November garden

 

November garden

 
Antirrhinum, snapdragon, bunny mouth

Nasturtiums

Variegated nasturtium leaves. The marbling on these leaves is beautiful.

                            Herb Robert - Geranium robertianum

I love this wildflower that grows so freely in the garden. The foliage turns red as the plant matures. The leaves and flowers are edible, fresh or dried, and can be made into a tea. It is thought to repel mosquitoes if the leaves are rubbed on the skin.

Mahonia japonica flowers from late autumn to early spring and is a valuable source of pollen for early bumblebees. It has a strong sweet scent, a delight on a still winter day.

                                Three of the stages of raspberries 

Raspberries

I ate two  raspberries from the garden on Wednesday. I don’t think the rest will ripen now.

Courgette with teaspoon for comparison of size

This is from our courgette plant. I think it will be fine, maybe stuffed.

                                             Sweet pepper

                                                    Chillies

Begonia fuchsioides indoor plant in the last days of its summer holiday. It will have to come back into the conservatory soon.

ABC Wednesday Y is for Yellow

Yellow is such a cheerful colour in the garden particularly after the often dreary winter days when daffodils bloom in Spring . . .

 . . . followed by Kerria japonica which often flowers again in summer

Yellow Archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon ) is a wildflower native to central and southern England and common in Europe. It is a plant of ancient woodlands and old hedgerows, its yellow flowers in May and June bringing brightness to damper, darker areas. It grows well on chalk or heavy clay but can be invasive in the garden. Young leaves and shoots and flower tips can be eaten when cooked. In herbal medicine it has been used to treat sores and ulcers and to stop bleeding. It is rich in nectar and attractive to bees.

Yellow nasturtiums and marigolds also attract bees

Yellow pansy

Yellow courgette flower followed by green or yellow courgettes

Yellow honeysuckle

Yellow roses

Yellow honey bee (Apis mellifera)

We saw very few of these in 2011. I hope there will be more in 2012.

Yellow sunflower. 

Until last summer I thought all sunflowers were yellow but there are some very pretty red ones.

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ABC Wednesday Round 7 C is for Cultivation

Thanks go to Denise Nesbitt and her Clever Crew who organise and host this weekly meme. To C more Cs please click here.

Courgette flower unfurling . . .

 . . . and opening to attract bees and hover flies and butterflies . . .

A developing courgette almost ready to pick

Cucumber flowers

The cucumber plant climbs heavenwards, twining its tendrils round supports

Is it a gherkin or a cucumber? This baby cucumber is not yet ready to be harvested.

One large courgette - almost a marrow! - and two small cucumbers.

Our courgette plants are bountiful and the courgettes grow very quickly. Left for just a day or two, young tender courgettes soon mature.So, at the moment, it's courgettes with everything - raw in salads, roasted, stir-fried, curried  . . . I could pickle some. I wonder if I could make courgette jam?? 

Shadow Shot Sunday #63 Dingy Skipper

I'm a bit late with my post this week. This is a Dingy Skipper on a courgette leaf. Although it looks quite like a moth it is a butterfly. Thank you to 'Hey Harriet' for initiating and hosting this meme.

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Dingy Skipper

This butterfly landed on one of the courgettes last week and instead of taking flight as soon as I approached, it obligingly remained in situ while I fetched my camera and took photographs. When I looked in my reference books and online I finally identified it, I hope correctly, as a Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages) Apparently no British butterfly more closely resembles a moth than this one particularly when it is resting as its wings curve in a most unbutterfly-like way.
I had to smile at the description of its common habitats - chalk downland (our ground is fairly heavy with a good deal of clay); heathland (our garden could never be mistaken for this!);railway lines (there's a model railway layout in the loft . . . );disused quarries (definitely not); waste ground (that would be an unkind description even for our little plot). It likes areas of bare earth (we have a few of those, but they're more like bare mud) taller vegetation for roosting (ah, that's it then! Our courgettes are very tall!)
It seems that this little butterfly is in decline because of loss of habitat. Never mind, we'll keep growing courgettes and that way we'll do our bit for conservation.

Monochrome Weekly Theme - garden flowers

Courgette flower

Pansies

Thank you to Aileni for organising this meme

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