I don’t like watering my vegetables, so as every allotment holder knows prolonged periods without rain can be problematic.  The fennel never really got beyond spring onion size (although it was still crisp and fragrant) and the cucumbers never outgrew their gerkin cousins.  And the extraordinary sunny spell in the autumn ripened the squashes to the point where only a meat cleaver could break through the concrete skin.  I realise though that the Indian summer was a blip and can’t expect the same weather pattern this year. 

There are some vegetables though whose performance doesn’t seem to depend on the weather.  For years leeks have been my sure-fire crop; low maintenance and a guaranteed winter of tree trunk like stems.  But for my last three years the leeks have suffered from rust, which has splattered them with pustules and drained them of their strength.  Each year I have put my faith in manure and crop rotation to keep my beds in tip top health, but this doesn’t seem to cut it for leeks.  Rust seems to thrive on nitrogen, so this year I’m going to try leeks in the most depleted bed and see if that helps.

Thankfully though whenever there are losers there are also winners.  Last year was the best I can remember for tomatoes (our freezer still has a few loose snooker ball reds knocking about) and we had a bumper crop of courgettes.  That being said, of the four courgette plants, the great F1 defender was responsible for the lions share yet again and the quality was superb.  Much though I love quirky heritage vegetables and the chanciness of germinating open-pollinated seeds, this year I’m going to limit myself to two F1 hybrid courgettes, Defender and probably Gold Rush.

Don’t get me wrong.  Consistency is well down the list of qualities I seek from my veg and generally I’m not an F1er.  I grow frisee lettuce and endive with a shockingly low yield, but the pleasure I get from being able to prepare a late autumn salad makes it a shoe-in every year.  And my brassicas are invariably outshone by the veg display at the market.  But for me its not a competition, it’s a passion.  When I finally get round to opening my seed catalogues this weekend I know my pulse will start racing.  I know that some seeds will disappoint but I also know that some will blow me away.  And that’s the thrill.

Garden birds are invariably timid though, so the best way of coaxing them to settle where we can see them is with bird feeders and water.  This is also good for the birds of course, so it’s a win win.

However, as is increasingly the case with so many of life’s pleasures, its no longer as simple as ‘feed the birds’.  With the rise of diseases like trichomoniasis it may mean using your bird feeder less.  The RSPB advice is to clean bird feeders frequently and if you see any sick birds (lethargic, fluffed up feathers, esp greenfinches) then remove the feeders for a while so that the healthy birds aren’t congregating with the infected birds.  A couple of weeks should be fine.

At least as important though is to make your garden as naturally bird friendly as possible.  The choice of plants, the design of the garden and the way you maintain it can make a huge difference to the bird life.  The best bird gardens have readily available water and a wide range of food all year (seed heads for finches, undergrowth for dunnocks and rotting wood for great tits and other hole nesting birds).  And herbaceous plants are not cut back until late winter, which means at this time of year seed heads like Phlomis look stunning.

I guess growing your own veg would be dull if every season was predictable and every crop consistent.  The next challenge will be the snow.  Stocking up with rock salt and waxing the runners on your toboggan may seem premature, but these days who can tell.  Maybe its best to keep the barbeque and hammock out too.

Harvesting your home grown fruit and veg is a pleasure, there is no two ways about it.  It makes you feel proud and wholesome.  But it is also a challenge.  Just as a farmer needs to keep one eye on his ripening crops and the other on the weather forecast, so too does the allotment holder and vegetable gardener.  This autumn’s overshoots have included:

- The katy apples we pressed to make apple juice, even though they were picked straight from the tree, would have been tastier and juicier two weeks early.  They looked lovely and bright red on the outside, but they had started to become puffy, which made the juice dull brown instead of lively pink.

- I was too greedy with my caulies, leaving them to grow just that little bit larger.  I then forgot about them for a couple of days and bang the lovely white crispness and had been replaced by leggy yellow.

- And don't get me started on the borlotti beans.  I wait all year for these as they are still not sold locally.  We had a couple of very good borlotti meals, but I was hoping for a couple more.  Usually blackened pods is not a problem, but this year they had gone too far even to be dried.

Thankfully I seem to have got my timing better on the tomatoes and courgettes, both of which are still producing well.  Ratatouille again tonight then.

And they need all the help they can get.  Last winter was a bad one for honey bees despite the cold January and early spring which should have been favourable.  According to the British Beekeepers Association there was a 13% decline.

I don’t know why the honey bees steered clear of our garden in the summer.  Presumably there was more on offer nearer home, but its nice to feel we are doing our bit now.  Next year I hope we will have plenty of honey bees all year round.  From our own top bar beehive.

The good news is that it is an important food for many insects and farmland birds, such as linnets, and its scrawny rocket like leaves are good in salads, tasting less bitter than its close relative the dandelion.  However, it can spread and displace other plants so I will need to keep it in check.  Thankfully we have some sheep visiting soon for an early autumn graze and apparently they are very partial to cat’s ear shoots. Much like us then.

So what to do with it all?
Plums don’t store well, so my approach is to eat plums every day until you can’t bear the sight of another plum (until next summer).  I’m not mad on plum jam, but the River Cottage plum chutney is a winner for any plums you can’t face eating.

Pears don’t store well either so they are best left on the tree and picked as you need them.  I find it best to bring them indoors when they are still hard and to ripen them for a couple of days.  Beware though as pears have a nasty trick of rotting from the inside out, so don’t let a healthy exterior fool you.

Apples are much more versatile.  Cookers can be stored through to the spring as long as you have a dry, frost free apple store.  Cookers and eaters can be crushed to make apple juice.  All you need is an apple crusher and an apple press.  If you have too much juice, it can be frozen (or given to thirsty friends).  A nice problem to have.

Its not the cattle and hay making that has depleted the wild flower stock, but the annual application of nitrogen rich fertilisers.  The fertilizers have helped the grass, which has smothered the wild flowers.  Yarrow, hogweed and buttercup seem to be the only survivors.

So my plan is very simple.  I want to reduce the soil’s fertility to give wild flowers a fighting chance.  If I continually deplete the soil, through grazing and cutting/removing the grass without adding any fertilizer, the grass should start to suffer and the wild flowers should start making a comeback as should the wildlife.  Watch this space.

It has been a good year for bumblebees though.  Each summer we seem to have more and more.  When I walk into the garage I now make a point of keeping my mouth closed as they have a nest in the floor and like flying at mouth height!  They also like exploring our office, so I have a little papier mache bowl handy which combines nicely with our catalogue to make a  bumblebee catcher.  Maybe we should try a bumblebee nester in the office.

At last the sun has come out long enough for us to do our first submission for the big butterfly count.  This is the red admiral that visited the echinaceas, but refused to give us more than a glimpse of its dramatic wing tops.  It kept returning to the same flower despite all the others nearby.  And unlike the gatekeeper butterflies which never stopped still for more than a second or two, the red admiral was happy feasting off the same flower for a more than a minute each time.

A real highlight for me with this survey is being able to see what other people have spotted.  You can see what we saw by entering our postcode 0X9 2HU.

My lettuce has germinated well this year so we have plenty for the next few weeks, but I must remember to keep sowing otherwise it will come to an abrupt end in September.  I like to eke out summer salad for as long as possible otherwise it can seem like a long winter, especially if the summer comes and goes in May.

For me the same applies to growing vegetables.  Its the process rather than the end product that attracts me.  Whilst I love harvesting, particularly when it means making an impromptu salad of beetroot, broad beans, rocket and new potatoes like last night, it is the germinating and nurturing that excites me most.  Seeds poking through the soil, beans spiralling up poles and flowers turning into fruits is payback enough for me.  My father kept bees but never liked honey, so maybe it was the same for him.  I’m sure he would have embraced top bar beekeeping.

This year I have truly found radishes.  Just two varieties, the elongated French breakfast (although despite their surge in popularity they haven’t made it onto our breakfast table) and the round Rudolph.  They have germinated on cue, they have waited patiently to be picked without flowering and they have been welcomed by my family as if they were the latest exotic ingredient from Ottolenghi.

It has meant getting out the dreaded mandolin, the one that sliced the end of my index finger a couple of years ago, but the mandolin will be needed shortly for courgettes anyway.  Shavings of fresh firm radish (they must be fresh and firm otherwise the mandolin will do battle with them and lose) mixed with lemon juice, olive oil, fresh herbs and sumac makes a wonderful pre-dinner nibble.  And so easy too. 

Radishes also come up trumps as a handy snack in the vegetable garden or allotment, with nothing other than fresh air.  Let’s hear it for the radish.

I also have a favourite bird.  Not an easy choice.  My father’s favourite was the lapwing or peewit, I think because of its distinctive flight, but it may have been its crest or its call that he took a particular shine to.  For me its between the little owl, robin, yellow hammer and goldfinch.  The little owl because we frequently spot them in our garden at dusk and have twice had them down our chimney.  The robin because it keeps me company in the vegetable garden.  The yellowhammer because it accompanies me on my run in the morning and has an irresistible call.  And the goldfinch because of its beauty and playfulness.  A close call, but I think I’ll plump for the latter.  The pair of goldfinches we currently have flashing round our garden are mesmerising.

At this time of year we also have pheasant and partridge wandering through, but not nesting.  They always seem to be going somewhere.  They march through the garden usually in pairs and within the hour march back the other way looking very purposeful.  Maybe they are just enjoying the fact that they have made it through the shooting season and still have a few months grace!

It’ll be sometime before we’ll be able to tell whether they are cocks or hens.  Sometimes the cocks can be distinguished by their comb or the sound they make, but not always.  A couple of years ago we were sure we had three girls and it was only after a few months when we tried to introduce another cockerel that we realised one of the girls was in fact a boy.  It was only when there was male competition that he showed his true colours and since he has very much ruled the roost.

One of the extraordinary things about hatching hens eggs is that you can buy them online.  We have a handsome light sussex cockerel so have our own fertile eggs, but we like to have a mix of breeds so bought 3 buff Orpington eggs and 3 wyndots, neither of which we have had before.

The eggs arrive through the post and then you have 2 or 3 days in which to start hatching them, either under a broody hen or in an incubator.  We like to use a hen, as the chicks then have a mum, but its much less reliable.  If the hen lets the eggs go cold, its no chicks.  Its almost as chancy as germinating some vegetable seeds.

And many garden birds are doing well too according to the results from the latest garden birdwatch survey, despite the intensely cold spell in December.  Sightings of goldcrests. long-tailed tits and treecreepers all increased significantly, even though none have ever been spotted in our garden.  Maybe they have been there, but I have missed them.

Butterflies haven’t had it so good though.  Data collected by Butterfly Conservation shows worrying declines in once-common species, with numbers of small tortoiseshell falling by 68% and peacock butterflies dropping by 30% in the last 10 years. The good news is that we can all do something about it.  We can plant nectar rich flowers like buddleia (there are more dramatic varieties available if you don’t fancy the naturalised one that populates railways cuttings), Verbena bonariensis (the one with fabulous purple spires all summer long) and marjoram (oregano, the best herb for homemade pizza).

So far this year tomatillos and lettuces are the only seed up.  I don’t bother with germinating tomatoes any more as our nearest garden centre now sells so many varieties.  I have started my gem squashes, but there’s no sign of life yet.  I usually don’t sow squashes until late April but gems seem to be slower starters than the other squashes so I thought this year I’d give them a head start  (plus I have for the first time noticed that the packet suggests sowing in March!). 

Giving plants a head start doesn’t always mean the crop will be earlier though.  I reckon that if I sow Aquadulce broad beans in November, they will only be ready for harvesting a week or so before those sown in February.  And if I start off other squashes and courgettes in pots to give them a head start, they soon get caught up by seeds planted later directly into the ground.  For me the advantage of starting seeds off in pots is less an early harvest and more about slug control, which is easier in my cold frame.  Later sowing just means getting out into the veg patch with broken egg shells and beer traps!

So its back to the bees.  Honey bees, solitary bees and bumblebees are all great pollinators and later in the year hoverflies, butterflies, moths and other insects will join in.  Some people recommend using a soft brush to pollinate by hand this early in the year, but I have seen enough bees already to be quietly confident of a good crop.  The main challenge now is frost!

1. Don’t mow too low, so that clover will grow.  Bees love clover.
2. Stop using insecticides.  There are always alternative ways of dealing with garden pests, such as dousing aphids with soapy water.
3. Plant traditional cottage garden flowers and native wildflowers.  Exotic imported flowers and bedding plants have so little nectar and pollen that they may as well be plastic!
4. Select plants which flower at different times, from spring to late summer.
5. Plant flowers in the sun, in clumps, to make life easy for the bees.
6. Create natural habitats.  Leave a bit of your garden for rotting wood, long grasses and nettles.  Don’t be too tidy!
7. Have water available.  A pond or bird bath is ideal for thirsty bees.
8. Buy local honey that supports local beekeepers.
9. Tell your friends not to be scared of bees (and make sure they can tell the difference between a wasp and a bee!).  Bees are our friends and will sting only if provoked.
10. Start keeping bees.  Keeping bees with a top bar beehive is easier than you think.

The sparrows and tits are already actively reckying the nest boxes for the spring.  Now is the time to clean out existing boxes and to hang new ones, especially when they are 30% off!

There has been an abundance of hoverflies though, particularly on our Echinaceas.  Hoverflies are very welcome, as their maggots eat aphids and and they can be good pollinators.  The RSPB offers good tips for helping pollinators in your garden and if you want a quick fix bumblebee nests and pollinating bee logs look attractive as well as serving a useful purpose.

Inspired by a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show last year, and by the RSPB and many others since, we made a tower of pallets and stuffed it with everything we could find which we thought would be beneficial to insects.  Bamboo, masonry, straw, clay, rotting branches and pollinating bee logs.  It may be a bit too shady for sun-loving solitary bees but hopefully it will provide an over wintering haven for ladybirds, lacewings, beetles and other shade loving insects.

My little picture for Earth Day shows the world upside down in a glass cloche, which is providing much needed protection for my tender cucumbers.

I nearly stepped on a hedgehog last week which had just emerged from its hedgehog house for a first forage.  It looked healthy and contented (much as Beatrix Potter would have wished for Mrs Tiggywinkle).  The ladybirds too seem to be more abundant than ever.  Seems like they have enjoyed their rest.

But it has invaded the lawn somewhat, so this week I grabbed my saw and cut it down.  And on the same day I read that it is becoming a pest too in the countryside as it can out-compete the native plant species around it.  Sightings of this and other alien species should be reported to the non-native species secretariat (and no, this isn’t an early April fool!)

Which has made me start thinking about rhubarb recipes and the appropriately entitled rhubarbrecipes.com.  It has some nice recipes, but what about rhubarb and elderflower?  For me forced rhubard roasted with elderflower cordial is unbeatable.

So we have decided to give away 100 of our screcrow kits to primary schools in Oxfordshire and we are giving £250 of wildlife products to the best scarecrow.  Schools from other counties are welcome to enter, of course, but we only have free scarecrow kits for schools in Oxfordshire.  See our scarecrow gallery for details.  Next year we hope to give away more kits to schools in more counties. 

But March is not too early to think about planting trees.  It is the end of the time to plant deciduous trees (Oct-Mar) but the start of the planting season for evergreen trees (Mar-May).  So if you fancy a bit of mixed woodland, now is a good time.  For hammocks, 3.5m spacing, aligned east west is ideal.

There are two tips for getting the most out of your rhubarb forcer.  One is remembering to put the lid on now.  The second is rembering to take the lid off before the stems push it off, otherwise like me you may have to resort to elastic bands to hold the cracked lid together.

Christmas roses appear to be one of the few plants bucking the trend to flower earlier.  If only more plants were!  Yesterday's Guardian highlighted how earlier springs could destroy the delicate balance of wildlife.  Yet another undesirable consequence of climate change.

However, now that we are the proud owners of a budgie, this chickweed has become a valuable crop.  My sister reminded me that as children we regularly raided the veg patch for chickweed to feed our father's budgies, so now I am able to do the same.  The budgie is taking time to get used to this new delicacy, but hopefully it will grow to like it as there is plenty more.  Let's hope he likes as much as the garden birds like the peanuts in our peanut feeder for garden birds, which this autumn have proved more popular than ever.

A good eco audit is invaluable and need not dampen your spirits before Christmas, so don’t be scared off by the reporting of Adair Turner’s which bandies about £15,000.  What every household needs is a simple list of things to do to be more eco friendly, ranked by cost/impact, which is specific to each situation.  The eco expert who did our report charged £300, which we feel is good value.  We’re on priority two at present, which for a draughty Victorian farmhouse means draught-proofing the sash windows and doors.  When this is done, Christmas should be even cosier than normal.

The next dilemma is choosing an environmentally friendly Christmas tree.  The ones to avoid are those which have been shipped over from the continent.  They will have been cut weeks ago so won’t last long indoors and the fuel used for transportation cannot be insignificant.  Locally grown trees are better, or an eco friendly Christmas tree made from recycled cardboard, which has the benefit of not dropping any needles.  A scented Christmas candle with a cinnamon and clove fragrance will soon put paid to any longing you may have for the Christmassy aroma of pine needles.

The biggest dilemma has to be eco friendly Christmas gifts and undoubtedly the best rule is less is more.  Buy only those gifts that you can’t make yourself, that are from sustainable sources and that will give long term pleasure.  Wool is a good place to start for ethical Christmas gifts.  A warm, soft alpaca scarf and fingerless gloves will put a smile on anyone’s face, especially if the items are handmade by a cooperative.  Gardening gift ideas are a safe bet too, like Gardeners friends plant labels or an allotment kit for those new to the pleasures of growing vegetables.

But what about the kids?  Surely they’ll want the latest electronic wizardry that has been mercilessly plugged on TV?  Call me old fashioned, but I don’t believe that a traditional Christmas gift of a toboggan is ever going to be spurned.  Owning a real wooden sledge that will outpace and outlive its plastic impersonators should be a source of pride to any child.  And recycled Christmas gifts can work well too.  A reindeer swing made from a recycled tyre will be popular with girls and boys alike, until they hit that awkward teenage stage when swings are as cool as Dads dancing at the disco.

At least there should be no dilemma about how to spend Christmas night.  Santa may not be able to get down the chimney any more, but with a wood burning stove its still possible to use a chestnut roaster and toasting fork to rustle up that quintessential Christmas snack.  Better get foraging for some local chestnuts.

This year and in years to come I think we could do better and its figs that have made me think this. We have a sprawling fig tree on the front of our house and each autumn the crop of soft fragrant fruits has increased making we wonder if we could make our very own figgy pudding. And if so, what else could we make in future?. It may not be possible to attribute the fecundity of our fig tree to climate change, but it does seem likely that in years to come we will be able to grow many foodstuffs that previously wouldn’t have survived here. A locally grown Christmas dinner may not be so far off.

I am not of course seeking to promote the benefits of a warmer globe. The consequences will be catastrophic. We take our responsibility for minimising our impact on the environment very seriously and won’t consider selling a product before careful scrutiny of its provenance and eco credentials. And we will be in London in force on the 5th December to join the Campaign Against Climate Change march. But nevertheless one of the consequences of the UK getting wetter and warmer is that some crops will do better. Already it is a mystery to me why its not possible to buy locally grown figs in the supermarket, which taste far superior to those flown in from the Med. But just imagine what else will be possible in 10 years time? Will we be able to have our cake and eat it?

This depends of course on what you consider the essential ingredients are for a five star Christmas dinner. For me, the further I get into the meal the more difficulty I have sticking to local. A starter of smoked salmon and quails eggs is a doddle and we are awash with great local meat, root veg and brassicas, but where we start to come a bit unstuck is the cranberry sauce, although I am told there are varieties of cranberry which thrive here. The Christmas pudding though is made almost exclusively from imported ingredients. The dried fruit could be locally sourced at a push (surely it is only a matter of time before we see British raisins, sultanas and dried apricots in the shops) but the climate required for cinnamon and cloves is not, I’m pleased to say, forecast for the UK. If it were ever that warm, there would be no one left to eat the dinner!

On a cheerier note, we can already enjoy plenty of good local booze. We have stout for making the Christmas pud, excellent sparkling wine to kick things off and then decent still white wine to wash down the turkey. Natural fig candles too will help set the scene. But alas a warmer climate means the prospect of snow at Christmas is increasingly remote, so make the most of it while you can. Buy a toboggan and if there is any snow, reduce your carbon footprint by getting out there rather than sitting in front of the telly. Then give yourself another pat on the back.

I have given a lot of thought to this and the best analogy I can think of is a gold mine.  In the villages around a gold mine you don’t see anyone wearing gold jewellery.  The occasional gold tooth maybe, but locals don’t adorn themselves with gold bracelets and rings.  This is because all the gold is exported.  It’s too valuable for local consumption.  In the same way, if you visit a British fishing village and try to buy fish you’re unlikely to have any luck. All fish are whipped straight up to the fish markets in the big cities, with the locals hardly getting a look in.

And yet panama hats are a really important part of Ecuador’s identity and their manufacture provides 1000s of much needed jobs.  They are immensely proud of their panama hats and their long tradition of weaving.  But after many attempts to agree a quality classification system that ensures you get what you pay for, much the like the French AOC wine classification, there is still no consensus.  No two weavers can agree on the same system for grading hats, so as a consequence buying a panama hat can be fraught.

Some weavers judge the quality by holding the hat up to the light and counting the rings in the crown.  This does give an indication of quality, and shows the considerable skill involved in making a panama hat, but it doesn’t provide a definitive grade. Similarly,  a high price is an indication of high quality, but it doesn’t guarantee it.  If that hat is under £40, it is not going to be a genuine high quality panama hat, but if it is over £40 it may not be either.

Maybe the best solution is to get the United Nations involved.  Not as a fighting force to keep the peace, but to provide an incentive to put aside differences.  This is what happened recently with the tango, South America’s much loved dance.  After decades of feuding, Argentina and Uruguay agreed to bury their differences about where the dance originated so that the tango could be added to the UNESCO world heritage list.  Being on the list brings with it considerable kudos and financial assistance, that would benefit all genuine panama makers.  Maybe if the weavers of Ecuador could agree to disagree, then UNESCO would recognise the cultural importance of the panama hat, but to Ecuador of course not to Panama.

For more information about Panama hats, please watch the following videos:

Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (1/3)

Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (2/3)

Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (3/3)

Further reading:

The Panama Hat Trail by Tom Miller

Thankfully alpacas, which were also imported for their silky soft alpaca wool, have adapted better.  They also have very cute faces.

So this weekend, we had an archery tournament.  Hitting the conventional target was easy enough, but hitting the apples proved more difficult.  I guess William Tell must have been more practised!

They have been ok, but I realise now that our farmyard really needs the blaze of late summer yellow that traditional sunflowers bring.  These would look grand in a luxurious border at Great Dixter, but next year I think I will return to the more familiar yellow flowers, which is what our favourite garden bird food is made from.

The fertile eggs came by post from Pippin Eggs. Great service.

The future doesn't look good though for many butterfly species.  The decline in the plants upon which butterfly larvae depend, as pointed out in a recent Countryside Survey report in Wales, will have a knock on effect on the butterfly population.  Enjoy them while you can.

So what can we do?  Vigilante action might backfire unless your identification skills are 100%.  Probably a better option is to make sure you have parts of your garden that are ladybird friendly.  Different species have different preferences, but conifers, leaf litter and a ladybird nesting box is a good place to start.

We have been receiving a steady stream of wonderful scarecrow photos, as you can see, and will be publishing a gallery shortly.  We have also received a scarecrow poem, which we thought you might enjoy...

The only downside I can think of is that they are head height for the rabbits, and act rather like a buffet!

In a few days I will pop the coir pots into ground and cover them if a frost seems likely.  I will keep a few back in the cold frame though just in case I get caught out!

So while we're waiting for the results of this research, its important we do all we can to provide nesting, shelter and food for as many bees as possible.  Bumblebee nests are a good option, but its just as important to leave well alone all the potential nesting sites like cracked wood and concrete that you might otherwise want to tidy up.

Its a reminder that summer is just around the corner. Time to dust off those deckchairs!

Good luck to the Grofun guys who want to build one.

I put in a 10 ariane crowns last year and watched longingly as they grew and then went to seed.  This year we can start to pick the shoots and I'm sure it will have been worth the wait.

Its been so windy that the peas and broad beans have decided to remain hidden underground and I don't blame them.  The lettuce seems to be about the only crop that is keen to get going, but it has had the benefit of a cold frame.

Ladybirds are so good to have around, everyone should encourage them.  Ivy is good nesting territory, but if you don't want ivy you could try a ladybird nest. 

And they can be brought into the house.  If you cut the stems they will droop within a day, but if you pick just the flower heads and float them in a shallow dish they will look stunning for at least a week.  A lovely start to spring.

At this time of year when small garden birds are reckying their nesting places, its good to see that a simple bush can provide life saving protection.  Although it did mean of course that the sparrowhawk had to go without any supper.

We can't do much about the cold, but we can help the food supply.  Peanut feeders are popular with garden birds all year and they are defeat even the most cunning of squirrels.

All the deadheads and long grasses that we leave for the insects and birds look wonderful with a coating of frost.  How lucky we never get round to tidying up the herbaceous border.

Hopefully we will have eggs again by Christmas.

I have never had the courage to keep honey bees myself, as I don't think I would be able to devote the time that's needed for the health checks.  But we do have nesting places for solitary bees in our pollinating bee log and for bumblebees in our new bumblebee nest.

As well as storing the last of the autumn harvest, its also a good time to plant radar onion sets, garlic and aquadulce broadbeans.  And to cover rhubarb with a rhubarb forcer.

Walnut leaves make great leaf mold, particularly if they are mixed with hazel and cherry (sounds like a fruit cake in the making).  Pack them tighly into jute leaf sacks and this time next year there will be leaf mold almost good enough to eat.

We probably have more than we can eat now, so I have dipped into Piers Warren's How to Store Your Garden Produce. I might try freezing them.

We'll leave them to dry in these organic string bags and then look forward to a winter of cracking nuts.

But during these last few days there has been a flurry of small tortoiseshells, particularly on the over ripe apples.  Maybe the fermented apple juice gives them courage to face the winter.

Compared with the later greener varieties, there seemed to be a lot more juice.  Or maybe its just an upside of all this rain.

It is a mystery to me how the butterflies get in to the cage to lay their eggs as the holes are smaller than the butterflies.  Maybe they drop their egss from outside, dambuster style? 

If I remove the cage the birds will feast on the caterpillars.  But they will also devour the cabbages!

At least the sunflowers look cheerful.  And as they dry up the birds will be able to feast on the seeds.  If you're looking for garden bird foods, sunflowers are difficult to beat.

Purple beans on the other hand are very good to eat, particularly the climbing variety Blauhilde.  The poor weather in the early summer has held ours back somewhat, which should mean there will be some left when we get back from our summer holiday.  There's nothing worse than returning from holiday just as the beans are going over.

Sadly the wind doesn't seem to have the same effect on the cabbage white butterfly.  A hurricane wouldn't stop them laying their eggs on my brassicas.

But most plants have loved it.  It is as if they were waiting for a good soaking before really getting going.  The sweetcorn, courgettes and squashes have doubled in size in a week.  Unfortuantely so have the weeds!

And we are growing a few heritage peas from Ryton, which look stunning.  This variety is called Victoria.  I'm looking forward to see what Beltony's Blue and Lancashire Lad look like.

For the next month or so we can enjoy the mouthwatering first earlies, surely the most delicious of home grown veg.

The loose leaf variety on the right is Bergamo, which has pretty bright green leaves and mixes well with rocket and herbs.  Perfect with grilled goats cheese.

The elderflower is out in force so now is the time to pick flowers to make elderflower cordial before they go over, using pink or white flowers.  Equally important is to grab some citric acid from your chemist before they sell out.  By early June you're likely to be out of luck.  If you need a simple, tastey elderflower cordial recipe, drop me an email.

These bees are invaluable pollinators and I have never known anyone get stung by one.  As they don't make hoeny they don't attack you if you go near their nests and as they all work alone their is no danger of being set upon by a swarm.  If you don't have enough natural habitats for them, a pollinating bee log or bug box will do the trick very nicely.

The demise of the bumblebee has prompted the HDRA to ask its members to record sightings throughout the summer.  If you register, you will receive some nice colour pictures so all the family can enjoy charging round the garden trying to identify them.  And they are very unlikely to ever sting you.

Thankfully they only eat carrion so our hens are safe, but our underwear may not be as they are known to steal knickers from the washing line to line their nests.  A small price to pay in my view.

For the next few weeks we can enjoy one of the tastiest seasonal vegetables there are.  It knocks the all year round imported stuff into a cocked hat.

To satisfy demand from an asparagus loving family I have planted a second bed, this time the early variety Ariane.  Unfortunately we will have to wait a year before we can harvest it.

This year I have planted some rosemary at the end of the bed, which is one of the few plants to flower at the same time as overwintered broad beans so it should attract pollinators.  This is good for the beans, but also good for the bees, which need every help they can get.  As well as a shortage of food, bees are struggling to find nesting places in our tidy gardens.  If you can't live with a messy garden, but would like to help bees, do please consider hanging a pollinating bee log or bug box.  They are easy to make and are unusual garden accessories, even in a tidy garden.

These sticky buds look good enough to eat.  Which is what horses can do with ground conkers.  Which is why they are called horse chestnuts.  Now you know.

The birds seem to cope well with the snow (unlike British Airways) and keep singing, but they find it more difficult to find food when its cold so keeping the garden bird foods topped up is important.  Bird seed sunfllowers are a good option at this time of year as the seeds are fine for adult birds and their fledglings.

Another invaluable option for bringing seedlings on are paper pots made by a paper potter.  They too seem to provide a better barrier for slugs than seed trays.

There is no sign of a hen, but maybe she is sitting somewhere under a bush.  Let's hope the foxes stay away.

I'm not sure why the early spring is so dominated by yellow.  Daffs, primroses, cowslips and mahonia are the only colour we have in the garden at the moment and they're all yellow.  Maybe its a wake up call for the pollinating insects.

And the focus of fairtrade is now broadening to other small producers which have traditoinally been exploited, like the production of panama hats in Ecuador.  Our fairtrade panama hats come from a women's cooperative which guarantees good working conditions and fair wages to all its weavers.  Let's hope it won't be long before all hats are made this way.

Both houses are wonderfully creative visions of the sort of homes they would like birds to live in.  But if you would rather have something which is easy to make and clean, which naturally blends into your garden there are simpler birdbox designs.  If you want to make it a bit more exotic, you could always try a sedum nest box, which is good for the birds and for the environment.

The reason is to avoid residual pests and soil borne infections which can destroy new seedlings.  A small amount of soil left on the side of a pot can be enough to harbour desease.  If you're feeling particularly energetic a scrub with a natural disinfectant such as white vinegar should see off any last bugs.

I reckon in our garden we have no more than 3 varieties of snowdrop, but in some you will find over 200.  To find the best snowdrop walks near you, go to www.ngs.org.uk or www.rhs.org.uk.

If you want to attract more birds into your garden, I can recommend a peanut feeder or a bird seed sunflower.  Both help brighten up your garden at this time of year.

And repair any damage too.  The hole in this box has been pecked and gnawed so much that I need to patch it up to give the blue tits the privacy they demand.  If you don't have one and want to build a bird box or buy a birdbox, now is a good time.

By late autum it loses its green and becomes a papery brown.  Some years I have cut it down at this point, but this year I have left it alone and I think I will do in future.  It has not only provided interest at this bleak time of year, but has also provided a valuable barrier to the gusty winds we have had recently. The birds as well as the early vegetables have been grateful for it.

And if you fancy roast pigeon for Christmas dinner, you only need to ask!

If your garden is short of seed heads and other natural bird food, you can supplement with bird seed sunflowers, which are very nutritious for the birds as well as being an eye catching addition to your garden.

Apparently wine is easy to make, but I’ve never really fancied it.  Too many memories of student homebrew.  If I was going to make hedgerow wine, I think I would go for elderberry or blackberry.  Maybe next year.

The problem is that after a hard frost like we had last week the tops will soon die off making them more difficult to find!

If you like the idea of keeping hens but haven't got enough space, you can always try recycled plastic hens. These are made in South Africa and make a fun Christmas present.  They are easy to look after, but you won't get any eggs I'm afraid.

I have discovered there are two secrets to successful brassicas.  Impenetrable netting and firm ground.  I placed a cage over the plants this summer and as a consequence the pigeons have had to look on in dismay as the cabbages have flourished.  And when the plants went in I pressed hard down on the surrounding soil, which is meant to stop the spouts disintegrating just as they get to an edible size. Luckily we all like sprouts!

Chicory and endive are traditional salads to grow in the winter, but I have never had much success with either.  What has worked well for us is a leafy salad mix called Oriental Saladini (Thanks for the tip, Phil).  Last year a couple of rows sown over a soakerhose in the greenhouse kept us in salad all winter and this year looks like being the same.

An hour sweeping up and bagging now will pay dividends later in the year.  After a shower of rain ram the leaves tighly into leaf sacks and leave them in a quiet corner to compost. In the spring your grass will thank you for not having left soggy leaves all over it and in the autumn you will have some wonderful leaf mulch to spread on your flower beds.

As well as there being less food around for the birds at this time of year, there is also less daylight for them to go foraging in.  To mark the clocks going back this Sunday the RSPB is promoting a national feed the birds day.  They have arranged lots of events around the country and are providing valuable tips about providing food and shelter.  Well worth a browse.

I have also successfully dried borlotti beans.  The flecked skins look pretty and they will last for a couple of years, but they are at their best eaten fresh.  And now is the time!

It’s the time of year to give your hedgehog house a quick once over.  First of all check that it doesn’t have any residents in by wedging a piece of straw across the entrance and then checking back a couple of days later.  If the straws is still there you can be confident it is not being used, so give it a good scrap out and check it for leaks.  Hedgehogs are very adept at making their own nests, so resist the temptation to refill it with leaves or grass.

If you don’t yet have one and are feeling creative you can build you own hedgehog house.  It’s easier than it looks.  But if you would rather have one ready made delivered to your door you can buy a hedgehog house which is made of FSC oak and larch.  This is a thing of real beauty that the fussiest of hedgehogs will find it hard to resist.

The kids are disappointed as it means its not worth pressing our own juice this year.  That is until I pointed out that there is still plenty of juice in the freezer from last year!

And they go on year after year.  They produce so many seeds they never seem to need replemishing.  Truly sustainable!

It seems that all the composting we do has paid off.  And its so easy.  You can make a compost bin in a couple of hours and then all you need to do is fill it and wait!

For the first time I have grown uchiki kuri squashes up a wigwam of hazel stakes. They seem to have enjoyed the climb and have rewarded us with plenty of dangling fruit which should ripen well as the leaves start to fall later in the month.

If you didn't get a chance to sow any sunflowers in the spring you can try our birdseed sunflowers, which have the added bonus of being packed with a specially selected blend of mixed seed on the back.  When all the seeds have been taken the empty head can be filled with fat or peanut butter.

This year we have tried four varieties.  Nero di Milano is our long time favourite and a steady cropper.  Goldie is fun and Partenon is steady but slightly dull.  The best find this year has been Costa Romanesque, which looks dramatic with its hairy ribs and tastes wonderful, cooked or raw.

If you are looking for a simple recipe that uses up lots of courgettes, try the Union Square Cafe recipe for Pappardelle of Zucchini.  Thinly sliced courgettes are flash fried with tinned tomatoes, garlic, basil, pamesan and cream.  A large bowl of this with some crusty bread is one of the highlights of summer.  Let me know if you can't get hold of the full recipe.

This year we have grown a variety called bastion, which are as good as any I have ever tasted, but that might be because we have had to wait so long before tasting them!

For those of you with an eye for the bees, you may thinik this looks like the rare ruderal bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus).  It is infact a male of a rare colour form of the field cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus campestris).  This species attacks the nests of the common carder bumblebee, killing the queen and enslaving the workers.  Thanks to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust for putting me right on this (www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk).

Which is why it is such relief to see the blauhilde beans finally clambering up their poles and the dwarf beans in full flower.  They should be at their best just as we go on holiday!

They didn't eat all the seeds though as we have had a similar display this year from self-seeded plants.  There may come a time when I will regret sowing something that self-seeds so readily, but for now its wonderful to have such a vivid display (for free) that is so popular with one of my favourite garden birds.

If you don't have space for love-in-the-mist, you could try dangling a bird seed sunflower.  This is a natural sunflower with a mixed seed back which is an excellent year round source of protein for garden birds.  The seed mix includes nigella.

If you have a flat or pitched felt roof, adding a blanket of sedum is a great way to add a bit of colour and to help the environment.  If you don't have a suitable roof, but you fancy a bit of sedum, you could try a sedum birdbox.  This is a classic birdbox made from pine offcuts, with a roof tray filled with the same sedum plants we have on our roof.  And its just as beautiful.

At least they are easy to pull up from the soft ground.  With the weeds growing so fast I have been leaving a recycled tyre trug permanently out in the vegetable garden so that whenever I'm passing I can sling a few in. It feels like a losing battle though.

I'm looking forward to trying a few thin slices on top of a tomato salad, but with so little sun around it could be green tomoto chutney where they'll end up!

If you want the bugs in your garden, but don't like the idea of rotting logs, then you can try a bug box.  These are easy to hang and look good on a wall or fence.  They might also be popular with woodpeckers!

These are two lettuces with a good heart.  Little Gen on the left and Marvel of Four Seasons on the right. All they need now is a splash of red wine vinegar and some extra virgin olive oil!  And maybe some croutons....

I don't ever remember more delicious potatoes than this year's Earlies, a variety called Colleen.  They are firm, sweet and smooth and melt in your mouth.  We have been eating them for a week or so now but already they are getting that little bit too large so that they can break up when boilled.  Guess we better hurry up and eat the rest then! 

Thankfully our flowering chives seem to have brought the bumblebees back, at least for the time being.

Whatever the reason, we can all do something to help.  Either buy a hedgehog house or make a hedgehog house out of a milk crate and some timber.  Leave it in a quiet part of the garden and then at least the hedgehogs stand a fighting chance.  And don't forget that hedgehogs like cat food, chopped peanuts and bacon rind, but not cows milk!

Apparently bumblebees are the sole pollinators of early broad beans!  We have a couple of pollinating bee logs in the garden, but these are designed for mason bees rather than bumblebees.  We have plenty of wild garden and grow all the plants recommended by English Nature (buddleia, cornflower, lavender, honeysuckle, rosemary and foxgloves), but only the rosemary is currently in flower.  For next year I am going to try underplanting with some Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty', which Val recommends for early nectar.

1. Gather eight cups of flowers (not stems), and place into a bowl with an equal amount of cold water. Leave for three days, stirring occasionally.

2. Strain, and boil for 30 minutes. Add two and a half cups of sugar, and the rind and juice of an orange and lemon, and then let it cool.

3. Add a teaspoon of yeast to some warm water, and add to the wine. Cover, and leave for two days, to begin fermentation.

4. Pour into a fermenting jar, and leave for two months before bottling. The wine improves as it matures.

Hedgehog numbers in the UK are plummeting. There were 2 million in the mid 90s, now there are less than 1 million.  Building a hedehog house is an easy way to help.

This is the first of our little gems.  A good rule for ensuring a continuous supply of lettuce is to sow a new row when the previous row is ready for thinning.

It does look like the grave digger has paid us a visit though! Anyone seen those difficult neighbours.......

Its really very simple.  Wash the rhubard and chop it into inch sized chunks.  Peel and finely chop an inch of so of root ginger.  Tip both into a rosting tin and sprinkle liberally with sugar or elderflower cordial if you have some.  Roast in a medium oven for 20 minutes or so until the rhubarb is tender and starting to get wonderfully unctuous.  Serve with a dollop of ginger and choclate ice cream (Waitrose own label is divine). 

The earlies really benefit from chitting as it gives them a head start when they are planted later this month.  The mid and main crop varieties chit a bit more slowly, but getting a good start is less important for these as they have all summer to grow.

The earlies we are growing this year are Colleen.  They are reported as having a good resistance to blight and scab as well as being good to boil or fry.  All too often new potatoes can disintegrate into a gloupy soup when boiled, so we are hoping these will be a little more rubust.

Our salad potatoes are Charlotte, the queen of salad potatoes.  Waxy, golden and unbeatable in salads, as long as the worms don't get to them first.

Our main crop are Desiree, which after years of trialing different varieties have become my firm favourite.  They grow to a good size relatively unscathed, store well after lifting in late Sep and are invaluable throughout the winter for jackets, roasts and mash.  Sunday lunch wouldn't be the same without them!

Our soil is a mix of heavy and very heavy clay.  50m to the north is greensand, but you’d never know if from our stodgy ground.  Of course the clay benefits some crops and it makes hose pipe bans less disruptive, but there are times when I curse our concrete clods.  Trying to prepare a fine tilth requires a pneumatic drill!

We have been growing vegetables here for 10 years and last year took the bold decision to put in raised beds.  We have 24, each around 1.2m by 2.4m.  Our first year with raised beds was good and we’re hoping this year will be even better.

Our main battle is always with rabbits.  We are surrounded on two sides by a large field which has enough rabbits to keep the village in rabbit pie for years.  If only someone would shoot them!  We have a so-called rabbit proof fence (seen the film?  Wasn’t it extraordinary), but like in all the best Walt Disney cartoons the rabbits simply sneer and go under it, over it or round it.  Suggestions please!

Last year was good for peas, beans, cucumbers, sweetcorn, tomatoes (many of which are still rolling round the bottom of the freezer) and potatoes.  This year should be even better, especially if we can confound the rabbits.