Gooseberry

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I had bought a (stick of) gooseberry plant in Poundland just after moving to the new house, even before we had started work on the garden. I had bought it because it was there to buy and I had been surprised that Nallikayi grew in England. The plant has been growing steadily for two and a half years now and this year finally it showed some signs of giving fruits.



Only after I put the first nallikayi in my mouth and took a bite did I realise that it was not the Nallikayi I knew at all. This has a number of small fine back seeds as against the single hard seed of Nallikayi. After some reference on the net I have concluded that this was the original gooseberry but since our Nallikayi has the same outer appearance, the English must have called it the Indian gooseberry and we have assumed that Nallikayi is Gooseberry. They infact belong to two different families.(ours is of Euphorbiaceae and this belongs to 'Grossulariaceae'. Never heard of it before) Call it what you will, but i have harvested about 800grams of it this year. I have made three bottles of jam (slurp! fantastic!) and made spicy chitra anna out of some more and I have a few more left.

Highlights of the Garden 2009

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In spring, the borders were not as colourful as I would have wished, though the late winter and spring flowering shrubs were doing well. Evidently I had not planted a lot of spring flowering bulbs and perennials. But the summer border made up for it. The fantastic Lupins! There was another purple one which stopped producing more flowers because I did not deadhead them. Thanks to the early summer, I am able to see the Hydrangea before leaving for India.



I cannot describe the pleasure in beholding this towering beauty first thing in the morning. The moment I open the patio doors the perfume wafts in and fills me with happiness. I missed this totally last year because I left for India just when they were getting ready to bloom. Again, the early summer helped me enjoy it this time. But the pot is too small for it and as the plants grow, the pot can hardly hold enough water and already this week the lower leaves are drying. Next year I will plant a tower in the ground.

Full defence

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I planted a blueberry plant last autumn. Blueberries are very good for health and fresh ones are quite expensive. The plant itself cost just about 8pounds. I was told that it was a low maintenance plant, so what could be a better choice? As I read more about the plant I discovered that a companion plant about a meter away will help both plants yield a lot more. So this spring, I brought home another plant. It already had a few flowers on it. The first plant also had plenty. I started planning rather prematurely how if there was so much yield I would freeze some for future use. And last week I find that the pigeons have eaten the fruits from the new plant. So today I have brought home my defence : a net, and a support. I hope to protect the remaining fruits on the other plant. Ever since I stopped feeding the other birds, pigeons are also rare but I truly miss all the other lively little birds. Today I also bought bird food which only little bird can access!

Bird feed

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I complained about pigeons destroying my tender plants. I only recently realised that I was inviting the pigeons to my garden myself. I hang a bird feeder to one of my trees and place seed mix in it to invite small birds to my garden. They do come and I am delighted to see them perched on the edge of the feeder and pecking away happily. The pigeons cannot feed from there directly because the feeder swings and the pigeons are too heavy. But unfortunately the little birds spill a lot of the seeds and the pigeons walk around eating what has fallen on the ground. During their 'amble' they spot my little tender seedling and decide to peck them too. Last week I could not refill the feeder for a few days and the garden was very quiet. There were no birds and so no pigeons either.(yeah, I do know that pigeons are birds). Now what do I do?
I have to find a feeder that wont allow seeds to fall on the ground.

Fractured stem

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Can you fix a fracture in a plant? I recently bought this wonderful plant Garrya Issaquahensis to grow against my new shed. - a case of the shed to hide the compost bins, a plant to hide the shed. I had left it in the pot for a few days and it had fallen over and the growing tip seemed broken. There is no tear or cut outside, it has not snapped, but it looks like there is a fracture inside. So I have fixed a splint and am hoping that it will heal.
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Pigeons!

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The slug was called "public enemy number 1" by some gardening magazine recently. My greatest enemy in the garden is not the slug but the pigeon. I have had some problems with slugs but I have learned to handle them. But the pigeon! It breaks in two my Aubergine plants, pokes holes in my perpetual spinach, and eats all the young leaves and buds from the Viburnum Tinus. I had put up a scare crow in the midst of the Aubergines and it seemed to be working but today I saw that the healthiest looking one had been broken in two.
What do I do? I seem to remember that a tightly tied string's vibration in the wind will repel a pigeon. I should tie them all around the garden.

Fuschia Standard/Mophead

My horticultural triumph last year was this:



and this:

I first saw a Fuschia grown as a standard in a Fuschia society exhibition. I had recently fallen in love with the flower. I felt that the standard was the best way to grow the plant so that the hanging flowers could be viewed at their best. I checked on the net for photos and directions to grow them. Directions I got plenty and used them but there were so few photos.

So here is my contribution.

There was one tip the specialist at my garden center told me which I had not read before: Add some vermiculite to the soil because it helps the soil to hold more water and Fuschia will love it.

But the sad part was that I did not protect them in winter and the extra snow fall this year killed them. This year I have started a new one from a tiny, one inch plant and I will not grow it too tall so that it will be easy to handle and I can bring it in during cold spells.

Planning

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I wonder how many hours my parents spent on planning their garden when they built their house. They had made ample space all around the house for plants. They made sure they had a few coconut trees and a karibevu tree. There were a line of small round openings in the cement strip next to the house in each of which my mother planted a different kind of rose. They had a wire screen that supported a beautiful jasmine and blocked the washing area towards the back of the house that would otherwise have been visible from the gate. They built a cement tub for plants next to the landing before the front door with small posts that reached to the ceiling for climbers to attach themselves to. All this must have involved some thought. A couple of hours perhaps?

A garden in England is a different ball game altogether.

First think what you want to use the garden for, say the planning experts. Kids to play in/entertainment/sight for sore eyes? Now think, how much lawn, how much space for plants. Garden buildings? Shed or green house or both? Some place to sit and enjoy the garden - extend the patio or add some decking? Being in the northern hemisphere, and the sun never directly above us, one has to think about which parts of the plot gets how many hours of light. Then place your trees and plants acording to how much light they require. Then, what kind of soil do you have - Acidic soil/clay soil/chalky? How many trees can you accommodate? How many deciduous and how many evergreens? Do you want to be an organic gardener? Where will you place the compost bins and which kind? Water butts? Do you want to grow vegetables? Where will you place the veg patch? Do you want to be a wildlife friendly gardener? Which plants attract butterflies, which will attract bees and which plants do ladybirds like? What about some water features to attract more wild life? Do we have plants that will together offer you something of interest throughout the year instead of just some bright colours in spring and summer? And so on and so on and on.......

Luckily it was winter when we moved in. I spent months as an arm chair gardener. Executing everything I planned in those few months will take many many years.

Transformation

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How our back yard looked in Dec 2006 when we had just moved in.


The transformation after a few months of hard labour


How it looks this morning. We put up the shed last week. It holds all our gardening tools and neatly hides the two plastic compost bins in the corner. Repainting the fence is on. V who is in charge has exams next week and hence the delay.

Why another blog (Especially since I hardly update my old one)

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I have been gardening in England for the past two and a half years. It is so different from gardening in India, there has been so much to learn. I started out with a bare canvas and had to plan a layout for the garden, dig the earth, select the plants based on innumerable criteria, buy them, plant them, take care of them. At every step, I have done a lot of research on the net. On some topics there is a stupendous amount of information and on some others there just isn't enough. I have learned quite a bit from other blogs. When I have not found enough info on the net and in books, I have got help from the very knowledgeable, helpful and patient people at our local garden center. Really, I can't thank them enough

So why not try to store all the useful information I have acquired on my blog so that I can refer back to them later and other gardeners may use them.

It is good to know what I was doing in the garden at this time in the previous years - What I did too early and what I should have started much earlier. This prevents me from repeating the same mistakes.

There is one other very important reason. When we return to India after some years, I will not be able to take my beloved garden with me. I wish to take with me, a journal of my gardening, complete with lots of photographs.

I wish I had started this blog much earlier.