LittleErnie's Blog

Experiment Success
Nov 26, 2007 | 3:27 AM PST
Tag: november

At the end of August I planted some sprouting potatoes in a plot 4ft by 3ft to see if I could get a crop before the first frosts. It worked and I lifted a large bag of new potatoes and they are delicious. It looks as if I could get two crops per year so that is another project for next year. Using a bucket to plant potatoes in autumn means that you can have new ones for christmas dinner. When the weather permits it is all tidying up at present. If this coming January is like the last one the snowdrops should emerge. I have also encouraged wild celandines  in the damp patches of lawn and they provide an early splash of colour. Attention is placed on the house plants now to ensure there survival. It is too easy to forget that some need a rest but one of our surviving orchids is now in bud. Prices have dropped over the lat few years and are as low as £5 ($10US) in some shops. The annual purchase of potted poinsettias has begun but very few survive 12 months so sustaining the trade.

Fighting the Gloom
Nov 20, 2007 | 8:49 AM PST
Low grey clouds and a perpetual drizzle mean that winter is here but some shrubs brighten up the day and my large blue fir is now decorated with bright LED lights that are designed for outside use. I have posted a photograph of the Callicarpa bodinieri 'Profusion'. The picture speaks for itself. Following my clearing and weeding of the raspberries I hosed the mud from the paths, filled the bird feeders. gathered in the last of my peppers and then the weather changed. Why do the english talk about the weather so much? Well when you can have four or five changes in a day and the other side of town it can be different it cannot fail to be a talking point. Even so many trees still are sporting leaves because there has not been a strong wind. Planning for spring now starts. All ideas gratefully received.

November
Nov 12, 2007 | 1:43 AM PST
Tag: Seasons change
How things change - it was said of of November .. no leaves on trees, no sun, no warmth november etc. The leaves are still on some trees in spite of recent winds and it is a bright day. I recently dug up my wandering raspberry canes and replanted them in line and in the process removed masses of wandering buttercup and ground elder weeds. The peppers in the gren house are still fruiting as well as the strawberries in the garden though I doubt if this will continue for much longer. All the bird feeders have been filled with seed and fat balls hung on trees. I have been preparing notes for the garden group meeting tomorow on trees for the garden. This week the christmas lights will be switched on in the city centre and an ice rink erected in the old market place, now called Cathedral Square. It should be interesting for our multicultural city where some 54 different languages are spoken - it does provide for a wide variety of food. Duch nursery men visit our continental market with a wide variety of plants and bulbs. The area near to us used to be noted for tulip cultivation and each spring a tulip festival is held at Spalding some 18 miles away. The hardy fuschias are still in full bloom and some roses are producing new flowers. If you refer to an old gardening book on what you should do in November it bears norelation to today's climate. Though since for many years most of Britain has been a smokeless zone, ie no domestic coal or wood fires the legendary fogs have vanished.