Last of the tomato crop

Well, we're half way through September, the leaves are turning, and the veg garden is looking very tired.
I've had a bumper crop of runner/string beans as usual. It never seems to matter what sort of summer weather we get, though it's usually hot, but as long as I give them water, they just keep cropping.
I had some French beans too, or haricot vert as they are called in France, but I find them quite tiring to pick as they grow so low to the ground. Something to bear in mind if you are getting on in years.

The tomatoes have also been fantastic. Masses of sweet, red, cherry tomatoes, big luscious Marmande, and some cooking pomadoro varieties that I slice in two, sprinkle over with olive oil & salt, and roast in the oven or halogen cooker for twenty minutes. Once they have cooled, I pop them into freezer bags and they make wonderful pizza toppings during the winter months.

The potato crop has been less than inspiring, a cold Spring & dry summer haven't helped. The quality has been good, I planted Agatha seed potatoes in March, but the quantity has been well below average this year.

The summer meadow I planted next to the vegetable garden has worked wonders. Along aith the aromatic lavender bushes, it attracted a huge amount of flying insects that helped pollinate my beans and tomatoes.

So, once the tidying up is done, I shall be thinking about what to sow early for next season.

Doesn't the year go around quickly when we're having fun  in the garden!
 

French Garden in the heat of June

Hooray, it's June at last and the wet May weather seems like a long distant memory.
I have managed to plant my French beans, tomatoes and potatoes.
 Alongside them, I have sown packets of pretty meadow flowers that should attract loads of insects this summer and help pollinate my veg.
I have also sown chives, mint and cucumber and the hot sun has already beckoned them out into the open.
The lawns have had a good cut and the only plants we lost due to the severe frost that we had last winter, were a honeysuckle and some lavander, both of which I have now replaced.
I'm now off to sit in the shade of a sweet chestnut tree with a very chilled glass of white wine.
Happy June everyone!

I have nothing to say on this miserable day!

I'll come back & talk to you when I can get out & plant something, when something flowers or it's just plain sunny!

The grass is peeping through!

Well, the thaw seems to have set in & the grass is now beginning to appear.
The birds that have been flocking to the feeders, have greatly diminished, and now we have the old timers such as the blue tits, nuthatch, tree creepers and of course, the ever present woodpeckers.
The starlings, blackbirds & robins must now be enjoying the fresh insects that are to be found under the crackling leaves of the laurel hedges.
I've cut down the bird food by two thirds, so that's eased the budget a bit this week!
I noticed this morning, that the little wild daffodils & snowdrops are appearing, along with some crocuses.
Can't wait for the colors of Spring to appear can you?
Catch you later.

The slow thaw!

Well, the temperatures are starting to rise above freezing.
The snow is thinning, the bushes & hedges are appearing once more and more importantly, the blackbirds, robins, starling, woodpeckers and thrushes have been able to set about scratching a meal from under the greenery once more.
We would like to be able to get the car out after two weeks, the freezer needs filling, some fresh fruit & veg will be more than welcome and we're going to have lunch out for a change.
Roll on the Springtime!

Frozen gardening in France!

I won't call it gardening at the moment, it's more like ice digging.
The ground is really hard frozen, & with temperatures down to minus 20°c, it's hard to imagine what will survive to see the warmth of Spring.
The tete a tete daffodil bulbs were just popping their heads up before we dropped into the depths of an arctic winter. The crocuses, snowdrops, camellias & even the rhododendrons were all in bud or flower. It can't be doing them much good can it?
The deer that crunch over the frozen snow at night, searching for the smallest patch of grazing, are finding very little. I fear that they will make a very easy target for the hunters (chasse) if they are weak & hungry.
So, with no let up in sight for at least the next few days, gardening is on hold here in the Limousin.
Watch this space, Spring must be around the corner surely.
Inkflo

New Year In France

Hello and a very Happy New Year everyone.
Not much happening in the French garden just now, apart from a bit more leaf tidying and moss killing.
New Year here in France is not terribly eventful. I'm not complaining about this, as it's one of the reasons we came to live here... for the peace & quiet.
At midnight on the 31st January, a local farmer let off his shotgun six times.
Yes, that was it! And I then went back to sleep.
I have never been a great lover of noise & fireworks and the local farm animals really hate it, so I can cope with one local farmer & his six shots once a year!
The chasse or local hunters have been out and about. When we first arrived here, I thought it terribly cruel to hunt down poor defenceless animals, then I realised that these men were feeding their families over the winter, just as their forefathers and their forefathers.
I have also come to realise, that if they didn't keep the wild deer and boar population down, our countryside and gardens would be decimated mud baths before we could say chasse.
So, I have grown to live cheek by jowl with the local hunting fraternity and also to appreciate that their traditions need to be respected and not frowned upon.
It's all done in a humane way, and they are bot allowed to hunt during the time when the animals are carrying their young or until the young have grown and left their mother, and if you ever experience seven wild boar tearing around your beautifully tended garden and vegetable plot and then seen the devastation that they can cause in such a short time, well ... your sympathies may well change!

Happy New Year