A Grand Day Out

Woke up this morning with a little headache, the result of spending last night drinking to drown my sorrows. Well - the fact that I don't know wether i'll have a job this time next week anyway, which four weeks before my wedding is fairly interesting timing. Its more important now than ever before to get the garden producing food for us to eat.

The onions and potatos are coming along a treat, the second row of peas in the potato patch seem to at least have started, the ones the other side of the garden are a washout. We have a real ant problem, the full scale of it only just hitting home, i think they might be the reason why we're getting such dire germination rates. The Spring Onions and Carots in the veg bed are doing badly, have resown some lines today after spending a few hours weeding the veg patch. I also potted out the Yellow peppers from their seed try into individual pots where they can grow much bigger. Broad beans are infested with ants which i'll try to get rid of tomorrow with cinnamon and talc (works apparently)

One evening last week I potted up the herbs i had bought when i got the trees, which incidentally have just lost their petals, and they (the herbs) seemed to be doing ok. Today however i noticed many of teh oregano leaves have turned brown. My next door neighbour who knows everything looked it up in his vegetable growers book and seems like it was frost damage. I thought I'd covered the plants every night there was a frost forecast but it seems that one hapened which i didn't realise. Luckily the Acer is ok.

The tomatos are getting bigger and stonger, although next year i'll start them in teh greenhouse rather than indoors because they get a bit spindly - it'll be another three weeks before the tumblers go out methinks. The seeds started in the greenhouse are all very big and strong, the pumpkins and courgettes in particular. In fact today as it was such a nice day and i wasn't at work (see first p for explaination) I got all the seedlings from the greenhouse (except the toms) and sat them in the veg patch so that they could start to harden off, midday the sun got so hot i had to cover the greenhouse and when i put all the seedlings back in again they were all veeeeery thirsty but it was good for them overall. They will have to get used to coping without water on tap, after all we've had no rain in weeks and my butt (so to speak) is empty.

Have discovered the borage is coming up nicely and I have lots of honesty plants to put in the border, tonight half of them are being left out to harden off. The sunflower seeds from last year have a stupendous germination rate and are now being dug out as they are Giants and i have rescued half a dozen or so to pretty up the borders but that veg patch is for veggies!!! The sweet peas are coming up around the old dead willow and I have high hopes that they will do well. Just need to keep eyes peeled for frosts. All of the sweet peas which i grew indoors have given up and died. They just weren't strong enough.

There'll be a trip to the garden centre before this bank holiday is out, i need more compost and some cinnamon and other (organic) anti slug measures. A few big pots for the pumpkin and courgettes are also required. My runner beans are doing great but something is munching them in the greenhouse and my moneys on a slug! In the garden (as opposed to the veg patch) the chinese laterns are coming back in force, the hyssops are doing well, the fennel has gone bonkers - as has the fuschia but it doesn't have the shape it had before.

Mucky Gardener now off to bed! Wish I had more pics but I'll take some tomorrow, I found this which made me laugh - kinda how my plants felt when i watered them :)

Tree planting

Here is my fabulous tree, I'm very very happy with it, we dug a big hole and lined it with ericaceous (!) compost and then watered the hole well and put the tree in. Admittedly I had spent quite a bit of time twisting the tree to get the best aspect - we have resown the lawn with meadow grass to get better coverage.

Vegetable wise the onions are doing just grand, and the carrots are coming up to. Poor germination rate on the peas although my grandma told me tonight that i should plant four for me and one for the mice. I don't mind having mice although I'd be surprised if we did have any due to the high number of cats in teh area!. I think the broad beans are safe from the cats now although they do seem to be under slug attack. The greenhouse is positively buldging at the seams and the lovely grasses from Kew Gardens have also germinated. I am going to wrap the sweet williams and aqualigia seeds in more fleece and move them to teh warmer end of the greenhouse.


Tomorrow is another day in the garden.

That was the holiday

and I think I have done some stirling work in the garden - covered a lot of ground you might say. Didn't get anything done yesterday of note, other than have a gentle wander around when I got home last night. Today dawned grey so I decided that B and Queue was where I needed to be, we did need a new mower because the old one was very heavy (it was my grandfathers) and couldn't cope with the circles, it was on lend only so I did feel it was time for a more lightweight version.

Being female a decision like that obviously wasn't mine to be made (heavy sarcasm here) and 'he' vanished off to get one - I browsed for insect net to keep the carrot fly down, and on my travels found a nice organic chilli plant and six fat geraniums which will add a bit of colour to the garden, they're currently in the greenhouse waiting for a few more weeks before i put them out under a bit of fleece.

On getting home we had lunch and before the last crumb was finished the mower was 'in construction' and I decided that I'd go up to Wyevales to investigate Red Sunflower seeds and herbs which i never can grow from seed. When I got up there I got some parsley, lemon verbena, oregano and my sunflower seeds. I also got some more bamboo canes and another long greeen tub for putting the rest of the onions in. I didn't bargain for falling in love.

With a tree.

Two trees to be precise. An Elstar (eating apple) and a stunningly beautiful Japanese crab apple which is going to be delivered tomorrow and I am crazily excited. The two trees together with the herbs and other things were quite expensive and I definately spent my entire garden budget for the year!



So I got home with Elstar, who might be nicknamed Ellie, and sheepishly brought her outdoors to show him - didn't admit to the crab apple until a bit later. Decided to pot up a dozen runner beans after seeing the ones in the garden centre have already got started, and then potted up a dozen of the red sunnies, and then cursed the neighbours over the way whose party was thumping bass for hours and hours. Then I had a stirling idea, having seen the amazing (expensive) oblisks for growing things up I noticed that the twisted willow which died ages ago but which has a great shape would be great for growing sweet peas up. Decided to plant up the rest of the Emerald Ladies round the old willow and i'll see what happens.

Easter Sunday

The Easter Bunny was obviously impressed with my efforts last year in the garden and so along with a chocolate tractor I got a very picturesque book called "Grow Vegetables" - I recommend it :)

Tirsty Garden gets more than it bargained for!

Well this morning rolled by and when I opened the back door was hit by the smell of spring - that fresh sort of smell where everything is growing. I checked everything had made it through the first night of being outside and got the seed packets out to see what else I could grow now. Tomatoes seem much happier in bigger pots, the Harlequins are definately going to be bigger plants than the 100's and 1000's, already they are sturdier and a much deeper green.

The honesty I planted has finally started to show up, and the leeks have too - the ones I planted three weeks ago to the day, the ones i planted a week ago inside have also started to appear. I don't know wether its temperature or compost type which has made teh difference. A hasty move in the greenhouse resulted in one of the cucumber seedlings getting dropped and I can say with certainty now it won't be long before they appear as well. The onions are racing ahead, and teh Atlas carrots have finally sratde to show although the Chantenoys in the veg patch itself haven't apeared yet.



I decided that a few more plants could be started so sowed the Kew Garden Grasses, Heligan Sweet Williams and Heligan Asters and Heligan Aquilegias, all covered in teh greenhouse to raise the temperature and start them growing big and strong. We need some flowers to replace the daffodils when they start to die off. The Fennel is growing bigger and better this year, I also planted out some summer & autumn bulbs which I had left in eth bottomn of my trgu from last year - I've no idea if they'll germinate!

Also decided to sort the Acer out - It has a bad case of aphids and being a young plant i was a little concerned it wouldn't cope - plus it encourages ants. 'He' sprayed it yesterday but when I checked it this morning then there were still just as many. Decided to follow mums advice and found an old toothbrush and one by one brushed them off and into a pot of soapy water - if I do that every day for the next few days it should give the plant a break. Downpoyr this afternoon gave everything a really good soaking which is exactly what the doctor ordered, have discovered a possible engineering problem to ensure water from teh greenhouse roof drains off in the direction of the ever thirsty potato plants!

Good Friday

I have been getting more and more tired as the past few weeks have gone on and so I purposefully decided not to plan anything for Good Friday and have a 'day off'! When I woke up I saw the sun was shining and decided that a little pottering around the garden was the order of the day. 'He' helpfully offered to go and get the food shopping leaving me free to potter.

The little tomato plants have been getting very spindly upstairs so I decided to repot them and put them in greenhouse along with the leeks which have started to show up - they take a long time to germinate! The potatos have also started to peel above the soil in the tubs and this was the sign i need to heep some more soil on top of them - 2 inces at a time apparently to get the best crop. Although opinions do differ. I also put the sweetcorn and sweet peas out - the sweet peas have bolted sadly including the old variety from Heligan so I doubt they will produce many flowers. I have a few extras which i will sow in the garden to attract the bees and hoverflies after the soil has warmed up enough for them to be sown straight in.

Then I decided that the sweetcorn bed really did need tending to, I dug down to about a foot and sieved the soilthen top dressed with about two inches of compost - then found all the worms i could and pu them in that area, hopefully by teh time corn is big enough and strong enough to go in eth soil will be much richer. The potatoes in the ground are coming up as are the shallots - seem to have a very variable germiniation rate with the shallots, the onions are running ahead but theres no sign of the spring onions or carrots yet. Anyway - now very tired, and still bowled over with the progress we've made in less than a year :)

I have also discovered that something (money is on the sunflowers, Courgettes or B'nut Squash) has managed to self seed from last year, the little sprouts are doing very well and i decided today that such determination couldn't be rewarded by killing them so rescued them and repotted them as if they are any of teh above they'll be taking up way more space than i have rom for! And theres loads of them!

More Planting

Got home from work and it was just too nice not to get out into the garden. I got the seeds out and decided that it was high time the courgettes (both varieties) went out, so i planted up four of each. I am trying out Midnight which is apparently a compact variety but I'll believe it when i see it, and Black Forest which is a vine or climber. I also planted out four cucumber seeds, have gone for a standard marketmore variety and will try three outside and one in the greenhouse. I also planted out my secret seed present which was bought for my birthday and is apparently a GIANT variety - that will most definately only be allowed into a pot to grow!

I am now seriously toying with the idea of growing on top of the pergola, it is quite sheltered up there and i could easily reach the plants using a stepladder, I could grow the pumpkin up there on a slatted system. I was also considering growing the peas in guttering and allowing them to drop down rather than grow up. I really want to sedum roof the bathroom, although that can't happen until after the repairs to the paint are done. It seems that this is the year I will need to repaint the back of the house.

Oops

Peas....

Plamted them as well yesterday - about 50 of them up and around the garden but damn me if I don't have oodles left! Will have to find a way of growing them elsewhere too. DId wonder about in pots on top of the pergola with nets hung accross that they could grow through. Would give us shade and a HUGE square area of extra planting!!!

I could have used that hour!

I was supposed to working on our wedding all day today. We had to go 'up city' to sort out a wedding list and then when we got home i felt it would be sacraligous not to spend a few seconds in the garden, i was supposed to be doing our invitations but thought i'd just spend an hour outside.

SO I donned my wellies and started by planting up the rooster and charlotte potatoes in the tubs and also in the ground - i hope that we get a reasonable crop, our soil is still improving and potatoes are such a hungry crop. Then I planted the shallots, and the chantenoy carrots to go around them, following this i sowed some spring onions in the next bed and sowed more chantenoy around those. Then I sowed some atlas carrots in teh onion bed as there are one or two of the onions just peeking through the soil in the tubs.

Not content with this i decided to sow some companion plants, Borage, Limnathus and Cornflower in the veg patch and then decided to try getting the honesty and thistles started in the greenhouse. The temperature was 22 degrees when we got home today, quite a lot higher than it was outside! The seeds indoors are ok although I am concerned the tomatoes are getting leggy even though they are in great light. The sweetcorn have put in an appearance(funny looking things) and the sweet peas have a mixed germination rate.

Then I discovered it was quarter to seven and very much past the time when i should have been sticking things together and writing addresses - gulp. Still - at least we won't starve!!!

And the winners are

The Marigolds! Which have sprouted in the greenhouse, i think i have about half of the seeds showing so far, I'm pleased that they have started to come up because there was a harsh frost two nights ago and obviously the greenhouse offers just enough protection. No signs of the leeks yet, or any of the sweetpeas, sweetcorn, tomatos or peppers.

Fingers crossed. Oh - no signs of the broads beans either, I think I might have to start some off in pots. This is the veg patch waiting for its veggies to go in - this weekend I promise.....

Fish Friday

We were allowed home fifteen minutes early today because of the great weather so I got home in time to check the temperature in the greenhouse. It was about 4 degrees C warmer than outside which when I block up the gaps will hopefully keep the frosts out. I decided to remove the fleece on the garden because i want the top dressing to work itself in, it helped to just get things tidied up and made the imminent planting seem so much nearer. This weekend is very busy with wedding arrangements and Mothers Day so I don't think I will get out there to do much.

After I got the veg patch tidied up a bit I sowed the leeks which i have put in the greenhouse to get started, I only sowed about a quarter of the seeds and it will be interesting to see how they get on, I'll plant the next lot in about 4 weeks and the next lot 4 weeks after that to get a really good crop. I bought Edison leeks which can be used as baby leeks and as maincrop which means I need lots! I also got eth marigolds sown and put them in greenhouse too.

After that I turned my attention to the sweetcorn and three varieties of sweet peas, I am growing all of them in individual fibre pots as they hate their roots being disturbed. I'm not convinced some of the fibre pots aren't too small but if nessecary then I'll put them in bigger fibre pots ir in eth ground and cloche them. We are halfway through March now and so eth APril sowing season is nearly upon us.

Then I went and cooked poached eggs with smoked haddock, fabulous food for a hungry gardener. Currenty watching BB2 Vertical Gardens programme, very pleased that I have decided to try growing climbing courgettes, hanging basket tomatos and will grow beans over teh trellis again to give depth to the gardem. Our new climbing rose has started to come into leaf and the wonderful Acer is budding with promise, but the daffodils are just teasing me now!!!

Wheeze....

Was the sound of me appearing around the gate this evening, I rode home silly fast to get back before the light went and get started on seed planting. No time to get the sweet peas and sweetcorn done but I did get 8 tomatos sown of each variety (Harlequin and 100's and 1000's), I also got the Golden Bell peppers planted as well before I lost the light.

Bzzzzz BUZZZZZ Buzzzz

Cycling to work today was really glorious, still a bit nippy on the extremities but the birds were singing and buds are appearing. There are lots of daffodils around and everything smells so much more alive. It makes me realise that a whole year has passed and winter is over. I am sure that it is cycling which has brought me so much closer to the seasons passing, when the clocks go back next Sunday I am sure that will be the moment at which my body clock feels normal again.

Saw a bumblebee today wallowing through the air, I moved out the way sharpish but hadn't realised how early they woke up. I cycled home so quickly from work and managed to get the tomatoes sown but the soil isn't very warm, hope it sorts itself out as i need happy strong tomatoes. Have bought a thermometer to go in the greenhouse but realised tonight i have to get the drill out and so thats a job for the weekend. I need to be certain that the g'house is frost proof before i put eth sweet peas out there.

Great News

Was leaving this morning early and realised that a bee was getting very excited around our Japenese Cherry in the front garden which is just starting to bloom. Made me smile that all is right with eth world - or at least our small patch of it.

Day in the Garden

I am sitting in my very grubby clothes waiting for dinner to settle before I go and have probably the most well earned bath this year. The Greenhouse is (bar shelf painting) finished and it took not a few hours as I expected but over seven and a half. 'He' has been responsible for feeding me today and lunch was pasties and dinner was pizza! I am really pleased with the finished product but wish I had leant to cut in a straight line with a saw in both directions! Heres a picture of it, realised that i need to get some more seed trays (don't know where they've all gone) to go on the shelf.



This is from inside the shed - it will look really lovely when we have plants growing inside.



While I was building my greenhouse, 'He' weeded the lawn (we have a sycamore two doors down and the seeds have a phenomenal germination rate), we then weeded the flower beds - doubtless the cats will now have a field day - and then 'he' set out the beds in the veg patch. I was really hoping to get the tomatoes and sweetcorn started today but just ran out of time. We did top dress the soil in the veg patch and that needs a week or so to settles in so perhaps not such a bad thing. I've been through my ample seed collection and decided that as companion plants I'll do Honesty (Luneria), Limnanthus, Cornflower and a couple of globe thistles. Not to mention the sweet peas! I have three types, Grandiflora from Heligan which I'll grow in the front garden, and Elegant Ladies and a shorter variety which I'll grow in the back garden and in the veg patch. I have lots of flower seeds from Heligan which all require growing under glass before being replanted in the garden, hence another reason for the greenhouse.

I'm off to play with my rubber ducky.

Painting in the dark.

Last weekend I was just too tired and very busy to bring the blog up to date, plus the weather changed so I couldn't take photographs of the work I did. I finally started work on the Greenhouse spending all of Saturday and half of Sunday (after an excellent lie in) buying, measuring and constructing the frame for the greenhouse. I built the roof frame, one side and the front out of pine, it stands about 65cm deep, 1.8m wide, 1.2m high at the front and 1.6m high at the back with a corrugated plastic roof which lies the wrong way and which may need

So - where did painting in the dark come from? As I mentioned the weather changed last weekend on the Sunday afternoon and the downpour meant the weather proofing paint wouldn't dry so I had to leave the frame in the dining room. I also painted it in there and we now have green on our carpet to go with the red when I painted the walls! I did put paper down but clearly not enough. We have visitors tomorrow evening and I knew I needed to get the frame outside but I could only do that if I built the other end of the frame and got the whole thing painted and outside.

I abandoned cycling today and left on very good time, got home, grabbed the tools and made the other end. I made the end frame and got one screw into the main structure and the damn drill ran out! Put the drill on charge and started to paint the unfinished wood, by this time i was losing the light but managed to get every bit of wood protected. Picked up the drill and then had to start trying to get the screws in to bolt the frame together and also to the shed in the dark! Then had to touch up the paintwork but couldn't see what was and what wasn't wet - hence ended up very mucky!



The final piece of the puzzle was to protect the roof frame by reattaching the corrugated plastic. To do this I had to detach the solar movement light and balance it on the shed roof and then wave at it whenever I wanted to screw a roof bolt into the frame. I didn't get all the bolts in because I ran out of drill battery AND patience!!! Now I have to buy more wood to make the shelves although I want to think about where they are going to go for best effects.

March the First!

Happy to say goodbye to January and February, I always find them difficult months to get through and find March a very positive month for getting things done around the house and garden. I knew i needed to get the broad beans in as i was late enough anyway, and that a bean trench was the way to get a good yeald. So dug a deep trench and lined it with cardboard, backfilled with compost and soil then planted the broad beans and netted them. Dug the trench for the runner beans as well but they won't go in for a little while yet, hopefully the trench will help save water some the hot summer we might get this year. It was majical standing digging out in the garden, the air is invigorating, I was amazed to see that even after the digging we did last year and a season veg growing I had daffodils from the old lawn growing through the fleece!

Given that the weather is set to be cold for the next week i'm holding off on the planting of the sweet peas, I'm redoing my garden plan for planting because i'm going to grow the climbing courgettes up trelis in the main garden, and the Kelevedon peas will also be liberally sown. We love peas! After all the digging it was nice to sit down and set the potatos up for chitting, we are truly returning to the victorian farm as the boiler has broken and we have no hot water (or heating) so its a case of boiling loads of water for a much needed bath.

The greenhouse hasn't progressed a huge amount this weekend, partly due to the wedding plans taking up time and also my relucatnce to take the car out today to buy more wood. I wanted to have a home day to get things done, i even got round to sorting out my overcrowded wardrobe and doing my sewing homework. In five weeks of the dressmaking course this is the first time I have managed to do any sewing outside of the lesson!

The bulbs are beginning to appear now in the back, but I think I have a low success rate overall. There is just one tete-a-tete out the front where there would normally be lots and lots, I seem to have something eating most of te bulbs as they are coming up - Mice?

Potato Problems Part Deux

The forlorn looking potatoes (Charlotte earlies and Rooster Main Crop) were carefully put in bags this morning and taken back to the suppliers, the roosters being much worse than the Charlottes. After being told that they had been kept somewhere too warm and that the stock they had on the shelves was perfectly ok I meekly pointed out that there were in fact no instructions on either pack for storage, this seemed to do the trick as the nice man told me to go get a couple more off the shelf.

Whereupon we discovered over half of the roosters had sprouted pale white shoots just as mine had, the charlottes were ok and we eventually found a good bag of Roosters so I went home a happy bunny. It really does pay to return seeds and sets if there are problems as garden centres (this wasn't a big chain) are there to help and should have staff knowledgeable enough to answer most questions. Both bags are now sitting in the dining room waiting to be chitted tomorrow.

Bad start to the potatos

Activity on the garden has been slow, mainly because of the upcoming nuptials but also due to long days at work although the fact that its light when I get home in the evening is great. Last weekend we went to B&Queue to get the ingredients for a greenhouse, i had no idea how much wood i would need and so have to go back this weekend as i ran out unfortunately. Bad Planning. Took me a day just to get the roof sorted out. going to build the rest this weekend hopefully and then do the doors teh weekend after.

Anyhoo onto the potato saga. Knowing i was leaving it late to get my potatoes chitted i got them out yesterday morning and to my complete horror they had sprouted thin pale wobbly shoots in all directions which had gone through the nets they were kept in and they are all pathetically squishy. I have rung the place where I got them from and they've said they shouldn't have done that and to bring them in - i hope i get to swop as theres over £8 of tatties in tatters!

Getting very late to put the broad beans in but going to try this weekend to get them in. The bulbs are beginning to come up (no sign of the snowdrops this year), but my beautiful rosemary and french lavender at the front are already suffering from rosemary beetle which has stopped both from flowering last year and left them pathetically straggly. Very sad. I'm have resorted to using a bee friendly pesticide just to try and give the plants a break.

Haven't dared check the weather yet for this weekend, i might carry on regardless!

Waiting Game

Well it has been a while since I had a chance to do anything in the garden so have been concentrating on my upcoming nuptials. The snow over the past few days has been lovely, although cycling to work through it has been a challenge and meant I'm missed most of the photogenic opportunities in my small patch! My Thompson and Morgan seeds arrived this evening, I ordered everything on the 24th Jan but the Marshall order hasn't arrived yet and I'd really like to get my leek seeds in.

My birthday present went up a week ago - its an amazing snail weather vane, I absolutely love it!





I got a book for Christmas called the diggers diary - its brilliant & i read it every night before bed to remind myself of what i'll be doing just as soon as the sun comes out and the seasons turn.

Vegetables Investments set to grow...

We ordered a climbing rose "Alexander Girault" from Peter Beale's about 2 months ago and the bare root plant turned up yesterday. After my first wedding dress fitting (very exciting) I bundled a slightly hungover fiancée into the car and we zoomed up to the garden centre to get "a pot" and "some compost".

Over an hour later we left with a car full of very useful things and a substantially lighter purse, (we did get a deal on the compost as we needed lots). We are going to try and grow our potatoes in trugs and large potato sacks. In total we got a thin deep pot for the rose (which is what we went for!), two long narrow containers to grow the onions and atlas carrots in and a ceramic frog to scare the snails and slugs (i did put all my christmas vouchers into the cash till, so felt this was an ok purchase!). In addition I got some sweet peas (as they really need to go in) some charlotte and rooster seed potatoes, some onion and shallot sets, some red hot pokers for 'him' and a garden thermometer (still want a soil thermometer).

Was really amazed at teh people who were buying seeds today, I try not to stereotype people who garden, but some of the people i saw getting veg seed today surprised me! And I really loved how children were getting involved, listening to one little one choose cat grass because he wanted to grow a cat was a highlight!

Then I came home and ordered the rest of the required veg from Marshells. If I can then I'm going to string the veg patch tomorrow - seems so long until i can really get started!

Swish

Nothing to do with gardening but Ice Skating was fantastic - so much fun and i met up with a friend who I hadn't seen in months and months, hopefully going to make it a fortnightly occasion with various people joining in when they can.

So - in the words of Frank Turner - "Get up, Get Down and Get out there" - pick an activity you have always wanted to try and find a friend or two and just go and do it - I've waited 25 years to try Ice Skating. It doesn't matter if you fall over as I did or if you find you don't like it - just try it and they you will know. (Here endeth the lesson lol)

Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday has rolled around again - this year I decided that with me wanting time off in the summer I would go to work - hmm, that wasn't fun! I am going ice skating tonight and over the weekend I intend to spend my birthday vouchers on timber for a greenhouse, which I can then start to build. I have some ground preparation to do first which won't take me long at all.

Have been bought some fabulous books, one called the Victorian garden, another self sufficiency book which is very good and a green website book for the wedding and life in general. I don't get my other presents until the weekend but I think one of my vouchers sent from relatives north of the border might be spent on a soil thermometer as I think that could prove to be very useful. I need to repair the net around the veg patch as well as I found a cat on it yesterday morning trying to get to the soil and when I shouted it ripped another hole.

Last of the cake

Well the Christmas cake is finished! It doesn't seem to last long but it is lovely to have a slice for afternoon tea or as an evening snack. This year I used the apple and ginger jam that we made in October to stick the marzipan to the cake and I think it added an extra bit of spice. Mum has such a glut of apples every year that I bought my sister (who is very seriously into wholesome food) a book called "The apple source book" which has lots of fab apple recipes and storage ideas.

I bought the first packet of seeds today - Broad Beans - which I am going to plant out just as soon as this cold snap lifts a bit and I can dig a bean trench. I'm going to keep a close eye on how much I spend on seeds this year and work out how much money we save. I stopped at two garden centres on the way home and found some greenhouse material options for construction at the weekend - just going to raid the salvage yard first.

Snow!

I haven't seen a weather forecast for a few days, and my next door neighbour looked over the wall yesterday afternoon as i was oiling my bike and casually mentioned that it was forecast to snow - i confess i checked the veg patch was covered and then forgot the warning. Apparently its important for the soil not to get too cold.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I got up to cycle to work in time to unlock at 8 to find a reasonable covering of snow on the ground. I checked I had enough grip and proceeded on my way up the hill - oh it was cold. Halfway to work a snow storm descended and by the time I got to work I had snowdrifts in my elbows and looked like the abominable snowman. It took hours for me to warm up!

Just three days and it'll be my birthday, now if i could have some snow on my birthday I'd be very happy!

Headstart

I decided that after almost crippling myself digging the veg patch that i should get on with planning what to grow this year. Having spent hours thinking about which vegetables will be best suited to which area of the ground based on light, shelter and trying to stick to the companion planting guidelines and surfing various seed sites I have a few ideas. So - in no particular order I've looked at what we had too many of (courgettes and beans) and not enough of (potatoes, onions, shallots, tomatoes and carrots and come up with these varieties.

Potatoes
- Early Crop - Charlotte's
- Main Crop - Rooster
Peas
- Kelvedon Wonder
Beans
- Runner - Celebration
- Broad - Masterpiece
Sweetcorn
- Sunrise
Onions
- Marco
Shallots
- Jermor
Carrots
- Atlas
- Chantenay
Leeks
- Edison
Courgettes
- Black Forest - a small compact bush!
- Midnight - Tub based climber
Butternut Squash - in a pot this year!
Tomatoes
- Growbag & Greenhouse - Gardeners Delight
- Hanging Baskets - Garden Pearl
Cucumber
- MarketMore
Lettuces
- Cos & Salad Mix
Spring Onions
- Guardsman
Peppers
- variety tbc depending on greenhouse

To help bring in the hoverflies and bees I'm also going to be planting chives, honesty (Lunaria), Limnanthes (Egg Plant) and Marigolds.

Took me all day that did. It also made me realise that seed companies are missing a trick, its all very well having 2kg bags of seed potatoes to sow up 35m stretches but I don't have that much room in my plot! I wish they sold smaller amounts of chitted potatoes and onion sets - rocket gardens have the right idea but the combination of plants isn't quite right for what we will use. Here is the plan for my lean to greenhouse -

Lest I forget

I saw so many birds today, the chirping was constant the whole time I was outside, nice to know the cats haven't got them all!

First day of the new year

and I spent it in the garden, absolute bliss, after waking up with a mini headache I started to clear away the sunflowers from last year which I had left out for the birds. I dug, I weeded, I planned my planting and I repaired my net fence which had suffered badly from cats and uncoordinated boyfriend. This year I'm planning to replace the hastily erected net fence with some timber and wire panels, light enough to lift but robust enough to keep out the cats. I left plenty of sheeting over my well dug soil, but I bet that won't keep those damn cats out.

I came across the concept of square foot gardening today on another blog "A Kitchen Garden in the Suburbs" - sounded brilliant and I think I'll adapt it slightly for my plot. Worked out my plot is 12m squared so a nice size, will probably try and plant in metre plots rather than rows this year. Also found a use for the huge concrete slab which we dug out of the garden, I'm going to build a simple cold frame onto it - insulated of course - but that will allow the first plants needing protection to grow while I take my time finding materials for the greenhouse. I'm trying to decide whether I use polycarbonate double wall stuff, or glass, or corrugated plastic for the hinged roof - much to think about. I might go off to the salvage yard and see what I can find for inspiration.

Planted the rest of the daffodil bulbs today, a few had started to sprout so I don't know how well they will take given that its been a month since I put the first batch in. There was a note on the back of the snowdrops packet saying that they can take a full year to establish so be patient, that would explain why none of the ones I planted at the front came up last year.

Happy New Year!

Hic!

Well Christmas is gradually fading away for another year, Santa + friends gave me a wonderful selection of amazing books about carpentry, gardening (and most importantly) cooking! I have the river cottage cookbook , and the Sarah Raven cookbook as well as the ultimate woodworking guide which will be fantastic for my greenhouse. The ideas in my head need to start being planned on paper.

I also have a gardening diary and a super gardeners trug for carrying all my tools and seeds, in addition to a couple of very useful gardeners DVDs. 'He' spoiled me rotten and got me lots of fun things too, one of which is a special bike computer which will tell me the time, temperature, speed and distance cycled (all very encouraging things), I haven't been on my bike for a few weeks so I suspect it'll be like starting all over again.

We spent Christmas in Yorkshire this year, my first ever Christmas away from family, and although strange it was very relaxing. We had glorious weather on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day and so Boxing Day we walked round some of the Bolton Abbey estate. It wasn't a garden as such but there was so much wildlife and we decided that we would plant a tree as soon as we got home to encourage wildlife into our garden - we think we'll go for a crab apple local to the area. When we got back I went straight out to the garden and all is in order, the water butt is very full and I have lots of digging over to be done, I think i might get some good rich farm manure to dig in before i start planting - heres to a great veg patch in 2009!

Its Christmas already!

The garden has been somewhat neglected again recently, shopping and visiting family has taken up the majority of daylight over the past few weekends, although i had a fascinating conversation with the man in the Holt bird ventures shop (well worth a visit) http://www.birdventures.co.uk/index.php is the website.

Have seen a blackbird in the garden!

Heres to a very good garden year in 2009

Shiny Happy People

I have been awarded an MSc with Distinction.
Thats about as good as it gets.

Snow falling down around me

Todays snow was a bit more impresive. Here is a picture of a cold but serene buddha and the back garden. Most of the snow is still here and it will make my cycle ride to work much more interesting tomorrow morning - I ave to go shopping on the way home as well so if it freezes it will be very good fun. I have told myself that if I fall off more than three times before I get to end of the road then I'll come back and take the car!

Here we snow here we snow here we snow......

Woke up this morning to the noise of snow, if you think about it you'll know the noise i mean, its more the absence of noise and the muffled phut of snow on the window. I was so excited by the gradual dissapearence of the garden the only option was to leap out of bed and take photos. I then decided that snow-cycling would be fun so I dragged 'him' out into the city on our bikes. The roads were ok, and there were only a couple of slippery bits. In fact the cars were generally having more problems than us. My main issue centred around the jeans i was wearing (wet and cold = no fun) and the snow showers made my bike seat wet as i was in the shops.

Still it was a very productive outing and I got to go to the butchers (sausages were a million times better) and the grocers, got two decent sized well balanced meals for two people for under £10. Also made me realise how much we'll save when we start getting veg out of the ground again.

Which leads me to my idea of snow gardening, i had quite a bit to do today outside and before going out decided that when i go back from the city I'd get on with it regardless of the white stuff.

Hmmm. That idea lasted about as long as the warm cup of hot chocolate in front of the fire!

We are not alone.....

Just because I am so impressed with myself I am posting a picture of my evenings hard work. In honour of WOrld GIS day 2008 tomorrow I have made my team at work a small fairy cake iced to look like the earth, they are rather cute but icing constraints on a cake an inch and a half accross did require some imagination. And patiance, the finished result loks a bit surreal!

Butt installed

The sun shone yesterday, so having bought the ingredients for dinner (anglian potatas, carrots and cauliflower with Irish beef) and made the casserole I felt I had earned some garden time. It took me a couple of hours to get the gutter up, downpipe fixed and a level platform for the water butt to stand on. I then found that I had to drill a 25mm hole in the water butt which I didn't have a bit for so hacksawed out instead. Looks good though :)



Then of course I had to test it and it works! I don't know how long it will take to fill up the butt, but I left enough space next to it so that we can expand if we need to. I've also decided on a design for the greenhouse/cold frame and I'm asking for timber for christmas to make that and the new internal fence for the veg patch; not to mention the anti butterfly frame for the brocoli. I WILL have purple broccoli and cauliflower next year!

Happiness Happening

I have spent the last two weeks getting on and off trains and spending more time in hotels than at home. This has been totally due to work and led to me missing the CPRE Green Awards event held at the Norwich Assembly Theatre last week, and my partners nephews 5th birthday party. Both worthy events which i was sad to miss and sending me deep into the doldrums.

Yesterday my very clever mum took me up to Sheringham to brush away the cobwebs whereupon I had the best fish and chips ever, looked around a proper ironmongers and bought my first Christmas present. Which reminded me how close to Christmas we are getting! We went out today to look for a box for me to put on my bike when I cycle to work so that I can get shopping on the way home without cripping my back, and we got lots of daffodils, narcissus and snowdrops from the garden centre. When we got back I spent a happy few hours pottering around the garden tidying up and planting some of the bulbs for a spring dispay. I would have planted all of them but I lost the light.

Which takes me to the happiness factor, having spent the last few hours surfing the internet to look for useful/beautiful things for people for christmas (influenced by william morris) I discovered a post which was entitled "5 things that make me happy" and after the last few weeks i think i managed to do many of my favourite things this weekend (in no orer of favourites!).

1. See the sea while eating fish and chips (Sheringham)
2. Play in my garden & ride my bike (two things but noth outside and shed connected!)
3. Read my eco magazine and find useful leads to solve problems (ike what to do with the 2 tonnes of earth we dug out of the garden)
4. See/Speak to almost all my family
5. Spend time with my lovely boyfriend

Then theres the things i didn't get to do but really enjoy, like cook up a storm, watch the stars, see a movie, drink with friends, read a book, sew, plan travels, have a campfire (bonfire), make a cake, go for a long cycle ride.....

Try it - make a list of 5 things which make you happy & do some of them, after all if 37.5 hours a week are spent at work, 42.5 if counting lunch breaks and there are 168 hours in a week - 75% of our week isn't spent at work.

Soup

Inspired by my sisters amazing butternut squash soup I decided that (as an aspiring domestic goddess) it would be nothing for me to whip up a soup and fresh bread for our saturday lunch. Its 2 o'clock an no sign of the bread yet but the soup is almost ready.

Its not quite as good as my sisters soup was, I think simmering the squash in the stock and then using it is better that my option of roasting the squash and then adding it to the stock afterwards. It does also have white wine added and i so often find that this can make this too sweet. The bread was an unmitigated disaster - It had a lovely crust but teh doughwas still dough in the middle. I had my suspicions while it was supposedly proving that the room wasn't warm enough to acivate the dough and it seems that was the case.

Next time i think i'll make a smaller amount and get a better temperature in the kitchen first. 'He' seems to be talking about a breadmaker but i think we need to make it by hand first. Next door makes all their own bread, and it smells fabulous. Although that is four hours of my life i'll never get back i'll know to go with instinct next time - both for the soup and teh bread!

Compost is coming along nicely - I've taken to getting some more paper in there as the mixture seems to be a bit mushy so far. I'm going to wrap it up over the winter to ensure that the bugs keep bugging (so to speak). Output from the waste free week ws just three meat trays and a coupld of plastic wrappers; we could have done better but only if we hadn't eaten pasta, rice, meat or fish. Or used milk, and quite honestly, life without tea isn't an option!

Waste Free Week!

This does deserve a mention, as I've already said since our compost bin arrived the amount of rubbish we put out has been cut dramatically. Additionally since I finished my MSc and started planning meals and weighing portions there aren't even any leftovers! I'm being a bit braver with best before dates as well, I bought some delicious reduced sushi from Sainsburys on Wednesday, and it was fine yesterday as a starter with my tuna pasta. I also used an egg today which was a day out of date - i did check it with the water method first however.

All in all I have had a good practice week - the polystyrene from meat and fish does bother me however. I haven't used plastic bags for veg at the shops for donkeys years - if i need potatoes and they are really dirty i'll get a mushroom bag (those can be composted).

Heres the best solution I've found to plastic bags, this is my onya above, I got it at the Eden project in the summer. For veg I'm asking for one of these from Santa fotr Christmas - Onya Weigh Check the onyaside and onyaback bags too. Such a brilliant idea :) Still doesn't solve the issue of those plastic trays (other than go vegetarian again). I have also (it being waste free week) decided to make some morsbags http://www.morsbags.com/ as I want to get started with my sewing machine and this seems the perfect way to recycle some worn out sheets.

Ride, ride, ride your bike

gently up the hill - merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream. Especially when speeding past all the cars waiting in the queues, and when i ride home over the hill and watch the sun set over norwich. I only started last week and so far have been rained on once and almost frozen twice, however I am appreciating being outside and enjoying the freedom of cycling. Work and back is about 8 miles round trip every day and I'm hoping that it will lead to me getting rid of the car completely.

The only issue at the moment is getting food shopping so I'm investigating a cycle trailer or home delivery once a fortnight for all the heavy goods, and looking at a freezer for better meat and food surplus storage. Trying to weigh up the 'green' credentials of each option. I think that green living could be my next 'project'!

The veg patch has well and truly gone to ground for the summer, I'll spend this weekend on the last of the clearing up and digging in some good fertiliser. Our compost bin is doing really well and the amount that we are putting in the wastebin has dropped massively - the plastic seems to be the big issue - especially with meat. Not entirely certain how we are going to get around this - a friendly butcher putting things in containers for us mught be the answer but contamination week on week does worry me a little. Suggestions would be very welcome. At the moment I'm saving the plastic trays for planting next season.

Heres a reminder of the summer sun(flowers);

Jam Jam Jam

Well this was fun - oh so much fun!

Our mum has a glut of apples, they have done really well this year and my enterprising sister has exchanged lots with various farm shops in exchange for fruit and veg (most places in Norwich I've asked will do this). There is however many pounds worth left over. I was bought the amazing SelfSufficientish bible as a present and in it was a recipe for apple jam. Our father used to make themost amazing jam and every autumn when we were little our kitchen was converted into a jam factory, he used to make jams and jellies from greengages, plums, damsons, and some funny little round green things whose name i've forgotten. Mum used to make buckets of peach melba sauce which is in fact made only from raspberries.

So wondering if jam making is gnetic, yesterday my little sis and I got down to the very messy business of making apple and ginger jam, we did 8lbs of fruit and ended up with about 10/11lbs of jam. It took two of us 4 hours from start to finish and I think we'll be trying other fruit. Next weekend I'd like to make some beetroot chutney, and i think we might plan the veg patch around what we can and can't preserve. Our cousin gets hundreds of plums and next year we'll pounce on them and jam them. It does take time and effort, and the jam sugar is about £1.50 a Kg (about 2lbs). We got about 20 jam covers from Roys for about a pound, although these could be bought cheaper in bulk i'm sure. The really wacky thing is the variety of pots we found, ex tomato juice glass jars are superb, as are beetroot pots.

We're doing waste free week this week but not entirely certain how to avoid the packaging which meat (even the hapy organic chicken) come in. Ideas welcome. Our compost bin is no up and running, just in time to put all the cleared veg plants in. Tasty though the squash was, we only got one HUGE butternut, and one little one, I think next year we'll just stick to one plant and not four - they take up serious room! A colleague of mine grew his squash up a vine & it was a much better use of space.

Take a look at Rocket Gardens whose web site is great and they will happily answer questions quickly and clearly. Its a brilliant idea, we don't have the room to get plants started propoerly but Rocket Gardens get the plants started in their greenhouses and harden them off for ready planting. We were going to get the winter veg garden but in fact I'm going to put some fertilizer in the ground and get the soil better prepared for early planting next year. We're in two minds are to where to plant the onion - in seperate troughs or in eth soil with eth other veg. 'Him' is worried about mould.

Autumn Feast

Where to start.

Last Tuesday my sister asked if we had any veg to make soup with, our huge butternut fitted the bill completely and (as we were invited to dinner) we donated the squash and with it my sister made the most delicious soup. Not only did it feed 5 people that night, the leftovers were frozen and there was enough left to feed 3 people for lunch on Saturday when we went away this weekend to Suffolk. Completly changed my mind about soup - i always hated it!

The courgette plants are still going, but the other veg have almost finished. We got atrociously lazy about picking the green beans and so we are letting them go to seed. The sunflower heads are over and we are leaving half for the birds and will collect the other half for us. I did the same with the carrots as apparently the flowers can be useful to the garden wildlife.

Bye Bye Courgettes

The end is near for the courgette plants, they have grown so big that there isn't enough air flow around the leaves and they have mildew so they need to be taken out. The squash leaves are beginning to die off and we will harvest our butternut squash soon. The suash and courgettes have cross pollinated (i think) and we have some very odd looking veg growing!

The beans are still cropping well, enough for two more dinners this week although that will probably be all. My sister has had some more veg after the first lot went down very well. The carrots I cropped today are stumpy (what happens when thinning doesn't get done) but taste delicious. Last night I realised at about 8pm that we needed veg for kebabs, out I went with a torch and picked a fat courgette - a great feeling to have such fresh food available.

We've really enjoyed the past few weeks of crop gathering, and we know with better planning we could crop for much longer. Over the next few months while we have no crops in the ground we are going to try out the River Nene Vegetable Company which according to a friend of mine is very good. Check out their website, they do deliveries over a wide range of East Anglia, I'll post how we get on.

Ahhh

Have spent a few manic moments on the web I have come to teh decision that the peas are simply dying off - they were late in and i don't think that they got a fair chance at growing - note to self to get them in earlier next year. I've having lots of fun (in between finishing my MSc) drawing up a planting plan for next year, it does rest on us still being here next year of course!

If I can get the greenhouse built then I'm going to do some major tomato growing and try to grow an eggplant as well. I think I'd like some little cherry tomatoes and also some bigger plum toms, I have a rainwater harvesting system all figured out as well using 2 litre water bottles. all very cool - a little project for the winter me thinks.

Post Holiday Greens

Well we got back from a week in Cornwall to find that the veg garden has taken over the whole top of the garden - its really very impressive. I went out there yesterday and cut enough beans, courgettes (+ 2 marrows), tomatoes, carrots and beetroot for us for the week and a lovely fresh veg box as a moving present for my sister (so much more useful than a vase!). We have two very fat butternut squash but we aren't sure how to tell when they will be ready to eat.

The best thing about the garden now is that our giant eden project sunflowers are now in full flower - they wave gently in the breeze as they are so tall. It really brightens the garden. Sadly I am losing one of the mints, the thyme and the lovely vine - i'm not sure what to do but i'm sure its because of all the wet weather we've had this summer. The pea plants have turned brown and yukky, everything was ok before we went away, but i suspect a form of mildew so might have no option but to treat.

The Eden project has given us lots of ideas for gardening next year, we're going to do better at the companion planting, and try onions and potatoes. I might even try to grow a pumpkin for hallowean next year - i'm going to put down a little path down the centre of the patch and sow plants which don't want to be swamped - carrots, onions, leeks, beetroot & beans one side and then the courgettes (2 max!) the other side bounded by peas and potatoes. I've also decided to try and move the shed and build a greenhouse - news not recieved with much enthusiam by 'him'!

The veg patch surrenders

When I got home tonight from work I went out to the garden, picked two handfuls of runner beans, a fat courgette, three beetroot and some fat stubby carrots which should really have been thinned. Then I cooked them with some new potatoes and fat gloucester old spot sausages from Dewing farm shop on the coltishall road, it was SO good (and inexpensive), i'm probably not going to ever be able to keep and kill a pig to eat but i'm quite happy to grow the veg to go with someone elses pig.

Look! Veg patch delivers!!!

Candlelight

The garden at night - I have had these tealights for over a year knowing exactly where they would go, we sat outside under the stars and had a glass of wine. Very civilised!

One day there was no veg - and the next day

we were wondering where all the space went.

Here we have beans on eth trellsi, squash in front of the trellis, and courgettes nearer to the forground - there are beetroot to the right and the carrots to eth left, oh and the sunflower which i though wouldn't germinate are now about 8 feet high.

Lawn!

This is a retrospective post - i took this picture to show how the pergola looks now that we have (almost) finished the gravel, it takes oh so much gravel to fill this garden!

This garden seems to have taken so long to do but now that the plants are growing and its possible to see the softening of the harder edges then i realise that we have made real impact in only six or so months.

Cool & Refreshing

Have just been out to do some late night watering and lit a candle under the candle pot and it looks amazing.

All calm and peaceful - and cool - finally cool.

And yet more Plants!

The weekend started well, hot - thats the only word for it! I went out to study on Saturday and 'he' started on the pamments - they look stunning and very natural although until we get the gravel down for real then it won't look finished.

The trouble with getting some plants was that it became obvious over the course of the week that we needed more! So on Sunday we went out to the Woodgate nursery again, stunning place, loads of interesting plants and great ideas. They have lots of interesting ideas about companion planting and I finally got my hands on some marigolds for the veg patch (they distract insects from my veg!) but I did get a bit carried away and it was touch and go wether we would get everything in the boot of the car.

When we got home I carried two of the boxes through the house to the car along with two bees and a couple of hoverflies who were so excited by the prospect of nectar that they buzzed along beside me - a bit hairy but they were only interested in the flowers. But after planting up this is how it looked;



The terracotta star thing is a candle light, heres a view from the side, we've a real mix of plants here but I like it.



And the grass? Its finally growing - patchy but its is grass nonetheless.

Plants....

The veg patch is coming on a treat although I do with my runner beans would get a move on and start going upwards, the courgettes and squash seem to be getting the general idea about producing veg sometime before Christmas! After planting a passion flower, some tall grasses, a standard fuschia, a little blue plant whose name i've forgotten, a sage & a creeping thyme, a southernwood which I hope will keep away insects and some stunning sedums which will be put into the gravel to spread.

Garden weekend

Decided after last weekends crazy study marathon that I;d have some time off to attend to the garden. Got up early and went out side to weed the front garden (it gets so hot thats the only time i could do it) and discovered teh reason the plants were dying in the pots.



Round the back the patio has er been laid out even if its not actually been put down properly, we went to a garden nursury near Aylsham this afternoon and bought some amazing plants but had to leave them in the car when we got back because it wouldn't stop raining! We went from the nursery to a tea shop in Aylsham and the sponge cake was to die for and we had a 'right proper' sized pot of tea. As you can see Buddha is watching over the building works.

Nothing Happening

I spent the entire weekend (8 - 6) both days working on my project, believe me when I say I'd rather have been outside!

No sign of the grass coming up yet, maybe I'm being too impatient!

Was that the weekend?

I have been struck down with the lurgy this weekend & if it wasn't for several very important meetings this week I would not be considering work tomorrow but needs must and all that jazz.



Here is the garden so far, 'he' spent an age sieving the soil in the circles to put the lawn seed down onto and then moments before the operation was due to be finished with careful scattering then the heavens opened and we had to make a run for it. I spent the morning making tea, and dozing in the deckchair to supervise operations. We put buddha out as the weather is nicer, sort of an 'on the home straight' moment really, well it was until the rain started!

Next time....the lawn, the flowers, the patio and the gravel!

Summers Here!

Heres a picture of my new pergola - I am so happy wih it - I think its blooming marvellous & it makes the garden look bigger.

I spent 3 hours weeding my veg patch today & happy that the beans are coming up at last along with the squash and the courgettes. The beetroot are looking a smidge wibbly and the rue have simply dissapeared.'he' almost finished the logs, we spent 2 hours in B&Q today getting plant fertilizer, soil improver (non smelly manure), lawn seed and topsoil for the lawn. We also got a fab lunch at their wittards cafe which was rather good.I also got some happy hippy slug destroyer which won't hurt hodgehegs and liberelly sprinkled it about. Next weekend we are going up to Cawston nursery to get plants.

We'll definately be getting a vine for the pergola, some trailing plants to soften the logs, some honeysuckle to go over the trellis and loads of other funky plants which will be able to grow in the poor soil. We've a list of grasses which we like as well which should give the wildlife some seeds and provide autumn colour. Next year I am going to get so much more out of my vegetable patch. I'm going to be getting some herbs to put straight in the soil under the pergola, and some daffodil and crocus bulbs to put under the lawn for spring.

Oooooo it'll be luverly!

No Pergola

After the weekends log construction then we were eagerly awaiting the pergola but it had to be delayed until Monday. Which is sad but these things happen. I've been strugging to bring the beans up - the dwarf (short) beans are goinging but never developing their first set of leaves so are then dying - I think I need to improve the ground and get everything started earlier. The second round of courgettes are starting to come up but the promised rain hasn't happened so they are a bit dry. The Rue seeds, carrots and beetroots are coming up well.

I've been advised on the gravel - wickes - and I have to peer over a wall tomorrow to see some highly rated gravel in a neighbours garden. The lengths this garden is sending me to! It'll all be worth is in the end - now if i could just get those beans to grow like the weeds.......

June Gales

Got up at the crack of dawn today to close the window owing to amount of noise the local bird population was making - this is a good thing - but not at 3.30am. At a (slighty) more reasonable hour of 8am I got up to earn my brownie points so that when 'he' woke up I could go out and play in teh garden. The challenge today is to get the log borders in for the lawn edging before the pergola is put in on Tuesday (so excited) the circles are about 220cm across and theres two of them so we got logs at Homesbase 10% day yesterday as they aren't cheap.

Just for anyone's interest the way to discover the circumference of a circle is Pie *Diameter.

Isn't it.

'he' got started on the making of the circles while I went to Homebase to get some more logs. Its cost quite a bit to do, I wish I'd found a cheaper solution now but I wanted those curves!

Heres the finished result!



The gales blew over a tomato plant and a few of the runner beans which were just starting to recover, some of the green beans have started to come up from the second sowing but none of the runner beans have germinated yet. The squash are picking up but I could have fitted so much more in I'm a bit miffed with myself. Theres always next year I suppose!

Damn Slugs

Went out this morning and found all three of my courgette plants had been eaten off at the base of their stems. Don't know wether it was slugs or snails but have had to plant again - have doubled up this time at each planting point and will take out the weeker seedling when they get established. Next year I'll harden teh plants off sooner as i thing thats one reason why they haven't got big and strong. Its strange because I normally have more success with courgettes than any other veg.

Beetroot are coming up nicely - very pretty seedlings, and the carrots are just beginning to appear. No sign of the Rue yet but I'm hoping to make a hedge out of them. The reseeding of the dwarf beans hasn't shown any signs of germinating yet but I'll give it another couple of days - just one of the broad beans has come up, they are taking longer outside, i hope that nothings eaten them, I think I have a tendancy to plant seends too deep.

I recommend the gardening blog on the BBC Garden site - loads of handy tips and helpful peopal, I'm certainly going to be planning my veg garden better next year, maybe even a herb cicle in the middle.

Wildlife

Having been in the new office for 2 months and getting in early (8) means that I see the local wildlife on the way to work - we often see rabbits hopping around and there is a jay which has the left hand side of the cat park covered and who always distracts me in team meetings!! However this morning I saw a fox and it was beautiful, such an amazing sight - unlikely to ever get one at home but it was the most fabulous colours.

Oh and the bathroom is painted and I've been given three bigger tomato seedlings to plant out - the heavy rains last night were a good excuse not to put them out until the weekend.

And Beans for Dinner!

Stopped at at a well known chain store this evening (not giving them any more advertising as their plants were gasping for water this evening which was just mean!) and bought some meadow seed for the front and some carrot and beetroot seed for the veg patch.

Rushed outside to see how the beans were doing - they were better than yesterday but decided that even with the plant feed they aren't strong enough to support themselves so planted another set of beans inbetween the plants which are already there. Sowed teh carrots, bettroot and rue herb along the borders and then decided to be a bit mad bad and dangerous and randomly planted some dwarf beans in places around the veg patch - the theory being that they will give some shade to the other plants.



I put seven sunflowers which were between 5 and 9 inches tall along the side fence although I'm not too confident of a couple of them which looked distinctly miserable. They all got a good water and I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that they get on ok. Bathroom looks so much nicer painted don't know why I didn't do it before!

Beans for Breakfast

Woke up to the sun shining across our gardens - I really need to take a picture as its a very different light to the evening sun which is when I take most photos of the garden. Went outside to see how the beans had fared over night and the next door neighbour was outside too and offered me some short beans which looking at the holes in the leaves of my runner beans i gratefully accepted!

New levels of dirt

Started out this morning with breakfast in the garden which was lovely, then 'he' got started on shifting soil and I put up net all around the veg patch for snail/slug damage limitation and to stop cats getting at the soil. After I had done that I got the paintbrush out and started to paint the bathroom which is a long job as painting brick seems to take hours and hours.

Lunch majically appeared and it barely touched the sides I was so hungry, I needed a break from the painting and so planted out the green beans, dwarf beans, squash and courgettes in - then i went back to painting. 'he' then went to Edinburgh (nothing I said honestly) to attend a conference and I continued to paint, I stopped briefly to put another wheelbarrow of rubbish in the skip but after finishing the first pot of paint and knowing a second coat was needed I called it a day.

On the painting anyway. When I came back indoors i did the obligatory hoover around the kitchen and the dining room which always get muddy as we come in and out, and noticed that my vine gourds were bolting horizontally. The only thing to do was repot them and stake them carefully to give them the right idea but only after I'd had a bath. Partly because the gourds needed help but also because the runner beans were looking a bit wimpy I mixed up some plant feed (which makes the water go blue - most perkulier) and watered the front garden, the indoor pots and the veg patch. After all of that i had my supper - then it was too dark to take a picture!

The earth moved

Got home and decided that as the skip is going tomorrow I'd get the last few things sorted out, so I stained the gravel boards, put the tools in the shed, took the lawnmower out of the dining room and then had the bright idea to try and move soil from in front to the tellis to the vegetable patch.

Cubic Meter of soil weighs about 1.5 tonnes.

I did 7 wheelbarrows full of soil - thats digging it up, shovelling it in the barrow and then shovelling it out again. I'm sure its good exercise - which is just as well as I have many more barrows worth to move. Just not tonight.

Shed

We both left work early at got home for 5 - with a darkening sky we took all the shed bits out of the bag and stood up all the panels. There wern't any instructions at all & we had to rely on a YouTube video which I'd seen and some photographs which we'd taken at the shed place. a few things did end up in the wrong place but after 3 hours it looks good - the windows were a bit hairy as they are glass and i had to nail batons around them to hold them in place.

Oh and the threatening sky did carry out its promise - it rained for a good hour that we were out there - all good fun! There is mud everywhere outside, even to the point that puddles had formed, we have to get a few more things in the skip before it goes so another evening tomorrow methinks.

Old Garden

This is my old veg patch - the new one is about three times the size of this. I had courgettes, a tiny apple tree, purple sprouting broccoli and some other things too. I don't think I have a pic of the whole garden but I do miss the washing line!

Highs and Lows

Well I thought I'd seen it all when on Saturday evening as we were resting our sore limbs in the living room a car pulled up, a cry of concrete rang across the street and two strapping lads leapt out of a beat up escort and started to take concrete out of the skip. Then this evening a white transit (always trouble) pulled up and dumped a broken toilet and a load of other rubbish in our skip! 'he' jumped up and asked what they thought they were doing at which point they drove off waving a certain hand signal behind them. Bloody cheek! We got their number however and will report them for fly tipping.

Found out loads of useful links about gardens (as we are getting to the stage where we might be able to grow something in it) so decided to put them on the blog. The nice friendly carpenter rang this evening to say that he could do the pergola in three weeks time, yippee! Which should pretty much be the deadline for us getting all the hard landscaping in and the majority of the vegetable plants that we have in pots should be ready - the gourds need more time anyway.

And the shed appeared as well which is great although the rain had set in by the time we got home tonight so no chance of getting it up.

Oooooowwwwww

I hurt this morning when I woke up.

I hurt even worse when I got up.

But we only have the skip for the week and so we had to get going, the weather was fantastic with occasional damp light rain and my sister appeared to help out as well. Lil sis dug the ground, 'he' took out the rest of the cement blocks to the skip and laid the slabs for the shed.

I got out my saw and drill and started to make raised beds from stakes and gravel boards for the veg patch and then got the trellis bolted together and we put it in the ground - It was like a barn raising! I might add that this is the edited version with my drill running out of charge twice, me getting stuck under the trellis at one point and the drill bit slipping and it getting stuck in teh wood - all cheerfully taken in my stride - not.

I put the B&Q arch together ( the only one in the world which is 100m) and dug it in - which involved hacksawing off one side as I wasn't about to dig it into cement! We dug in the gravel boards round the veg patch and got the soil evened out although we can still put a lot more in from the other side of the trellis which is supposed to be lower. In the photograph you can see how I haven't finished staining the wood yet, the green beans will grow up this side of the trellis and the sunflowers will grow up the other side - slugs notwithstanding. I have a range of ideas to stop them hopefully......



Oh and the green beans little side beans do drop off - I found them in the soil. The tomatos are doing well but they need to be hardened off and next year i need to start earlier as they are still very small, as are my pepper plants.