Autumn action

Well, have taken out all the pumpkin/squash plants. They were hit by the recent frost, so the fruit softened and was then munched on by vermin (probably squirrels). Today Joshua and I have weeded and hoed the beds, and sown green manure.
The long thin bed has forage pea - two rows about 20cm apart, and 10cm between seeds. One or two (or in Joshua's case, six) seeds per hole. I poked holes with a stake and then brushed over and trampled up and down.
The T bed has forage pea both horizontal and vertical (poked and covered). The horizontal then has winter tares broadcast and raked in, then flattened with the rake. The vertical has red clover broadcast and then raked in. Then flattened.
The corner bed has winter tares, broadcast (quite heavily) and then sort of tussled in with the rake, and flattened by rake.
Loving the colours at the moment...We've done mega work in the orchard recently. I've almost kept on top of it, and Paul and Penny kindly helped collect apples on Wednesday to take to be pressed. Probably about 60-80 kg. Should produce about 50 bottles, with luck...
We've also picked loads for the crumbles. Aiming for 100 this year...

Burial.

Well, today we have:
Planted some agapanthus in pots by the door.
Put up galvanised wire rather than green garden wire for the sweet peas, and then tied the tomatoes into it too.
Dug a whole load of holes in the rose bed (finding lots of ants in the process) ready to put some pumpkins into.
Watered the boxes.
Watered the veg (main garden)
Dead headed the roses.
Taken marigold seedlings from the miniplug thing and put them in a 5x8 seed tray insert (there were 39 that had come up so far!)
Buried a bird. I think it flew into the window. A timely reminder that we could buy some of those bird stickers for said window...
Had a conversation with Joshua about the bird, including:
J: Is it dead?
Me: Yes, I think it flew into the window
J: (Looking intently at bird lying on ground) I think its legs have fallen off.
Me: No sweetie, they're just underneath him, you can't see them.
J: His eyes have fallen out.
Me: No, he's just closed them (I don't actually know about this one - do they shut them when they die, or what?!)
J: What shall we do?
Me: We'll bury him in the garden.
J: Are we going to bury him now?
Me: In a minute, I'm going to get my gloves first.
J: Why are you getting gloves, is he prickly?
Me: Uh, no, it's just that sometimes dead things aren't very clean, so it's better to wear gloves.
J: Why do we bury things when they're dead?
Me: (thinking, yeah, jolly good question) Uh, because it's nicer.
J: After a while, he'll come back to life.
Me: Uh, no sweetie, I don't think that the glorious hope of the resurrection extends to animals.
J: Who does come back to life?
Me: Well, people. Do you remember what happened to Jesus?
J: Yes, he died.
Me: And then what happened?
J: He came back to life again.
Me: And because he did that, we can come back to life too, after we've died
J: Is that why people pray to him?
Me: Well, yes, it's one reason.

I've also unplanted the pansies from the pot by the door, and moved them into a seed tray, where I'll keep them moist ish and harvest seeds. I hope.
Yesterday, I got a few seeds from the pansies, and some from a nice pink wildflower down the end of the orchard.
All the corn has now been eaten. Officially not doing corn ever again.
I planted a couple of the beef tomatoes into the bed at the weekend, as they kept wilting in the black plastic pots. Three more to do. The tomato from Paul and Penny has been dug up (again!) and I don't think will make it this time. (A moment's silence...)
The lone runner bean is doing its best, but is somewhat stunted by its attack earlier in the year.

Went to Calke at the weekend and was encouraged to hear that a volunteer in the garden (and oldish boy, so I figure he knows what he's doing) had had a bad year for parsnips, so I don't feel too bad now...
There might be some carrot seedlings from the latest sowing showing, but it's early to tell what they are...
The red cabbages planted at the weekend are doing ok, though one's been nibble a bit despite the netting ... slugs? Who knows!

Yesterday and today...

We did some digging.
No real reason for it - we just felt like it, so why not?!

And if you're wondering about that stick thing in the ground, it's stick man.
We also earthed up the potatoes again today - they were looking like this:
despite the fact we only did it yesterday. I'm beginning to wonder if there's enough room in the bins... (not that I know anything about growing them!)
We were also stalked by a robin: (watch out for where Joshua almost buries it, and it still doesn't fly away)


Very bold little creature! If you're wondering why I show my shoes, it's to demonstrate how close the bird is!
And we followed it and found its nest too - very dodgy picture, but the white little stripes in the middle are the beaks of the babies. The red blob in the top left quarter at the end is the robin (possibly slightly disturbed by our presence - Joshua doesn't do subtle...) who was back happily feeding the young soon afterwards (like about 7 seconds)



Here's the butternut squash bed, having been planted up.
Another of the runner beans has died, and the third has had it's head chopped/bitten off by something. Oh dear. Not a roaring success.
Transplanted a couple of corn to rationalise the bed somewhat, though may have said that yesterday.


And finally, in other news, we saw a Goldcrest yesterday (I'm pretty sure, anyway!) And we saw a huge bird of prey today. If it weren't for the fact that they don't live 'round here, I'd say it was an eagle... But I'll accept Buzzard instead. I was driving at the time, but it was definitely too big to be anything kestrely! Unfortunately, the RSPB site doesn't tell me the relative sizes of the birds...