Sindy's Blue Garden Cottage - suburban homesteading and self-reliance content

  Living By the Seasons  By Sindy Wakeham With the weather changed to blustery, cold and more often than not, very wet, being outside and gardening is not where you want to be. It’s our natural cycle to respond to the patterns of the seasons and perform applicable activities. We're normally indoors processing and storing our harvests from the garden and preparing for letting the garden sleep over winter ready for the next growing season while we 'hibernate' from the cold. Modern understanding and growing methods has shortened that ‘hibernation’ period for those of us who cannot bear to be away from the soil for a whole winter, which in the UK can feel like 6 months! For those of us who simply HAVE to be able to garden all year round, there’s always a way. Year Round Gardening We can make hot beds like the Victorians and now we can even grow indoors with grow towers designed for indoor gardening. We can make tunnel cloches over vegetable beds or cover them in plastic and ...

  This Season's Woe and Wonder By Sindy Wakeham In the UK, just looking out of the window or standing outside, autumn has arrived and it doesn’t care about the human calendar. Nature decides what season comes when. The main season for almost two years has been autumn with days of normal seasons interspersed. Proper autumn is wonderful! I love all seasons in their place, but I’m not ready for autumn yet! My garden is nowhere near as fruitful as it used to be with lower light levels, cooler and wetter weather and fewer hot sunny days than normal. The garden’s far behind and only beginning to set fruit that should be ripening already. Urgency and Worry The main harvest season is upon us for all our fruit and annual veg which we normally put up for the winter and early spring. Even so, I have only been harvesting carrots, parsnips and garlic along with herbs. Summer harvests are done but there are still tomatoes to ripen. This time of year I’m normally already jamming (frui...