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!