Gladiolus in bloom

I don't don't about this pink and yellow one specifically but it is just
as lovely as all the rest. I believe it is aftershock 

People have been stopping in the street to admire my front garden since I turned it into a flower/vegetable garden hybrid.  I would say they are appreciating my innovative planting scheme and colour palette, but they’re not.  They all stop for one thing; my gladiolus.  They have been an absolute picture, and if when I was breaking my back chiselling away at the soil, digging through to Australia trying to plant the corms earlier in the year you would have asked ‘will it be worth it?’ I would probably say no. But it is. It truly truly has. 

My neighbour came over one day specially to tell me how wonderful Blackstar is, and how much his wife and him had been enjoying them,just after a cut everything in flower to take indoors which then made me feel bad.  This has been a problem.  They look so wonderful on mass in the garden that I am loathe to cut them and bring them indoors, which was kind of the whole point.  But I did have the good sense to plant them in line with the kitchen window so we can still enjoy them indoors, although I am never at home during the week when its light outside so my enjoyment is limited to the weekends.

They first ones to pop up was in Chitchat which are a light pastel coral colour, very feminine and pretty and also funnily enough the first ones I planted. 

Next up were one or two of my bright green variety Green Star. I always like green flowers because they seem slightly odd, if you know what I mean.  Very subtle though, and I would actually say having grown a whole bunch the brighter a gladiolus, or the more impactful the colour the better.

The ones everybody has loved are these, Black Star. They have the most beautiful dark velvety petals that really sing out. I remember the popular UK gardener Sarah Raven saying on her website that she only plants really dark ones and I thought she was crazy at the time, but I get it now.  They are truly splendiferous, and that’s saying something.  I feel the need to explore what other dark varieties there are for next year.

Magma is a lovely bright red variety, a really sock it to you shade, and that’s always good. The father keeps buying red gladiolus from the shop for indoors because I wont cut mine and they are just a completely different animal, smaller and the colour isn’t quite there. Mine are definitely a cut above.

I also really liked this more subtle purpley-pink tinged with beige one, Indian Summer, which reminds me of old furniture, it’s a bit old-fashioned in the colouring, a little faded, but I like it.

I know gladiolus have the reputation of being a bit naff, but I really think they are worthy of a space in every garden. Especially if you can plant them on mass like I have. I put in about fifty bulbs, and although they started flowering in mmmmmmm and still continue to this day, those fifty plants have continually made such a show. Although they initially came out in planting order, now I have a real mixture out at the same so its like a vase flowers but just planted in the garden.

I noticed the spent flowers at the bottom where trying to form what I presume are seed heads deep in where the flowers were, but I managed to resist temptation to allow these to form and cut off the spent flower stems to ensure good corms for next year. I also discovered that pulling out the withered flower heads once they die encourages buds still to come out further up to appear. This does mean there has been a little pile of dead gladiolus heads on the edge of the border from when i have had a two minute pick but can’t be bothered to go round to the bin. Because im that type of gardener.

I really can’t get enough. When I the mother was intent on returning her front garden to bushes I had intended to dig up the corms for planting next year, but now that I seem to have convinced her to stay with the annuals I plan to leave them where they are, save my back and just give them a protective layer of mulch instead.

That’s not to say I plan to rest on my laurels, oh no. Big plans have I.  There is always room for expansion and Im sure I can find a few more lovely varieties to add to the mix. I didn’t buy anymore this year at Hampton Court because I had only just finished planting this batch and I could remember the pain. But now there is a bit of distance between the back ache, and I im feeling spendy again.  

Double click rose bonbon cosmos

Always nice to be greeted on the driveway by saucer-sized pink flowers

Double click rose bonbon cosmos is lilac-coloured and frilly, which is all anybody can really ask for from a flower.  It has been a staple in my summer annuals for the past two years, and will, if my seed collecting works, continue to do so.  It first caught my attention because the tiny picture shown on Thompson and Morgan's website shows these great ruffled flowers like skirts from period dramas on TV, and im a sucker for a ruffle. I can't say I have found my own blooms to be quite as impressive as the picture led me to believe, but they are solid bloomers nonetheless.

The positives of this particular cosmos are - rose bonbon forms quite a clump of ferny stems peppered in these sizeable lilac blooms which sort of flop about, looking rather pretty in the garden but also making a very nice cut flower. They flower all summer, one plant started in about June or July and although that one is on its last legs I have others still in full bloom with buds to come.

They have a great frilly structure - great to look at but also prime earwig hiding territory

The downsides - I have had a couple of complete stems just shear clean off from the main plant, not sure if this is to do with gravity or dampness but its a little annoying. Also the ruffles in the flower heads are absolute magnets for earwigs.  Pick a bunch and shake them and at least three will plop out and require removing.  And lastly they are an absolute pain to try and collect seed from.

Im presuming as I grew these from seed that if I collect my own seed the resulting plants should at least be similar to the parents if not identical copies.  I am loathe to have to re-buy a proper packet of seed if collecting my own works, especially as I find it quite hard to get them to germinate. They require germinating in a bag and once the first seed has germinated you've got to whip the bag off quick and it means the other seeds are wasted. So I have been allowing the plants to go to seed, which probably hasn't given me as many blooms as I would otherwise have had, but I wanted to try it.

What I have found is that 95% do not create seed that can be collected.  If the conditions are not exactly right, and im not totally sure what those conditions are but I think dry weather is preferable, the bud just closes after flowering and then just rots shut.  You end up with lots of little blackened withered buds that are no use to anybody.  I have had about 3 proper seed heads in total.  When the seed is properly ready it splays back open like some little macehead of war, but very very few have done this.  Instead I have been collecting the seed from heads that have yet to decide if they want to wither or open.  I know this means the seed is a bit young and not properly dried so I have been keeping them indoors to dry out, as you can do with some seeds and hoping this works.  I now have a nice little envelop full so next year I will give it a go with them and if it doesn't work out snap up a proper packet online, I don't want to be without!

Examples of what the few viable seed heads actually look like.
 The long spiny seeds splay out like a mace when ready

I feel like I am playing a risky game here because if I wait too long the window of opportunity for buying some will close.  The reason I am doing this though is because I want to grow more varieties of cosmos, they are such great flowers after all. I have already purchased one packet, although I have subsequently mislaid it so I will have to wait until another time to reveal it. I also have my eye on a variety called cupcake that has one single joined petal rather than separate petals.  It doesn't appear to be  listed on the website anymore so I will be keeping a beady eye out hoping for its return, and my eyes open for other good varieties!
          

A pleasing crop of pears

A tree hung with lots of pears is a remarkably pleasing thing

They say you plant pears for your heirs, which would be me as the mother was the one who planted our pear tree. Despite this we have had a considerable crop of pears this year.  There isn't really much to say about growing pears, they really just get on with it on their own which is rather nice, but I couldn't resist sharing a few photos of how well we did this year.

It seems ironic to me that pears actually seem to grow in pairs, but
I do get fearful the branches will buckle under all the weight! 

The pear tree is not terribly big having only been planted a few years ago and stands next to the fence. It blossoms in the spring, as all good fruit trees do, and then sets about making pears. Im sure I have talked before how pear fruits start off growing up the wrong way with their bottoms facing the sky and then as they get older and bigger and heavier they start bending over and then hang down as one would expect.

Our total pear numbers did hit about 19 at one stage I think, although one or two popped off to be lost within a below bush forever, and another couple had to be picked earlier because something was having a nibble, but we still got about 15 pears in the end.  A good solid batch I think you will agree.

Not all uniform size but a good crop even so - this isn't it though

Not sure if our pears are eaters or cookers, I they never get particularly soft and the one I have tasked in the past was hellishly tart, but its homegrown so it was ploughed through! Can't grow it and then not eat it. But I don't actually eat pears on a general basis and so I generally just leave them to the mother to eat.  And therefore she has grown pears for herself and not for me, totally disproving the theory, wherever it came from.

zinnias - queen red lime, red spider, purple prince

Such a beautiful flower the zinnia, such dense complex blooms but with
surprisingly dry petals, or at least this one has

If there is one annual that is guaranteed to liven up a bunch of flowers then it is the zinnia in my opinion.  Yes they are a little princessy as seedlings desiring as little manhandling of the roots as possible, but once they are past that stage they truly are worth their weight in gold.  For that reason they have been a staple in my annual border this year and brighten up the garden every day.

Last year I grew two varieties, double envy and a whirlygig one. Green envy was a great variety with lovely green petals in that shade I always think seems unnateral in a plant although clearly green is the most natural colour for a plant to be! Whirlygig were less successful but I think this is more to do with where I planted them out the back where they get less sun as the year draws on.

Zinnias have such interesting centres when they first flower but as they get older like the one on the left the centre vanishes, bizarre

This year I have really expanded my collection, growing several quite different varieties encompassing sinlges, doubles, bright, pale, big and teeny tiny flowered ones. Each one is worthy of praise in its own right.  And one of the joys of zinnias are they are rampant maters. Keeping them pure to a variety when grown in the garden in nigh on impossible so while you can't grow the same variety again from seed you collect yourself, the possibility of getting wierd and wonderful concoctions from the babies opens up and im down for that.

They were lovely blooms, but I only got the two purple princes unfortunately! 

It has not all been a bed of roses though.  One variety was particularly disappointing purple prince has huge dark pinky purple single blooms, really big and imposing.  Only I only got two flowers, one of each of my two plants before both keeled over onto the path after some heavy rain and literally uprooted themselves.  To say I was disappointed is putting it lightly.  If I could have stuck them back in I would have done but the damage was too great.  So while I thoroughly enjoyed those two flowers, I did not get any more.  Next year I will make a note to stake this one!

I just love these bright zingy orange blooms, they really brighten up the flower border. The centres rise up as these age

The brightest zinnia I have grown this year is also probably my favourite.  I have decided it must be a sprite zinnia because I only sowed a few varieties and I don't remember any of them being particularly orange, except in the sprite mix.  Orange is putting it lightly.  These are sock-it-to-you orange, and I always appreciate anything that really goes for something.  These have been great in vases in the windowsill but I can't really bare to cut them because they look so great in the garden.  One particular featre of these is the central cone really protrudes out from the flower as the bloom ages, making it quite dynamic and rather similar to echinacea.

These queen red lime zinnias vary slightly from the other plant I have of this variety, these
have a whole section of lime petals, but are equally big and round

These really highlights how zinnia flowers never remain static, they start one shape and colour and continually evolve 

My only double zinnia is this badboy, queen red lime.  Look at that for a flower.  I don't understand how flowers can possibly construct themselves so intrically in a bud, but clearly they can.  These start out flecked with a lime green colour and turn a lovely dusky rose colour with age. These big pink balls last literally for ages.  Only one came out to begin with and even the mother commented on how long I held out for before finally withering.

I didn't know I had planted any yellow ones, but up it popped! Such a nice shade, this shows the true pastel quality

Again I think this pale pastel yellow one must be from the sprite mix because I didn't plant any yellow ones and I only have the one.  It contrasts beautifully with the lilac cosmos sat next to it, a real pastel combination. Im very fond of a yellow flowers, and while I love a good honking yellow I can also appreciate the subtleties of life so this one has very much been appreciated.

This photo makes it look more saturated than it actually is.

And finally to my last and teeny tiniest, red spider.  I bought these at Kew in London from a stand of seeds from around the world.  They looked exciting with their thin blood red petals, and they are.  They are just absolutely miniature. I do think some measure of scale should be included on seed packets because I was rummanging about one day, came across this didy flower and actually exclaimed "thats it!?" In my mind it was going to be so much bigger.  But no matter.

One of my teeny tiny, itsy-bitsy, diddy red spider flower. Yes its a zinnia, just
an absolute miniature one!

What I have been attempting to do all summer with limited success is collect the seeds from my zinnias this year so that next year a whole world of mixtures is openend up.  I just can't get the blooms to dry and make seed without wilting into a black rotting mess on top of the stalk.  Its been quite a challenge but I am perserveering.

Buying a coldframe

This is all I had to work with last year, basically a bookcase on its side
covered in bubblewrap, but this year I am moving up in the world

I have made a purchase that I am extremely excited about.  At long long last, I have a coldframe of my very own.  Its not quite the ultimate dream of a greenhouse, but it will at least allow me to raise seeds in the winter months, all snuggled up in comfort in their wooden box. But buying what should be a fairly simple garden addition has not been without a little drama! My mother, poor woman, has been through it.

It all started last year. We got a new neighbour next door after the previous couple split and sold up. In came a rather nice elderly lady, and she came complete with coldframe.  There is the odd crack in the fence that can be peaked through, and it sits there on her patio, taunting me.  I got the mother to enquire where she got it.  Turns out her son purchased it for her, which is highly unhelpful for me, but I became determined. A coldframe would be mine!

And so it is now mine!

Last winter I did what I do best and made do.  When I was younger I had a desk in my room, one side of which was constructed like an open bookshelf.  The desk is long gone, but the bookshelf has been used as such for a while, and then was being turfed out when the idea was struck upon to lay it down on bubblewrap on the patio and cover it with fleece and bubblewrap to make a shelter for seeds.  It worked, but it was not glamorous.  It also was a pain to cover up after sunny days and got very wet and messy.  It was also provided an absolute field day for the slugs.  It managed a season, and did me proud, but we threw it out when all the seedlings had moved on which left me with nothing.

Having got use to raising seedlings during the winer, I became even more determined, but I just didn't know where to buy one from.  Online every review I read said the product in question was flimsy and not really worth the price, which made me wary.  I wanted to see the thing in person before making the purchase.  Some helpful soul on twitter suggested just my local garden centre, but the one I usually frequent is pretty small and I have definitely never seen any in there.  Another nearby one did though so I treated myself to this:

Ta-da! Isn't it beautiful? All my seeds are going to be so snug in here

I would have rather liked a huge aluminium one that sits on the ground like a little glass house, but the mother convinced me there would not be enough room.  Instead I got one almost identical to my neighbour's, basically a large wooden-framed plastic box on legs.  Should be good for the back. I was a little concerned about having to screw it all together myself but it turned out to be a piece of cake.  Literally took just twenty minutes. While not the most solid thing in the world, it seems pretty sturdy and should be fine for my wants. Im going to creosote it next weekend to make sure it lasts through the winter, but all in all, im super chuffed.

And it even opens and there is room to store pots underneath

I already have some aquilegia plants I am going to try and overwinter in it, and then I will get started on the sweet peas for next year pretty soon and then all the annuals from January onwards.  I can't wait to fill it up!

Lots of space for seedlings, perfect!

My cucumber season

When I planned my cucumber crop for this year I had big visions. Specifically this:

The cucumber greenhouse at Arundel castle, the stuff cucumber dreams are made of

Obviously not having a greenhouse like at the castle, this was always just a dream, but I did think that the more plants I had the more cucumbers I would receive.  Somehow that didn't quite work out, and next year I will be doing things a little differently.

This on the left is one of the only two cucumbers to be produced by the plant that then promptly died

As last year I had a main trough with four plants in, two; the catchily titled M76 and Socrates have been great, producing cucumbers regularly all summer. M76, although a little on the ugly side, is particularly tasty in my opinion. Pipit died the moment it was planted, to be replaced with two babies that randomly popped up.  Me being me dug them out and gave each a pot of their own.  This was a waste tof time and good soil.  If a cucumber seedling doesn't get started nice and early, its not going to do anything.  Not only did neither of them, nor the other baby taht must have been one of my own germinted seeds, actually produce a single cucumber, but they also didn't even grow very big.  A much better use of the pot space would have been to grow salad or more carrots.

Actually there is almost as many cucumbers growing in this picture as
there are in the top greenhouse I now realise!

The other cucumber given a prime spot in the trough produced one delightful vegetable, and then withered to the middle, produced one more and then just dies.  No idea what its problem was but clearly it wasn't happy about something.  I did accidentally snap the base of the stem a little in trying to straighten it to stake it, but it survived long after this happened.

Two of my more prickly customers, but excellently tasty

Overall my shop bought varieties produced more cucumbers than my ones from seed.  No real reason for this as far as I can see.  They were all much the same size and given the same growing conditions, but the shop bought ones just got on with the job better.

This one fancied being a little more bulbous

My two Delta Star which I also grew last year as well produced fairly regularly, although not as many as last year.  Maybe last year was just a better year for growing cucumbers overall? Im not overly fond of this variety, its pretty to look at but has large seeds that choke you mid-way through a sandwhich and tough skins.  And im not a fan of having to peel a cucumber before I eat it.

Two of my cucumbers from seed, one short and fat, one long, presumably two different varieties, just one fancied a little lay in somebody else's pot

I also got one solitary telegraph cucumber, which I think is the variety you can buy in supermarkets.  The plant spent all summer thinking about it and readying itself for the task ahead, and then finally managed one right at the end of the season.

A fine specimen, one of the ones that produced all summer

So overall not a disappointing season, but not necessarily worth the pot space they were honoured with.  It has occurred to me that growing eight or nine varieties of cucumbers might be fun, but nobody needs that many cucumbers, and one cucumber is much like another when you get down to the real flesh of the matter.  I do not have the room to dedicate so much space to my very own cucumber farm, so next year im going to mix it up a bit and grow a larger variety of vegetables and just a few good cucumber plants to keep the salads stocked.

These are two of my tastiest variety, not beautiful but its all in the taste buds 

Frech beans - Blue Lake and the end of the beans

Baby blue lake beans forming nicely

This summer we have been experiencing a bean glut, and the last player in my bean bounty where my climbing french beans. I feel like I have covered much of why the beans were so successful in my runner bean posts, and the story behind the french is no different. They enjoyed the spot and produced a great quantity of beans.  More than we really needed so the freezer is groaning.

I don't remember these being particularly covered in flowers, there were definitely more blooms on the runner beans but this didn't seem to prevent the production of beans, they kept appearing.

Fully formed french beans

One thing that was different about these to the runner beans is boy did they spread!  I found french beans amongst both the runner bean wigwams on either side, not even just on the side facing the frenchies, but right on the other side miles away from where they started out. I ended up picking a real mixture in certain areas, very odd when you suddenly come across a patch of french in what should be exclusively runner bean territory.

The variety Blue Lake that I grew was very tasty, stringless, everything you would want in a bean.  I would definitely grow it again, if I wasn't the type of person who always likes to grow different things every year.  I have already bought some cobra climbing beans ready for next year and no doubt I will branch out into other varieties when I see some offers at some point.

I do love a good whirly-twirly vine

I really like french beans because they are tasty and they are also distinctly easier and quicker to cut up than runner beans.  However everybody else in my family much prefers the runner bean.  Because of this I have eaten the lions share of french beans, which is fine with me.  The mother however turned to me the other day and said we shouldn't bother to grow french beans again.  Last time I looked I wasn't growing them for her exclusive enjoyment! Needless to say I will be ignoring her and growing them again next year.

Some of these beans are a little big but I struggled to keep up with the necessary level of picking

The beans have just finally come to an end and were unceremoniously ripped out the moment I thought it was acceptable. Time waits for no bean as they say! I need the space for all my winter veg which is coming along nicely.  Just like I predicted getting the wigwams apart took ages, I think the mother thought she was constructing a sea-worthy vessel rather than a bit of support for beans.  No wind would ever have taken that apart.

The final bean hedge before I ripped them down

I had already whipped out the first of the runner beans when I discovered you're meant to leave the roots in the ground to let the nitrogen the beans have collected disappate back into the soil.  Woops. I have left the other two in so hopefully this bit of earth will turn into very nice soil at some point.

This is the top of the wigwams after about half an hour of chiselling and hacking
at the vines.  Who needed string round the top to hold it together!  

The front garden is looking a bit sad now my three soldiers of green are gone but you can now see all the gladiolus and annuals all at once, which is still pretty despite the lack of green backdrop.

Winter vegetables - brussel sprouts, perpetual spinach and leeks

It should be a winter of sprouts, kale, leeks and spinach. Hopefully

The winter vegetable is completely new terrain for me.  Last year my growing calendar as far as vegetables are concerned ended abruptly at the beginning of Autumn.  This year, being that I have bed space crying out to be used, I am pushing through and hope to have some kind of edible growing at all points right through until next year's broad beans take over.

I was unprepared for this decision.  With no advance preparation I took to my nearest garden centre to plunder their ready-grown supplies of winter seedlings.  Alas, choice was limited! But I have got a few goodies.

My leeks were a little spindly, but I went with planting anyway

The first is sprouts.  I personally love a good brussel, be that at christmas or any other time, I will eat them willingly.  I think the reason they are so unpopular is people ruin them by going overboard on the boiling.  But we have to get some first.

The seedlings seem to require an inordinate amount of space - like a metre between each one - certainly more than I am prepared to give them in any case.  With that kind of spacing I would have got about four seedlings in the entire space the dwarf beans previously took up, and thats just greedy.  Of course they will grow huge and be elbowing each other out of the way for space, but thats just tough.  I gave them about 60cm between, and thats me being generous.

Leek-holes, holes for leeks.  At the bottom of a trench that keeps trying to collapse to allow me to build up the bleached part

I also purchased perpetual spinach, lots of perpetual spinach.  I like spinach, but theres something about the name perpetual that is faintly unappetising, like its been hanging around a while and get old. Im hoping this isn't the case as the amount I have planted we will be having it on a very frequent basis.
These I have put in my rear veg-bed - freshly extended - which could be a bit shady and damp during the winter, we will have to go see, but hopefully they will do ok.

The un-adulturated leeks in all their original glory

Most interestingly in my book at least, are my new leeks.  Im not the biggest fan myself, but on twitter it certainly has its advocates!  And I just thought why not?! Planting these is bizarre.  The label said dig a hole 8 inches deep, pop in the leek and then just fill with water.  Instructions like that needed further explanation I thought, so I looked up a video.  Turns out the traditional method is to undo most of the leeks' hard work - slicing off both some roots and leaves before popping into the hole.  This makes the roots easier to get in the hole apparently, which is true, but feels so wrong.  The lady in the video was planting leeks the size of fingers, mine are more pencils, or pipe cleaners but I stuffed them in anyway.

The slosh of water just covers the roots in soil and thats enough apparently. Only some of my holes were longer than my leeks and one leek plain vanished when I added water. I had to insert a finger into the muddy hole to try and extract it.  It was unpleasant. But I was successful. The hole means the stem becomes bleached white which is what you want, but as mine are so small I have also dug a trench so the soil ca be built up.  I've had a few issues with backfilling, but so far so good.

Trimmed and ready for action, easy for stuffing in holes.
Apparently they love it!

Added to this is all my kale and a few other bits and pieces I will go into at a later date, so hopefully the winter will be veg-full!