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Filling vases for the home in November

I just got back from dropping the boys at school, it struck me that there were no cut flowers in the house, it looked drab, dull and lifeless. The end of November can be a tricky time to fill vases. A grey, damp, windy day is an excellent time to forage for flowers in the garden, five minutes pottering will result in twinkles of colour catching your attention.

Tiny single stem vases are ideal for presenting the individual blooms as the star performers. They look great positioned individually around the house or grouped to make a larger display.

November flowers from the gardenFlowers grouped in a variety of single stem vases

Sparse garden flowers lead us to look for alternatives, in a couple of weeks we can collect and indulge in the sumptuous, rich evergreen foliage that brings the Christmas spirit into our homes. For now we need to look for substitute flora, with interesting shapes, textures and colour to help lift our homes. I love the large, soft, silver, serrated leaves from a cardoon. When placed in a vase they become a living sculpture in your home.

Cardoon leavesCardoon leaves in a vase

Dog wood stemsDog wood stems, a winter garden staple, also look striking in a vase

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Picking black currants and many other distractions

I should have the hoe out and be tackling the weeds that have sneaked into my dahlia bed, but the hot humid weather is better suited to picking blackcurrants and pottering in the kitchen garden. On my way to the soft fruit bed I noticed I was starting to get a few sweet pea flowers. Those of you who read my sweet pea posting will know that I sowed the seed late so the flowers are in turn a bit late too. I also made a silly error placing sunflowers (for cutting) next to them; they’re thriving, taking up lots of space and shading the sweet peas. So I’m not expecting huge posies of sweet peas this year, but even a few are enough for their English summer scent to drift through our home.

Sweet peasA few sweet peas

I popped into the greenhouse, where I’m greeted by a tomatillo forest; I blame the husband as he insisted I try them this year. They’re not endearing themselves to me, taking up too much space, overcrowding my gorgeous mini cucumbers and we’re yet to feast on them as I’m not really sure when they’re ripe. Every plant in my kitchen garden has to perform well to be allowed the following year, at the moment the tomatillos are out, let’s hope they make the most delicious salsa to redeem themselves.

TomatillosThe tomatillo forest!

Whilst wandering down through the kitchen garden I noticed Artichokes looking so stately, elegant architectural structure with a sophisticated colour palette. Shame about the black fly!

ArtichokesBeautiful artichokes

Then I’m drawn to my agapanthus attracting a bee. It’s a lovely cut flower which has a long vase life if the water’s changed frequently.

Agapanthus and a BeeAgapanthus and a bee

AgapanthusAgapanthus

Finally I made it to the soft fruit border at the bottom of the kitchen garden; to reward me for focusing on the job in hand I spotted one of our first ripe raspberries, Yum. RaspberryOur first raspberry

 

I have three bushes and they are laden this year, I plan to bake a black currant cake for the weekend, if it’s successful I’ll pop the recipe up on the blog next week. In one of Sarah Raven’s books she suggests to prune the oldest 1/3 of branches whilst harvesting, you can then strip the fruit off with a fork at your leisure. Traditional thinking is to prune in the winter months when the bush is dormant. I’m always up for trying out new ideas, the theory of pruning early during harvest allows new growth to mature sufficiently before winter and will produce fruit the following year. Fingers crossed for increased productivity.

BlackcurrantsBlackcurrants

Harvested blackcurrantsHarvested blackcurrants

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Flowers in jam jars

Today is the last day of pre-school before the summer holidays for my youngest. It’s a fabulous nursery, based on a farm and run by a lovely group of teachers. I have just picked some flowers from my cutting border and popped them in jam jars, to say thank you for the wonderful year my sons had with them.

Flowers in a jam jarFlowers I’ve just cut, popped into jam jars.

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Tomatoes and Mini Cucumbers

I am very excited; we have our first tomatoes, four little Sungolds, the best little intense shot of sweet warm tomato. Heaven!

Sungold tomatoes

I also managed a picture of our mini cucumbers before my three hungry children wolfed them down. We’ve got four plants and we’re cropping 2-3 a day and it’s only the start of the season, I just hope the children don’t overdose on them resulting in ‘Not another cucumber Mum!’ sort of comment.

Mini cucumbers

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Netting the cut flower border

If you’re a well organised gardener you will have netted your cutting garden soon after planting out your annuals. If you’re like me, juggling many balls in the air at once, it will of been on your important to do list buried under a pile of paper on your desk and then put to the back of your mind.

Netting plants for cut flowers is essential to encourage the flower stems to grow straight and long, perfect specimens for cutting. It also protects the plants from wind damage. I use the wide green plastic pea netting often used for beans and peas to climb up. It’s run across the border supported by my home grown hazel stakes. I adjust the level of the netting depending upon the height of the plant. I was organised enough to have this in mind when planting out, so planted the tallest plants at one end of the border and worked down to the shortest at the opposite end. Now I must confess that plastic green netting is not really my style, and you might be put off using it, it’s not initially a great look. But, I promise in a month when the cutting border is in full production the netting will be completely hidden by the plants that have grown through it.

Early yesterday morning when checking the local BBC weather forecast I noticed a weather warning for unusually high winds that afternoon, night and following day. This warning did not register with me until this morning when the wind was blasting up the garden with force, ripping leaves from trees and flattening my annual plants. At this point I remembered the need to net the cutting border. After hammering in the hazel stakes at speed, I started to unravel the pea netting I’d bought a few weeks ago. Well, this resulted in what could have been a ridiculous sketch in a comedy show. The netting tangled together whilst being blown from me weaving itself into complex knot that rivalled my children’s attempts at knitting. As I stood there trying to unravel the mess, being battered by the wind rushing with force off the fields, I managed with bad temper and ill humour to secure a few centimetres at a time. Some hours later the task was complete and well worth it as it stabled my cosmos, dill and antirrhinum all of which had suffered snapped limbs. I will try and prioritise this important task next year!

Netting the cutting borderThe cut flower border, finally netted and protected