Plum Jam and Floral Bands

August so far, has been a busy month, interspersed with visits to Pett Level for high tide swims in the lovely hot weather.

Gardening consists of keeping everything watered, dead-heading, harvesting and preserving. The weight of fruit on the trees continues to be a problem and we have had to prune the crabapple where branches were bowed down to the ground. We were sorry to have to do this, as the apples were just turning colour. Even the trunk is slightly askew.

Perhaps they can be used to decorate the barn for the barn dance on Saturday.
We picked some plums, and yes, another branch has snapped. It was good to chat to returning campers whist harvesting.

Yesterday I made the first batch of plum jam. I shall be trying it out for breakfast. I was pleased to find that there weren`t too many grubs in the plums.

 

Steve made tomato sauce. The children enjoy this for their pizza bases.

The white dahlias called My Love, are good this year. The garden is full of butterflies.

 

The growth on the willow is phenomenal. Plenty of material for making willow rings.

Hollie has been making these lovely bracelets for sale in the Wool Barn. They are a very reasonable price.

These are for my two great nieces.

I have been making floral headbands. Now I wish I had had them ready for Fairy Day.
 

The garden is a particularly nice place to be at the moment with dahlias doing their thing and sunflowers towering above all.

 

A Downpour and TLC

 I have a lot of news since my last entry. It has been a very busy time. 

The village flower show was held last weekend and we kept our entries down this year for the simple reason of having less stress. I was not happy about my sweetpeas which have been abysmal this year, but I managed to find enough and came first in both classes winning the Jimmy Young cup. He was a local man who grew amazing sweetpeas. My brother James won his cup in the next village this year as well. My dahlias also won in three classes and I got a cup.

My most spectacular dahlia was Firecracker.

But our veggies had no placements ..... courgettes and tomatoes. We didn`t think they were that good anyway. Better luck with them next year perhaps.
 

The following day was Fairy/Dinosaur day. This year the charity was MND. We raised £250. 

A few days earlier I had a feeling of despondency due to the garden not looking at all wonderful. Many things had died prematurely, we had lost the plums and a kind of tattiness prevailed. But in between we had an incredible downpour which lasted 40 minutes and gave us 4 inches of water. Our lane literally turned into a river and our garden was flooded.

 

 On the day, the weather was just right and the garden looked wonderful .... hollyhocks a mile high, sunflowers towering above, dahlias doing their thing and even the sweetpeas perked up. All thanks to the downpour.

We had more compliments about the garden than ever and this was a welcome boost for flagging garden spirits.  People were wondering how we got to grow things so tall. Well we don`t do anything special except perhaps adding farmyard manure and giving it all tlc.

Here is Verity having a glitter tattoo with Hollie.

And this is my great nephew Hugo digging for dinosaurs.
 

Families brought their own picnics and found spaces around the garden, which was very nice to see.

All in all a lovely day and I hope, enjoyed by all.

 

Plum Disaster

 We were all set for a wonderful plum harvest, the best for some years, when Anne sent me a photo of what she had discovered whilst checking on the guinea pigs.

Under the sheer weight of fruit, one of the main branches of the plum tree had snapped. As you can see it has grown at an awkward angle and has long been overdue for thinning out. However I did not want it to happen like this.
 

It was heart-breaking to discard the unripe fruit on the compost heap .... pounds and pounds of it.

It is not uncommon to lose laden branches like this.

Luckily there is still quite a lot left on the tree.

No guinea pigs were hurt.

On a happier note, the craft trolley has been stocked up ready for the main holiday season.
 

 

This year kittens, fairies and bunting seem to be quite popular.

 

Fairy and Dinosaur day is looming .... next weekend in fact so plenty to keep us busy.

Long Awaited Rain

We have had torrential rain at last. The huge water tank is nearly full and the pond is fuller still, after Anne topped it up recently.

 I think the grass has been saved and everything else will get a tremendous boost.

The courgettes are doing well anyway. 

 

In the polytunnel the tomatoes are looking good .....

 ....... but the aubergines are looking a little ropey. I`m not sure if it is a nutrient deficiency or something else.

 

We actually had to pull up 4 cucumbers as they had what we think is mosaic virus.

 

The lavender hedge is mainly ok with a couple of plants not looking too happy. That`s a bit of a nuisance. I`m not sure how we can fill the gaps but maybe they will catch up and fill out.

The sweetpea row is very colourful but the stems are only about 4 inches long. I think the rain will help to keep them going a bit longer. They are not going to win any prizes that`s for sure.

They still smell lovely.

 

 The first Gardeners Delight is out. In the garden this is the most reliable dahlia.

Anne has planted a new one and its lovely. I don`t know its name.

Today`s harvest was good.

 

Many of the poppies are looking tatty so some have been pulled up ..... not before collecting the seed though.

 

Blasted by Pigeons

On a recent visit to the garden, we were having our teabreak under the umbrella outside the polytunnel, when we were suddenly blasted with what felt like a handful of stones.

Wondering what on earth was going on, we looked around and saw that the ground was littered with cherry stones. Above us the culprit was just flying off. The pigeon had been gorging (literally) on the ornamental cherries and had chosen our teabreak to excrete the waste. My t.shirt went straight in the wash as soon as we got home.

 I have since read that pigeons eat the cherries whole. Judging by the stones that rained down on us, I was surprised the pigeon could take off.

It was all very amusing ..... after the event.

The cornflowers are at their peak. We have a tremendous amount of dead-heading to do at every visit. It is a restful job. The colour range is good this year.

The poppies are still flowering though some earlier ones are looking a bit ragged round the bases.

 

I am trying to leave the pods in the ground for as long as I can to allow the seeds to ripen. They are beautiful in their own right but not the dead leaves.

I have cleared quite a bit from the flowerbeds, shasta daisies, oriental poppies, sweet rocket. It gives everything else a bit of space.

Lots of campers around this weekend, many revisiting, which is lovely to see.

The little yurt is now up and running. Full of interesting things for the children,

 

 

June has been a blast.

Too Busy Smelling Roses

Our tasks over the last few days .... tying things in, picking sweetpeas and harvesting fruit.

We always lose sunflowers to the wind, so we have constructed Heath Robinson type frameworks using the old yurt trellis.

 The hollyhocks continue to suffer from the ravaging rust. I remove the lower leaves as they get bad but never put them on the compost heap.

After picking the raspberries and blackcurrants, I tended the sweetpeas, detendrilling and tying in.

Dead-heading cornflowers is a never-ending job but I do enjoy it.

This is the new bed in the raised area. I made the mistake of planting lychnis behind the cornflowers so we can`t see the magenta flowers unless we go round to the back path. So much for following heights on seed packets. It is always wrong.

In the middle of my carefully planned scheme, up comes a dahlia which I had forgotten about.

Talking of dahlias, here is one that was grown from seed last year. I left it in the ground. Quite pretty.

 

 

And here are a few more just starting.

 

We are having to keep sharp eyes open for pests as there are a lot of strange new insects around. Thank goodness for Neem oil.

Above our heads as we have a teabreak, ornamental cherries cluster. 

We harvested our first tomatoes, eaten in our salad tonight. Oh the flavour, my goodness, after a winter and spring of shop-bought.

At home we had cucumbers too. 

Tomorrow is a jam-making day I think.

I tried to get her to look but she was too busy smelling the roses.