The weather has been too wet to get all the little jobs done that I wanted so I'll log them here instead.
(1) Put edging in the front garden to hold bark chips in place, and get new bark chips! The "log roll" stuff isn't right for this - too showy - some plain timber should do the trick and it's cheaper!
(2) Plant more gladioli bulbs behind the lawn for a longer flowering period.
(3) Dig out more ivy root from under the apple tree and plant something more decorative and less invasive instead.
(4) Build a raised bed/container thingy for the side of the house, removing the useless-ugly-hydrangea-never-flowers and plant some... erm... stuff instead. (Lettuces?)
(5) Remember to take before & after piccies!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
snap-happy
Thought it was time for another photo session.
The front garden after complete renovation. Nearly finished!
I planted the dwarf cherry last autumn so I'm not expecting much of a crop this year.
The potato patch in the lottie. There is a path between two high leylandii hedges which has effectively funnelled last night's wind over the corner of my tatties...
...but the one in the compost bin seems to be doing well!
Some of the brassicas: romanesco in the foreground, the bottles are protecting leaf beet and there's a single fleece tent over my lonely broccoli plant, swede at the back netted against the thieving pigeons.
Enemy no.2 - rust on the broad bean leaves. It has spread from the garlic in the next row. That'll teach me!
Enemy no.3 - blackfly on the new broad bean shoots.
The onions would look a bit better if the moggies would stop rolling in the onion bed. They love it! The lettuces and parsnips at the back are doing very poorly.
Gorgeous - growing at the corner of the lottie.
Back garden - reusing polystyrene packaging as a planter for tomatoes, lettuces and marigolds. A bit battered by the recent rain.
The roses at the back of the house. I pruned them mercilessly last autumn and they're saying thanks now!
The front garden after complete renovation. Nearly finished!
I planted the dwarf cherry last autumn so I'm not expecting much of a crop this year.
The potato patch in the lottie. There is a path between two high leylandii hedges which has effectively funnelled last night's wind over the corner of my tatties...
...but the one in the compost bin seems to be doing well!
Some of the brassicas: romanesco in the foreground, the bottles are protecting leaf beet and there's a single fleece tent over my lonely broccoli plant, swede at the back netted against the thieving pigeons.
Enemy no.2 - rust on the broad bean leaves. It has spread from the garlic in the next row. That'll teach me!
Enemy no.3 - blackfly on the new broad bean shoots.
The onions would look a bit better if the moggies would stop rolling in the onion bed. They love it! The lettuces and parsnips at the back are doing very poorly.
Gorgeous - growing at the corner of the lottie.
Back garden - reusing polystyrene packaging as a planter for tomatoes, lettuces and marigolds. A bit battered by the recent rain.
The roses at the back of the house. I pruned them mercilessly last autumn and they're saying thanks now!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Bits & Bobs
Many small jobs done yesterday!
In the garden:
- Reused a polystyrene container (from a delivery of perishables) as a planter. It now contains 3 tomato plants, 8 lettuces and 2 marigolds.
- Filled four spare patio planters with cauliflower and marigolds.
- Planted 4 gladioli and 3 dahlias behind the new lawn.
- Planted an unidentified plant in the non-lawn part of the front garden, in a space vacated by something that died. It's a cutting from a shrub I wanted to save before ripping everything out of the front garden last year.
In the allotment:
- Planted out the leaf beet and protected it with bottle cloches.
- Planted one lonely broccoli plat and made it a fleece tent to keep the flutterbyes off.
- Netted the swede to stop the dratted pigeons from eating the tops.
- Planted one each of courgette and squash, next to the broad beans.
- Decided to remove all the broad beans and start again, away from the garlic which has a touch of rust. The BB are covered with rust and I don't want it to spread any further!
- Sprayed the blackfly with soapy water.
Today I got soaked whilst putting up guttering on the cat-run and directing the downpipe into a water butt.
In the garden:
- Reused a polystyrene container (from a delivery of perishables) as a planter. It now contains 3 tomato plants, 8 lettuces and 2 marigolds.
- Filled four spare patio planters with cauliflower and marigolds.
- Planted 4 gladioli and 3 dahlias behind the new lawn.
- Planted an unidentified plant in the non-lawn part of the front garden, in a space vacated by something that died. It's a cutting from a shrub I wanted to save before ripping everything out of the front garden last year.
In the allotment:
- Planted out the leaf beet and protected it with bottle cloches.
- Planted one lonely broccoli plat and made it a fleece tent to keep the flutterbyes off.
- Netted the swede to stop the dratted pigeons from eating the tops.
- Planted one each of courgette and squash, next to the broad beans.
- Decided to remove all the broad beans and start again, away from the garlic which has a touch of rust. The BB are covered with rust and I don't want it to spread any further!
- Sprayed the blackfly with soapy water.
Today I got soaked whilst putting up guttering on the cat-run and directing the downpipe into a water butt.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
What a weekend!
Since the last post I have: seen two more properties, run two marathons, slept a lot!
"Property 2" - looked good on paper but the paddock was in a dreadful state and the kindest thing to do with one of the outbuildings involves an axe and the solid fuel stove.
"Property 3" was perfect!!! but judged to be too far from civilisation for the mr to be able to get into London when he has to. It's early days - but I'll regret it if nothing of this quality comes on the market again! I went round it thinking, "polytunnel over there with veg plot, chickens in the orchard, pigs or lambs there, and there's even space for a flower garden...." Time to get the house we're in tarted up for viewing, I think!
Meanwhile, I have done nothing new to the garden except make plans for lots of weeding over the next few days. I did get round to the allotment yesterday, just for long enough to pick a decent crop of broad beans for tonight's dinner.
"Property 2" - looked good on paper but the paddock was in a dreadful state and the kindest thing to do with one of the outbuildings involves an axe and the solid fuel stove.
"Property 3" was perfect!!! but judged to be too far from civilisation for the mr to be able to get into London when he has to. It's early days - but I'll regret it if nothing of this quality comes on the market again! I went round it thinking, "polytunnel over there with veg plot, chickens in the orchard, pigs or lambs there, and there's even space for a flower garden...." Time to get the house we're in tarted up for viewing, I think!
Meanwhile, I have done nothing new to the garden except make plans for lots of weeding over the next few days. I did get round to the allotment yesterday, just for long enough to pick a decent crop of broad beans for tonight's dinner.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Getting Laid
The turf for the front lawn arrived yesterday morning so I spent a merry hour or two in the pouring rain carpeting the bare earth. I seem to have beaten the Horsetail (on the "lawn" side of the garden at least) as there were only a couple of very weak shoots poking up. I had two part-strips of turf left over and some bits. I put the decent sized bits in a gap in the back "lawn" (it's green, but it ain't grassy) and upturned the odds & ends into the maturing compost bin as a lid.
After that I went round to the allotment and planted the swede. By the end of my gardeneering session I was probably the muckiest I've been sice I grew out of digging dens and climbing trees.
Forgot to take pictures!
After that I went round to the allotment and planted the swede. By the end of my gardeneering session I was probably the muckiest I've been sice I grew out of digging dens and climbing trees.
Forgot to take pictures!
Monday, May 14, 2007
The search begins.
We have looked at our finances and decided on a budget for a new place with more land.
With this budget in mind, we went to see a place at the weekend that was almost ideal - a house, a paddock, a pond and some outbuildings - but just not quite what we need. Too many mature trees shading the land and the house was just a bit too small.
At least there are places we can afford!
With this budget in mind, we went to see a place at the weekend that was almost ideal - a house, a paddock, a pond and some outbuildings - but just not quite what we need. Too many mature trees shading the land and the house was just a bit too small.
At least there are places we can afford!
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Meanwhile in the garden...
The Plastic Planthouse
The Enemy!
Lettuce seedlings: red salad leaves
The pond - we have frogs, toads, dragonflies and fish of indeterminate species.
The apple tree
Growing Our Own
I think I may have found a use for a blog: to track my gardening progress. Last summer, in July I think, I began to rent half an allotment. My neighbour has the other half and we share the work and produce of the whole plot. (Henceforth "AN" is Allotment Neighbour)
We started with knee-high grass, thistles, bindweed, brambles, dandelions and a bit of enthusiasm.
The story so far...
July 2006: Cut down the grass, dug over plot 1, planted stuff wherever there was space.
weeded... and weeded... weeded some more...
Crops: leaf beet very successful, tomatoes got blight, runner beans pretty good, lettuce OK, leeks did very well, sweetcorn failed, brassicas disastrous, courgettes plentiful despite powdery mildew, peppers - got a few green ones.
September 2006: marked out plot 2, drenched with glyphosate, waited 4 weeks, used glyphosate again, dug over then covered with tarpaulins to exclude light and prevent weed growth. Left it alone until March.
October 2006: planted broad beans and peas for overwintering. The beans were fine but the peas vanished within a week of planting out. Swapped some pea plants for some purple sprouting broccoli (Other Neighbour) and her pea plants vanished too. Pigeons ate the PSB :o(
December 2006: Planted 5 cloves of organic garlic just to see what happened. They all came up :o)
Jan 2007: Bought seed potatoes in Wilkinsons and started them chitting.
March 2007: Uncovered bed 2, dug it over again, forked over and removed weed roots several times. Added chicken manure pellets then fish blood and bonemeal when I ran out of birdcr*p. Started seeds off in the plastic planthouse.
April 2007: Planted seed potatoes (lots!) and strawberry plants and Jerusalem artichokes. Also planted some asparagus crowns from Wilkinsons. Weeded most of bed 1 thoroughly then AN finished the weeding and took over mowing duties.
May 2007: we have planted out
more potato plants than we need :o) Arran Pilot, Desiree, Anya and "mystery-found-sprouting-at-the-back-of-the-cupboard" which might be Orla - about 65 plants in all!
a couple of ferny asparagus plants (sigh... planted six)
six lots of JAs looking healthy
24 strawberry plants of uncertain variety but mostly alpine, flowering
about 90 onion sets, growing well
2 dozen each of romanesco, snowball cauli, hispi cabbage - well netted or fleeced against pests
Broad beans - one row cropping after overwintering and one row just planted out and about 6" high
peas - just planted out
parsnips
lettuce red salad leaves and cos
And there's more still to go in the ground!
The plot, looking south
Look what's growing in my compost heap!
The view under the fleece tent. Caulis and cabbage, planted closer than "official" for cropping every second plant early as baby veg/greens
We started with knee-high grass, thistles, bindweed, brambles, dandelions and a bit of enthusiasm.
The story so far...
July 2006: Cut down the grass, dug over plot 1, planted stuff wherever there was space.
weeded... and weeded... weeded some more...
Crops: leaf beet very successful, tomatoes got blight, runner beans pretty good, lettuce OK, leeks did very well, sweetcorn failed, brassicas disastrous, courgettes plentiful despite powdery mildew, peppers - got a few green ones.
September 2006: marked out plot 2, drenched with glyphosate, waited 4 weeks, used glyphosate again, dug over then covered with tarpaulins to exclude light and prevent weed growth. Left it alone until March.
October 2006: planted broad beans and peas for overwintering. The beans were fine but the peas vanished within a week of planting out. Swapped some pea plants for some purple sprouting broccoli (Other Neighbour) and her pea plants vanished too. Pigeons ate the PSB :o(
December 2006: Planted 5 cloves of organic garlic just to see what happened. They all came up :o)
Jan 2007: Bought seed potatoes in Wilkinsons and started them chitting.
March 2007: Uncovered bed 2, dug it over again, forked over and removed weed roots several times. Added chicken manure pellets then fish blood and bonemeal when I ran out of birdcr*p. Started seeds off in the plastic planthouse.
April 2007: Planted seed potatoes (lots!) and strawberry plants and Jerusalem artichokes. Also planted some asparagus crowns from Wilkinsons. Weeded most of bed 1 thoroughly then AN finished the weeding and took over mowing duties.
May 2007: we have planted out
more potato plants than we need :o) Arran Pilot, Desiree, Anya and "mystery-found-sprouting-at-the-back-of-the-cupboard" which might be Orla - about 65 plants in all!
a couple of ferny asparagus plants (sigh... planted six)
six lots of JAs looking healthy
24 strawberry plants of uncertain variety but mostly alpine, flowering
about 90 onion sets, growing well
2 dozen each of romanesco, snowball cauli, hispi cabbage - well netted or fleeced against pests
Broad beans - one row cropping after overwintering and one row just planted out and about 6" high
peas - just planted out
parsnips
lettuce red salad leaves and cos
And there's more still to go in the ground!
The plot, looking south
Look what's growing in my compost heap!
The view under the fleece tent. Caulis and cabbage, planted closer than "official" for cropping every second plant early as baby veg/greens
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