Category: garden stuff

autumn · crafts & knitting · garden stuff

Red & Green

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)34 Comments

It’s tidy up time in my garden. The last of our potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and squash are gathered in for another year with just the parsnips left to be pulled after Christmas, as apparently they grow sweeter after a couple of frosts. I’m left with a bowl of green tomatoes which will probably get turned into chutney.

Around the rest of the garden greens are turning to reds – I do love autumn leaves.

There’s even a spot of green and red knitting going on inside. I’m really enjoying playing around with new ideas for a batch of nordic animals which will be ready to find new homes in time for Christmas. Next week it’s forecast to be turning colder and I’m looking forward to getting our fire stoked up and curling up with my wool. Hope you have a snuggly weekend!

autumn · garden stuff · general stuff

Harvest

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)28 Comments

Well, last weekend was kind to us weather-wise although autumn really feels like it’s arrived and we’ve definitely lost the summer warmth in the sun. The garden has produced lots to eat this year…

with some more still to come. We’ve had an enormous crop of plums but it has taken it’s toll on the tree – the weight of all that fruit along with the heavy rain and winds a few weeks back has snapped a main bough and after some heavy tree surgery the poor tree looks rather lopsided and sparse. I just hope that it survives as I love having it in our garden and the plums make fab jam…Toby has continued to settle nicely into the term time routine and things are beginning to feel relaxed again although I’m not sure that feeling will last long as during the next month we have to choose a senior school for Amy. There will be lots of umming and ahhing and visiting potential schools – I just hope we can get it right for her.

Still, for now autumn feels peaceful and productive and we’re enjoying making the most of being outside before the colder, wetter winter weather arrives.

garden stuff · summer

sacrifice

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)25 Comments

Thanks to lots of rain over the last few days things are continuing to grow and ripen quickly here in our garden. Although I think it’s also partly due to an acquired bit of veg growing wisdom that I picked up from various books and blogs – the practice of companion planting sacrificial plants.

I’ve been growing nasturtiums and borage both of which are incredibly easy and cheap to grow from seed and are self replenishing as they set seed very well and so you have a free crop for next year. These are both now crawling with blackfly, aphids and caterpillars while my tomatoes, beans and raspberries are completely bug free and growing delicious crops.

There’s another benefit too as there’s a little ecosystem developing with ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies all swooping in to feed on the blackfly banquet. It feels good not to be spraying chemicals all over the garden and instead trusting in nature to keep my crops safe from mini-munchers and I love showing Amy the interaction between all the insects. We especially like ladybirds and can trace the entire lifecycle of the 7 spot under our very noses, from larvae…

…to pupae…

…to adult…

If you’re growing any fruit or veg yourself then I’d definitely recommend planting some sacrificial companion plants alongside them – there’s a good list here.