Well it’s been a few months since we wrote anything here, so I thought it was high time I finally learned how to use this new-fangled blog-malarky. Now I just need to remember what we’ve been up to… All sorts! Summer was a time for a lot of digging and weeding and not very much planting as it’s not the best time of year for it. For a while it looked like the weeds were winning, but in recent weeks, with the colder weather, the tide seems to have turned and we’re currently just about coming out on top. It’s one of the endless battles all gardeners face (slugs being the other major enemy), so it’s quite nice to be able to relax a wee bit and pick up our trowels instead.
From our vegetable patch we’ve had peas, turnips, beetroot, lettuce, and there are some teeny-tiny pumpkins & courgettes. We might just be able to make something for halloween but they won’t be jack-o-lanterns so much as tealight holders. The strawberry patch is doing well despite the theft of most of the plants. We have slowly replaced them with donations from Crofthead and a few lovely locals. They should start producing fruit in earnest next summer, fingers crossed.
We had a good crop of tatties from our potato patch, some of which got turned into leek & potato soup in my kitchen for the following week’s session. The BLES boys were slightly suspicious of the concoction at first, but they seemed to wolf it down anyway (maybe that’s just the legendary appetite of the teenage boy overcoming their natural aversion to anything vegetable-based).
Speaking of BLES, we’ve been getting volunteers coming regularly from them and we’re very appreciative of the extra help and muscle-power. As a change of scene for the guys, we went and helped with the garden at Quentin Court, an emergency accomodation unit in Livingston. After digging out plenty of roots, we went to see George at Crofthead who sent us on our way half an hour later, weighed down with loads of plants. By the end of the session the garden looked a lot nicer, and will look even better once everything fills out and the spring bulbs appear.
Back at Howden, various wildflowers have done well over the summer and added a much needed dash of colour in amongst lots of bare earth! And the sunflowers were magnificent, ending up taller than the wall in some cases.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be starting the drystane-seating project with volunteers and BSkyB groups, and it’s the time of year for planting (hurrah!). The herb garden now has some actual real herbs in it (thanks to the lovely Jan at Redhall and Doreen in Dalkeith), and much more will start to go in soon to fill up the acres of flowerbeds we have waiting.