Thursday 30 October 2008

Cold snap


We had snow on Tuesday evening and it was cold yesterday and today but despite this some of the annuals are continuing to flower and the hardy Fuchsias, like Beacon in the picture, continue to put on a good show of colour. The first of the Chrysanthemums are out now although some of the petals have been nibbled by snails which is a bit annoying. And some of the Pineapple Sage flowers are out too.
I harvested the remainder of my outdoor Chillies today, 8 Sicily and about double that of Trifetti. Most weren't ripe so they are on the kitchen windowsill where they will turn red in a matter of days (with a little bit of luck). So that's it for the edibles this year apart from a few remaining Alpine Strawberries and some of the herbs.
It was too cold to stay outside as my garden gets very little sunshine at this time of year so I busied myself cleaning about 200 used plant labels ready for next year. I always use pencil and it never fails me: in fact it took a fair amount of rubbing with a cloth and cream cleaner to remove the writing! I've also been sifting the Tree Spinach seeds which must be the messiest seed to harvest. Either that, or I'm not doing it correctly.
Georgie

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least your garden is sheltered which helps!
I'm not keen on Fushsias but they are wonderful colourful plants.
I don't fancy cleaning that many plant labels!
I thought that Tree Spinach plants only produce seed rarely so propagation is by woody stem cuttings! Have a look at the Wikipedia entry.
xx

Carole said...

Ooops, I've not looked at the Wiki but I suspect this may be down to using the common, as opposed to botanical, name. I was referring to the annual herb Chenopodium giganteum which produces thousands of seeds, believe me!

G x

Anonymous said...

I was referring to Chaya aconitifolius, which is a large perennial shrub, also known as Tree spinach! xx

Carole said...

Well there you go then. I keep meaning to stick to botanical names on here but I trip up occasionally. Sorry!

G x

Anonymous said...

There's no need to be sorry!
I think that we've both learnt something about Tree Spinach!
I have endless problems with plant names, and I'm forever looking them up. xx