Gardening through a pandemic – Part 3 Autumn 2020

September, October, November

Sadly three months after lockdown easing at the beginning of summer, the infection rates are climbing sharply. It’s hard not to fear the worst, that we are sliding headlong into a second wave.

We knew the pandemic was far from over and we’d all resigned ourselves to this happening come the winter, but we certainly didn’t expect it so soon.

Luckily the garden is still providing me with a refuge from all the bad news. And after such a fabulous weather year, it just carries on giving. The late flowers of the Heleniums, Asters and Rudbeckias, just to mention a few, are still providing lots of colour.

Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’, Aster ‘Monch’, Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’

And as I’ve had much more time gardening this year, meaning successional sowing, the harvests keep on coming.

Always planning for the next season

To be a gardener, is to be an optimistic! Never is this more true than the autumn, when you go out in the cold and damp to plant bulbs, hopeful that in five to six months, Spring will have sprung and you’ll be here to enjoy beautiful flowers.

1st September – A single Quince

Our temperamental quince tree has managed to produce one ripe fruit. Luckily the reason for growing it is to put one quince into each apple pie, this improves the flavour. So only one fabulous tasting apple pie this year!

6th September – Prolific summer squash

Once summer squash plants start producing fruit, there’s no stopping them. Anyone that’s ever grown a courgette plant will know this.

The ‘patty pan’ is no exception! They have been fruiting for weeks now, and we’re running out of freezer space for the ready meals we make with them.

One of the quickest things we do, is to just slice them on the mandolin and cook them in the oven with onions, garlic, lemon juice and chicken stock. It makes a really tasty accompaniment to most things.

10th September – A visit to Powis Castle

We finally got out to visit a garden!

Powis Castle is somewhere we’ve visited many times, but not for quite some time. It is famed for it’s very impressive yew topiary.

The new way of doing things was to book online. You had to choose a time slot to arrive to avoid any crowds. The gardens had been set out as a one way system, as some of the pathways are a bit narrow. You certainly wouldn’t be able to pass with a two metre social distancing gap.

The café in the bottom garden was open with tables outside, so we sat and had coffee and cake. The peacock obviously hadn’t been briefed on new Covid rules, and was wandering from table to table hoping for some cake.

It was simply marvellous to be wandering around a beautiful garden again, getting inspiration.

14th September – Last chance for Alfresco

Out of nowhere we have a little heat wave, this is so appreciated at this time of year. We make the most of eating outside, we’ve grown everything on the plate except the chicken!

17th September – The Late Raspberries

We grow autumn fruiting raspberries, mainly so that they come later in the year after a lot of other things that we tend to have for breakfast. We start with rhubarb in March, then onto Strawberries, blueberries and finally the raspberries.

As with all of the fruit this year, we have a bumper crop resulting in raspberry cakes. Sliced up and frozen for weekend breakfasts with yogurt.

19th September – British Weather!

Not even a week since the exceptional weather, it’s so cold we have to light the log burner. No wonder the British never stop talking about the weather!

21st September – Babies in the pond!

My husband spotted a tiny baby newt in our pond. You can see from the photo that its only the same size as the water boatman, about 15mm.

After Nigel the newt moved in last year, and having had three adults in June this year, this is the first baby we’ve seen and it’s seriously exciting!

Baby newt and a water boatman ‘Corixa punctata’

28th September – Sunflowers

Sunflowers have become a real symbol of hope and cheerfulness this year and ours haven’t disappointed, they are still going strong. As are ‘Torch’ the Mexican sunflower, with their bright orange flowers. Of course the bees absolutely love them. These are the only two annual flowers that I sow and grow every year, as I favour perennials really.

Mexican sunflower ‘Torch’ and traditional sunflower

30th September – Brussels sprouts

My Brussels sprouts are looking very promising! I’ve only tried growing them twice before, the first time I sowed them too late, and the second time they were ravaged by the white butterflies caterpillars. This year they went into the brassica cage early, and I have high hopes for Christmas dinner.

1st October – Bad News

Our region of Wrexham is put into a local lockdown, joining many more regions of Wales. Things are looking grim.

12th October – Refreshing mums pots

After my one and only trip to a garden nursery back in July, I took my mum to a garden centre. We went to buy plants to refresh the pots on her porch, from summer bedding to winter flowers. We got some heather, cyclamen and winter pansies. I brought them home to do in my greenhouse.

14th October – Time to sow the broad beans

Broad bean sowing today. I always used to sow them in the spring, but when we moved here my next door neighbour (a keen gardener) told me that sowing the previous autumn created stronger and earlier plants that don’t seem to be prone to black fly. He was correct and I now sow them in autumn every year.

It’s so lovely to be sowing a crop, when most other things in the garden are dying. Back to that ‘gardeners are optimistic!’

16th October – Autumn in the air

It feels like autumn is properly here now, the colder weather has turned the leaves on the blueberry bush a lovely shade of red.

Our aptly named autumn fruiting raspberries are still going strong.

20th October – Welcome colour

The crimson flag lilies ‘Hesperantha coccinea’ in the front raised bed, are looking really good against the Choisya hedge. I took a few of them from my mums garden when I was clearing an area for her, and now they’ve spread right across. They can be a bit of a nuisance for spreading, but if they’re contained they are rather spectacular. It’s very welcome colour at this slightly drab time of year.

24th October – The Figs go on and on

With the amount of figs we’ve had this year, it’s scarcely possible to believe that in the four years since we planted this ‘Brunswick’ fig tree, these are the first we’ve had.

When you plant a fig tree, you have to make a fig pit to contain its roots. The idea is to restrain its growth and encourage fruiting. Well I think it’s worked!!!

1st November – Rainbows for Christmas

Rainbows have become the symbol of thanks to our key workers that have kept the country going through the pandemic, especially to the NHS staff on the frontline.

I have the idea of making rainbow Christmas tree decorations for my friends and family. We are clearly living through something momentous, and to take these little tree decorations out each year will be a reminder of what we’ve all been through. They are proving to be a bit more fiddly than I thought, I hope I get them done in time!

My little production line of tree decorations

5th November – The last Figs

I can’t believe that we are still eating our own figs in November. We pick and eat the last few and savour them.

6th November – Time to bring the chillies in

As the weather turns decidedly cold I bring the chilli plants in from the greenhouse, especially as they still have precious fruit on. Unfortunately I brought whitefly in on them and as soon as they got into the warm house they started multiplying. I ended fighting with them all winter!

12th November

As we clearly weren’t going to be having any Christmas parties and get togethers this year, and feeling inspired by the wonderful Captain Tom. I decided to rope my friends and family into making a party style charity video, rewriting ‘The Hokey Cokey’ as ‘Dance The Covid Cokey’. I made a little demo video and sent it out to see who I could recruit. We’ll be seeing who was game in Part 4 – Winter.

20th November – Watching the wildlife

We have Leycesteria formosa (Himalayan honeysuckle) growing close to the house. Its fabulous for wildlife, it has bees on the flowers all through the summer, then come the autumn it develops berries and we get to watch the blackbirds eating them.

23rd November – Lets plant those Tulips

It’s not so appealing to go outside gardening at this time of year, especially if its wet and cold. But tulip planting is an enjoyable job and makes you look forward the beautiful bright flowers of spring.

29th November – Christmas Pudd

Not too much gardening to be done at this time of year, so if I’m not gardening I’m probably cooking. I’m already one week late for ‘stir up Sunday’ so I’d better get cracking.

I’ve made a gluten free Christmas pudd for the last four years and we think it tastes better than a traditional one. The recipe is from Delicious magazine. You can find it by clicking on gluten free Christmas Pudding.

I put the dried fruit to soak yesterday in half Brandy, half Sherry, as I take the lid off it smells divine. It doesn’t take too long to mix all the ingredients together for the pudding.