Emerging green and veg patch update

I just knew there would be a total explosion of swelling leaf buds and fresh young leaves unfurling just as soon as we had some warm weather. Oh the joy of working outside in a T-shirt (albeit with a cool breeze) and we even didn't light the woodburner at all yesterday! As with every year, some trees in the warmer parts of the garden are ahead of those in the frost pockets, even though they are the same species. But that's nice. Who wants it all to happen at once? It's such a joyful time I like to see it spread out over a few weeks.

One of the most obvious of these trees laden with leaf buds is the Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). I have two, although the original owners of this house had planted a whole row of them, most of which had to be removed, as these are large trees often planted in parkland, and require a lot of space. I tend to look towards the future and the next owners of Chateau Moorhen when working out spacing for planting trees; others think only of now, which then leads to problems 10, 20 or 30 years down the line.

For the moment though these trees are still juveniles and probably will remain so during the time that we live here, although I am glad that they are mature enough now to flower, but flowers will come later after the leaves have opened.

I had to show the blue sky!
'Sticky buds' (the brown scales that protect the leaf bud during winter)
opening up and the emerging leaf bud is growing daily.

More advanced, this one is just starting to part
into the separate leaflets of this large palmate leaf

I hadn't meant for this to be an educational post about Horse Chestnuts but I've just been reading about sticky buds as I remember us calling them that from childhood. It seems to be a form of protection (known as scales) around many leaf buds on various trees during winter, but it is so much more noticeable on Horse Chestnuts because the leaves and buds are enormous. I expect as kids we would touch them and remark upon the stickiness, but that was a long time ago and I've forgotten!

OK, so onto other smaller leaves emerging. Young trees are generally getting their foliage before mature trees, and in the case of the Elm suckers (which are everywhere) leaves are already appearing, and the 'forest floor' areas of my little woodland will appear green well before the tall trees above get their leaves. For the moment the woodland area is filled with light which allows early wildflowers to bloom, but in a couple of months time will be a dark imposing place, apart from the few clearings that we have which allow sunlight, or dappled sunlight, to get through.

Elm leaves

A spindly Mirabelle Plum beside the pond.
It never has fruit but I like the early blossom and leaves.

Wild Spindleberry (Euonymus europaeus).
Unfortunately this kind doesn't have colourful leaves in autumn
and is very invasive (birds dropping seeds?), but as this grows
in my really wild 'don't even rip out the brambles' area,
I leave it be.

The wild Euphorbias (E. amygdaloides)
in the woodland are flowering now
and their fresh lime green colour with purple stems is so vibrant

Flowers and blossom I will feature in another post as for now I am rejoicing in the emerging leaves, but wanted to show this flowering evergreen tree. The Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) is far more commonly known as a hedging plant, and as such never has a chance to flower. I much prefer it left to grow wild as a tree, because these flowers are beautiful and have a lovely scent. New plants can appear in other places as those flowers turn into large black berries which birds eat, so seed is distributed due to bird droppings, but that has never been much of a problem here and is far less of a nuisance than the Elder saplings which emerge absolutely everywhere, thanks to the birds!

Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) in bloom

So onto the veg patch. What are these flowers then, you may be asking? Well these are weeds :-) Four out of five of my cultivated plots are all ready to rock 'n' roll with new planting, but this last plot contains Purple Sprouting Broccoli and purple Curly Kale, which we are still harvesting, and has not been hoed for at least 6 months due to incessant rain. Now the weeds are flowering and are a source of nectar for the pollinators, and as I have no need for this plot until much later (it will be mostly tomatoes and courgettes here) then the weeds can stay for the moment. Anyway, they are pretty.

Speedwell, one of the many Veronica species, but I'm not sure which one.
This one is low growing.

Purple Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) on left,
Common Fumitory (Fumaria officinalis) on the right.
This is such a pretty 'weed' that I often leave it to grow in flower beds
then just weed it out when it is past its best!

Strawberry flowers all of a sudden!
These are 'escapees' from the veg patch and have
now ended up amongst cultivated
herbs and flowers!

The early PSB 'Rudolph' has been feeding us on and off for a couple of months, but doesn't have the real burst of growth like the later varieties such as 'Red Arrow' in the photos below. From now on we'll be having a feeding frenzy of PSB until we can no longer keep up and then the flowers will open up for the benefit of the honey bees, which adore Brassica flowers. I have lost a few PSB plants due to voles eating the roots in situ; my third no-name variety are really stunted as something munched on the roots back in the autumn, which may have been grubs.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli 'Red Arrow' and a little tinker who thinks I can't see her

Watching the birds? Behind her is my 'Wildflowers for Pollinators Meadow', Year 2.

The Wildflower strip has been left to see what the perennial and biennial plants turn out to be, and to see how attractive they are to pollinators. Anything perennial that I particularly like can be transplanted elsewhere at the end of the season, but I don't yet know what everything is. Unfortunately some plants have been lost due to voles eating their roots. You can just see a few flowers out already, featured below. I haven't seen any pollinating insects on them yet but quite frankly, who cares? They are early flowering and they are very pretty!

Yellow Wallflower (Erysimum). But is this the biennial or the perennial kind?

Orange Wallflower

As for this year's veggies, I have so far only sown parsnips and some lettuce seeds, and finally finished getting in my shallots and onion sets. Today is spud planting day but it's cloudy again and cooler, and the forecast whilst fairly sunny does show more average April temps (about 14/15C) than we had on Sunday and Monday, but I can live with that!

Finally, just because I can, here's a gratuitous pic of a couple of the ducks just chillin' and floating about on the pond (even though this pic was taken about a week ago in slightly drizzly weather!).

Doris at the back and Freckles at the front. Life is good when you are a pampered duck.

Whilst on the subject of birds, our Swallows are back properly now with plenty swooping over the garden. I was even standing in the veg patch this morning when a couple landed to take some soil for their nests. Of course I didn't I have a camera with me, because a few minutes later I saw some Long Tailed Tits collecting duck feathers to line their nest. If I had had a camera, none of this woud have happened in front of me, believe me. :-)

Autumn colours

A final catch-up post for November so that I have a record here of a whole year in the life of my garden. I can't believe it's just over a year since I started this blog, so I'd like to thank everyone who has ever looked in, commented, or followed my blog - it's really appreciated!

At the beginning of November the trees around my lake were hardly even changing colour, whereas many of the shrubs and trees elsewhere were already colouring up beautifully. For some trees and shrubs the colour seems to last for ages; for others it is fleeting and to be enjoyed in all its glory whilst it lasts.

1st November, some leaf fall but not much colour change

Smokebushes are fantastic shrubs for autumn colour - not only do they have great leaf colour anyway but in autumn they really come into their own for a final fiery display.

Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' turning a lovely red colour

I usually just call this plant 'Purple Smokebush'

Coloured bark Dogwoods have lovely autumn colours too before losing their leaves and then really coming into their own for their lovely winter display of coloured bark. It's a shame I had to remove a large dogwood with red stems but it had outgrown its place; however my orange stemmed one remains. Here it is as a background to a Blue Tit at a feeder that I can't resist sneaking into this post!

Cornus sanguinea 'Winter Flame'

The Liquidambar tree is late colouring up but is late to come into leaf in the spring. This tree still had a few colourful leaves lasting into early December.

Liquidambar looking great

A close-up of the leaves showing the amazing different colours all at the same time

Spirea japonica 'Goldflame' ends the season with beautiful bright red tints.

Spirea japonica 'Goldflame'

My little evergreen Abelia has pretty leaf colour all year round but looks particularly pretty in the autumn, although the tiny flowers aren't that noticeable unless you get down close to it!

Abelia - think this is 'Kaleidoscope'

The other Smokebush that I have which I think is called 'Golden Spirit' turns from lime green to spectacular shades of orange and red. Here it is on the 3rd November.

Cotinus coggygria 'Golden Spirit'.
Taken with flash turned on
to show the colours against a dark background.

Without flash

In sunshine it just glows

6th November - leaves turning colour

Below are: top middle and right are Sycamores; top left is a Horse Chestnut; middle peeking out behind the conifer is the Liquidambar; bottom left is the Dogwood 'Winter Flame' and behind the bird feeder is the Smokebush 'Golden Spirit'.

Various trees and shrubs 12th November

The picture below shows on the left: an ornamental Cherry, which sadly never has many leaves at the best of times and is rather straggly, which is such a shame as those leaves turn an amazing orange colour! On the right, a Lime tree (Tilia) and right foreground, my Purple Smokebush.

Garden and lake 12th November

When we arrived in England mid November we were rather surprised as there were far fewer leaves on the trees and autumn seemed far more advanced than here; however by the time we returned at end of November there was hardly a leaf left on a tree here! How quickly it all changes.

The green and soggy garden

I can barely believe the amount of rain that has fallen so far this month - over 140mm! That's a huge amount for a whole month let alone at just over half way through. Consequently I no longer have a weedy scruffy lawn as my OH managed to mow the main bit of lawn during one of the few dry sunny days we have had recently. It now resembles something like a real lawn - so long as you don't inspect it too closely, of course!

This photo was taken just before mowing, whilst my beautiful new-last-year 'Forest Pansy' was looking at its best. I kept meaning to get out my better camera as my compact doesn't do colours justice, but 5 days later it looked like the next photo, and by the time I did manage to wrench that macro lens off my Canon, there were only about 10 leaves left on it. That'll teach me!

Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy'
Taken 7th October

Harumph. But look at my lawn! I can even call it a lawn now!

I think I still have a hosepipe out which I really think can be put away for the winter now.

We also have a full lake, which filled up in just 24 hours!

The ducks under the 'peach on the beach'.
The rain came too late to water this poor tree
so the fruit was small, dry and inedible.

The ducks are not really very friendly at all and I can't get close to photograph them. We've gone from the stage of frantic preening if I went anywhere near them, to now a lot of chuntering noises, then they just swim off. Really we hardly see them during the day but they do at least come up to the shed at night to be put away safely.

And as for eggs.... well Doris the Saxon stopped laying about June and Rachel the Rouen, the one who went broody for a few days, was only laying intermittently after that, and now she's stopped too. That'll teach me to buy pretty coloured ducks. It's obviously exactly the same as laying hens. If you want duck eggs, buy white ducks. If you want hen eggs, buy red hens. 

Dirk and Doris the Saxons

Rubbish photo because I have to creep up and take it through the undergrowth
or they swim off!!!

Some of my shrubs are starting to exhibit autumn colours and some not yet at all, such as my purple smoke bush. It has doubled in size this year due to the wet spring - basically it's grown as much in one year as it did the previous six!! I'm going to have to do some serious pruning next spring as it's flopping out all over the lawn.

Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' still showing it's full purple colours.
This turns a lovely orangey colour in autumn.

The green smoke bush is just starting to show signs of turning. It will turn a beautiful orangey pinky colour eventually.

Cotinus coggygria 'Golden Spirit'
(I think, it had no label)

I'm so pleased about my Liquidambar though, as I'd showed that here a month or so back looking so sad and losing leaves due to being too dry!

Liquidambar just beginning to get some autumn colour.
This tree looks great through to November.

This next shrub is quite unassuming, having flowers that you'd barely notice in late spring, if not for the buzzing noise that comes continually from it. That's the bees who absolutely adore it. In autumn these berries will not last long, as soon, every time I walk past it flocks of birds will fly off squawking! So it is really good value for the wildlife and also screens off (to a certain extent) our ugly white propane tank.

Cotoneaster franchetii

Still looking quite colourful despite the plants
getting such regular drenching

Another thing I've noticed, which I haven't seen much in autumn for several years now, is the amount of fungi springing up everywhere. The first few years we were here I tried to take an interest and learn about fungi, but soon gave up as I seemed to have absolutely nothing that I could possibly ID. I wasn't really looking for edibles, just wondering what they were. I haven't noticed these ones before though - they are quite huge.

Unknown fungi

The chickens have been complaining that they haven't featured in this blog for quite a while. Well I told them that's because they don't stand still and pose for me, and all I get is a load of shots with blurry heads. It still didn't sink in so this is the only shot where I have no blurs. I did want to feature Marleen though. She's the grey scruffball at the back. Oh yes, it's moulting time, but whilst the others will do it by either just losing, say, their tail feathers, or looking generally a bit tatty all over for a while, Marleen has to go for it big time and do her 'just out of the battery farm' impersonation.

Front to back:
Andrea, Rusty, Snowy, Freddy the cockerel and Marleen
Clemmy is out of the picture.

Hen laying is down big time too - I'm barely getting a dozen eggs a week now! Andrea (the botty in the foreground) is managing to have a feminine looking moult and still lay most days, and Rusty manages about four or five a week. I'm not surprised Marleen has stopped laying though. I've never seen any of my hens moult like this before - and she's already got some new feathers around her neck here where she was bald before! She's happy though; I think she's quite a simple hen, so long as she has food that's all that matters to her.  :-)

In these two photos they are eating the outer leaves of my chinese cabbage, which is very holey and I'm actually seeing slugs sitting on the leaves eating it during the day, and I've even seen a sneaky snail sitting on a chilli leaf! Hope it tries to eat a Cayenne is all I can say!

Marleen, not looking her best!

A damp June morning in the garden

I took advantage of drizzly cool conditions yesterday to take my pocket camera out to take some photos, as I often have a problem in bright light and sunshine getting overviews of the garden, as they appear washed out. Also, on sunny warm days I don't have any pockets to put my little camera in, so I have to purposefully go out to take photos, rather than snapping a few here and there in amongst the chores. The other reason was that the lawns have just been mown and the roses and peonies deadheaded - so I have to get in there quick!

A zoomed in view taken out of the cellar window

We put this arch in a couple of years ago, after we'd had a tree surgeon here taking out some trees. There used to be a conifer totally blocking this path down to the lake so it was pointless making anything of it. The stump is still there but it'll break down eventually. There were so many trees here when we bought the place that we've removed - you would never know it now - but trees grow and it kind of irks me that people don't think about their full size when they plant them too close to each other. As it is, this arch is fairly shaded by two lime trees which are now practically touching each other. Every couple of years we raise the canopy otherwise we can barely walk under them!

I cannot take a photo where this doesn't look wonky - so I've come
to the conclusion that it IS wonky - or 'rustic' as we call it round here!

Rosa 'Zephirine Drouhin' - you can smell her perfume from
20 feet away - it's quite amazing!

Looking lovely in the rain - but something's been munching on her.
I wonder if it the bee beetle I discovered on another rose?

These two plants were put in two years ago. The rose nearly died as it got a really bad case of rust, so bad we actually went out and bought a fungal treatment for roses. We're not into using chemicals here unless totally necessary - I don't use anything to kill insects but when you've just spent a bomb on a rose only to see it dying before your very eyes - well sometimes I think it's justified. As it was, the other rose we bought for the planters and trellis by the back door did die during the first winter! But Zephirine came back to life and she's only just starting to grow tall and I've been training her stems up the arch. I hope one day she'll get to the top and then she will be truly amazing!

Clematis 'The President'

Looking back at the house from up near the arch. This shows the planters and (now lovely algae green!) trellis by the back door. We've planted another rose 'Gertrude Jekyll' here and two other clematis, 'Miss Bateman' and 'General Sikorski'.

Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' in the foreground, bought last year. Yes, she's wonky too.
I blame the wind as we spent ages trying to get her straight but she had a wonky stem anyway.

The purple sycamore was already here and has barely grown in 8 years, unlike the other trees.
Now with my Forest Pansy and purple smokebush beyond, there's a nice balance of colour.

You may have gathered by now that I love purple foliage! I also love lime green, and bought this smokebush in Switzerland (no named variety on the label) and brought it here from my old house. This one's grown in a strange way; I've done nothing to it and for a while it resembled those Japanese cloud pruned bushes that you see, which look fantastic.

Cotinus coggygria no name.
According to Google it is probably 'Golden Spirit'.

The following photo sums up the view from the kitchen window - I don't like island beds just plonked in the middle of the lawn like this, but the peony was already there with some dahlias planted next to it, so I've just worked around it. The grasses (Stipa tenuissima) self seed like crazy (like most things here!) and get too big after several years, but they can easily be replaced. Half of what is in this bed wasn't planted in that place anyway, it's just self seeded where it wants! If they are in the right place I leave them be, the wrong and out they come.

I did deliberately plan the beds on the other side of the drive though for shrubs which have all year round interest (winter bark, autumn colours etc) to make a break from the dull green green green, especially of the never changing conifers! Just behind the peony is one of only two Horse Chestnuts which we kept - there was a whole line of them all along the driveway here - eventually they are going to get too big, not for the space but for swamping the view of the garden and lake off to the right. Hopefully that may be after we move on so I'll just leave the problem for someone else to deal with..... ;-)

View from kitchen window

Peony

A last photo, away from this area and taken from inside the veg patch. The campanula spreads inside it and the sweet williams that I grew from seed last year are looking lovely and don't seem to mind the shade from the greengage tree.

Roses, Campanula poscharskyana and sweet williams

This last photo needs clicking on to view properly as it's too compressed as I only cropped off the bottom bit and it looks blurred here.