Sunshine and D. Landreth Seed Co.

Today was the first day in a few weeks taht the sun did not blind me on my morning commute.  Winter is on it's way.

Also today, the D. Landreth Seed Co. Heirloom Bulb Collection: Garlic and Flowers arrived.  Wow.  This company is the oldest seed house in America, purveyors of fine seed since 1784.  Wow.  That's awesome!  Their catalog is beautiful, and they give dates for varieties where known, which is quite useful to those of us into historic gardening.

Here is the Wikipedia page about our favorite topic!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_gardening

Fents

So here's the repairs to the fence. 

The center post is the one that got ripped out by the floodwaters.  But the post is set, the wire strung and all closed up tight.  Some of the boards you see on the ground have been mounted, but i'v put off a couple while i plan the gate.  it was going to be here, to the right of center, but with the way the flooding has been that's not always a good spot to be entering, so i'm thinking it will go down the left a bit, between the second and third post. 

The gate is certainly something that needs work, and i've been thinking about it stylistically.

This 15th cen french illumination from the Roman de la Rose does demonstrate many key features of medieval gardens, the fount, the walls, two types of fencing and a stone wall, turftopped benches, raised beds, etc, but i'm not too fond of the shape of the gate, though the idea of a tall gate in a shorter fence will be the look i'm going for.

This however is a delight. 

 I like how it echos the architecture of the period.  Stylistically this seems more 'medieval' to me than the previous picture.  What do you think?

oh, and bonus points if you know what the title of this blog is from (without consulting the oracle Google)

Deer

The deer have breached my defense.
Last weekend, or the one before that rather, i reset the post which was upset by Irene (the hurricane, not my dear neighbor)  As I was not about to put tight wire to an unhardened post, i just kind of bunched up a lot of old fencing, and my deer neighbors were able to get in fairly easily.  So i tighened that up a bit, which seemed to work.

except, now they knew where the cookie jar was....

they found another say in (admitedly another weak point in the fence design, or more accurately the gate design.  Or rather where the gate should be...)

but now it's all buttoned up again.  the beans will recover, the lone charentais melon is completely eaten, the corn is still ok, i'm not sure if the pumpkin will recover.  the skirrets seem untouched....

Last medieval harvest?

So here pictured are some shallots which I had picked last week (or maybe two by now)  This is probably the last 'medieval' harvest, as most of my 'period' plants have perished at this point.    I braided them together to let them dry out completely, so they will store for a while and be ready to eat when I am ready to eat them.

There will still be plenty green beans, corn, pumpkin and potato, but as these are all new-world crops i'm not as likely to talk about them here. But we will be eating them.

Vacation

When you go away for a week in August your garden will explode on you.  Just about got most of the weeds back in line, harvested the last cuke yesterday (the vine's dead)  Hopefully i'll get some mulch down today, and thinking about planting some lettuces for the fall...

Lord Erec teaching about medieval gardening at Pennsic

 Here is a temporary garden set up at the East Kingdom Royal encampment at the Pennsic war.  Thanks to my lady of course for her continued support.  Thanks also to Vienna de la Mer, who planted this seed in my head, and to Jadwega who's plants really helped fill it out.

Here is a detail of the backside of the garden, shewing one of the turf-topped bench, the wheelbarrow and the medieval spade.  The plants were also displayed at the A&S on monday.  The class was very well attended, and I think the garden looked very good too.  If you were there, i'd love some feedback and ideas for improvement.

Disappointment

So many things which i planned did not come to be:

calendula - difficulty in transplanting for pennsic cost most of these.
chard  - cut off at soil level, one plant hanging on, one regrowing from the root
chervil  - can't even tell where this was.
cucumber - looking a bit piqued, but still getting fruit from it.
foxglove  - had lovely flowers for a bit but it is no longer with us.
hens&chicks - doing well, lots of chicks
hollyhock - put out some nice flowers, but gave up the ghost
lavender grosso - this one is doing ok.
lettuce green ice - gone to seed
lettuce green towers - gone to seed
lettuce mesclun mix - gone to seed
meadowsweet - hanging on but doesn't look too good
parsley  - poor thing never stood a chance
rocket  - gone to seed
savory summer - doing well, about to go to seed
shallot  - This did well, i harvested them yesterday.  Will have a pic soon.
skirret  - doing well, as far as i can tell.  Don't know when to harvest...
squash summer - july did this guy in, we did get fruit off it though.
st john's wort - couldn't take the heat
strawberry - doing well, lots of flowers
strawberry blite - dried up in the july heat
thyme english - died in july as well.
tomato better boy - slow to ripen, but looking ok...
tomato cherokee black - big fat tomatos that something has been eating.
tomato sweet bell pepper - leaves wilted and plants died.
however, the new world plants are doing great.  What I thought was acorn squash is in fact pumpkins, and the corn is doing well also.