Settling in for the winter

Snow in November

Last night we had the first snow of the season and we're still only in November. Looks like we might have another cold winter. Luckily we've got a sledge this year so won't have to make do with plastic bags again! The garden is starting to look pretty bare though so I thought I would post some pictures from a little earlier in the autumn.

Back at the end of October the leaves were still on most of the trees but were starting to turn.

Quince tree leaves losing their green (30 Oct)

The largest pear tree lost its leaves over a couple of weeks, hanging onto the last ones until the beginning of November. 

Most of the other fruit trees' leaves have gone now, apart from a few on the tips of the apple branches. One of the blueberries still has most of its leaves and is putting on a nice show of colour.

Blueberry holding onto its leaves (21 Nov)

The garden still has some greenery though. Alongside the holly tree, there are the evergreen herbs like sage and rosemary. The rosemary is even in flower at the moment.

Rosemary in flower (21 Nov)

Closer to the ground the chamomile and oregano are easier to see now the mint plants have died back. The chamomile is looking almost fluorescent now. I can see why oregano is such a good ground cover now, after only one year it has formed a solid mat very close to the ground.

Chamomile and variegated oregano amongst fallen leaves (21 Nov)

In the far corner of the garden the raspberries are still in leaf. Tucked underneath them some sweet cicely is thriving. The lemon balm has died back after flowering and the silver mint is all but gone now too. I took some cuttings of lemon balm and mint and put them inside where they are growing away again.

Raspberry patch with sweet cicely (30 Oct)

Early autumn was quite dry but once the rain came I got a small group of mushrooms growing in the lawn. I think they are Cucumber Cap mushrooms (Macrocystidia cucumis) which grow on woodchips and are not edible. These were close to the Redsleeves apple which had been mulched with woodchips. I was pleased to see them because according to Dave Jacke in Edible Forest Gardens, fungal dominated soils favour the perennial plants that make up a forest garden. The theory is too long to go into here, but basically grass soils are normally dominated by bacteria and fruit tree roots down like to penetrate them, prefering to go straight down. In my garden that's not much of an option as it's solid chalk 15-30cm down. So seeing the fruiting bodies of these fungi suggests that there are at least some of them in the soil and hopefully the soil environment is evolving into one better suited to a forest garden.

Mushrooms (not edible) growing in the lawn close to woodchip mulch (30 Oct)