Garden

I have turned over a new leaf as far as my garden is concerned, no pun intended, and am trying to devote some time to it each week.  So far I seem to be succeeding.  I was not sure that the weather was going to allow for it this week as we have had unbelievably large amounts of rain.  My garden is pretty free draining and the soil is in good condition from the lovely compost that we make and coat the garden in each year.  But after all this rain it has turned to a clay like soil, it is absolutely saturated.

So I am working my way up the garden weeding and tidying it ready for the winter,  I am nearly at the end.  Whilst weeding in one patch I realised that I was pulling out very dead potatoes tops,  deeper digging revealed that we had missed a couple of rows when we dug them up earlier in the year. We have just finished eating these so I was delighted to find a few more pounds of potatoes lurking in the depths, they will keep us going for a week or so.  I thought we had had a poor potato harvest this year but it has turned out ok, I last bought potatoes in July!

Whilst I was tidying the tools away I happen to notice that all was not right with my garlic bed.  I sewed 74 cloves a couple of weeks ago but some appeared to have come up to the surface.  At first I thought this might be the mice that are a pest in our garden but their activity oftens diminishes in the winter as it gets very cold.  So it must be birds who are digging them up, such is the life of a gardener!  I have covered them to try to stop the birds doing this otherwise we will not have any garlic next year.

I have also be doing some apple tree research as we want to plant some in our garden.  Some friends of ours organised a wonderful day out for us to taste and learn about apples.  We have decided on cordons as we will be able to plant several varieties in a small space.  Apples really need other apple trees nearby to fertilise and fruit.  We have no apple trees anywhere near us so we need to grow a few.  I am hoping the weather stays warm enough for us to plant them soon otherwise we will have to wait until after Christmas, once the ground freezes it will not be possible to plant at all!

Joining in with Squiggly Rainbow for sharing of all things garden.