Poultry in the polytunnel? A Bird Flu post

You may have seen in the news that there have been outbreaks of bird or avian flu in France and other European countries and that all poultry owners in the UK have been ordered to keep their birds (chickens, ducks, turkeys etc) inside or in covered runs as a means to protect them from infection by wild birds.  The same edict has now also been announced in Normandy.

Luckily for me, my poultry numbers are at a minimum in winter.  The turkeys headed to the freezer on Monday and my meat birds went the same way several weeks ago.  I had no ducklings this year so just have 3 adult ducks plus my 14 laying hens.

I have put my thinking cap on and hope to have come up with a solution.  I thought about putting the chickens in the polytunnel as there is very little in there at the moment and I would be happy to sacrifice my few little leeks, scraggy chard and oriental greens if it meant I cold save my birds .... but I then decided it would not be fox-proof and as I have seen fox poop in the veg garden I know M. Renard is around.  However, I could put the ducks in there and at night, as there is just 3 of them, I can shut them in a fox-proof dog cage.  Quite how I will get them in there remains to be worked out, though!

New duck home aka my polytunnel

Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens, Tramore, Waterford

On our recent trip to Ireland I was keen to visit a few gardens.  As we were there in October many were closed for the winter but a few were still open.  I have already blogged about Cappoquin Gardens in Lismore and today I give you a very different style of garden: The Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens in Tramore, Waterford.

The gardens reflect the life and travels of Patrick Lafcadio Hearn who was born in Ireland but who travelled extensively in America and Greece before finally settling in Japan.  They are split into 10 individually themed gardens where plant structure, rocks and water play more important roles than flowers.  There are however flowers to be seen, including one when we visited, that most certainly should not have been in flower in October, a Japanese Iris.  Irises grow wild in Japan and are also cultivated widely in gardens there.  The Japanese attribute meanings to their flowers and the Iris means Good News.

The American Garden

Cappoquin Gardens, Waterford, Ireland

Over the half term holiday we managed our first family holiday with all 4 of us together in six years and we headed off to Ireland.  I have family there so in between introducing Simon and the boys to my aunts, uncle and cousins we also managed to fit in plenty of sightseeing.  Cappoquin Gardens in Co Waterford were one of the few gardens still open in October and it looked like we picked a perfect autumn day to visit.

Cappoquin House was built in the 18th century on the site of an old castle.  Its imposing Georgian Manor is also open to the public at certain times but we only wanted to visit the gardens ... which besides the gardener we had to ourselves.  A leaflet detailed what each part of the garden was used for or represented but we actually enjoyed just walking along its grassy paths through areas of woodland, herbaceous borders and shrubberies all exhibiting their delightful autumn colours.

For anyone like me who is rather fond of hydrangeas this garden was a veritable treasure trove of pinks, blues and whites:

Bees in the Polytunnel - Part 2

Last week I found my polytunnel full of about 300 bees and had no idea why they were there.  It was a mystery but now I do have a little more information.

I posted questions about the bees on Twitter and a Downsizer, a forum I am on.  Several bee keepers came back to me and 2 thought that the bees may well have been attracted to the warmth which makes sense as we were having lovely sunny weather at the time with daytime temperatures in the tunnel in the mid twenties.  They also thought they might be coming in to feed on the honeydew produced by aphids - but there are no aphids in there.  A third thought was they were coming to drink the condensation on the plastic but again this did not seem likely as none were drinking, just bashing into the plastic.  In fact the only thing I saw a few of them do (other than fly into the plastic) was to feed on the French Marigolds I have on there.

I then received some ideas about the species and I now believe the bees to be Ivy Bees.  This species was only identified as a separate species - Colletes hederae in 1993 and has been in the UK since 2001 (longer in France).  It is a mining bee that lives in the soil as a solitary bee but there may often be many hundreds or thousands of them in the same place.  They are on the wing between September and mid November when their main food source IVY is in flower, hence their name.

Male Ivy Bee By Charlesjsharp (Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Bees in the Polytunnel - Part 1

I know with Halloween approaching "Bats in the Belfry" might be a more topical post title but to be honest, I don't have a belfry, although I did see a couple of bats when I went to collect older boy from athletics last night ... and one was huge!  But I digress as this is a post about weird goings on in the polytunnel at Eco-Gites of Lenault.

As Summer melts into Autumn

As summer slowly melts into autumn, the spiders have once again been busy creating their intricate webs.  Nature's morning breath shows them off at their very best.

Hints of Autumn

It is September 1st and after a few weeks of hot dry weather everywhere is looking rather parched ... and there are definite signs of autumn around the garden.  Apples on the trees are ripe for picking, although small after the lack of rain, leaves are starting to colour and the sedums are turning red as their tiny flowers unfurl (much to the delight of the bees and butterflies who feast on these late summer/autumn flowers).  Many of my sunflowers are still in full bloom though, with some only just starting to flower.  Hopefully summer is not ready to leave us yet but when she does depart, the garden is full of plenty of autumn and winter vegetables to see us though. 

Colour in my veg garden

I have gardened since I was a child when I discovered a box of old seeds in my grandfather's potting shed and since then it is growing fruit and vegetables that has given me the most satisfaction.  However I love flowers too and with not much in the way of a flower garden here in Normandy (Eco-Gites of Lenault to be precise) I do try to include as much colour as possible in amongst my fruit and vegetables.  In many cases, the produce itself is really pretty ...

... like my blackberries turning fast from green to red to delicious black.

August Garden Round-Up

I am sure many gardeners will nod away in agreement when I say that 2016 has been a difficult gardening year.  For us, in Normandy, a mild winter was followed by a long cold spring (in fact we almost had no frosts until March and they continued through April) and then a summer that just took an age to get going.  This all meant a very late start to the growing season.  Usually by now I have been harvesting summer vegetables for weeks but this year I am only just reaching "glut time".  However I am not too worried and so long as we get a nice autumn with no early frosts (I have known them as early as September 28th) then with luck I will be OK - especially as some crops in the polytunnel are looking like being the best I have ever grown.

But first a few pictures from outside the polytunnel:

Combating Potato Blight

There is no denying the Spring of 2016 has been both cool and wet which has meant I have been really late getting things going in the garden.  That said, so long as we get a good Autumn (fingers crossed) this should not be a problem and plants will simply be ready a bit later in the year - there is one notable exception to this though and that is my potatoes.   My potatoes went in late and now have succumbed early to the dreaded disease that is blight thus giving them no time to grow tubers of a decent size. 

So what is blight?  It is a fungal airborne disease that affects potatoes, initially killing the foliage and then passing down underground and affecting the potatoes which can rot to a black slime when stored.  If you  know your (Irish) history you will have heard of blight as it is the potato disease that caused the Great Potato Famine in the mid 1800's when it decimated Irish potato crops leading to an estimated million deaths from starvation and a further million peasants leaving Ireland to try and find a new and better life in America.

Healthy potato plants in the polytunnel

How the foxglove got its name

Well the long and the short of it is, no-one knows!  There is a child's story that tells how a wily fox placed the bells of a foxglove flower on his pads like gloves so he could sneak up on his chicken prey silently.  But this is simply that, a fairy tail born from the name foxglove rather than being the reason it was thus named.  And apparently no etymologist has managed to find why the Anglo-Saxon's first named this plant, foxglove but it would appear that Christina Rossetti knew it was all just a story.

The Peacock

The peacock has a score of eyes,
  With which he cannot see;
The cod-fish has a silent sound,
  However that may be;

No dandelions tell the time,
  Although they turn to clocks;
Cat's-cradle does not hold the cat,
  Nor foxglove fit the fox.

Image by Kelly Louise Judd

A Garden Rethink

As anyone who has read this blog probably realises, I love gardening and in particular growing my own veg.  It was one of our aims, when we moved to France, to be as self sufficient as possible in fresh produce and over the years this has been pretty successful with the exception of cauliflowers which I just cannot seem to grow!  This year is, however, all turning out to be a massive failure on the veg front.

It started with a cold spring that meant I lost tender tomatoes etc to late frosts and it was too wet and cold to get going outside ... and when it was I was away on holiday.  Then my Mum sadly died so I have been back and forth to the UK giving little time to spend in the garden and the only thing flourishing out there is the weeds.  Why why why do weeds grow so well what-ever the weather??!!

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

Heligan, in south Cornwall, was the home of the Tremayne family for over 400 years and in that time the family developed magnificent gardens both for their own pleasure and to produce fruit, vegetables and flowers for the household.  However, their downfall could never have been foretold.  Many of the gardeners who worked in the gardens went off to fight in WWI and few were to return. After the war the economy faltered and, like many great houses in that time, there was not the money to maintain the gardens in their former glory and they were left untended for nature to take over.  The house was sold in the 1970's and converted into flats and a hurricane in 1990 wreaked yet more havoc.

In 1990, Tim Smit and John Willis (a descendent of the Tremayne family) discovered a tiny room, an old thunder-box toilet, buried under fallen masonry in the corner of one of the walled gardens.  Written on the wall inside and still just visible was the date, August 1914 and the motto: “Don’t come here to sleep or slumber”.  Underneath were the names of the gardeners at that time, so many of whom were to have their lives cut tragically short. 

This discovery was to inspire Tim and John to restore the gardens to celebrate the lives of those who toiled to create and maintain them all those years ago.  The two had a vision to bring back the rare and wonderful plants that could flourish in the mild Cornish climate and of working with nature to enhance the variety of habitats found within its 200 acres.

I'll let you decide, through my pictures, whether you think they succeeded. 

My Tomato Varieties

I love growing tomatoes. 
I love growing different varieties of tomatoes. 
Which is why I appear to have ended up with 14 packets of tomato seeds this year!

My Tomatoes for 2016:

1. Marmande - Large juicy red tomatoes which make great passata and tomato sauce
2. Green Zebra - Yellow and green striped tomato with a thin skin and fabulous taste. Wonderful in salads
3. Golden Sunrise - just like "normal" tomatoes but yellow and better tasting!
4. Pomodoro - a very prolific cherry tomato from Italy 
5. Ananas (Pineapple) - a huge red and orange heritage tomato with which tastes divine
6. Black Cherry - a burgundy coloured cherry tomato which crops for ages and tastes delicious
7. Black Russian or Noire Russe - the bigger brother on Black Cherry
8. Roma - an Italian plum tomato that crops well so long as you give it plenty of water. Fabuous for passata and sauces
9. Costuluto Fiorentino - a new one for this year, a deeply ridged beefsteak ideal for slicing apparently.
10. Brandywine - another new one producing large, thin-skinned fruits
11. Coeur de Boeuf - large dark red heart shaped fruits
12. Harbinger - a "normal" tomato without the best taste but crops very late. These were free seeds otherwise I may not have grown them this year.
13. Yellow Poire - small pear-shaped yellow tomatoes - these have a slightly disappointing taste compared to some others I grow but look lovely in a salad and crop heavily late in the year when others have finished.
14. Gardener's Delight - this year our Christmas crackers had seeds in them including these cherry tomato seeds so it would be shame not to plant them ... plus is stops me have a superstitious 13 varieties! 

Do you grow tomatoes?  Have you any varieties you could recommend to me for next year?

Sowing parsnip seeds in loo roll inner tubes

My packets of parsnip seeds say they can be sown from February.
My packets of parsnip seeds have obviously NOT looked at the weather we have had over the last couple of weeks.  Winter has thrown every conceivable form of horrible weather at us - rain, sleet, snow, frost and really strong winds ....meaning that the soil is still cold and very wet and if I were to sow parsnips seeds they would most likely not germinate.  This is  not a veg patch ready for seed sowing of any sort:

Ideally to get large parsnip roots you need a long growing season so what do you do to achieve this when the soil isn't ready for early sowings?  As parsnips are a root crop they do not take kindly to being transplanted therefore starting them off in seeds trays in a warmer place is not an option ... but there is a variation that does work: sowing them in long biodegradable pots where you plant out the whole thing in the ground when soil conditions are better and the pot rots away leaving the parsnip root to grow on undisturbed.  However these biodegradable pots are quite expensive so why not use the next best thing .... that's free too ... loo roll inner tubes.

You simply stand the inner tubs in a plastic container of some sort and add compost.  Parsnip seeds are big enough to allow you to sow one per tube and then cover with about a centimetre of compost.  Water sparingly if the compost is dry and place somewhere warm to germinate.  Even when warm parsnips seeds can take a while to germinate so be patient.  Oh and always buy your seed fresh each year as parsnips seeds do not keep well and most will not germinate from an open packet left over from the year before.

After germination move them to a greenhouse/polytunnel to grow on and once the weather improves and the soil warms up and dries out you can transplant the whole tube in rows leaving 10-15cm between each one.

This method also works for other vegetables with long roots or which do not like being transplanted e.g. sweetcorn and flowers such as sweet peas.  However it'll be a while before I start my sweetcorn off as, unlike parsnips, they will not stand cold weather.

In other news luckily cabbages are frost/snow hardy!

If you fancy giving this method a go why not pin me for future reference?

How are things in your garden?  Have you sown anything yet or is winter still firmly in charge?  Oh and if you are wondering why on earth you'd want to be out gardening at this time of year why not have a look at this blog post I wrote about the advantages of growing your own fruit and veg.  It might inspire you!

The War Cemetery at St Charles-de-Percy

Scattered throughout northern Normandy are many war cemeteries where the fallen from WWII are buried in the country where they fell.  16 kms to the west of Eco-Gites of Lenault, just outside the small village of St Charles-de-Percy, is the most southerly of these where 809 British soldiers have found their final resting place.  They all died late in July or early August 1944 in the major allied thrust to get from Caumont L'Evente to the important town of Vire, driving a wedge through the German 7th Army and Panzer Group West.

As with all British war cemeteries they are maintained beautifully.  Each row of graves has a small area for plants around it, the edges perfectly straight and no weeds to be seen.  The grass is a perfect lawn.  A fitting place of calm for these brave men to lie after the horrors of war.  

Even in January, when I visited, there was colour and new growth to be seen, testament that their death was not in vain.  As was said on one grave I saw - "He died that we might live".  

Thank you brave soldiers.

Perfectly maintained beds

Heather at the ends of the rows of graves

Wych hazel

 Oxlip

Aubretia

For more details on other memorials please visit this blog on our website - Closest WWII Memorials to Eco-Gites of Lenault.

For more gardens post please do head over to Annie's lovely How does your Garden Grow linky:

Polytunnel Progress

Since writing about coming out of hibernation last week I could quite easily have headed back to bed this last week and not surfaced.  The temperature dropped below freezing and we woke to a light covering of snow on 2 mornings and frozen hail on a third, none of which puts me in the mood to garden.  BUT, having posted my polytunnel to do list last week and concious that time waits for no man or woman, I ignored the call of the warmth and got on with that list.  "How did you get on?" I hear you ask.  Well ... 

• Clear dead plants - YES
• Weed through onions and other crops -YES
• Water sparingly as necessary- YES
• Manure cleared areas, dig in and water- YES
• Tidy up cold frame- YES
• Tidy work station- YES
• Set up my new min-max thermometer - NOT YET
• Clear the central path - NO
• Wash the polytunnel plastic - NO
• If the weather permits sow mangetout, spring lettuce, broad beans - TOO COLD
• Keep harvesting what's in there - calvolo nero, chard, parsley, oriental greens - YES

Most of that "stuff" is now out away in my working station

A much tidier polytunnel than I had last week!

Weeded onions behind cleared and manured soil

A tidy work station next to my broad beans

You know what, I'm pretty pleased with what I've achieved and as the weather is set to be less cold over the next few days I may well get those seeds sown.  I also went through my seed stash, chucking out those which don't keep well and starting to decide what to grow this year.

Seeds

I still have no idea what was munching my chard except to say, it is now us (very yummy it was too) and it looks like very soon we will be eating one of my all time favourite vegetables - Purple Sprouting Broccoli.  Usually this is ready much later as I don't plant a very early variety, preferring to have it crop in March when other winter veg is finishing.  Looks like Mother Nature has different ideas this year.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Despite the frost and snow my brave English marigold is still flowering and there is even a new flower bud.  I'd like to think I've managed to grow the first frost-hardy, winter flowering marigold that will make me my fortune but as I have seen others around locally, I suspect it is more to do with the overall mild weather than a freak of genetics.  Oh well, back to the drawing board then!

English Marigold - Calendula vulgaris

Other signs of Spring are out there too.  Catkins are dancing in the breeze, reminding me of lamb's tails and bluebells and orchid leaves are peeping through the cold soil.  The snowdrops are in flower under the hedge and those daffodils I planted so late last year are just peeping through.  Winter may yet bring us his worst weather but Spring is stirring.

Leaf whorls of Early Purple Orchids - Orchis mascula

How has your gardening week been or are you still hibernating?   Annie from Mammasaurus was in Poland so I am hopeful for garden pictures from there this week on How Does Your Garden Grow. 

Coming out of hibernation

I have never really been one to succeed with New Year Resolutions because I believe that the dark month of January is not a good time to achieve much except hide inside.  BUT ... for me, once the winter solstice is passed and the day length slowly increases then my internal clock starts ticking away just that bit faster.  I know spring is on it's way and so I know I need to get going.  Some will already have sown their onion seeds and I have not even started to scour the seed catalogues.  I know it is just a touch too early for me to sow much yet ... but I have a polytunnel that needs working on and my inspiration to do it has returned.  I am coming out of hibernation.   I am gradually waking up - such is January for a gardener!

So - that polytunnel.  It's a mess and there is no denying it and I need to get on in there.  Hopefully by next week I can report back that I have done all these jobs:

• Clear dead plants
• Weed through onions and other crops
• Water sparingly as necessary
• Manure cleared areas, dig in and water
• Tidy up cold frame
• Tidy work station
• Set up my new min-max thermometer
• Clear the central path
• Wash the polytunnel plastic
• If the weather permits sow mangetout, spring lettuce, broad beans.
• Keep harvesting what's in there - calvolo nero, chard, parsley, oriental greens.

View from the main door

View from the far end - am lot of that green is weeds!

With the mild autumn/early winter we have had, weeds are still growing and mould has been a bit of a problem .. as have chard eating pests.  I can't see what's been eating my chard but it obviously liked it!   And there are some surprises in there that I would not expect in January.  In amongst my overwintering onions are baby nasturtiums and there are foot high potato plants behind my leeks.  For goodness sake, it's January.  I will have to weed out the nasturtiums (I'll save some to spice up a winter salad) and with frost forecast I doubt the potatoes will survive.  I will see if I can rig up some sort of cold protection but I really do not hold out too much hope for them at this time of year.

Potato plants - in JANUARY for goodness sake!

Nasturtium seedlings in with my onions

A touch of mould on my parsley

Who's been eating MY chard?

12ºC in the polytunnel in January - other days have been even warmer

Cavolo Nero

Two forlorn tomatoes on a very dead plant.

January can often throw its worst weather at a gardener but it is also a time on new beginnings, plans and hopes for the coming year.  How is your garden doing or are you still hibernating?