First and foremost, a Very Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope it will be good to us all.

This year I have decided to sort the blog by seasons, rather than months.

Obviously, there is not going to be a lot to post in winter.   Particularly as January has started fairly cold.  Well, -5c at night and just above freezing during the day.  As it can be -20c .at night here it is all relative ..

Last year, in the veggie bit, I started to build permaculture beds (no dig gardening).  The reason behind this was two-fold.  I had read they could be very productive plus they retained moisture much better (the main reason, given our hot and dry summers).

They did in fact retain moisture much better and, given it was their first year, did fairly well.

So during the autumn I created two more.  I am also very interested to see if the ones I created last year do better this year.  The instructions said to just add more topsoil plus some more fertilizer.  So that is what I have done.

During the year I will posting updates on how they are doing (well not yet obviously).

Here are some photos (best I could do).  The first is a view from the balcony this morning!

 

 

 

 

Well, here we almost are at year-end.  It is hard to find pictures to post in December but I have a few.  We are currently in a very frosty period down to -8c at night and not above freezing during the day.  I am sure it will warm up again (well get above freezing..).

Some taken earlier in the month before it froze.  Poor lonely primula!

I wish everyone a good and healthy 2019.

Lots of Christmas hellebores are out.  As soon as it defrosts I will take some pictures.  Below are some pictures taken earlier in the month.  Right now everything is frozen, -8c at night and around zero during the day.  Meant to warm up again soon.

And here is one taken yesterday, not snow but frost

 

i feel really bad for not posting in November until now!  There is a reason.  At the beginning of November I tripped and fell, right onto my right hand.  Not broken, luckily, but very badly bruised and painful!  So no gardening, despite the weather being beautiful..  hope to catch up next week but the weather will be somewhat colder.

So here ar some photos that match the month

Well, the dahlias should be dead by now (and probably will be tomorrow).  I even had some ripe tomatoes in the greenhouse…

 

Woke up to this, this morning…  it should all be gone by end of day tomorrow and up to 15c by Friday..  but that is end October/begin November for you.

Had a plant delivery this morning which I guess will have to wait a day or so!

Here we are in the second half of October and still no frost (or rain) so the dahlias are still looking lovely..

Looking at these pictures I know why I love them.

 

 

You may remember I made a post on how many snakes we get here a while ago.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, in the space of one week, we had 3 snakes in the house, downstairs.  Our bedroom is downstairs..

The first one was wrapped around a bucket in the sink in our utility room.  I had just brought the bucket in and maybe it was in it,  I screamed of course, as one does.  Which brought Adri, who remember LOVES snakes, so he took it outside somewhere and dumped it.  Two days later lo and behold, the second one in the hall to our bedroom so I screamed etc and Adri got it on the brush and pan and dumped it far far away, I hope.

These were all vipers by the way.

The third one was in our bedroom..  Needless to say I was not happy.  I have always said this was a step too far!  Well eventually Adri managed to get it and out it went.

I now check under the duvets each night and make sure everything is well lit…

Hopefully they have all found a nice place to hibernate far away and NOT in our house and certainly NOT in our bedroom!

 

 

Autumn is, I think, a sad time of year.  Beautiful but sad.  Sad for gardeners that is.  We watch as everything slowly dies but also with hope for the following year.  We make improvements, change things around, plant new things and hope, most of all hope, that the next year will be a good year!

 

 

 

 

October has started cold but summer is about to return tomorrow.  No rain, of course.  That would be asking too much..

i was delighted to see that my autumn crocuses were flowering.  I brought them back from friends in the south west last year and didn’t know if they would take, but they have.

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A late rose, dahlias and berries.  Sums up late September I suppose.  Still virtually no rain but the nights are now pretty cold, though luckily no frost so far, so lots of dew in the mornings.

Very little is left in the veggie plot, some late beans and some beetroot plus of course the brassicas.

Remember the peach tree, well it delivered close to 30 kilos of peaches.  I have made peach everything plus given lots away to friends plus got things back which is a fair swap system.  Below is a small collection…

The asters are all out, smaller than usual but at least with a lot of flowers.  Below are some of them.