We finally had a frost last night, though not a very heavy one. The thermomenter says that the minimum air temperature was -4C, though the ground was obviously still rather warmer. The photo is of the parsley, in a raised tub in the herb area.
Category: Garden
late again
Still no proper frost here! Air temperature last night was down to -0.6, but had risen to -0.3 by the time I got up. However, the ground did not reach frost level.
I normally reckon first frost here in my urban heat island is around 4th-7th November, though last yearthere was no frost until a sprinkling of snow on 19th. It’s all getting ridiculously late.
end of season
From the batch ripened indoors after the plants had been pulled up, I’ve been having the orange plum tomatoes at lunchtime but this Black Russian is the very last of this year’s crop to ripen. Nothing now until I sow the saved seeds, which I do on Valentine’s Day in Febrary.
goodbye, Christmas tree
Despite having managed reasonably well to water it and rotate the pot during the scorching summer drought, the south-facing side of my Christmas Tree is beyond recovery (the north side is ok-ish). Time to say goodbye. It did Christmas 2022, 2023, 2024 so I’m not complaining: three years is about as long as I ever get for a potted living tree.
A new one of the same species (“Picea Glauca Conica”) has been ordered, for delivery in the last week of November.
winter …
As autumn slides gracelessly into the past, the winter flowers have started to appear. Yesterday was the winter-flowering clematis (c. cirrhosa v. balearica “Freckles”), today is the winter jasmine. A cheerful note of colour, planted just outside the french window so I see it every time I go to sit in my recliner.
winter flowering
Despite most of the leaves on my fern-leaf clematis having gone brown and crunchy during the summer drought, it’s recovered well. Lots of buds, and this morning I noticed on my way to put veg peelings in the compost bin that the first flowers have opened. It will now go on flowering until about March.
pinkness
Indoors, the Schlumbergera cactus is coming into flower – I think of it as the “neither Christmas nor Easter” cactus, as it normally flowers mainly in November and again late February into March. The pink colour scheme continues outdoors, with the last flowers on the scented pelargonium, and a late self-sown cosmos growing from a crack in the concrete path.
getting winter-ready
Due, I think, to my inability to water them twice daily during the drought, it hasn’t been a bumper year for tomatoes. More of a steady trickle, rather than having any gluts, in fact. But yesterday saw the last picking of a ripe tomato for lunch, and today has been rescuing the few remaining fruit, cutting down the plants, and removing and sorting the plastic cover for the tomato house for the winter. The “garden waste” bin is now fairly full of that, and runner bean plants also pulled up, ready for collection early on Thursday.
autumn?
The seasons seem to be all over the place at the moment! The Black Pear of Worcester has deeply-red falling leaves, which normally happens in late October or early November. The Glastonbury Thorn, supposed to flower aound Christmas (and again in May) has numerous fully-opened blossoms alongside the haws.
an actual dragonfly
Coming back from the veg patch this evening, where I’d ben cutting chard for supper, I noticed an unfamiliar insect on the clematis that’s slowly growing over the new shed. I fetched the “big” camera, to try for a picture from a distance on maximum zoom, as I didn’t want to spook it into flight.
I’m pretty shit on damselflies and dragonflies, but my suspicion was that it’s a Southern Hawker, which a quick search on line seems to confirm. In which case, it’s the first dragonfly I’ve seen in the garden, though both red and azure damselflies breed in my pond.
