Bumper Harvest

It has been a great year for my veg. I have frozen bags and bags of runner beans and carrots, pickled jars and jars of beetroot, stored a large sack of potatoes and the winter leeks and curly kale are growing strongly in the veg patch. Provided we don't get a repeat of the severe cold weather we experienced last year, the winter veg look like producing a good crop. I'm going to be well fed and healthy this winter!
The weather conditions this year have resulted in a bumper fruit harvest as well and, even though I do not grow any fruit trees myself, I have been lucky enough to have been given a lot of fruit. The plums I received were eaten very quickly, and very nice they were too. The apples and pears have been sliced, tossed in demerera sugar, topped with a crumble mix and put into foil containers in the freezer - more lovely food for the colder months.
I am seriously considering growing my own apple and pear trees but I haven't got a lot space in the garden for more trees. I am therefore looking at the possibility of growing them on dwarfing rootstock in pots or fan training them against the fence. 

Roses - a brief history

Roses have been around for thousands of years - they were painted on palace walls in Ancient Crete in 1600 BC and a thousand years later were portrayed on tombs in Egypt. The Greeks called roses the 'Queen of Flowers' and were the first to grow them in gardens and pots throughout the land. The Romans used them in food, wine, perfumes and medicine and are believed to have introduced them into Britain. In 1500 there were three types of roses grown in the Tudor garden - the red rose (Rosa Gallica), the white rose (Rosa Alba) and the fragrant Damask Rose. The globular and fragrant Centifolia or Cabbage Rose arrived from Europe in about 1550. This was followed by the Austrian Yellow which came to Britain from Persia via Vienna in 1580. The Musk Rose arrived around the same time from the Himalayas. These ancient garden roses only flowered once in a season, were limited in colour, globular in shape and spreading in habit.

The first China Roses arrived in Europe in the 18th century, followed many years later by the delicate oriental Tea Roses. Our modern roses evolved through the crossing of the repeat flowering China Roses and the beautiful flowered Tea Roses with our own frost hardy robust varieties. In the 1860s Rosa Multiflora was introduced from Japan. This wild rambler, with its small plain white flowers in large heads, became the parent of some of our ramblers and all of our floribundas.

For sheer beauty and variety roses are hard to beat. There are many different types of roses so everyone should be able to grow them, even if it is just a patio rose in a pot or window box. My father loved roses and grew mainly the hybrid tea variety. I prefer floribunda roses which mix nicely in the border with other flowering shrubs and perennials. One of my favourites is Iceberg which has lovely white flowers and is often used as a hedging rose. Another is Irish Wonder, a reliable prolific flowerer producing large trusses of beautiful red roses. Arthur Bell is a lovely fragrant yellow rose with large weather resistant flowers. It flowers early in the season and continues well into the autumn. Another very fragrant variety is Romance which grows taller than the others and produces large deep pink flowers. Summer just wouldn't feel right without roses in the garden and I can't imagine ever having a garden without them.

Lovely Home Grown Veg

The runner bean crop has been really good this year and I am busily picking beautiful long bean pods every day. Those that I cannot eat immediately will be frozen to give me a good supply of home grown veg in the coming months. Runner beans are easy to freeze - just prepare them as if you were going to cook them, plunge them into a pan of boiling water for a couple of minutes to blanch them, then drain and rinse them in cold water and bag them up for freezing.
The last of the potatoes were lifted today and stored in a hessian sack in the pantry. Even though the weather has been very dry during the growing season the crop has been pretty good and should last me a while.

The beetroot crop has also been good this year but it is usually a reliable crop. I always plant 'Boltardy' and it has never produced a poor crop yet no matter what the weather is like,
I boil up the smaller beets to eat with salad, cooking and pickling the larger ones to store and use throughout the winter months. I find that using a solution of roughly three parts Sarsons pickling vinegar to one part water produces the best results

Hoverflies - excellent pest controllers

Has anyone else noticed how many more hoverflies than usual there are this year? Most plants in my garden seem to be surrounded by clouds of these insects. I'm not complaining though as they are definitely beneficial to the garden.
They are about 19mm long with black and yellow striped bodies (similar to wasps but smaller and non-stinging) and are capable of hovering and darting in any direction in helicopter fashion. This makes them interesting to watch.
The hoverflies themselves feed on nectar and swarms of them can be found round flowers in summer. Their larvae, however, are predators and feed on aphids. They provide an excellent biological control to aphid infestation.
I usually suffer infestations of greenfly on my roses and blackfly on the runner beans and have to spray regularly with soapy water to try and control them. This year, presumably due to the high proliferation of hoverflies, I have had no problem with blackfly and very few greenfly. I hope they will be as effective at controlling aphids in my garden next year.

Summer Herbaceous Border

The herbaceous border is starting to fill out well, although there are still a few gaps where I need to improve the planting scheme. My favourite three plants for summer in the herbaceous border are the vibrant red Lychnis Chalcedonica, the pretty pink sweetly scented Phlox Paniculata and the classic white Chrysanthemum Maximum, better known as the Shasta Daisy.

Lychnis Chalcedonica, also known as Jerusalem Cross or Maltese Cross, was introduced into Britain in the 14th century and has always been linked with returning pilgrims. Although it was collected in the Middle East it actually originated in European Russia. The first part of the name comes from 'lychnos', the Greek word for lamp, and is thought to refer to the woolly leaves which were used as wicks for oil lamps. The second part of the name comes from 'Chalcedon' which is the classical name for Kadekoy, the district of Turkey opposite Istanbul. Flower heads composed of small bright red cross shaped flowers are borne on upright stems above the mid green leaves in early to midsummer. The plant grows to about 3 feet tall and will self seed freely. It likes moist but well drained fertile humus-rich soil and prefers a position in full sun or light dappled shade.

Phlox Paniculata is a lovely scented border plant which has flowers in varied shades from white through to pink, red, purple and blue, often with contrasting centres. The flowers appear throughout summer into autumn, and are long lasting when cut. I have three varieties in my garden at the moment and intend to plant more. They are a really good reliable hardy perennial with a long flowering season. The delicate fragrance is an added bonus. Grow them in any moist fertile soil, positioning them in full sun or partial shade. This welcome addition to the herbaceous border was introduced into Britain in 1730 from the Eastern United States.

The perennial Chrysanthemum Maximum, also known as the Shasta Daisy, is one of my favourite plants. The lovely white daisy flowers are up to 3 inches across with a golden eye and make a cheerful display from June to August. There are varieties available with semi double or double flowers but I think the single flowered variety is the most beautiful. It grows to between 24 and 36 inches in height and likes a sunny position in a well drained fertile soil. Propagate by taking 2 - 3 inch long cuttings of basal shoots in March/April or by lifting and dividing established clumps, again in March/April.

Harvesting the first Potatoes

. The veg patch is looking good at the moment. The runner beans have their beautiful scarlet flowers and have not been too troubled with blackfly this year. The beetroot is looking healthy and I have just planted twenty winter leeks and ten curly kale plants. Hopefully these will give me some lovely fresh veg this winter provided we do not get such severe weather as last winter. The last of the strawberries have been picked and eaten and I have now turned my attention to the potato crop. Today I lifted the first of my new potatoes. I have been a bit concerned about them as the weather has been so dry, but the first two haulms have been lifted and they look like they have produced a reasonable crop. I will be cooking the first of these potatoes for lunch tomorrow and intend to serve them with a chicken casserole and some sweetheart cabbage. Mmmm - can't wait!

Lilies

I grow two types of lilies in my garden - small Asiatic Hybrid lilies which only grow to about 15 - 18 inches tall and are therefore suitable for growing in pots, and a species lily called Lilium Pyrenaicum which was given to me by a friend. The Asiatic Hybrids have beautiful large trumpet flowers of varied colours and are the ones which are widely available in garden centres. The species lily, Lilium Pyrenaicum, which is pictured left has much smaller bright yellow flowers with curved petals and long orange stamens. It is not as flamboyant as the Asiatic Hybrids but is much more of a traditional cottage garden plant and grows to about 24 - 28 inches in height.
My lilies flower from May to June and have just finished. The bulbs in the pots will increase and become pot bound eventually and I then transplant them to a sunny spot in the garden.
Lilies thrive in sun or partial shade and should be planted between October and March. The Asiatic Hybrid lilies are stem rooting. This means they produce roots from just above the bulb as well as from beneath it. These require deeper planting than those that just root from the base of the bulb. A good rough guide is to plant at a depth of two and a half times the height of the bulb. Young lily bulbs have contractile roots and can pull themselves down to the correct depth if planted a bit too shallowly. If planting in pots use a good soil based compost such as John Innes No.1.
One word of warning - watch out for the bright red lily beetle. The larvae can cause severe damage to your plants. They also cover themselves in a black slimy excrement which looks horrible. Luckily the beetles are very easily spotted being such a bright red colour. Just pick them off and squash them. You need to be vigilant and check your plants regularly. I find they seem to be more active in the evening. There are chemicals which can be used to control this pest but I don't like using strong chemicals in the garden where they could have a detrimental effect on other beneficial insects such as bees. Anyway it's much easier and cheaper to just remove the beetles by hand and kill them.