Humph's Happy Horti-cult: harvesting, preserving, mulching, leaf-gathering, bulb-dibbing, seed catalogue-surfing and hunkering down for winter

[Lexilicious]

Following on from the original March to August thread. For all - whether still gardening through the winter or planning to sweep the shed, hibernate, sharpen the tools and get started again in the spring.

Happy gardening again!

Humphrey - In times like this, I remember the late great Geoff Hamilton's words of advice in the days when he presented GW. He said that he was often asked when was the best time to do such and such a job and his advice was always ?whenever you have the time?. I cling to the (possibly misplaced) hope that, although there may be an optimum time for doing certain things, doing them at sub-optimal times won?t be fatal.

::Thinks about what she spent on tulip bulbs and hopes for the best::

If they shouldn't come up before winter's been, then I think the shoots might get damaged when the cold does come. So protecting with fleece/cloches will be the kind thing to do.

My daff/tulip big patio pots have shoots and I'm going to fleece them up soon. I have big irises which I cut down to 10cm or so and they are starting new leaves too - wonder about mulching straw or something to protect the exposed rhizome. My broad beans under drinks-bottle cloches have got about 5cm shoots already! Now I daren't take the cloches off. Also some of my onion sets (Radar) have sent up a shoot - I thought they needed a proper cold snap to kick off the germination.

Making apple chutney tonight. The kitchen air thick with vinegar is clearing out my and DH's sinuses pretty well!!

Yes, I think that's the key. Anything that emerges very early may need a little fleece tent to keep it cosy.

replanting deeper or mulching, says someone on an RHS forum. So I might put a layer of straw on my bulb pots as well as fleece on top, and allow falling leaves to stay on the onion border.

As all my bulbs are in pots I've also got the option of putting them in the coldframe or moving them against the house wall. I wonder whether, early planting aside, some of this is part of the phenomenon of some plants flowering twice this year because of the unusual weather patterns.

agghhh! I wrote a whole response earlier and then the page wouldn't refresh.

Something roughly along the lines of - yes, I've seen things flowering longer/more times than they should (arum lilies still looking strong in November?!?!) but not having endless bulb pots to experiment with, I'll forego the opportunity to see if I can get daffs at Christmas or some other season-bending strangeness. Instead I'll experiment with different protection strategies - straw and fleece, bark chips and fleece, bark alone, leaves...

I also have noticed in my very random front garden that the scattered deadheads of calendula have germinated very healthily in a two square foot patch. This will be killed by frost surely, but will they come up again in spring or will the seed be exhausted?

Yes, it'll be a good opportunity to test different sorts of mulch and frost protection. The apple trees normally provide me with plenty of leaf mould.

I don't think the calendula will sprout twice, but you might well find that some seed is robust enough to survive the frost and sprout in the spring.

Similar problems here with my over-wintering vegetables - my broad beans are about 6in tall already and my curly kale is just about ready for picking! I think I shall take a few leaves off the kale to slow it down a bit and hope for the best as regards the beans.

I'll add straw to the shopping list...

It's no GW, but I've just watched a good programme on iplayer called The wonder of weeds.

And in other news... nothing really. Raked some leaves today. Broad beans nearly too big for the bottle-cloches. Both onions and garlic now sprouted (until my 2 year old walked all over them GAAAHHHH!!!). Salad and Pak Choi doing well in municipal recycling box planters.

Le Big Daddy Frog has returned to pond. I found him half strangled in the anti-leaf netting and had to untangle him. Poor love. I hope he gets a grip on where I left the un-netted open end soon. Robins, blue tits, great tits and long tailed tits all seen in a thirty-second burst of activity this afternoon.

My garlic's sprouted now too Lex. Broad beans nearly a foot hight! That's not right...

On a good note though we're really enjoying the veg crop at the moment; roast parsnips & jerusalem artichokes with Sunday lunch today, then leek, celeriac and mooli soup for tea.

I'm still too poorly to spend any time outside, but I've just noticed that one of last year's tulips (which I shoved into a spare pot, because I doubted it would grow again, having not got much sun last year) is sprouting.

I do hope you feel better soon Maud. Have you had flu?

No, I've had The Cold That Will Not Go Away And Has Turned Into A Chest Infection. I am feeling very grumpy and miserable. I want to do some tidying in the gardening but can't as the damp air makes me cough.

How's The Good Life with you?

Oh, is this thread a quiche? If so, HullyGully is setting up a sort of grand conference of quiches and we ought maybe to be represented!

i also thought we should be represented in the hully jamboree... but i'm too chicken to volunteer for quiche rep.

get well soon maud.

I planted up many seed trays yesterday and... WASHED MY POTS!!! I feel like a grownup responsible gardener, putting away my things so they don't get frost damaged. Now I just need to oil my Felcos (snigger) and I get a badge I think .

But, Lexi, you or Humph should be our quiche rep. Pleeeeease.

I usually wash pots but take comfort from Bob Flowerdew saying he never bothers and there don't seem to be any adverse effects. Every year I say I'm going to send my Felcos off for an MOT but I never get round to it and do a minimal DIY job with sandpaper and olive oil. Perhaps this will be the year I also oil the handles of the trowels and other hand tools. Oooh, get me.

could be persuaded but will defer to humph first

ooh the most exciting thing about my Sunday morning tidy was that i found a random success story. In spring when I was de-stocking one side of the garden to be the Veg side, I dug up a yucca which hadn't at all enjoyed being in solid clay rather heavy soil. I was going yo just chuck it but

oops. phone posting probs. Anyway so I had this huge root to chuck and i can't really bear the waste so I broke it into chunks with my bare hands and stuck each into a pot of spent compost. they've been badly neglected over the summer sitting unwatered under a cold frame sort of setup but having just let them get some rain recently and all of them are sending up a shoot!! So I will have seven yuccas to sell next year. Marvellous.

Fab! I'm hoping to do the same with a fern that I was tired of and which I split into five. Do you sell plants as a business or is this for the PTA (or whoever)?

Managed to do a little weeding last weekend. Lovely weather on sunday meant that we were out for ages without dc complaining. I can let them dig stuff up this time of year

DH pruned and tied up the rose walk. I hate dealing with the roses, too painful. Luckily I am too short to get to most of it.

We have decided to plant the tulips in the front garden as it will be nice to look out of our bedroom window at them.

Sorry to hear about your chest infection Maud, sounds nasty.

oh go on then...

re the plant sales... not a business, not PTA, just realising that I probably should fund my habit a little from the proceeds of my endeavours if possible. failed at first hurdle though - have been handing out jam and chutney for free, left right and chelsea.

and in this case, I don't like yuccas at all (it was here before us) so there's no temptation to squeeze it in somewhere in the garden.

::Chants, cheerleader-stylee::

Go Lexi, go Lexi (both with the plant sales and with your duties as elected representative)!

Ahem. I did it

Well done, Lexi!