a few dry and windy days to get the lawnmower out and tackle the grass that had been left to grow long this year.  We don’t usually cut it after September but it really needed taking in hand.  Despite the weather it was still quite damp so it only got a rough and fairly high cut, to a height that should keep it manageable over the winter.  Having taken quite a relaxed attitude to it this summer, we didn’t feel the need to attempt to produce the ‘perfect English lawn’ effect (not that our lawn ever comes even remotely close to that ideal).

In a recent post I mentioned that it has been a good year for hummingbird hawkmoths.  It’s not long since they were thought not to breed in the UK, but warmer summers have encouraged them to stay, and only a couple of weeks ago I saw one in a garden deep in the Lake District, well beyond its previous range.  Very welcome foreign visitors.

Home-grown

Figs

After our neighbour’s lovely dish of figs, we’ve managed a couple of our own; not as big or as beautiful, but not at all bad (and they tasted good).  I was quite pleased with them.  We continue to have large quantities of tomatoes and courgettes (pasta sauce, anyone?), lovely lettuces and a few beans; the climbers are very late, having been munched when small by the rabbit and only slowly sprouting from the base again.  And of course there is a huge crop of apples.  Not at all bad for a season when I’ve done so little.

Autumn flowers are starting to show as well.  There’s one big Dahlia ‘Café au lait’ flower, some rudbeckia blooms and a nice little pot of fuchsia, and the antirrhinums are throwing up a second flush of colourful flowers.  And I’ve obviously done something right this year with the nerines; after a few rather lean years they have produced over a dozen flower stems.

Dahlia 'Cafe au lait'

fuchsia (unknown variety)

The birds are sorting themselves out for the winter.  The robins are claiming their territories, tick-ticking at each other and occasionally singing sweetly across the lawn.  While humans regard fences and hedges as the boundaries of our territory, for birds it’s open spaces that divide up the land, and lawns are disputed areas; the robins may come down briefly to pick up a tasty morsel from the grass, but they don’t stay long.  There are a pair of warblers about at the moment, and a greenfinch was down today, but otherwise it’s the smaller birds and the pigeons/doves that are coming to the garden right now.  The blackbirds, when they show themselves, are still moulting; and anyway, there’s plenty of fruit in the hedgerows, so why would they come to the garden?