Homeschool Gardening Club - The Pleasure of Doing Nothing!

Although the weather has turned much cooler, it is now a temperature I can cope with and it is a temperature that encourages me to spend more time in the garden, not less.

This week has been a pleasure, simply because there is not much to do, I have sown the last lot of seeds in the successional planting my scheme. My young plants I have already planted out are growing, I am on top of the weeding (and it sounds like many or you are too.) There has been no potting on to do and the rain has taken care of the watering most days. I am just waiting for the next new harvest to begin.

There is a saying “stop and smell the roses”. This is an idiom which is a phrase or saying where the meaning is unclear or not obvious from the individual words that make up the phrases. The phrase means to relax and to take time out of one busy day to enjoy or appreciate the beauty of life. In other words, stop and notice what is happening around you.

So, what have we noticed this week?

Well, I have notice the squirrel proof bird feeder that I recently bought - was not so squirrel proof as suggested. We were sitting in the garden doing nothing, watching a young squirrel following its parent around in our neighbours’ trees, then along the back fences which services as a connecting squirrel corridor between the gardens. The adult climbed on to the bird feeder and so did the young one. The adult jumped off when I moved but the younger one stayed and worked its smaller head and shoulder between the bars and was able to get to the wire mesh on the inside and, as you can see, got to the peanuts! The peanuts streamed out on to the ground. Almost, as if the magpies, jackdaws and squirrels were working together, the peanuts were gobbled up in just few minutes. This round to the squirrels! Back to the drawing board for me.

My only surviving pumpkin seed was planted into one of the compost bins a few weeks ago and it has grown away marvellously. It covers the compost bin and is now trailing along the ground. I can see little baby pumpkins starting to develop. The courgettes are just a little ahead but not quite at picking size yet! I am looking around for some great recipes to use to cope with the glut I know that will be coming.

The bees have fertilised all the dog roses and we will have a good supply of rosehips this autumn. Rosehips are a good source of vitamin C and was used a lot during WW2 when we were not able to get citrus fruit from overseas. I will be looking for some War Time recipes we can try out as part of our history. If any of your grans or fans have a recipe they can share with us - we would love to share!

We will also have a lovely harvest of Red Windsor apples if only the wasps leave them alone. I am blaming the wasps but I don’t really know what has been sampling this apple - what do you think?

The Swiss Chard is really coming in to its own now and every were it is planted we have very colourful contrasts of colour. I think I am going to get down to do some painting inspired by these colours.