20111130

Some plants that are looking good at the moment. White fuchsia (with green tips of petals, very elegant..), Miscanthus (whatevernus), Vinca difformis ssp. sardoa and leaves of Lamium.

It is the end of November. It has been very mild and we still haven’t had any frost.

Last week was relatively dry, but it looks like we are going to pay for it this week…

It had been three month since I came here. I still very much enjoy working here and seeing the changing seasons. It is a shame that it is going to be only for a year that I can stay here, as in gardening, lot of important information are only noticeable over many years. Having said that, I don’t have eternal life (I never wanted one and I still don’t!) and especially because I started this career relatively late, it is reasonable to move on. Well, I still have nine glorious months to go through!

The day is getting shorter and shorter and we have plenty of things to do outside and inside. We have managed to clear some of the leaves and herbaceous plant material, mulched some of the areas and took all garden benches inside. More to do are the rest of the things I mentioned, weeding the areas that has not been taken care of, winter pruning of trees and shrubs including the remaining of wisteria, all sort of (semi) hard landscaping such as adding gravel to paths. There might be some planting trees in the arboretum but this will depend on how it progress. We are not planting any bulbs this autumn. We are also going through some design project of a small area throughout the winter and if the budget allows, we will be planting it up in spring!

Bulb Meadow is getting mulched and more sand is added onto the paths.

Now with little plants around, you can see more of permanent structures. Here it is cider press in Long Walk.

Dahlia update; we are gradually turning the tubers upside down for better air circulation. We are taking soil off as much as possible (one of my books suggest washing the tubers with water but we didn’t do this) and checking for any damaged ones. (we clean-cut these bits that are damaged) I did find some bits that has started to rot – these should be removed as soon as possible.

20111123

Dahlia lifting yesterday and leaf raking today.

昨日はダリアを掘り起こし、今日は落ち葉集め。

I have never lifted Dahlias before so it was all interesting and exciting. Tubers are huge (no wonder, as some of these overgrown growth were massive as well) and bits are easy to break off. I was told that if a tuber was broken off and didn’t have any basal plate (growing point) it will just die off (not like each grows like potatoes). So we couldn’t be too careful. Some tubers decided to grow horizontally, making the job even more difficult. These will be stored to dry for a while. I will report the next step as we go along!

ダリアはあまり寒いと死んでしまうので、掘り起こし、乾かして凍らない温度で保存します。掘り起こすのはけっこう大変で、サツマイモのように連なったtuberをできるだけ傷めないようにするのですが、それがなかなか難しいのです。とりあえずしばらく乾かして土を落とします。（次のステップは追々報告します。）

The Bulb Meadow was full of leaves this morning and this is at the end of the day.

そして今日は落ち葉を集めまくりました。朝は落ち葉だらけだったバルブ・メドウも一日の終わりにはこのとおり。

I was very happy how much I achieved but I think I pushed myself slightly too hard (I am getting better at not to though), especially with not very powerful but quite heavy hand-held blower. Now I need extra session of yoga but I wonder if I have time for that…

One of my colleagues found these mushrooms above and showed them to me the other day (because I’m quite mushroomy he says) and I have been looking at it for the last three days. I miss gathering mushrooms as I always did in Japan in autumn and got really excited to see so many different kinds of mushrooms around here...

So after careful research and identifying process (such as checking spore print), I think I have identified it correctly as Clitocybe nebularis (Clouded Agaric). My mushroom book says it is good for eating but some other sources say it better to be avoided or it is inedible (probably means not tasty but not poisonous either). I tried tiny tiny piece yesterday and I was fine so I decided to try one whole mushroom tonight.

It smelt strong as being cooked and tasted strong, a little bitter. I didn’t like the taste at first but in the end I decided to give it another go (tomorrow). At least I didn’t confuse them with ‘not-to-be-mistaken-with’ similar mushroom that taste good but ‘shortly after consumption (it) causes violent vomiting and diarrhoea which continues for several days’!!!

そして夜にはきのこを試し食い。たくさん調べたから毒ではない自信はあるけれど、なかなか癖のある味で最初はまずいと思ったけど食べ終わるころには微妙においしいかも？？と思えてきたのでまた明日食べてみます。