It is another wild and wintry day here for the 1st of May but as I look back on April there was still so many warm, sunny and bright blue sky days that were a welcome change to the cold of March.
April was all about the tomatoes. Harvesting them and bringing them inside to ripen. But it was also all about school holidays so as such my writing took a break so I could focus on my boys and just enjoying our time in Autumn together.
Thursday April 11
There is a very large warm and rainy stream of weather heading down to us from the North making it feel humid and a little sticky. We are not going to face the brunt of most of the deluge but it has still been raining hard on and off. So not much is happening in the garden with my hands but I know things are still changing. Many of the trees are shades of yellow, orange, mustard, rust or even deep red. There are a few Claret Ash trees in neighbouring gardens and they are gorgeous. It really is the colour of Claret.
I love the term “the turning” coined by Jade Miles of Futuresteading. If you haven’t read her book or listened to her podcast it’s a must.
What is happening is that I keep adding to the to do list and slowly tick them off when I can get to it:
Order seed garlic - done a first order as many aren’t quite ready yet (or the postage is way too high) but I will keep an eye on Mitre10 and see if they have more.
Get Broad Beans and Autumn Manure Crop seeds ready - also done. Although I tried to find a bulk amount of Morton Dawes seeds from Mitre10 and they didn’t have any yet. Sigh. I do like to be organised.
Take down the runner beans cutting off at the bottom of the stem to allow for the nitrogen in the root nodules to stay in the ground. Remove the support structure.
Harvest more sage, basil, the fennel seeds and parsley to dry.
Keep picking courgettes and tomatoes. They are still going for the moment.
Design my dream tea garden. For now many will be in pots but it is definitely something I’d love to have. Wish we could grow black tea leaves!
Pull up the pumpkins that did not grow. This was an epic fail this year. 9 good pumpkin plants of various varieties that just did not grow. Okay tbh I did move them from a shady spot into a high sun high water area so that’s probably what did it but a couple weren’t moved and they still did not grow.
Apart from…The Atlantic Giant. Apparently they can grow to 400kg! Which this one clearly is not going to be but it was the only pumpkin to grow (and for fun) and might actually be big enough to store. Will give it a feed and let it go till the frosts.
Review the crop rotation for the 4 main beds and make a map. I always forget what goes where. It’s kinda a rotation but I know that the tomatoes will do better up higher with the heat and the potatoes need way more space that one of the raised beds so we’ll see.
Sow some spinach, kale, carrots and beetroot. One more succession planting and then I think I will stop. Everything will sit until spring now anyway.
Think about how we will store the onions when I sow them which can happen next month. Don’t really have space for them except maybe a new shelving system with lights in the garage. Bring out the tech.
Order some more daffodil bulbs (I’d also love some fritillaria bulbs but they’re so expensive!).
Pull out the Grape Hyacinth bulbs and pot up into pots for bringing inside in the spring
Then bed everything down with a layer of compost, mulch and/or autumn seeds for a green manure.
Finally plant the berry plants - 2 blueberries are in pots already but I need to plant the redcurrants, raspberry minis and a boysenberry.
Buy some more strawberry plants
Dream of a bigger orchard with nut trees too.
The Metrics
This year was the first year I wrote down everything I harvested either in units or grams (or kilograms for the apples). So far this year (with 2 apple trees still to harvest) we grew 175kg of food.
It would have been a lot more if the pumpkins had worked. None of them grew big enough to produce pumpkins and the few that had pumpkins grew little ones. Not entirely sure what happened - maybe the cold March. Frustrating and disappointing but that’s gardening for you.
There were 60 courgettes which were all eaten as we picked them and the heaviest tomato was 450g. I love this. Taking a seed in October, nurturing it into a seedling, taking the time to plant it, stake it and water it until it produces food in February/March/April. This is what makes my heart sing.
Other April Thoughts
We did actually have a first small frost. The lower roofs and part of the very shaded part of the lawn were a definite white colour. So that was really early. Do I call that our first frost and note it in the diary? Hmm… I am not sure. I will note it down but I think I will wait for our first proper across all areas frost - a hard frost. That doesn’t mean the temperatures aren’t getting low at night. We have had to pull out the blankets and put the fire on a few times for the night. And there have been some super icy mornings for the boys to bike to school as well. That first hard frost is not far away.
I did manage to find some broad beans and planted them in the tomato bed. I also spread Autumn Manure crop from Kings Seeds all over the areas that aren’t currently growing anything and continued to feed with a good liquid seaweed feed all the fruit trees, rhubarb, asparagus and beds. The next step is to plant out the garlic, sow onions and work out where everything is going next season.
I am also planning on spending an afternoon looking for and harvesting rosehips and hawthorn berries especially after this reminder from the team at Wild Dispensary. As well as finding the local walnut and hazelnut growers to stock up for the winter.
I have been preserving by making Tomato Relish and stewing lots of apples. My next learning curve is to try water bathing or the hot-pack method for extra food safety when I do the next round of stewed apples. It is lovely to see all the jars lined up ready for the winter.
Remembering Samhain
The Northern Hemisphere cultural celebration of Halloween on October 31st is way more prominent in our culture than our own Samhain at the “right” time of the year for our seasons. Samhain was the 30th of April. The end of the harvest and the beginning of Winter. A liminal time
where the veil between our world and that of those that have passed is at its thinnest. Winter is associated with death, darkness, going inward, resting and remembering our ancestors. But the cultural celebration is not strong here - at least not in my family. Maybe it’s something that we need to remedy. I did spend some time researching ancestors and loved seeing how far back I could go. Mum has done so much work on this that I just play around the edges.
As much as it is a personal challenge to see how far back I could go in the records with verified connections I am more interested in getting to know who these people were and how they lived especially those as far back as 1000. What did they do each day? What were their lives like? Their loves, their hardships, their losses, the synchronicities. So interesting. That’s how I remembered those who have come before and the millions of little decisions that enable me to exist here, right now, today.
How did you recognise Samhain or Autumn this month?
At this time I feel like I need breather. Not a break. But space. Space to work out what might come next and how best I can work with women in their business or life. Those wanting to create joy, peace, slowness and depth by design to their lives. For the moment that’s being quieter on Instagram and really feeling into what I want to say and when/how - not pushing for “regular” writing either. I am open and curious to seeing what comes.
Autumn is the season of letting go, shedding and re-grouping. As one who strives to align with the seasons it seems right and fitting. I’ll go with it. A heart-led life is one that listens and acts on that. That means doing a full reset of the house, editing what no longer is needed or serves us, creating my new office space and focussing on preserving the harvest (mostly apples and tomatoes). A lot of internal thinking about - What is enough?
—
If you are looking for more support for your business or how to live more seasonally or a heart-led life my 1:1 coaching is still the best way to get to where you want to be with confidence, clarity and that true, juicy, deep way of living your life. Send me an email, DM or get in touch via my website to hear how it might work for you. I love meeting women with the first free Discovery Call where we chat for up to an hour on all the things you want to create and then create a little mini plan to make it happen.
Have a lovely May.
xOlivia