Down to Earth with a Bump

wow its been a long time since i posted, over six weeks - and what a six weeks they've been. The wedding was lovely, the weather was gorgeous and apart from a couple of hiccups then it all went as we'd hoped. The weather in Cornwall was fabulous and although it took a couple of days for us to chill with the still we did have a great time and the luxury of the first week blended into the holidayishness of the second week really nicely. We went to eden again which was even better this time, and it reaffirmed my feeling that to be happy and healthy and in love are so important. Anyway there were a few spritual moments as we wandered around cornwall and the eden project on the last day was entrancing. I even adopted a lobster called star :).

Back to the garden, our very loevly next door neigbour kept it going for us so when we returned the plants were all doing well. The peas have overall been a dissapointment and teh broad beans haven't given me anything like eth crop i had hoped for. The runner beans i started in teh greenhouse are now doing well, but i'm pleased i planted some additional ones as well. The carrots are so far ok, can definately tell that there are two types in there, springie are almost ready to start eating and teh courgettes are doing well - they had a ucky break before we went away when i planted them ALL out - 8 courgette plants, what was i thinking!!!

potatos are a bit of a mystery. the roosters in the ground have flowered & produced ball shaped fruit. The roosters and charlottes in the tubs however have produced no flowers and look 'thin' which is the only way i can describe it. Neighbour suggested dugging one or two up - might just try that. Note to self - BORAGE - grows BIG - like really really big! Bees love it though, they are buzzing away everywhere!

the other surprise was returning to work - the company started up again just before we got married but we have had to relocate to lowestoft which is over an hours travel away and £40 a week on the train. It'd be cheaper to car share but my car is now pretty much dead after its amazing road trip to Cornwall and won't make lowestoft and back - although we're getting a new car i don't want to have to put such a heavy milage on it in such early days. so train it is - choo choo.

Unemployed.

The plug was pulled on my company last Thursday, we were given a few days grace and expected a rescue plan which had been promised but it seems that isn't going to happen for some time if ever and so as of about half past four today I don't have a job.

Three weeks before the wedding.

I got very very stressed about it over the bank holiday and felt very odd about everything, as my little sister will testify to. I think now that I'll put all my energy into the wedding because there are a hell of a lot of things to sort out, and also into the house and garden which now needs to really pay for itself.

All very strange. At least we had rain today and I'm going to be brave and leave the greenhouse roof open tonight to try and harden some of the plants off a bit. Going to plant some beetroot tomorrow, I know its late but reading my Victorian Farm book last night the pickled beetroot recipe looked oh so good!

A Hard Days Work

Sun was shining today but it has definately been cooler overall, the beans, pumpkins, cucumbers and honesty had a good night outside. It was just as well that I hardened them off because there is a ground frost predicted for tonight and I only discovered this after I put half a dozen in the ground to mark out a line between beds.

I have had a busy afternoon - after we went up to the garden centre for lunch and to get a few pots (Acer and Hibiscus were potbound) some more compost and some other bits and bobs then we HAD to do the food shopping which I did as fast as I could. Got home and wrapped wire around one of the pergola posts and then trained the rose up the post (annoyingly found a much better rose pot up at the garden centre today) which was a painful exercise as teh rose did not want to be trained! While we were up at the garden centre i did get some organic slug pellets because they are decimating my crops. I am pretty certain we don't have hedgehogs and any slugs i do find i put outside the garden under a cherry tree and few doors down where the birds tend to gather. I saw a female blackbird on the fence the other day so I know we do have birds in the garden.

I needed a polytunnel for the salad bed but being an awkward gardener my beds are not 3 meters long and 1 and a half foot wide, therefore i decided I wouldn't spend fifteen squid on one of those extendable cloches but try to make one at home. When I got back I delved around until I found three old curtain tracks (the plasticy sort) which when bent have a nice dome shape to them and then spend a happy hour constructing a cloche which is tied at each end, one side is buried in the soil and the other side weighted down with rocks/wood. I've planted more Chantenoy carrots, Springies, Niche Salad Leaves and orange radishes underneath, I might use it as a halfway house for some of the veg to harden off. Will have to be careful to water enough.



And also repotted the Acer, the Hibiscus and the Camilia which through my own faukt has not had a good year. I was bought it in Jaunary and I think it had been very sheltered in its previous home, it was doing ok then caught a frost so as the greenhouse was finished by then i put it in there. This seemed a good plan until one day it got scorched and then when i put it outside we had a very severe frost - the one which killed off my stunning trellis passion flower. So the plant doesn't really like me! I managed to leave the garden centre with just 1 living addition to the garden - An Aubergine - which i managed to drop on its head as i got out of teh car - so it probably doesn't like me either!!!

Don't Water the Dandelions!

I love this picture! It reminds me of Alice when she was gardening rather than being in Wonderland. I found it the other night when i was trying to find a cartoon to illutrate ny thirsty plants when they had got back in from a grand day out. I did ask the authors permission to link to it and he (Craig Houghton) has said yes, so enjoy the detail and remember that although they are weeds Bees and Hoverflies think they taste great.

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.