Drivebank revisited

Drivebank in August

Well, I’m back safely.  The drivebank planting is now approaching the end of it’s first season growth, so I thought I’d do an update on how it is getting on.  Generally I’m pretty pleased.  I think most of the perennial plants have at least established OK.  I lost the Philadelphus, thanks to Dougie (bless him!) using it as a toy and pulling it out and chewing it, but the other shrubs seem OK.  The Elaeagnus look a bit bare – I think they lost a few leaves in the wind, which is a bit disappointing.  I thought they would be reasonably wind resistant.  The Escallonia of course is looking lush, and the Gaultheria is also doing well – just flowering and with small berries at the moment.  I have quite a few babies of this that came from cuttings I took back in the spring which are doing quite well too.    The variegated laurel, like the Elaeagnus, has lost a few leaves, but otherwise seems OK.  I’ve poked in a few cuttings from one of my murtillo (Myrtus Ugni)  in the hope that a slightly warmer spot may incline it to ripen fruit.  The bushes in the tea garden grow and flower well, but the fruit never seems to come to much, and I’d really like to try making jelly with this!  The fruit smell divine and taste like sherbert strawberries, incredible!  They are quite small and pippy though, so I think jelly will be more successful than jam.

Developing murtillo berries

At least one of the broom are doing very well, having put on quite a bit of growth this year.  Fingers crossed it survives the damp winter ahead.  I’m wondering whether to plant some of this down the hill in the patch with ash trees that don’t seem to be doing very well.  It is a native plant (I’ve seen it growing on the island), the bees love the flowers, it is a nitrogen fixer and tolerates dry soil, so should be OK where the soil is a bit shallow there.  Broom does in fact need it well drained, so won’t grow happily just anywhere here.

All

different

Calendula

from same seed

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of germination from the seeds I broadcast.  I was hoping to get a bit more coverage and blooms from the Calendula, but there were only a few came up early on and then some stragglers at the tail end of the season.  These are still blooming now, but rather sparse.  They all seemed to be different colours and forms too, whereas I thought I was expecting just single orange flowers from the packet.  There was more coverage from the unknown buckwheat, but these aren’t particularly colourful examples; I will leave the debris overwinter to protect the soil a little bit.  There seem to be one or two of the other herby things I broadcast, I’m not sure whether they are chervil or caraway or coriander, a bit tiny to pick the leaves from.   Maybe more will come up next year.

Initially I got quite a good coverage from the bittercress weed plants, which I just left to get on with it – they are too tiny to be a problem in my opinion.  I do try and take out the buttercup, docken and nettle seedlings and the various grasses that seem to have come back either through missed roots, or seeds.  The buttercups and docken are the worst, because the leaves come off, leaving the roots intact.  Sometimes I left them, but generally I tried to lever them out, because chances are they will regrow.  I pulled the leaves off the weeds and scattered them on the soil to create a bit of mulch, although this was pretty ineffective – actually the weeds were much less prolific than I was expecting, although I don’t suppose I have seen the last of them!  In fact, the bittercress seem to be making a second coming now in the cool of the autumn.

Looking a bit bare in October

A few things I planted to climb and/or spread, all of which are pretty tiny still.  I seem to have mixed up the Lathyrus linifolius and Lathyrus tuberosa when planting them.  I don’t expect this will matter too much, although the L. tuberosa should become a much taller plant, so may (hopefully?) be a bit much where I was expecting the smaller L. linifolius to be growing.  The Akebia again is very tiny, but is alive and looks healthy enough.  Hopefully it will survive the winter and do better year on year, to climb the sycamore.  The wild strawberry I planted at the top under the tree, is spreading enthusiastically.  I think this is supposed to be a better fruiting form that I bought from someone (I can’t remember where now).  No fruit yet, but maybe next year….

Bee on oregano

All the perennial herbs have established well.  The little oregano plant was a mass of blooms which the bees really appreciated earlier in the year.  Again, it seems to be having a second wind with another batch of flowers now. The marjorum (unknown) from the polytunnel has been fine.  The lavender bloomed quite late.  This is a pity in a way, because it leaves it too late to take cuttings after it has bloomed.  I will have to take a few in the spring, and hope that I still get the flowers.  These are on tall stems, and I think the plant has the potential to get a bit big.  It doesn’t matter too much if it overhangs the steps a bit.  The sage also seems fine.  I left the main plant in a pot, which I have brought in to the polytunnel to keep it drier over the winter.  There were several smaller plants that I had grown from cuttings which I tucked in at the top of the main wall.  These I hope will be well enough drained to overwinter outside OK.   The chives as expected have been fine, they went in a bit late for flowers, but should look good next year.  I may get some other clumping alliums to go with them, as they generally seem to do OK here.  The little rosemary seems to be fine, and again at the top of the wall should be OK to overwinter.

Yellow Daylily, White lily and red dahlia

I have been quite pleased with most of the perennials I planted out.  The daylillies, which had never a flower in three years in the shop planters, have bloomed quite happily on and off this summer.  Indeed they still seem to have buds coming now!  The dahlia have bloomed quite well, with simple red daisies and dark foliage.  Also from the shop planters are the tall lillies.  These all seem to have white flowers, whereas the shorter ones left in the shop planters are yellow.  This is not quite the mix I was expecting, but the shop flowers match my icecream flag nicely.  The various campanula seem to be growing bigger now than they did in the summer, which is a bit unexpected.  Maybe they would prefer somewhere a bit more shady.  I did tuck some in by the pea wigwam in the front garden (which turned out too shady for peas) so they may do better there.  All I can say for the asparagus and artichoke is that they seem to be alive still.  Hopefully they are established enough to come back next year.  There is no sign of the nerines, which should be in flower just now, so I may have lost those.

Slightly tender plants include the salt bush, Atriplex canescens, which I grew from seed.  It still looks a bit small, but reasonably OK.  The leaves make quite a nice salad leaf with a salty juicy crunch.  The bush needs to get quite a bit bigger before it is useful for eating though!  The little Trachycarpus is forming new leaves.  This will be a slow growing plant I expect.  There is one I donated to Glendale Estate house, Hamera lodge, when I didn’t realise the uses of it, which is still only about eighteen inches tall after 8 years or so.  Admitedly they planted it in a rather shady spot I think, so it could have done better.  I’ve just agreed to look after the gardens there as well (excepting the lawn mowing) which should be fun!  It has a large walled garden, which has been virtually unmanaged for several decades, but has a few apple trees and a lot of potential.

Strawberry steps catching the late afternoon sun

I have been very pleased with my “strawberry steps”.  I planted out some white alpine strawberry plants, which I had grown from saved seed (originally a James Wong seed grown plant).  The white strawberries are supposed to be less likely to be taken by birds, but still have a lovely sweet strawberry taste when properly ripe – they go suddenly bigger and paler, but it can be a subtle change.  These have bulked out nicely and ripened some fruit.  Next year they should do even better, and give a nice coverage to the steps.  Since the steps are a bit narrow, being made of curb stones I had dug up from the pedestrian gate path, it is a bit difficult not to step on the strawberries when ascending the steps.  Some of the sedum seeds I sowed there have also germinated.  I’ll have to decide whether to transplant those, or to leave them in situ.

All in all a pretty good first season.  My task next year is to finish off the wall around the corner by the barn, with more steps or a ramp for access there, and maybe continue above the steps to the pathway by the willow fedge.

 

 

 

 

Polytunnel Perennials 2019

Polytunnel from Top door May 19

So how are the perennials in my polytunnel fairing?

Five flavour berry (Schisandra chinensis):  I have three different varieties of this, but they are all quite young plants.  One did have a single flower. but it doesn’t look like it has set any fruit.  One is a seedling and the other two are supposed to be self fertile.  Normally you need two different plants to get berries.

Single Schisandra flower

Olive (Olea europaea):  This has survived the winter (it was pretty mild generally).  It has lots of new growth, which I have been pinching back so it grows more bushy than leggy.  It seems quite happy.  I have it growing in the soil in the polytunnel, but haven’t watered it this year.  I am assuming that it’s roots will seek out enough water going sideways at the edges of the tunnel.  I thought it wasn’t going to flower this year, but this week I spotted a single bunch of flowers.  This is a little disappointing, since last year there were lots of flowers (but no fruit).  Maybe as it gets older it will be able to flower more.  The flowers this year were on last years’ growth, whereas last year they were on same year growth I think.

Apricot:  I have given this an early summer prune, according to the RHS website instructions (as best I could).  Last year I didn’t prune it hard enough, so the fan frame is a bit leggy.  I may have to cut back some of the branches quite hard to rejuvenate it later this summer.  The early summer last year was just too nice to be inside!  I did get loads of flowers in spring this year, and two green fruit are still there.

 

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Fuchsia berry:  This overwintered alright having survived sitting in it’s pot for too long last year.  Now it is in the soil it is growing quite well.  It has a funny trilobal growth habit. which I don’t know if it will grow out of, although I knocked one of the branches off whilst watering!  No sign of flowers this year yet.  I stuck the broken branch in the soil, near the parent plant.  Maybe it will root.

Asparagus:  These confused me by not dying down for the winter!  This meant that they didn’t get a rest period when I could mulch them (if I was organised) and watch for the new shoots in spring.  I compromised when tidying that part of the tunnel, by cutting back the old shoots, but I didn’t think the subsequent shoots were really fat and prolific enough to take any this year.  Some of the new leaves now have flowers.  I’ll have to check what sex they are.  These plants were grown from seed in about 2015 and have been in position now for two years.  I have two varieties: Connovers colossal and Argenteuil early.  I think that Connovers colossal is slightly the more robust looking overall, although it is probably too soon to be sure.

Asparagus – still not died down in middle of March!

Artichoke:  The globe artichoke is flowering well again.  I thought they were going to be a little small, but the first buds are a fair size now.  I am thinking of selling them in the shop, since S. isn’t that fussed about eating them.  I could give them a few days and then have them for my lunch if they don’t sell.  I’m not sure what to price them at – probably about 80p each.  I have also planted two seedlings on the drivebank, and have one ready to plant in the tunnel on the opposite side.

Globe artichoke buds swelling

Goldenberry:  I thought that I had two plants that survived the winter.  They had died back to the base and I covered them with dead plant material to insulate them a bit.  In fact it now looks like one of these is actually a weed plant which pops up both in the tunnel and outside.  I think it is nipplewort.  When they were both smaller they looked very similar, but now the difference in leaf shape and texture is obvious, and the weed is preparing to flower, unlike the golden berry!  I think I may have weeded another goldenberry out when preparing to plant the sweetcorn.  It was quite small, so may not have done well anyhow.  So far I have proved that they will overwinter in a pretty mild winter, it remains to be seen whether I will achieve any sort of harvest from the one plant this year.  It is certainly more developed now than seedlings would be.

Goldenberry in second year – May 27

Akebia: These seem to have overwintered pretty well.  Both those in pots and those in the ground in the polytunnel have survived OK.  They were grown from seed last year, but it doesn’t look like they die back herbaciously; they remained green despite being very small.  I accidently cut back one that was growing next to the apricot, which was probably doing the best previous to that.  The foliage is not that easy to spot.  I expect it will take a few years before I get flowers or fruit.  I planted two little plants outside on the drivebank and they seem to be quite happy there, although not growing quite so fast.  It will be interesting to see if they will over winter for me there also.

Apios americana:  I thought this would be a bit more robust than it has turned out to be so far.  I grew it outside in the dog resistant garden a couple of years ago, but it dissappeared the first winter.  I think it may like it a bit warmer, so am trying it in the polytunnel.  I am worried however that it may prefer it rather damper than I generally make it in there, since one of its names is “swamp potato”.  I wonder whether it would prefer it in a pot in the pond?  Anyhow, I have a few tubers from Edulis growing in the bed adjacent to the apricot.  They seem to start growing quite late, even in the polytunnel, only emerging at the start of June this year.  I have found two shoots so far, I think there is one small tuber that is still to appear.

Grapes:  Both grape vines are starting to flower now.  The new one seems to have quite big bunches.  There was a little scorching from overnight frost on the new growth earlier in the year, but no real damage.  I have done an initial pruning: pinching out the spurs a couple of leaves beyond the flowers and taking off a few overcrowded spurs.  I haven’t yet thinned out the bunches of grapes.  They should be thinned to one bunch every eighteen inches or so.  I think that won’t be necessary yet for the new vine, but the old one, Boskoop glory,  is quite prolific so could do with a bit of thinning out.

Grape vines new (to left) and old (to right) before pruning

Kiwi: Given a reprieve and being shortened, the vine has flowered beautifully.  I do like the blossom; like huge cream apple blossoms that darken to peach as they fade.  I’m still not sure it is worth the space, even though I have shortened it quite drastically this year. But the flowers are pretty.  It is still a little early to say how good the fruit set will be.

Worth it for the flowers?

Bramble.  The first flowers on this are fully open just now.  I could do with a few more training wires near the lower door to tie back the side branches to.  Hopefully I won’t have such problems with flies this year, we’ll see.

Bramble blossom

Strawberries: The first fruits were the biggest!  I shared the first two with S., but he doesn’t know about the others that never left the tunnel.  Only one of the plants is really doing well.  I find it difficult to keep them watered enough over the winter.  I have transplanted into the tunnel some more plants that came from this one that have been growing in pots outside.  They are blooming well, so may set a few fruit if I’m lucky.

Gardener’s treats

I didn’t manage to overwinter my sharks fin melon two years ago, although potentially it is perennial.  I also didn’t get any seed to germinate last year, but this year my saved seed germinated second time trying.  I’m wondering whether to try digging up the parent plant after harvest, cutting it back and moving it indoors for the winter.  It may mean an earlier start to growth and flowering, although it may be a pain to accommodate the plant frost free in the earlier part of the spring.

Overwintered chilli with tiny flower buds

I did manage to overwinter three little chilli pepper plants that AC gave me.  They had been on the study windowsill, being watered occasionally, since last spring.  They gave the tiniest little chillies, that AC says are very hot, so I am rather nervous of using!  One plant I cut back quite severely in early spring, the others were left. The one that was cut back seems to be budding up already.  This one I repotted into a slightly larger pot with fresh compost as I did one of the others (whilst cutting that one back slightly too).  These are in the tunnel now, as is the third which I have planted out into what I am thinking of as my Mediterranean bed.  This is the area next to the Olive tree.  I have a bench there (although it tends to get used as a dumping ground rather than a seat) and have also planted the three surviving Astragalus crassicarpus plants there.  The idea is to plant things that require little water there.  I don’t think the chillies will survive in the tunnel over the winter, but I may leave this one in, to see how it does.  If the ground is dry it may well survive better.  I have grown some less fiery, hopefully larger chillies from seed, which are now planted out.  I will try potting these up in the autumn after (hopefully) fruiting to try and over winter these inside.

I never did harvest the mashua in the tunnel.  I don’t think it did so well after the hot early summer last year.  Although it should have overwintered OK, most of the plants seem to have disappeared over the winter.  Just one bed is growing away strongly.  I guess that the tubers did not form well on the other plants.  I did miss at least one tuber in the tea garden extension.  The foliage is very distinctive when it starts to grow!  I also have a couple of oca plants growing in the tunnel, so it looks like I missed a couple of those tubers too!  One of the dahlias is growing in with the tomatoes; another unharvested plant which has overwintered well.  The passion flowers haven’t made it however.  I should probably have overwintered them inside until the plants were a bit bigger.  Maybe next year I’ll try growing some new plants.

The Yacon(s) I potted up when I harvested the tubers, splitting the crowns slightly, where they naturally wanted to break.  I potted them into smallish pots in compost in the tunnel.  Some were planted into the polytunnel beds either side of the Apricot, they are still pretty small.  The rest are actually still in pots.  One of my jobs to do is to plant these outside, although this should probably have been done a while ago, it has been so cool since March I don’t think they would have done very much growing!

Yacon with unknown citrus and one of the Schisandras

One of the last plants to mention are the pineapple guava (Feijoa sellowiana)  These are growing quite lush in the lower part of the tunnel.  I have been nipping back the tips of the growth to encourage a bushy habit, since I read somewhere they have a tendency to become leggy.  There is no sign of flowering this year!  The flowers are also supposed to be tasty, even if the fruit doesn’t ripen.  I say these are one of the last, since I am hopeful that the tulip bulbs planted adjacent to the pineapple guava will come back again next year.  It is not the bulbs of tulips that can be eaten, but the petals.  The flowers are toxic for cats, and some people also can have a bad reaction apparently.  I did have a munch on some of the petals, and they were fine – a little sweet and quite juicy.  It just seems a bit of a pity to pick flowers for eating somehow!

Incredible edible petals

Turning Japanese or OK in the UK

I need to do a bit of research at the moment on Japanese cookery.  Particularly the use of Japanese spring mountain vegetables or Sansai (山菜).  There are a couple of reasons for this:  Firstly, these are predominately perennial plants gathered from the wild in Japan (or at least that was the case originally) and I am interested in perennial plant food sources.  Secondly, the climate in the mountains of Japan is a little cooler than elsewhere in Japan and these plants are likely to do OK in the UK.

Typically sansai are the fresh sprouts of leaves and flowers of perennial plants and trees that are cut and eaten when young.  Many of the plants are already grown in the UK as ornamental garden plants, and most Britons do not know that they can also be eaten.  As we also know, everything can be edible once, and edible does not always mean tasty.

For example there are believed to be links between the eating of warabi (bracken ferns, pteridium aquilinum) and various cancers, although this site says that prepared correctly, and eaten in moderation, they are both delicious and safe.  My mum says she tried bracken fern only once, so I guess she was not impressed, but maybe she did not prepare it correctly.  I think I may give it a miss just now though.  I do love to see it at this time of year as the bracken angels unfurl.  Eating it as I weed out the young shoots could be tempting!

Bracken “angels”

I’ve found a couple of lists of sansei online: shizuoka gourmet  and organic growers school  for example, although some of these are not necessarily spring vegetables.  These are the plants I am most tempted by, with the Japanese vegetable name if known:

Indian cucumber root Medeola virginiana

Ostrich fern Matteucia struthiopteris, kogomi

Honewort Cryptotaenia canadensis, mitsuba

Bamboo Phyllostachys spp.

Japanese spikenard, Aralia cordata udo and yamaudo (bundle of blanched shoots) see here for example

Japanese pepper tree Zanthoxylum piperitum kinome

Angelica tree shoots Aralia elata tara no me

Japanese sweet coltsfoot, giant butterbur (unopened buds), Petasites japonicus giganteus, fukinoto

Plantain lily Hosta fortunei  kiboushi, Hosta montana urui, and Hosta sieboldiana

Glory bower peanut butter shrub Clerodendron harlequin kusagi

Indian plantain Cacalia delphiniifolia, C. hastata ssp. orientalis shidoke, or momijigasa

I already have varieties similar to the following:

Solomon’s seal Polygonatum commutatum and P. odoratum amadokoro

Solomons seal shoots at the correct age for cutting

Arrowhead Sagittaria latifolia

Sagittaria latifolia or wapato tubers

Chocolate vine (fruit) Akebia

Dogtooth violet Erythronium japonicum katakuri

Dogs tooth violet in flower (tubers are edible)

Orange daylily Hemerocallis fulva Nokanzou

Japanese ginger Zingiber mioga, Mioga

Japanese horseradish, Wasabia japonica, Wasabi

New Wasabi bed – placed by kitchen door to receive teapot washings

Most of these are still being established so I am yet to try some of them.  The wapato tubers are slimy to clean, but taste innocuous like potatoes when cooked.  Solomons seal shoots were very bitter – I only cut a couple of shoots, so next year I will try changing the water.  Beneath the bitterness there was a sweet taste so I think they are worth trying again.

I’m not sure whether we will like wasabi, normally we’re not big eaters of mustard or horseradish, however when I read about it, wasabi seems to like conditions very similar to Skye’s normal weather – never above 15 celsius or below 5 celsius and wet all the time!  All it will require is protection from the strong winds.  Having an interest in expensive dining (having the three chimneys restaurant just over the hill from us) I thought it would be fun to try anyhow.  I have sourced plants from two different UK sources (hopefully about 4 varieties in total).  These I have put in an old wooden tub.  I changed half the compost for fresh peat free commercial compost.  The old stuff had been half and half soil and compost.  Mixed in, I hope it will be good enough for the wasabi plants.  They haven’t keeled over and died straight away, so I am hopeful that the bit of afternoon sun they will get on this corner of the house won’t be too much for them.  I tried a bit of leaf and stem, and these were surprisingly mild in flavour, so perhaps we will get to eat some of the harvest after all!

 

Drivebank planting

Since I started the retaining wall down the drive I have become quite excited about what I can plant here.  It’s not quite what I envisaged when I was playing fantasy gardens in my head.  Indeed it has turned out in many ways to be a far better ‘microclimate’ than I was thinking.  Because the wall gives a possibility for a well drained, south facing slope I am able to plant some of the more tender plants that would otherwise struggle to survive a wet winter here.

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Having built the wall and the main steps from the house direction, I spent a bit of time getting two minor retaining walls and some further steps from the drive in the best place.  I hope I have put the paths where the dogs are most likely to want to run, since they can be a bit heavy footed at times.  The plants that I had collected were laid out in their pots to decide a planting arrangement.  I bought a few sacks of multipurpose peat free compost to try and improve the soil a bit, that was forked in before planting the plants.  The final stage was to sprinkle over various plant seeds that will hopefully provide some infill until the plants grow big enough to cover the soil.  I still have to finish off the north east corner back to the bank behind the barn (behind the lower Land Rover in the slideshow above), with some more steps, and I have the last few plants to go in at the bottom corner and at the far side of the path at the top of the bank.

As well as the Mediterranean herbs, rosemary and sage, that I bought in Portree, I also have a number of plants that I have been propagating over the past couple of years.  The plan is to have a windbreak at the top of the bank that will provide forward shelter a bit for the plants.  Although they will still get the driving salt rain onto them on occasion, hopefully this will provide a modicum of protection.  I have some Escallonia cuttings which are pretty well grown.  I am hoping that some of these have pale coloured flowers and some the standard dark pink that is more common around here.  The Escallonia has lovely flowers in the early spring, glossy green evergreen leaves and it seems to enjoy Skye’s bracing weather.  It can get a bit big for itself, but stands cutting back if necessary also.  I have also grown from seed this year some Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica) which I have seen in flower around here and am hopeful it will fruit for me.  The fruit makes very nice jelly – like a lemony flavoured apple and the flowers are lovely.  Since these have been grown from seed I won’t know what the flowers and fruit are like until they happen.  Anyway, they should also make a tough wind resistant shrub at the top of the bank.  I’ve got a couple of shrubs that my mum gave me that were looking for a home – a variegated philadelphus (which should have lovely scented flowers if I’m lucky) and a variegated cherry laurel.  Hopefully these will be tough enough to cope with the wind there.

Since I haven’t finished clearing the orchard area of couchgrass, I have made the decision to plant some of my asparagus plants on the drive bank.  It isn’t ideal, the asparagus has a reputation for not liking root competition, and I also haven’t really improved the soil much for it.  It is probably a bit too exposed also, but that should improve as the Escallonia grows (competing at the roots as it does so!)  I just don’t think that leaving the asparagus in pots for many more years will do it much good either.  It should like the well drained sunny aspect anyhow.

I’ll put the planting plans in below although I suspect that the labels won’t be legible online.

Planting by steps

Planting under tree

Planting at lower end

The seeds that I have surface sown include a sedum mix for roofs and walls, birdsfoot trefoil, bush vetch (vicia sepium), mexican marigold (tagetes minuta – old seed that never germinated well when it was fresh!), pot marigold (calendula sp.), Broom (cytisus scoparius), Licorice (glycyrrhiza glabra), Some sort of buckwheat that was supposed to be Fagopyrus dibotrys but has turned out to be a variety of annual buckwheat, Caraway, Crithmum maritimum (rock samphire).   I’m hoping that the bank will act as a nursery for some of these plants that can then be transplanted elsewhere; particularly the broom, which seems to struggle in pots for me.

I have also sown, mainly in with the asparagus, some milk vetch saved from the polytunnel.  I have been growing it amongst my asparagus there in the hope that it will make a non-competitive ground cover.  So far it doesn’t seem to be doing any harm anyhow.  It has fairly inconspicuous flowers, and lovely curled seedpods.  Hopefully it will provide a beneficial groundcover here on the drivebank also.

At present the planting looks a bit bare.  Soon the weeds will start growing as well as the groundcover seeds and the rest of the plants.  I hope I can keep this bit of the garden looking like someone cares, so will have to try and keep on top of the weeds in the early stages.  At least I don’t think I have couch grass on this bank, although there is the very fine red tipped grass that is almost as bad!

Jan 19

Backways in snow

Winter has finally arrived, we have a little snow that has stuck around for a few days, gradually refreezing as ice as it is trampled and melts a little during the day.  I quite like a bit of quiet time to look around and see the structure of the ground under the plants.  You can see the pathways made by people and dogs as the slightly flattened grass remains whiter with snow than rougher areas.

I have done a little pruning, although you are not supposed to do this when it is frosty!  The remaining gooseberries in the fruit garden didn’t take long, and I have cut down the sapling sycamore tree that would have crowded one of the apple trees there.  It may grow back, but I can just prune it out each year for pea sticks until it gives up!  The apple that I grafted before I came to Skye and that was living in a pot for a while has unfortunately grown a little one sided.  I assume it is just the prevailing wind that has achieved this, and am not sure if it is possible to reverse….

With the freezing weather there is little plant wise to do outside, but I have been able to get a little done in the polytunnel.  As threatened I have drastically pruned back the kiwi vine.  As well as shortening it, I have also taken out some of the larger fruiting side branches. This should encourage new ones to grow and be more fruitful.  I tied the main trunk a little tighter to the overhead wires, as it was hanging a little low and even interfering with my headroom.  The grapevines are far simpler to prune.  I simply cut back all the side branches close to the main trunk.

After pruning

I am very hopeful that what I am seeing here is flower buds on my apricot.  I’m still not really sure whether I’m doing the right thing with the pruning of this.  I think I now need to cut back the main branches by one third to an upward facing bud and tie in new branches in between the existing ones, and then I’m into ‘maintenance pruning’ whatever that means! I know I’m not supposed to prune when the plant is dormant so I need to leave it a couple of months.

Apricot blossom?

There is a little weeding to do, and I also need to start watering a bit more in the tunnel as well in preparation for some early sowing.  I think the akebia is surviving nicely, but I’m not sure about the passionflowers.  I think they were a bit small and I should have brought them into the house last autumn.  The propagation area keeps expanding.  I could really use more space for putting the growing on plants. I’ll have to have a think about this.  Maybe I just need to tidy up a bit more efficiently!  Theoretically there is lots of space on my little greenhouse frame, so perhaps I’ll just concentrate on getting that properly sorted again.  It just keeps filling up with empty pots!

Too many pots….

Mini greenhouse frame (and polytunnel pond)

 

Going forth and multiplying

Whilst the weather is less clement (we’ve had a reasonable amount of rain since last Friday, and it continues a bit showery at the moment),  I can again spend a little time in the polytunnel and this time use the potting bench and give my cuttings and seedlings some individual space.  I had quite a lot of plants grown from seeds since I have been a member of the hardy plant society (HPS) and they do a seed distribution every year.  My interest is in edible plants, but more garden plants than you would think are also edible.  I therefore managed to get quite a selection of seed to try and nothing lost if they don’t make it.

Two out of the three varieties of passionflower have germinated: Passiflora edulis var. flavicarpa from chiltern seeds, and Passiflora incarnata  from California which was a gift.  I grew these for the polytunnel in the hope that they will not only flower (and fruit!), but overwinter in there.  I’ve put them mostly along the northern wall.  I think last year things suffered slightly in the tunnel from lack of light, since I grew so many climbers on the south wall of the tunnel.  I also planted out some of my akebia seedlings (which turned out to be Akebia trifoliata), two on the north wall, and two by the apricot.  Hopefully they won’t compete too much with it.  I still have several left, and a few passionflowers, which I have potted on into bigger pots, I may bring them in over winter to hedge my bets.

New climbers planted along Left hand (North) wall

I had various other pots of seedlings that need pricking out.  Two sorts of campanula: C. Takesimana (Korean bellflower) and C. Latifoliata, these have edible leaves and flowers.  Asphodeline lutea (Yellow asphodel) is another edible (roots, shoots and flowers).  Apparently slugs love it (which does seem to be an indicator of ediblility!). It prefers more dry alkaline conditions but it does tolerate maritime exposure.  They did each seem to be producing a substantial little rootlet when I potted them on, despite having been a bit congested in their first pot.  Also from the HPS seed were some dahlia, allium, hosta, martagon lily, angelica and fennel.  The last two didn’t do anything – maybe too hot.  I should have sowed earlier directly on an outside bed I think.  The dahlia seed produced four lovely plants with dark coloured leaves.  I have planted two directly in the polytunnel, and two just potted on into larger pots.  The allium germinated well but seemed to freeze at the tiny hook seedling stage.  The hosta seeds suffered from the dry weather, but I seem to have a few germinating just now.  I did have quite a few martagon lilies germinating, but again had a few losses due to irregular watering, just four left.  Sadly my Gevuina avellana seems to have died.  I was just thinking it was time to risk potting it on, but when I inspected it I realised that the stem had rotted.  I am quite upset about this, but am determined to try again!  It must like it really dry as a young plant, and just couldn’t cope with the recent inundation.

Rootlet on Asphodeline lutea seedlings

I potted on a new type of globe artichoke which I think were from chiltern seeds and some wild rose seedlings which I grew from seed from a rose on the river bank which has larger hips than most of the dog roses around here.  I had pricked out some self sown good king henry, but almost all the tray perished in the dry heat (it was too shallow for them to stand much neglect!)  The last few survivors were potted into slightly larger pots, so they may have more chance now.  I’m going to try and spread some more of the seedlings, which are still close to the mother plant, around the garden.  They do seem to make a healthy plant for ground cover.  I have collected some seed as well to pass on.

I have cuttings of honeysuckle, escallonia and some perennial kale cuttings.  I have one surviving grape cutting (the rest all given away now).  These I grew by accident!  When I harvested the grapes last year, I cut them with a bit of stem attached (as recommended by Bob Flowerdew) and placed them in water, which is supposed to make the grapes last longer.  All the stems subsequently rooted in the water, and I had about eight quite nice little boskoop glory grape vine plants!  I have taken some cuttings of the little fuchsias that grow in my shop hanging baskets.  They do so well flowering, but are about four or five years old now, so I feel the need for back up. I have also taken cuttings of some of my tea plants since I lost so many over the winter, and some more escallonia which makes a really good hedge around here.

Some of the new plants.

 

Catching up

So much to do so little time!  Summertime is here, the daylight and the shop hours are longer…We seemed to skip straight from winter into summer here – usually spring is the nicest time on Skye, drier weather, (often warmest too!) no midgies and fewer tourists (we love them really!)  I’ve been helped on my family research by my younger sisters and my mum coming for their holiday on Skye last week.  A folder of old family documents and letters shed some fascinating insights into some of the Kent branches of the family.  A few seem to have been soldiers and I’ve scanned in some of the documents to transcribe.  One letter is from a soldier in Madras, India in 1832 describing the effects of a cholera outbreak and urging his brothers and sisters to stay home and not be tempted abroad.  I haven’t placed him yet on the family tree, but he does seem to have survived to a ripe old age despite obviously in fear of his life at the time of his writing.

Dead citrus

I thought I’d just review the winter and what has done well or poorly this year.  Amongst my losses are my rock samphire plant (grown from seed – first winter), my sea beet (both an established plant that flowered last year but did not set seed and all of my seedlings in pots), some of my Camellia sinensis plants (small plants in the fruit garden – the ones in the tea garden are thriving), the unknown citrus in the polytunnel, my baby yacon seedlings, and a Luma apiculata that never made it out of it’s pot.  Considering  how cold the winter has been, not so much in intensity as in length, it could have been a lot worse.

Volunteer Mashua plant

A surprising survivor is a mashua plant that appears to have grown from a missed tuber in the fruit garden.  I suppose since it can be grown as an ornamental perennial (think Ken Aslet) It shouldn’t be that surprising.  I will leave this one and see how it does.  I haven’t in the end planted any more mashua outside this year.

 

Apricot misaligned shoot

The apricot is doing well – I have now trained in seven shoots as described earlier, and they are needing tying in again.  Unfortunately I did get one of the shoots slightly wrong – pinched out too many earlier on and was left with one that was growing at the wrong angle.  I’m hoping it will straighten out as the plant grows.

Akebia and Passiflora seedlings

I have grown a number of plants from seed this winter including what turned out to be Akebia triloba.  This was grown from seed obtained via the facebook edimentals group from someone who ate the fruit in Japan, but we weren’t sure until the leaves appeared whether it was A. quinata or A. triloba.  It should be hardy outside here, but will probably do better in the polytunnel.  If the plants survive I’ll try both.  I have also grown some passion fruit vines (still very tiny) Passiflora edulis and P. mollissima (I think).  Some of my other seedlings have struggled in the hot weather we had a couple of weeks ago – the pots dried up very quickly and the tiny plants may not have made it.  I had some martagon lily that I think have gone now, and some of my vetch seedlings have also gone.  These include, annoyingly, the Astragalus crassicarpus (gound plum) that I was looking forwards to establishing in the tunnel.  Luckily the single chilean hazelnut that germinated seems to be doing alright, and is now showing signs of sending up a second pair of leaves.  This is better than the seeding I achieved last year which faded out at a single pair.

Moving more soil….

I was busy outside trying to get on top of the creeping buttercup before it took over everywhere again, but got distracted moving more soil down the hill to landscape the orchard area.  This is nearly achieved, but more work to do on the south side of the trackway.  Just at the moment the buttercups in the field are making a fine display with the pignuts, and remind me that we’d be poorer if we succeeded in eliminating weeds!

Bluebells and Macloud’s Tables

Harvesting, germination and why we (sometimes) don’t like deer

I’ve not had much time in the garden recently since there are a number of issues that have arisen mostly relating to the shop.  One of my members of staff is poorly, so I had to do extra shifts.  An exciting delivery from a new supplier came during one of my afternoons off so I had to go back down to the shop again to unpack it.  Palmer and Harvey were one of my main suppliers, who have now ceased trading, so I’m having to work out where and if we can get the groceries we normally get from them.  And someone put a planning application for mirror faced cube camping pods in the Glen which I felt obliged to object to.  The weather had been better though – cool and still and a little damp.  S. has bought me for christmas (not really I hope!) two pallet loads of hardwood which arrived on Friday and we spend much of Sunday warming ourselves once by stacking it all away in the woodshed.

Back in the Polytunnel, I have managed to harvest most of the fruit.  I have four more sharks fin melons, ten bunches of ripe grapes, and a very few achocha.  I still have the kiwi to harvest.

The grapes were starting to go mouldy, it’s just getting a little cool even in the polytunnel to expect any further ripening.  I think maybe I wasn’t ruthless enough when I thinned out the bunches earlier in the year, although it felt pretty brutal at the time.  I have picked them over and placed them in a glass of water, which hopefully should enable them to keep a little longer.  I also dried some in the bottom oven to make raisins which worked pretty well.  I could do with an easy way of removing the seeds however!  I need to give the vines a good prune now.  I’ve always taken my own approach to pruning; which is to make a cordon stem of the vine from which the fruiting spurs come off.  This seems to work quite well.  I had left a lower branch as well as the high level one, but it still isn’t really growing well.  The branches that come off it are weak and tend to droop down, interfering with the crops at lower level.  This year I’m going to prune the lower branch right out, and remove the wooden framework which also gets in the way of the polytunnel beds.

I’m not sure I’ll try the achocha again.  I quite like it – it tastes like a cross between a cucumber and a courgette, but it seems not to set very many fruit with me.  Only the fruit later in the season have set.  Mind you, I have noticed a lot of spiders in the polytunnel this year and have suspected that they may be eating a lot of the pollinating insects this year.  Maybe I’ll give it one more go and try and start them off nice and early.

The sharks fin melon I consider to be a big success, despite not getting that many fruit.  They are huge and pretty, and tasty see here.  The noodles do retain their noodly texture when frozen, so I may roast the melons as I need them and freeze the noodles in portions.  I’m going to try and save seed (apparently they carry on ripening in storage) but also see whether I can overwinter the vine, since it is a perennial in warmer climates.  So far I have buried one vine root in kiwi leaves (which have mostly shed now) and covered another with it’s own vine remains.  Although it’s not been very cold for the last couple of weeks.

I seem to have got very good germination from the two lots of Akebia seeds.  Both the ones that I sowed direct and the ones I left on tissue in a polythene bag have almost all got root shoots.  I moved them inside onto a windowsill, rather than leaving them in the polytunnel.  If I can get them through the winter, then I may have rather more plants than I need!  If not then I have dried the rest of the seed and can try growing them  in the spring.

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The last few weeks have seen an intruder in the garden.  For the last few years we have seem thankfully little sign of the deer, and I have been thinking they don’t like the smell of Dyson.  However recently they have been in and caused a little damage to a few of the trees, and munched some of the greenery in the fruit garden.  Luckily I don’t grow much for ourselves outside, but I had been getting a little complacent.  We have planted a hawthorne hedge which I am hoping in the longer term will screen the garden and deter the deer, but that will be a long time before it is big enough to do any good.  I’m pretty sure I heard the stags calling in the rut this year for the first time as well.  I wonder whether one of them was looking for greenery to decorate his antlers?  I gather they do this with bracken at this time to make themselves (presumably) more attractive or impressive.  In the past when we’ve had damage to the trees it’s been in the spring, which is more likely to be them rubbing the velvet off their antlers which they grow new every year.

 

Sowing Swapped Seeds

This week the weather has turned more wintry, and with the evenings closing in, the weekday afternoons I have free seem very short.  By the time I’ve had a spot of lunch there is only an hour or so before it is getting too dark to work outside.  I have continued to clear the fallen trees by the river.  Of course cutting them back is only half the job.  The cut branches then need moving through to the tree field, and will want cutting to length.  I’m eyeing up some of the nice hazel branches to make something crafty with.  Maybe shrink pots, or a wizard’s staff…..  I’ve moved some stones to make rather wobbly stepping stones over the worst of the boggy area and still have a lot of cut branches to clear away.

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One exciting thing that has happened this week is some seeds that I swapped for some perennial buckwheat seeds have arrived.  These are for Akebia – a perennial vigorous climber that should have chocolate or vanilla scented maroon flowers followed by a purple fat sausage fruit which is edible (see https://lassleben.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/autumnal/ for example)  The sweet seedy pulp is eaten as a fruit, and the skin, although bitter, can be cooked as a vegetable.  These seeds came from a fruit bought at a market in Japan, see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1321572664620803&set=gm.1739693236041770&type=3&theater&ifg=1.  Nominally it can grow outside, but given I still don’t consider I have achieved much shelter, I will hope to plant this (if I get them to germinate) in the polytunnel.  You need two different plants to get fruit.  Hopefully if I get two plants from these seeds, they will be dissimilar enough to cross fertilise.  Apparently chiltern seeds sell Akebia seeds so if the plants grow, and if they don’t fertilise, and I find out whether my seeds are Akebia quinata (five lobed leaves) or Akebia triloba (three lobed leaves) I can get some more seeds and grow some unrelated plants (Phew!, that was getting involved there).  According to PFAF, my go-to resourse for germination information, stored Akebia seed is very difficult to germinate, luckily Kim, who swapped these with me, has kept them in damp tissue since eating the fruit, so they should germinate better.  They also need light to germinate, so I have pushed them into the surface of some damp compost in a old strawberry punnet with a hinged lid.  It is currently in the polytunnel, but I may bring it in, since I think the weather will soon be getting too cold in there, and the temperature PFAF mentions is 15 degrees, which it would gain during the day, but will soon be dropping to near freezing overnight, even in the tunnel.  I have kept most of the seeds back inside to dry, since I don’t need dozens of plants (my sad hablitzia plants are a poignant reminder not to sow more than I need – although one or two are hopefully off to good homes this autumn).  I may just pop a few in a zip lock bag on a damp tissue as well, as this apparently can work.  If I don’t get some Akebia to germinate over the winter, I can try with my stored seeds in the spring, or pass them on again if not required.

Akebia seeds on paper to dry