Autumn Cottage Garden Safaris

Gaia's Garden

This is the part of the garden that will be getting most attention over the next few months - the area of garden around - and including - the pond and summerhouse, which I want to designate as the first part of my 'Gaia's Garden' project. It is my intention to create places in my garden to fulfil similar functions to those which participate in the 'Quiet Gardens' movement, where visitors, therapy clients and workshop participants can immerse themselves in the natural world, to sit, be quiet, be alone, read, write, think, reflect, feed and restore their spiritual, emotional and physical health.

I will be including symbols for reflection from many different religious faiths, and other items of beauty for restorative contemplation by  those that profess no religious beliefs. It won't be totally quiet, though...there will always be the sound of running water, and I will offer restorative music, to be listened to via headphones. I plan to engage all the senses, to restore all parts of the Self.

This will take some work, it is a big and important project to me, but 'putting it out there' via this page is the first stage in bringing it to fruition. Visualise it's creation along with me, and hopefully that energy will make things happen!

Autumn Cottage garden really is truly lovely at this time of the year...if you were a visitor, I hope you would like to sit here too.

Your invitation to Gaia's garden will be open at the beginning of 2012.

 

Five Pictures from Five Minutes in the Garden

Just a quick visit to the garden this morning - five glimpses in just as many minutes...

Pip, attrmpting to be invisible - which he is, on the gravel - but not quite on the piece of old carpet, coveing the unused veg box to supress weeds. Inevitably, he gave up, made himself comfortable and went to sleep in the sun.

The Last Bean(s) - leaving just a few on the plant - after a wonderful crop - to supply seed for next year

Another seed crop - the black, bursting pods of Sisyrinchium, some of which I will sow now, and some in the spring...

  'The Coy Mistress' - I love this little figure, even though it is rather saccharine...my Grandmother had a painted plaster version in her parlour, so I guess it is just a sentimental reminder.

Has earth anything to show more fair? Sedum - being spectabile! another common plant which gives much bang for each buck!

 

Pots of Autumn Abundance!

So - you start with this...

...an apple tree in Autumn Cottage garden, loaded with apples...so many that some of the branches are nearly touching the ground.

You combine them with this...the recipe that I used, altered, adapted and combined from an old family recipe, one found in a 1970's recipe book on preserving, and my own additions and modifications:-

Autumn Cottage Apple, Apricot & Sultana Chutney

2.5 kg (5 lb) apples

0.5 kg (1 lb) mild onions

0.25 kg (8 oz) sultanas

0.25 kg (8 oz) dried apricots

0.5 kg (1 lb) soft brown sugar

600 ml (just over a pint) malt vinegar

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp crystallized ginger

2 tsp allspice (quite clove-y – omit if not to taste).

Add sugar, salt, finely chopped ginger, chopped apricots, sultanas, allspice  and sugar to the vinegar in a preserving pan. Allow sugar to dissolve, then bring to the boil. Meanwhile, peel, core and chop the apples and onions (I did mine in the food processor – but they may look nicer small-diced).

Add the apples and onions to the pan, bring back to the boil and simmer for about 2 hours – first covered, then for at least the last half hour, uncovered, until dark brown and thickened to a jam-like consistency. Pot into sterilised hot jars, seal and leave to cool. (Sterilise the jars and lids in the dishwasher if you have one - they come out nicely hot as well, so no cracking).

Mature for at least a month.

You finally end up with these...the very satisfying end product of jars and jars of - if I say so myself - very yummy chutney! Will there be any left after a month, I wonder?

There is still a surfeit of apples here in the garden - anyone local is welcome to come to collect a bagful if they want to make Autumn Cottage chutney for themselves.

The Peace of Wild Things

Bumble bee on Sedum spectabile

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.'

- Wendell Berry

Everyone who knows me, knows how much I love the poem above. The compassionate educator, Ted Bowman, in his wise and wonderful little books, ('Finding Hope When Dreams Have Shattered', and 'Loss of Dreams'),  frequently suggests that one way in which people can help themselves through difficult patches after a loss - including death - is to find solace in the Natural World. I've discovered this for myself many times - and have seen how it can work so well for others - so after the events of yesterday, (detailed over at Autumn Cottage Diarist), time in the gardens at Autumn Cottage was more than usually special to me today. Here are some of the beautiful sights - at all stages on the circle of life, both growing and in decline - that are there just now.

Verbena bonariensis at the back of the new trellis border - each tiny floret is exquisite

Stages of decay which no-one really wants on view are those taking place in the septic tank - an unbeautiful but necessary fact of rural life. The initial impetus for starting what is now the trellis border was to hide the manhole cover which gives access to the tank - and since it is due to be emptied this week, all the pots camouflaging it have had to be moved.

Can you see where the 'manhole' cover is? The big pallet normally covers it - with pots on top...

Can you see it yet?

Pretty well hidden, I think!

The burgeoning Lavatera 'Barnsley', down by the pond - a very peaceful place to sit, though all the newts have now disappeared - out and about, foraging in the undergrowth.

The beans are still producing non-stop - the jolly nasturtiums trailing away long after the peas have been taken out and relegated to the compost heap...

Look at the apples! Chutney making is on the agenda next week...

Buddleia weyeriana - with deliciously honey scented flowers - back over in the trellis border...

The delicate breakdown of the Hosta sieboldiana leaves, by the pond...

More of the pond area, with the summerhouse - all overgrown - but a major component of next year's 'Quiet Garden' project

An opium poppy - self seeded around the garden for the 26 years that we have lived here

...and now there is but one. Pip - The Cat Who Walks By Himself...

 

 

Drip, Drip, Drop, Great Big Horrible August Showers!

A predictable picture - but droplets of rain on Alchemilla leaves always entrance me.

August has been a bit of a washout - so all the great intentions of spending the month in the garden, pottering about, tending to jobs that can be done in the baking heat, interspersed with much sitting under the vine drinking something cold, have come to nought. Time has been spent mostly in the conservatory, watching rivulets of rain puring down the windows - and emptying pot holders on the patio of their surfeit of rainwater every day or so.

Here are just a few snippet-shots of the (very wet) gardens today...let's hope that September brings an Indian Summer in the Autumn (an Autumn that has most definitely already arrived), before predictable Winter brings her less immediately attractive gifts - as she surely will!

'James Grieve' apples - good for cooking, and later for eating

The very fine, ten year old 'border' of ground elder and couch grass at the front of the house in the (badly over-run and neglected) cottage garden...this image taken in the spring...here to show you....

...the same garden being taken in hand by my wonderful son - who is attacking the heavy digging and bringing the old garden back to life...and visibility! Watch this space for more progress...

More watery charms - this time in the kitchen garden - droplets on a Nasturtium leaf

One of my favourite plants for autumn - the hardy Fuschia by the old loo. What a gorgeous flash of colour...even in the rain!

High Summer from Morning to Eventide

From morning light in the herb garden...

To when the evening shadows start to fall...

The still, deliciously heavy heat of high summer...sitting on the patio, moving little, drinking lots, and  the only sounds those of the bumble-bees dipping for nectar in the flowers, the chinking crack of yet another snail being beaten to bits by the thrush on the stones outside, the chipping alarm call of the blackbird as it spies one of the cats walking langourously to an even shadier place than the one that has now become too warm.

This sensuous, all too short season cannot be bottled or preserved like jams and pickles, to be brought out and enjoyed in the depths of winter. Oh, would that it could - but then - would we savour is as much as when it is as it is...fleeting and precious? It is only in words and pictures that I can capture perhaps just a millilitre of the essence of summer in my Paradise Garden - which will never win prizes or open in the National Garden Scheme - but is, nevertheless, precious to me, and available to enjoy from morning to evening...in fact, at any hour of the day...or night.

Here are some more millilitres of summer for you to enjoy along with me on this high summer's day in this little corner of England.

  Bumble-bee...nasturtium

Beastly, burgeoning blackfly on the beans...

...and the troops that fly in to gobble the flies - a legion of lovely little ladybirds!

The trellis bed - filling out nicely after just three months

A trick with plants bought - but unable to be planted now...(above is Astrantia 'Ruby') - leave them in their pots and just sink into the garden. After flowering, they can be divided up (I never buy a plant that can't be divided!) - and planted out in the soil.

Lissie giving her nod of approval to the Astrantia and Echinacea - can't tell they are not planted out, can you?

The burgeoning Herb garden with Buddleia singing 'Come Hither!' to all the local butteflies :-)

...and from the pond arbour, looking in the opposite direction across the herb bed (can you smell that Mint??!!) to the little 'Bistro' corner awaiting a congenial imbibing of wine by whoever may pass

Lavenders and succulents in the terracotta-pot garden - don't the plants look good in those broken pots? NEVER throw anything away!

Pip at the pond

Lilies - the heavy, heavenly fragrance of summer on the patio - one of the gorgeous scents of my Paradise Garden.

 

 

 

Mr Not-so-Magnificent at the Moment!

A trio of bird-y observations for you from Autumn Cottage this morning...

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Here is poor Mr. Magnificent, who is in full moult, and not looking at ALL magnificent at present. Looking more like a chicken than a pheasant, he has lost both his tail feathers...after promenading around for several days with only one, very bent specimen...and as you can see, has also almost completely lost his white neck collar feathers. The fluffed up feathers at the front of his neck have been there since he started visiting...I have taken close-up photographs, and there is undoubtedly some sort of disturbance there - whether from an attack, an infection, or a foreign body, I don't know. But it does not appear to distress him, he is still very able to eat - and while he continues to visit, I will continue to feed. I hope he stays close to Autumn Cottage, because it won't be long now before the shooting parties start at the Castle - and when that happens, he is better off on this side of the fence!

All round the year feeding of wild birds is advised nowadays - which is what I am doing in a small way - just crumbling a couple of slices of granary bread out onto the bird-table...it appears to be worthwhile, for here is a (very out of focus) shot of a family of baby Blue-tits which visited a few days ago. One would not normally see such young families in the garden, as the Tits  seem to keep to the woods when they are breeding - but the bread is obviously considered a delicacy not to be missed!

Clearer than the image of the thrush in my last post - here is a much sharper shot of a snail-bashing session - again, interestingly, not in a manner I have seen before. I usually see - and hear - thrushes cracking open snails on a larger stone area - but here it is managing very well indeed on some quite small grade gravel. Clearly 'whatever works' is the order of the day for this bird - and you can see the result - a nice, fat, juicy meal - waiting to be heartily eaten - which it did just after the photograph was taken.

Everything's Coming up Garlic!

The last few days goings-on in the garden...

More goodies from the garden - just harvested the giant garlic a couple of days ago - this should keep me going for a while :-)

Mange-tout peas waiting on the bush to be picked

The beautiful flowers of the runner beans

The 'bistro' corner - my favourite place for a glass of wine in the evening...

The terracotta pot and sink garden - with Tim's rather pathetic-looking sweetcorn in the background (er - they need to be watered, Tim!)

The new bed, already filling out. Roses less abundant than a few days ago, after some fairly heft downpours

'Golden Shower' roses on the veg garden arch

  A thrush beating a snail to bits on the gravel path

  Pip contemplating his next dynamic action (which was to go to sleep on the patio :-))

Today's Mystery Minibeast

Discovered this caterpillar on the underside of a gunnera leaf just now. Wouldn't you think a dragon of a carerpillar like this belonged to a most exotic moth or butterfly? - No - it's a Vapourer Moth caterpillar - and without wishing to be disparaging to a creature of the beautiful natural world..well...it IS really rather a tiny bit - um - dreary!

The leaflet from which I identified it (it was right on the cover!) is, however, a very useful one to print out if anyone in the UK is going nature watching...Happy Caterpillar Spotting, if you are!

All Systems GO! in the Garden...

Already, summer is apace, even though the 'official' beginning of the season was but a few days ago. It's hot and humid today, but this is a recent occurence - we have had a couple of weeks wet and relatively cold weather, before these past few days sunshine. The good soaking that the plants have received has clearly encouraged them to 'Go for Gold', and they have flourished in size and foliage. Here's a check-in stroll around for you to see the progress that has taken place recently.

The Gravel/Veg/Herb Garden

Fast turning into my favourite place to be, the herb and veg garden, with all beds surrounded by gravel, is a perfect place to wander to and rest awhile. The arbour seat in the far corner is just the perfect end-point for a stroll around, where I can usually be found these days, peering into the pond, watching the newts and emerging dragonflies.

The pots in the forground are mostly broken terracotta pots that I have utilised as planters for my collection of sempervivums and other succulents - never throw anything away!

Veggies!

And UP they come! left to right, Purple sprouting broccoli, runner beans and mange-tout peas. (Stop-press - just dicovered the first pods on the mange-tout peas a few minutes ago...they'll be going in a salad tomorrow!)

Gunnera mannicata

By the pond, the little gunnera plant I bought a few months ago is now a rather big gunnera plant - in fact it is three...(one has gone to live with Liz). Doing very well in a pot as long as it is kept very wet indeed. It will go into the greenhouse for the winter, and then, next spring - a bigger pot or the garden.

Foxgloves

These common but so beautiful plants lurk down on the shadowy 'dump' - the glory-hole bottom of the garden - scruffy but essential for clearing and burning tasks). Foxgloves are biennials, so I'm just about to sow some seed of the whilte variety, Digitalis alba, to plant in the bottom, very dark and shady bed. Should lighten the darkness there a bit next year.

Resident newts...

floating about like little crocodiles...

...and a visitor...

a Poplar Hawk moth - Laothoe populi. Exotic in appearance, it is apparently one of the commonest hawk moths in the UK. But this is OUR exotic Hawk Moth, in OUR garden - so it is, of course, special! It will apparently flash a patch of red from under the first pair of wings if startled - but both Tim and I agreed that we are not in the business of gratuitously startling moths...so for now..this is all we - and you - can see. Impressive, though, I think you'll agree?

One of the clematis that rampage over the trellis...

I'm still trying to identify it - I know it is either Jackmanii superba or 'The President' - but cannot remember which...the label disappeared a long time ago. Any ideas, anyone?

Stipa gigantea

...from the original, single, small, divided clump from my friend three years ago. This is now flourishing in the new bed, already covered with seed heads, and looking beautiful when blowing about in the low evening sunlight.

But in case it looks as if everything is starting to look a little too good here at the Cottage, I give you...the Could Do Better area...otherwise known as the Bottom Pond and summerhouse.

The Bottom Pond

Look carefully - yes - there is water in there - just. All these plants should have been taken out and split up in the spring..but Life had other plans and it didn't happen...

And behind the pond, jungle emerges...

...and ivy grows up the *inside* of the summerhouse, (which awaits roof repairs and a paint job).

So there is plenty to do here through the rest of the summer days...meanwhile, there is one visitor who still appears daily, and really doesn't care about the untidy bits of the garden. he's very forgiving...all he thinks about is his tummy!