Reflecting on December

I normally do an end of month reflection on the garden.  But really December in the garden hasn't been much different to November.  So I'm thinking here about what I've seen done and enjoyed generally in December.

In the garden a few more plants went brown and flopped, more leaves fell and covered everywhere and some flowers gave up trying to stay in bloom.  The weather  and  preparations for Christmas prevented me from going out doing much in the garden. I  swept up leaves from the paths and will probably continue to clear the borders of leaves during the winter months.  There is some colour around.  The yellow climbing rose at the front of the house which I normally cut back in the autumn to stop it being blown about by the wind is still flowering.  There are bright spots of orange from the calendula which I neglected to cut back, some lovely foliage colour from the grasses and hardy geraniums and  the winter jasmine is now in flower.

The house has been full of activity.  It's been a time for working through jobs lists, for shopping, for baking lovely food, making Christmas decorations and remembering people you only think about once a year when you send and receive Christmas cards.  There have been lovely times with family, carol concerts and nativities with the grandchildren who live nearby and visits from the ones who live far away, tinged with sadness because we don't see them often enough.  The house has been and still is full of colour, sparkle and twinkling lights.  In a few days times all that will be gone and we will move on and make plans for the new year.

Hoping you all enjoyed Christmas and wishing you a peaceful and happy 2012.

Christmas biscuits

A last minute recipe for some really yummy biscuits.  These are really easy to make and would be great for the festive period if you need to stock up on biscuits.

I tweaked the original recipe which used blueberries.  I also put edible glitter in with the caster sugar  to sprinkle on top of the biscuits and add extra sparkle.


Christmas biscuits

175g plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
110g butter
110g caster sugar plus extra for sparkling
grated rind of 1 lemon
75gr dried cranberries
1 egg beaten

1. Sift the flour and spice into a large bowl.  Add butter and rub in with your fingertips. Stir in the sugar, lemon rind and cranberries, then add the egg  and mix to a firm dough.

2. Knead the dough briefly  on a lightly floured surface and shape into a sausage about 20cm long and 5cm wide. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for an hour or in the freezer for half an hour.

3.Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 (180c) and lightly grease a large baking tray. Unwrap the chilled dough and cut into 5mm thick slices.  Put them on the baking sheet, space a  little apart.

4. Bake the biscuits for 15-18 mins until they are pale golden in colour.  Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, sprinkle with a little caster sugar and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Too much to do

This is such a busy time, so much to do and so many  things I want to do. I start off with  plans, but never really achieve all of them.  Perhaps I set myself too many targets.

There were all the crafty things I was going to make for school and church Christmas fairs, well those didn't happen. Then it was  things for the home I  wanted to make.  I was watching Kirsty Allsopp's 'Handmade Christmas' on TV the other week and decided I would  make a vintage heart garland. I have all the fabric ready, but not enough time to make it.

This week I'm watching  all the Christmas cookery programmes on TV ( aren't there a lot of them?) and I'm wanting to make so many delicious looking things. A couple of days ago  I baked. I started with a plan--a list of things to bake,  but only managed  half of it. But I did make mince pies,  flapjacks, carrot cake and a deliciously, boozy, fruity chocolate made from the  left over fruit from the blackberry and raspberry gin which I bottled up last weekend. ( I think that recipe comes from Alys Fowler).  I watched Nigel Slater's 'Simple Christmas' and now I want to make those fruit and nut flapjacks. And I've just watched Kirsty Allsopp's 'Home for Christmas'  (that woman has a lot to answer for!)  Now I want to make a yule log!
 
But  there's still time yet to do more so who knows what I will create.

My Christmas door wreath

I love  making Christmas wreaths, it's one of those things I do each year which has become a family tradition.  There are different ways of making wreaths.  I use an oasis ring (available from large garden centres or flower shops). I set aside a day about two weeks before Christmas for making the wreath. I put the oasis ring to soak in water for a while, wrap myself up in several layers of clothes, then I take myself off to the shed with an insulated mug of tea or coffee and start work  A few days before then I  will have cut all the foliage and put it into buckets of water so that is all ready for me as I start to work.

We have quite a lot of foliage available for cutting in the garden so I like  to make  use of  this greenery at Christmas time. Sometimes I scrounge stuff from my daughter's garden or the allotment. This year I used conifer, Christmas tree trimmings, ivy, box and holly.  The holly tree has had an amazing amount of berries this year. Most years I've had to use artificial berries for colour, but this year it's been great to use real ones. I just cut sprigs of foliage and starting with a layer of conifer I  build up the layers of the different sorts of greenery.

When the wreath has had all the foliage arranged I then add extra touches such as pine cones, seed heads, dried orange or apple slices, cinnamon sticks.  Sometimes I spray lightly with a gold spray.  You could also add dried flower heads of hydrangeas, clematis, grasses. I finish off the wreath with some ribbon.

For other ideas on making Christmas wreaths visit Greensideup's blog on making a Christmas door wreath she's made a lovely natural wreath.

Home made Christmas

I like to have some home made goodies in the house at Christmas time. They're always useful as Christmas presents. This year I've potted up some Hyacinths, hopefully for flowering at Christmas.  These are going to some friends who I meet up with once a month.  We like to exchange little gifts at Christmas but don't spend a lot.  Then there's the blackberry or raspberry gin which I have yet to strain and bottle up. But I might keep that for the family who I think are looking forward to sampling it!

In the next two weeks  I shall be making fudge, chocolate truffles, and shortbread.  These are lovely packaged up into little boxes or bags and tied up with Christmas ribbon.  Lakeland do some good presentation bags and boxes.  You can make your own boxes or save little boxes to cover with pretty paper.

Last year I made some white chocolate and cranberry fudge.  I thought I'd lost the recipe, but searched on the Internet and found it. It's a Tesco recipe and looks really Christmassy in cellophane bags tied with ribbon. This is great to make for Christmas fairs and coffee mornings, as presents for teachers or friends or just to eat yourself and enjoy!

White chocolate and cranberry fudge

Ingredients

• 350g (12oz) granulated sugar
• 25g (1oz) unsalted butter
• 175ml (6fl oz) can evaporated milk
• 100g (3½oz) dried sweetened cranberries
• 300g (10oz) white chocolate, chopped

What to do

• Cut a piece of baking parchment large enough to line a shallow 25x20cm (10x8in) baking tin or a 1kg (2lb) loaf tin.
• Put the sugar, butter, and evaporated milk in a large heavy-based pan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved completely.
• Bring to the boil, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. It is a good idea to set a timer for this.
• Immediately remove from the heat then add the cranberries and chocolate. Allow the chocolate to melt, then quickly stir the mixture and pour straight into the tin. It will thicken immediately.
• Spread into the tin and chill for an hour or so until firm. Cut into squares.
• Use a piece of card to make a festive box for the fudge. Line with baking parchment, decorate with ribbon, and attach a message.

• Cost per box: £2·16
• Makes: 500g (1lb)
• Takes: 20mins + 1hr chilling time

Buying the Christmas Tree

One of the best times for me as we approach Christmas is always the the weekend we buy the Christmas tree. It's always been a special event in our family and one where I get really excited.  I absolutely love it. There's always the decision of where we will go to buy it.  Then the choosing of it is really important, it has to be the right shape, the right type and size. Once we've chosen and bought it, getting it in the car is always an event. Even now when our children have left home I still love buying the Christmas tree.

Today we went out to buy the tree.  For the last few years we've always gone to the same garden centre, but this year we decided to go somewhere different but still local. It was different because it had a cafe, so we had lunch first which was really lovely. Then we went to look at the trees. After much wandering around the many trees available we chose a 7ft Nordman. These are the non drop variety. They still drop a few needles but not so much as to be a problem as long as they are kept watered.

Whilst my husband paid for the tree and got it in the car, I wandered around the garden centre. And what did I find but some reindeer.

Santa wasn't there, but his sleigh was.  I think he works there on Saturdays and is busy elsewhere during the week.

Lancashire Day

Last Sunday was 'LancashireDay' and  for all those of us who live or used to live in Lancashire it was an opportunity to celebrate the special customs of our county or to just feel proud to be a Lancastrian. There were lots of events around the county.  We decided to go to a Christmas Food and Craft Fair at Salmesbury Hall. It was not so much to celebrate Lancashire Day but just to have a couple of hours out at an interesting venue with a Christmassy feel to it. Salmesbury hall is an historic black and white building which also has antiques on sale. So as well as viewing the craft fair there would be an opportunity to see the Hall and all it had to offer.

We arrived at the entrance to the hall where a clog dancer was dancing to music.   Once inside the hall there were a good number of crafts stalls to look at and many of them provided plenty of ideas for Christmas presents. The stalls were spread out over about three rooms downstairs. There were also food stalls with samples to try, such as cheese, jams, chutneys, cakes, chocolates.

As we browsed the crafts stalls we couldn't help but be aware of the loud  noise which sounded like someone banging on the floor above. We investigated this and went up the lovely big staircase which took us into a big wooden floored room. The room was set out as an entertainment area with people sitting or standing around the edges of the room listening to a band playing Lancashire songs. That explained the deafening noise downstairs.

Back downstairs the cafe was doing good trade, I wondered if  it was serving black puddings, pie and peas or Lancashire hot pot,  but we weren't eating so we went to look at the antiques. As we explored, I came across a narrow entrance with a couple of fur coats hanging up and a sign inviting us to go through the wardrobe.

I was intrigued because I caught a glimpse of a sparkly, silvery, white area on the other side. As we stepped through the 'wardrobe' I realised it was a Narnia scene.  It was beautiful, I felt I had been transported to another world. It was only a narrow corridor, but I managed to take a quick photo before other visitors appeared and burst my bubble!

November in the garden

The garden takes a back seat during November and December with all the preparations for Christmas, fortunately there is not usually too much work to be done out there at this time of year. But if we get fine days when the sun shines, even though it might be cold, I often have a longing to get out and do some work. 

The main job at the moment is sweeping up the leaves, of which there are loads. We have a big leaf composting bin which my husband made and it produces lots of lovely leaf mould each year.  I've also planted up some containers with evergreens and cyclamens for outside the front and back doors.
  

This is one I made up last year which is still looking good.

The gaillardia are still  flowering happily.

I've done a bit of tidying and cutting back in the borders, although I leave most of the cutting back for the Spring.  The grasses take over when the flowers die back, although this one is not an evergreen so it too will die back eventually.

The holly tree is still full of berries, so last weekend we cut some branches and have stored them in the shed where it's cool ready for our Christmas decorations in a week or two. There are still plenty of berries left for the birds. They also enjoy the windfall apples which we have left lying around as well as the food which we put out for them. We also have squirrels running around and a few weeks ago there was a hedgehog. We're hoping it's found a place to hibernate. It shouldn't have too much trouble finding anywhere, there are plenty of places which we don't clear of leaves.

The Lodge Nature Reserve, Sandy

Last weekend we visited our daughter and family who live in Bedfordshire. On the Saturday they took us to  the The Lodge Nature Reserve at Sandy which is run by the RSPB. It is not far from where they live and although they have been there before it was a first visit for us. There was a Christmas Fayre on too so plenty for us to look at.

It was a lovely mild November day and the sunshine enhanced the autumn colour of the trees.  I was aware of lots of space and trees as we drove through to the car park.  There seemed to be plenty of walks on offer and we took the track which led to the Christmas Fayre and the RSPB shop. We didn't see any birds, but then with two lively grandchildren maybe the birds were keeping out of our way. The children enjoyed doing the Christmas trail as we walked along which entailed spotting  pictures placed among the trees. They also enjoyed spotting toadstools.

Father Christmas was in his grotto at the Fayre, so we had to go to see him of course. There was a Salvation Army band playing carols which all added to the Christmas theme.

After we had looked around the Fayre we walked to the Lodge.  On the way we found a huge tree which was great for climbing. We also found a wasp's nest in the ground, fortunately it was sectioned off with a warning to keep away, but we could see the wasps flying around the hole.

The Lodge has lovely gardens which are organic and worked to provide homes and food for wildlife

I'm sure it's a lovely place to visit in the spring and summer when the borders are in flower, but there was still plenty of colour around.

The grandchildren were very interested in the Japanese orange tree.  It had quite small fruit which had a soft downy feel to it and a delicate smell which we thought was a bit like peaches. The label said it had a very bitter flavour.

We enjoyed our visit to The Lodge and we left feeling there was much more to see.  We'll probably go back at another time of year when we can see different things.

Planting wishes

Some time ago I published a blog post on my wish list for garden plants. Since then I am now the proud owner of  two of those plants. Both of them have been acquired in different ways from my daughter Sarah. One is a cutting from a honeysuckle which I bought her earlier this year. We had spotted the honeysuckle at her  local garden centre, it had large pale yellow flowers and smelt divine. A bit broke off when she was planting it, she potted it up and it rooted. I have planted it under the apple tree where it can climb, I hope it likes living there.

The other plant is a Hamamelis (witch hazel).  http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=901  I have wanted one of these for some time for the winter colour. Whenever I've seen them in gardening magazines or  TV garden programmes I've thought I'd like one in my garden.  Every time I see them in the garden centre in the winter they seem to be shouting, 'Look at me! Please buy me!' But I always look at the price tag and think, 'No!'

For my birthday Sarah sent me gardening vouchers, so I decided to use them to buy a Hamamelis. I was a bit nervous buying a plant which cost so much money. I felt a responsibility to get it right. Well I've taken advice from the man at the garden centre and hopefully I have done all the right things. At the moment it is just bare, twiggy branches, but I can't wait to see those spidery yellow flowers appear in January.

 

Brightening up a dull day

Much as I love Autumn there are times when it gets you down a bit. There are days which just glow with sunshine and leaf colour. Days which make you just want to wrap up warm and go off for a walk or out into the garden to sweep up leaves or do whatever needs doing out there. Then there are the dark, damp, dreary days which can make you feel miserable and depressed.  That's what today was like.

I called in at the garden centre on my way back from a shopping trip in town, to get some bird seed. And there by the front entrance was a table full of outdoor cyclamen plants, in all colours, pink, white, purple and red.  I couldn't resist buying 3 red ones, I had an empty trough at home waiting to be planted up with something. I also bought 2 variegated erisymums which contrasted well with the red of the cyclamen flowers.

They look really colourful and I've put them by the front door.  I hope they will cheer other people up who come to my house, especially on dark, dreary days.

Harlow Carr again.....the grown ups view

Although our visit to Harlow Carr Gardens last week was mainly taken up with childrens' activities, I did manage to take some photos of the gardens in their autumn glory. 

There was some stunning colour in the trees. This one in particular was quite breathtaking.

The herbaceous borders at Harlow Carr are massive and in the summer months are a riot of colour.  I was interested to see how they were looking now that the summer flowering plants had gone over. I have to say that they were still amazing but in a different way.  The grasses had taken over from the flowers to provide interest.

I liked these which reminded me of sheaves of corn.

These look lighter and more swishy and graceful with a pinky purple haze.

The dead summer flowers were still there, now with their seed heads providing the colour and interest. In my garden at home I'm trying to leave plants with interesting seed heads through the  winter, but huge clumps of them creates a much better effect than I could ever achieve.

And finally I had to look at the kitchen garden.  Who could not be impressed by this purple kale?

Thanks for reading my blog feel free to comment.

Another sort of beauty

 

Gardening in October and November is always for me a clearing up exercise. Tidying up the borders of the debris of dead plants, weeding and cutting back. But in the last few years I've not done as much cutting back as I used to. At one time I used to blitz the garden in October, cut all the perennials to ground level and 'put the garden to bed' for the winter.  Now I leave some plants to die down in their own time and in doing that I have discovered some wonderful late autumn colours and lots of plants with interesting seed heads. I leave these seed heads for winter display. They can look wonderful when they are touched with a layer of frost or snow.

Seed heads also provide homes for hibernating insects which then provide food for the birds during the winter. I remember a couple of years ago when I found clusters of hibernating ladybirds in the deadheads of  stachys and achillea plants. I couldn't bear to cut those back. Last year I spotted insects in the hollow stems of the lupin plants. Too late, I'd cut them down, so I placed them on the flower bed for the birds to rummage through. Some plants just go to a soggy mess in the autumn, like Hostas.  I leave them until the foliage turns to a lovely yellow colour.  Soon after this they flop and go messy, this  is when I clear them away.

So my clearing up is done gradually throughout the winter. And  the winter garden, instead of looking flat and colourless now has a different sort of beauty.

 What do you do with your garden at this time of year, cut back or leave?

Woodland fun

It had been my birthday earlier in the week and I wanted a day out at RHS Harlow Carr gardens with lunch in the pub next door. The colour in the gardens is fabulous at this time of year and that's what I wanted to see. We took two of our grandchildren (aged 5 and 7) who were on half term holiday.

Harlow Carr always has some good school holiday activities for children, and for half term week it was all about Halloween.  There was a scary monsters trail to follow so we picked up the trail sheet and headed off in search of the monsters. I must admit I was a bit disappointed, I was expecting some life sized monsters to be lurking in the woods and to be scared out of my wits. But all we got were some wooden cut out shaped figures. The trail was really easy to follow  and we had it completed in no time at all.  Perhaps it was aimed at a very young age group. Well anyway, the kids completed their sheets and put them in the box for the competition.

I soon realized  that we weren't going to be doing the gardens in the way that I wanted to because we needed to keep the children interested. Admiring the autumn foliage in the arboretum wasn't going to keep their attention for long. And checking the herbaceous borders to see all the dead flower heads left for winter structure and insect life was of no interest to the kids. Whilst I wandered around the kitchen garden, taking in the lovely purple kale, pak choi, dark red lettuce and  wondering how they managed to grow veg without having holes in the leaves, their grandad tried to keep them amused without them causing any damage.

So we let them run around in the log maze and climb to the top of the tower.  Then we found a fireplace in a clearing in the woods which we thought might be a bear's cooking place.  We walked along the path into the woods and found the bear hugging a tree and we thought he was a friendly bear. He hugged the children and they came to no harm.

We wandered further into the woods and found a willow village made by a local school and some animal sculptures made of wire, twigs and leaves.

And then we came upon the Log Ness Monster. It was made of logs, covered in wire netting which was to provide a habitat for wildlife, but which was also a great playground for children to run along. One end of the log monster had been made into a head shape with eyes and fangs. It was all great fun for children to climb and run along.

We had a really good day, the children enjoyed themselves, we discovered places we would not have  done had  the children not been with us and we left as always feeling we would have to return another day.

Clearing up

It's that time of year when there's lots of clearing up to be done in the garden and allotment.  We had a good weekend at the allotment with some lovely weather to keep us going. I went with a plan and worked through all the jobs on the list.  That's made me quite happy now. I love lists!

We've cleared away veg which have finished, weeded and dug over beds. The compost from the old potato bags have been spread over cleared areas and then these beds were covered with membrane to keep the weeds down. We  have manure to put down on some of the beds but as there's still stuff growing we'll have to leave it for a while.

There are plenty of vegetables in some of the beds to keep us going for a while. The leeks are doing well. I earthed them up but they won't be ready to pull for some time yet. There are parsnips, beetroot, celery and celeriac. It's the first time we've grown celery and celeriac and we weren't sure if they will do anything. At the moment they are just leaves with no sign of anything worth digging up.

The brassica bed has brussels sprouts, red cabbage, kale and purple sprouting broccoli which we are picking regularly.  We harvested one cute little squash plant. I pruned the raspberries and cleared the rhubarb.

My husband turned the compost heaps over.  I'm a bit wary of going near those compost heaps ever since I encountered the rat.  The mice are still around.  My daughter disturbed them as she was weeding.  It's a bit freaky when they suddenly shoot across the bed right next to you!  They were quite cute though and one kept poking it's head out of the hole to see if we were still there!

Trying out new things

A little while ago I spent a lovely afternoon potting up hyacinth bulbs for forcing. This was so easy and enjoyable that I wondered why I'd never done it before. I think I'd always imagined it was a bit complicated, something to avoid and let other people do.  Well, I could always buy them in the shops couldn't I? But this is something I've done myself and if all goes well they can be given as presents at Christmas.

That got me thinking about other  things which I've never done and which  I'm hoping to have a go at now I've more time in retirement.  I'm not talking here about abseiling or bungee jumping. No it's little things which I've avoided doing because they may just need a bit of time spent learning how to do. Like different cooking methods.

I watched Kirstie Allsopp the other night on TV in her latest programme 'Kirstie's handmade Britain' and that made me realise that I'm not on my own.  I was surprised when she said she'd never made scones before. I don't think either of my daughters have ever made pastry. There are lots of things I've never tackled in cooking or baking which I've avoided because they seemed too complicated. Like baking bread. I've also never made jam or marmalade. I'm sure many of you will be thinking, "But that's so easy!" I hope it is because I'm going to try it out soon. I recently made blackberry gin for the very first time and was surprised how easy it was to make.

In the last few years I've started to eat less meat. I've found it difficult to move to a completely vegetarian diet because  it requires a whole new approach to cooking. I need to find more vegetarian recipes and get used to cooking that way, because a lot of vegetarian recipes seem quite complicated with lots of ingredients to prepare. So there I am again needing to spend some time to try out new things.

And then back to gardening, there are lots of things I've never tackled in the garden. For instance when I want to make more plants I just lift a plant, split it  and pot up. Well that's one way of doing it but there are other ways, like taking root or stem cuttings or collecting seeds. I would like to try out these other ways.

I think one of my problems is laziness.  I'm all for a easy life, don't make things complicated for me. Well I'm now ready to change.  So here I am embarking on new ways of doing things, trying out things I've never done before.  I'll let you know how I get on.  What things have you never done which you would like to try out?