Ballymaloe Blog

An Indian summer of dry, bright and unseasonal mild weather has helped with garden jobs and extending the shorts-wearing season! After a disappointing summer the autumn months are slowly preparing us for the winter ahead. 

 

In the herbaceous borders we’ve begun to tidy and redesign before the frost knocks back the foliage and it gets harder to tell what’s what.  It’s also a great time to clear ahead of bulb planting which will go in in early November.  Watch out for hibernating hedgehogs!

 

I have high hopes that weather warnings are on hold ‘til winter and there will be enough sunshine to ripen and sweeten the garden’s bounty. 

 

This time of year the main job in the garden is staying ahead of the weeds that are growing with the same vigor as the crops.  Amongst the produce in season are courgettes, peas and mangetout beans, blackcurrants, raspberries and peaches. Yes! Peaches – growing in the warmest, most protected (and admired!) corner of the garden. 

 

Apple, pear, hawthorn blossoms are all signaling the warming air and soil. The potential for a sting of frost in the air should be gone completely once May is out. In the garden, we’re busy hardening off annual flowers and planting out vegetables we started in modules in the glasshouse.

 

Much of the work being done now in the garden is in preparation for things to come! Most of the garden is empty now except for perennial vegetables like sea kale, asparagus and rhubarb. But in the wings…or the glasshouse….seedlings are beginning to show promise.  In modules and pots is sown lettuce, Japanese greens, oriental mustards, brussel sprouts, red and green cabbages. In gutters, the tender tips of mangetout and peas are popping up. 

 

Emerging from the hibernation of January and the potential of the growing year ahead begins to germinate! The first demand is to feed the soil that gave us so much last year – the ‘heavy’ machinery was rolled in and made light work of spreading well-rotted manure over the entire garden and ploughed. 

 

It was almost a case of … last person in Ballymaloe, turn of the lights as many staff, family & friends headed off to the sunny destination of South Africa. Well, Sun city & Capetown to be more precise! Off to celebrate the wedding of my wonderful friend and colleague and well known receptionist, Lyndsay Greer to her sweetheart, Michael Cashman.

 

And from the moment we arrived, Lyndsay’s uniqueness and impeccable attention to detail shone.