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!

that link is superb. God he is good.

I also like the jumper.

Our apples are not yet ripe - we have been cutting them open daily to see but not so far. I will be back at work before we can start to deal with them. The spiced plum chutney sounds delicious. I was going to make my small crop of plums into spiced pickled plums like Susan Hill does but I didn't have any pickling vinegar. So we ate them raw instead. And I found the DC having a plum throwing competition with what was left on the table.

I am a sad failure at the preserving. I think DH will get on with it when I go back to work and the children are at school. On the days when he isn't planting bulbs, that it

Perhaps we should have a thread-within-a-thread of horticultural songs? I'm sure there must be some JT ones but I'm too tired to think of them.

We make jam but not chutney, as only Bloke eats it. Any ideas about what to do with surplus rhubarb?

you can make rhubarb jam perhaps? I remember my mother doing it occasionally.

was it Dorothy Parker who said 'You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think'?

I love that.

sorry about the randomness of that last statement, it seemed relevant at the time...

Yes to both!

I keep turning up as some sort of random drunk but surplus fruit can be turned into wine. We made plum wine (excellent Christmas wine). Rhubarb wine is excellent as a kind of base alcohol for topping up other fruit wines. Strawberries make an excellent rose with a strawberry aroma but without sugary sweetness.

Homemade wine? Won't it explode all over the airing cupboard?

::Memories of db's youthful brewing::

Ooh I have a thing for free delivery until end of Monday for Thompson & Morgan if anyone is interested :)

Detonating over the fluffy towels is not compulsory!

IME the secret of homebrew is not to try to hard. DH's ribena wine destroyed the virginia creeper outside his bedroom window at college. He couldnt resist adding more sugar!

I am now in charge of the family brewery!

Fruit wines tend to be slower to maturity. Many will need to be left for a year or more to be really worth drinking. The plum wine is a really good accompaniment to Christmas pudding.

::Puts fingers in ears and goes la la la to avoid the siren call of T&M::

We've had a very horticultural afternoon. Checked out the sale at the garden centre (came away with two bargain plants, which I'm sure you will agree is very moderate) and then to two NGS gardens. Gardeneing royalty was at one of them!

::demure horticultural swoon::

who?????

If I don't name myself here I feel I shouldn't name anyone else. I'll PM you.

Went to Hampton Court Palace today as a birthday treat. I want that border! MIL gave me garden centre vouchers so I can go back to the garden centre guilt-free - she also gave me a list of recommendations of things she thinks will go well in the border. Need to google some of them...

Tried to pick from the crab apple tree yesterday. Had to hack through 6ft high brambles to get to the base of the tree whilst balancing on two foot deep moss and old decayed brambles. Then once I got there realised that I couldn't actually reach any of the apples! Very frustrating; need to try again more prepared, i.e. machete, apple picker and DH as back up in case I disappear into a hole in the ground and am never seen again.

That sounds delightful, Pkam.

I have decided that I need more astrantias and have just ordered this. I already have Rome so this will add to the Italian theme.

I mean Hampton Court and the garden centre, not the falling down a bottomless pit.

That astrantia is a beautiful colour Maud.

Been googling MIL's list - she has a campanula 'turkstania' on there which I can't find on google. She says it's a pink one - anyone know of a pink campanula with a name similar to turkstania?

I think so, Pkam. I'm hoping it will be dark enough for my black and white bed.

Could this be the campanula? I had it for a while - it's gorgeous but short-lived (here, anyway).

Looks like a strong possibility - you know everything . Have noted the name down so that DH can check with MIL during his Sunday night phone in with her later.

What? ::incredulous:: I most certainly do not know everything, but I do have a retentive memory for the plants I have killed which do not thrive in the difficult conditions here. And I've been a member of the RHS for a long time - The Garden is my porn for reading in the bath.

Found some sausages from last years pigs at the bottom of the freezer, so had an entirely home produced meal today of apple, leek and onion sausages with anya potatoes and french beans. Lunch was runner bean and thyme soup with tomato and basil salad and cucumber and dill salad. I felt quite proud.

Maud, I too consider you the fount of all knowledge.

Just read this and had to share - be careful out there those garden tools are dangerous...

Eek, Pkam. Mind you, I am always careful to lock my secateurs shut after hearing other similar (but not quite as gruesome) stories.

Humphrey - I bow to your self-sufficiency. But as for the rest, I fear you are under a misapprehension (aka you can fool some of the people some of the time).

Does anyone here use Crocus? I am about to take the plunge.