Another one bites the dust

Our guelder rose on its side. Must get a new camera!

One of the problems with having trees in the garden is that every now and again the wind blows one over. Yesterday, the end of some hurricane or other or the start of storm Joe (I'm not sure which), felled our guelder rose. It looks like a lovely healthy bush, doesn't it? That's because it's the top of the tree in the centre of the photo. It's lying completely on it's side.
As you can see, it was loaded with berries this year. These will now not be available to our resident birds over the winter.

On the other hand, it fell away from our duck house which was underneath it.


I've never had much luck with cuttings. This year, all three pelargonium cuttings rooted. I potted them on yesterday.

Substantial growth from one tiny Attar of Roses leaf.
Looking autumnal now.

They are Attar of Roses which, unusually, I bought from Sarah Raven last year as part of a planter package. I had 2 plants which grew to a huge size and bloomed all summer. Having spent all that money for something special, I wanted to overwinter them. So, I chopped them back and moved the pots into the greenhouse before the first frosts. Unfortunately, the first frost was into double figures. The next morning, all the plants were crisp - even the hardy one in the same pot - and I feared they would all die.

One pelargonium survived and put out tiny little leaflets from its shrivelled base when it got warm again. It has not flowered this year but is a good size - good enough to take cuttings off. Hopefully next year I'll have 4 robust pink pelargoniums to work with.



Although I said yesterday we were running out of salad, I was wrong. The strong gusts blew fleece off beds we were trying to protect from the ducks. In several of these I found usable crops. An advancing row of new rocket, several lettuce which presumably germinated late. These, along with young chard leaves, sorrel and kale leaves made another two good size salads. The quiche used courgettes which are still cropping, albeit slowly. On the downside, our carrots, which we have stored in a box of sand, are sprouting. Not sure what we can do about that.

Number of veg portions picked to date = 658