Fighting talk

Spring forward, fall back. It's the phrase everyone quotes to remember whether to put the clocks on one hour or back. Tonight's the night when we put the clocks back, the nights get dark earlier and we inevitably start to have thoughts of Christmas.

It's been a washout of a day today with the weather, but I intend to give the garden a good going over next week after a period of letting it go. Sadly, the spinach beet which Kate  persuaded me to plant out in the space vacated by the French beans is dying back rapidly.

Susan says (again) that I just don't seem to have the growing touch. I intend to prove her wrong.

I've read that some critics say by changing the clocks we adversely affect our body's natural rhythms. It ain't going to happen to me. Up and at 'em.

The things I have to put up with

Something has done a bit of determined digging in the ground. Was it a cat, a squirrel, a deer, badger or the Beast of Brighouse? Tempting though the latter theory is, I'm inclined to rule it out. The culprit, whatever it was, had a pretty good go at making a hole but appears to have left nothing in it. So why go to all that bother?

Never write off the Russians

There are times in life when things creep up on you unexpectedly and take you totally by surprise. Take my Red Russian tomatoes, for instance - they're growing again.

This is a real shock to me as my Bonny Best has long since died, the Outdoor Girl hasn't produced any for a while and I had the last of my store of Gartenperle in a sandwich today. Blow me down when I saw some green Red Russians growing and, lurking at the back, one that is reddish in colour. 

Recent weeks have had a decided autumn air about them and we've had a frost on a couple of mornings, so it is a real shock to see the tomatoes bursting into life again in a conservatory with no heating. I hadn't even been watering them.

How far will they get?

It's peas in our time

Here's the first of my crop of peas - and I suspect it will be the last.

My mate Steve kindly gave me some heritage seeds last year and I planted some of the peas near the runner beans, but they have been a dismal failure. I expected about five or six plants to grow, but got only one.

Other people seem to have had difficulty with peas this year, so I am not alone. But it is damned frustrating.

There. Got it off my chest. And no dreadful pun about peas please me.

Giving it a go

My friend Kate is a fan of spinach beet and persuaded me to plant it when I was looking for something to go in the ground where the potatoes had been. I duly bought some seeds and popped them in pots some time ago.

Kate visited yesterday and spotted them growing in their pots in the conservatory, where they have lingered as a victim of the twin evils of inertia and slight despair at not being able to grow anything from seed outside (beans excepted).

She suggested I ought to try them outside and got to work on the plot where the Cherokees had been, digging over the soil again and spreading some chicken manure pellets. Eight or nine holes, a bit of puddling in with the watering can and they were in.

The soil was very dry, she remarked. Today, however, I have woken up to rain which seems settled in for the day. A good start for the spinach beet.

As I’ve said on so many occasions, time will tell.

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Something I hadn’t considered

Took advantage of some nice autumn sunshine today to have a good (though not long) session in the garden.

My back came through the test as I dug up the Cherokee Trail of Tears and gave a quick digging over on another two patches.

One thing I hadn’t thought about was how tenacious the beans would be as I worked to untangle them from the poles of their wigwam. Gone now, though. What a good haul the seeds have produced.

I’ve flung some green manure over the plot and used the last of the packet on what space I could elsewhere. Must get some more.

Also picked some tomatoes, but I fear they are coming to an end now. Gartenperle has been the best, followed by Outdoor Girl and then Bonny Best and the Red Russian. The last was a complete failure, although I did get them to a decent size and got three jars of green chutney out of them. Not bad.

Technorati Tags: Cherokee Trail of Tears,beans,green manure,tomatoes,Gartenperle,Outdoor Girl,Bonny Best,Red Russian

Gardening by the moon

I see I could, if I wish, buy a 2010 Gardening by the Moon calendar to hang on the wall.

A search on the internet brings me to this explanation on an American website devoted to the subject:

Gardening by the phases of the moon is a technique that can speed the germination of your seeds by working with the forces of nature. Plants respond to the same gravitational pull of tides that affect the oceans, which alternately stimulates root and leaf growth. Seeds sprout more quickly, plants grow vigorously and at an optimum rate, harvests are larger and they don't go to seed as fast. This method has been practiced by many for hundreds of years, and is a perfect compliment to organic gardening because it is more effective in non-chemically treated soil.

Can there really be anything in this? As an opponent of all things hocus pocus – spiritualism and homeopathy being chief among them - I am naturally sceptical.

I doubt that I shall be giving it a try.

(The use of the word compliment instead of complement is theirs, by the way)

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Some words of wisdom

Getting out of the car the other day, Susan said to me: “You’re garden’s looking a wreck, Andy.”

She’s not wrong.

And then, examining the rhubarb, she added: “I don’t know if it’s going to come to anything next year.”

To which I could only ask: “Why’s that?”

Her reply? “You don’t seem to have the magic growing fingers.”

She’s not wrong.

I looked around the garden centre this afternoon for these magic growing fingers, but they didn’t seem to have any. Some people are blessed with a natural ability to grow things, I know, but it seems to me that the only way I can develop any sort of powers in this direction will be to work harder, prepare more and think harder about the planting.

Lesson learned, I hope.

As I come out of hibernation after the back problem, I see there is a lot of tidying up to do. The Cherokee Trail of Tears will have to come out, the patches where I have tried and failed to grow spinach beet and carrots will have to be dug over.

We live and learn. On the plus side, Susan says my chutney has worked out well.

Result.

Technorati Tags: Susan,Cherokee Trail of Tears,chutney