Tidy Up Time

Morning.. Its been two weeks since my last blog , that sounds like the beginning of  a confession, and I suppose it is in a way. I decided when I started writing this blog not to just post for the sake of it, so as I didn't have much to say last week I didn't bother. 

The British obsession with the weather reached fever pitch last weekend as the imminent arrival of a large storm names St Jude caused news programmers on all the Tv and Radio channels to spend hours talking about wind! Sadly 5 people lost their lives but for most of us it was a bit of a non event. In fact its windier here now, as I type this, than it was last sunday. We suffered very minor damage to one tree and my Dahlias and Cosmos were blown over, and that was it. 

The pumpkin tower also ended up leaning over a bit more. This hasn't stopped the courgette growing though.. 

The greenhouse was in need of a bit of a wash on the inside. The glass was covered in all that green powdery stuff that covers tomatoes. I got some Jeyes fluid and used a capful in the hot water. 

That was a mistake. A week later and the greenhouse still smells like the lavatories at my junior school in the 1960's . I will not be using that again. The glass came up beautifully though. 

The staging, that has been outside all summer, is now back inside and already covered in plants again

I still have one grow bag with the cucumber in it. 

And my sweet peas are very happy. 

My seed addiction was fed further this week by the arrival of some wonderful seeds from a Heritage Seed company in Missouri, USA called Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds . I was browsing for unusual squash on the internet when I stumbled across their website. I was fascinated. I had never heard of most of the varieties they were selling. I bought 4 packets which were sent quickly and the whole thing only cost me £8. 

I shall enjoy growing these, and in fact was chatting to fellow gardeners on twitter and one of them mentioned something called the "Three Sisters". I didn't have a clue what he was on about  , so had to resort to a google search. It turns out its is a planting scheme  using only corn, beans and squash and was used by Native American Indians, who then showed the settlers how to do it , and probably saved them. 

I found an excellent American Blog which explained the history and also shows planting plans. If you want to know more click here 

Anyway, after reading this blog, I have decided to have a go. I have some corn seeds that were sent to me by my Seedypenpal, Jenny, and they are from an Irish heritage seed supplier, so they should work nicely with my American squash, now all I need to find are some good beans and I will be ready. I think one of my raised beds will be the perfect size and it will be an interesting experiment and good use of space. 

Finally from the garden, we have eaten the first of our trellis grown pumpkins, and very tasty it was too. loads more left so they should last until christmas

Well thats about it for the garden. Out and about , we went for a last run of the summer in Freda. This time Jim attached his Go-Pro to the bonnet. It looked a bit odd but worked well . 

And on another day, we were on one of our regular walks when we found a Golden Retriever who was obviously lost. Her name was Hazel and she is a very pretty dog

Luckily she had 4 telephone numbers on her collar so we quickly contacted her owner and after a bit of a walk we were able to return her to her family. Gibson enjoyed her company. 

After all the excitement we went to the pub for lunch and Gisbon enjoyed his Pint

Only Joking!!!! 

Wel thats it for now. Not much to be done in the garden now for a while but I am busy planning for next spring already, I shall let you in on my plans in due course .. Have a great week, we plan to .