Promise

Sometimes you have to spend all your time in the garden... Spring is here and there's so much to see and do.

I'm building up my fern collection for the damp shade under the willow trees and I just love the way that the fronds are unfurling at the moment.

My hellebores for the same area of the garden are growing nicely in their pots - they started off as (cheaper) tiny seedlings but are now big enough to produce flowers, and the colours are lovely.

I've spent my time tidying everywhere, the polytunnel is now looking acceptable (point of note:- if you leave your turnips in the tunnel they bolt and reach the roof with bright yellow flowers!) and I even have one surviving pea plant at the end. I planted four for overwintering (last August) but I was too keen and there was too much growth last year and they just rotted (a common problem in the tunnel).  However there are pea pods on my survivor so fingers-crossed!!

My seedlings (16th April planting) were grown enough for potting on and moving from the window ledge to the tunnel. Here we have a couple of different tomato varieties, the one germinating cucumber, peas and mangetout. Oh and if anyone wants foxgloves, shout! I have loads planted from seeds collected last year (a lovely variety called Pam's Choice - creamy white with pink throat).  And there's the one surviving pepper plant from last year - I don't have much success with them either, hot and damp tunnel issue again....

While I've been tidying and potting, Mal and his Dad have been busy designing and constructing new veg beds.  The long term plan is to move all of the veg growing to the area next to the tunnel, and last year he built a couple of beds.  But we decided because of our heavy clay solid and poor drainage, we needed something a bit more substantial.

More pictures to follow - these are yesterday, and two beds were completed today I just didn't get around to pictures. I have to say they are mightily impressive!

Path #2

I have this humongous plan in my head that one day the whole lawn area will be surrounded by an edge that you can mow up to with the tractor and not need a strimmer or smaller lawn mower for any of it!

The garden had no paths through the lawn when we moved in, and in the first year Mal built the first path, so I can get to the shed without getting muddy! 

Second year was the year of the polytunnel.

This year, we have the start of the edging path.

There was lots of debate on materials.  Path #1 is paving slabs of indian sandstone - but that was too much for this smaller path.  Then there were bricks - but they were too deep.  So we have brick pavers - in a selection of three sizes, and a rustic look.

So if you have a really hard working OH with 4 days off work, you get a significant amount of path complete.  Including cutting turf, digging out, carrying through gravel for the base and bricks, and laying it all....

There was a fair bit of fiddling to get the curve right, but it turned out right in the end.

I just need to crack on now - dig up and divide the geranium, possibly move the hydrangea, and try and get rid of some of the horsetail....

Update!

Finally bought and planted the roses for the archway - Rambling Rector is a lovely white open single flower which the bees will absolutely love, and Crimson Glory is a bright red multi flower with (apparently) a fantastic fragrance...

 I've been saying for years that I should get back into baking bread as I did it quite a lot whilst at Uni. So this was the first attempt - inspired by Paul Hollywood.  All I can say is he's wrong. He might be a master baker, but he's wrong.  It took ages to rise, and then in the oven it expanded outwards rather than upwards.  Mal did say it was very tasty, even if it did look a bit ciabatta like.  So next time, activate the yeast first, and I think a little less water....

 Tidy up.  I've inherited my Grandmother's sewing box so it was about time to sort it out - threw out some random bits (tatty scraps of thread and wool, a pair of NHS 70's reading glasses, etc. etc.), cleaned it up, and stocked it with a load of my stuff.  Eventually it'll double as a coffee table with a nice quilted mat (something else for the Project list)....

 Is this cheating? Patchwork foot with a 1/4'' seam guide - best thing since artisan bread.  If I muck up my blocks now I really have no excuse....

 

Talking of blocks.  Hopefully that's a stack of 44 completed blocks of the Battenburg Quilt.  If it's not, I've lost some, as I've only got 4 more blocks to complete.  Next after that is square them all up and work out where they're all going to go.... Exciting stuff!

New project.  Wiksten Tova top. Started yesterday. Patchwork squares are much easier - the front insert was 'challenging'.  It's not perfect, but I'm happy with the first attempt.

More holes

While I was off visiting the folks last weekend and help out with Nan's flat, Malcolm was a good lad and did some tidying up in the polytunnel - the chillies and peppers in the small bed had been munched (and they didn't really like being in there anyway) so they got composted.  He must have done some digging outside as well as more soil appeared in the left bed!

And here's what was dug! The small drainage ditch than ran under the path never really worked and a pond appeared over the path every time it rained, so he's dug a new deeper one and put a drainage pipe in.  I helped with carting the gravel through this weekend to fill in the ditch.  As well as that, I got around to doing a bit of tidying out the front and bought some winter plants/bedding for the window boxes.  It's all looking a bit more presentable now!                                                    

As well as all that, I found something to do with the cucumbers - Cucumber and Apple Chutney

I have to say the smell of cooking cucumber is a little weird, but the taste test was pretty good and it'll be even better after the 3 month maturing period

Progress of sorts

The polytunnel is coming along slowly - it really serves us right for buying such a big one!  Over the past few weeks, Mal's been putting soil back into the beds (after it was originally removed to flatten the area for construction).  While that's been happening I've planted the tomatoes in the back bed.  I'm quite surprised at how well they're doing really given that the seeds were all planted late and then were eaten by mice in the cold frames (I've since found out that mice don't like the smell of mint and I have lots of mint plants so that's next year's defence).  I think there's some Gardeners Delight and Alisa Craig varieties there.... and there's even some fruit on some of them!

Mum and Dad were visiting for a few days on their way back from holiday on Ynys Mon and Mum very kindly offered Dad's gardening services! As well as the boring job of clearing weeds on one of the flower beds, he also planted some of the pepper/chili plants in the small polytunnel bed.

We had a lovely flying visit to Ros, Gavin and the boys (and an evening watching the Olympics open ceremony). Once back we had a efficient session filling part of the right hand bed as I really wanted to get the sweet potatoes into the ground.  As well as them, I'd been given some cucumber plants from a colleague so they went in as well.

Lots of the veg aren't doing so great this year - a combination of the weather (wet and cold and grey), the the Japanese Anemone's are doing fantastically well.  Michelle gave me a plant and I put it under the laurel next to the veg beds and it's really grown this year - up to about 4' and peeking out from among the hedge.

I'm quite proud of how well the flower border is turning out and the bees are impressed too. With the echinops and lavender you can easily go out and spot a dozen bumble bees when the weather's good.  Plan for next year is to move the Crocosmeia and tidy up the corner with the Kerria Japonica, and try and make it into a purple/blue coloured bed.

Tatton!

A definite NEHITD weekend

It's been absolutely mad this weekend, firstly on Friday the polytunnel arrived (see previous blog) so Mal was at home to supervise the construction and provide cups of tea!  Then friday evening saw us in Ruthin for the last instalment of the Bee-keeping course with South Clwyd Beekeepers. This time we were covering honey extraction and sale.

The following day we were back in Ruthin again for the final session - more on honey extraction and a recap on the previous weeks subjects, particularly treatments for varroa.  The weather was so bad (cold and wet) that we decided against opening the hives so had a brief look at the Associations kit for honey extraction.  It's very impressive with a fully lined wipe clean room, stainless steel worksurfaces and extraction equipment.

The following morning it was up early to head off to Gardener's World Live at the NEC, Birmingham.

About time

Really the first spell of proper dry weather we've had this spring, and it's really showing in the garden. The ground is still completely waterlogged so it's tough to get out and do much.

Garlic...

This weekend however, I've finally managed to get some turnip and spinach seeds in one of the house beds, but in the process have trashed the soggy grass all around the bed (just shows how wet it is). The garlic is coming along nicely so has been transplanted into one of the new veg garden beds. Finally, the new potatoes and peas are starting to peak through the soil, and fortunately nothing can deter the onions from doing their thing!

Onions without weeds (won't last long...)

Disappointingly I have a small rodent problem in the cold frames so have lost most of the tomato seedlings that I potted on last weekend... The mouse traps have been deployed and are being emptied on a daily basis. The sprout and pumpkin seedlings haven't been attacked, or any flowers so I guess it's the smell of the tomato plants they go for.



Mal has been going great guns with the polytunnel excavation. The retaining walls and gravel drainage is now complete, we just need to remove a bit more soil from what will be the inside of the tunnel so it'll be easier Ti build the beds.

The potatoes are in.... (and other things)

Well after cleaning and treating the wall last weekend, I was really keen to crack on with the planting.  The weather forecast hasn't been looking good for but on Saturday I managed to dodge the showers and still manage to achieve what I wanted.  Started off with digging it over a bit and turning in a bit more manure, then it was time to work out where everything was going to go.

I'd already made a list of all the plants I had available along with their height and spread - I'd been collecting them over the last year - some grown from seed, others bought as plants (in the sales if possible!).  Pretty much all of them are perennial.... Well annuals aren't really an investment are they!

That was pretty much all I did on Saturday, as in the morning we went round local builders merchants looking for wood to shore up the polytunnel excavation.

Sunday's activities included planting the early potatoes - think they should be ready by July.  Also planted one row of peas, and am trying out the cloche to give them a boost.

Popped around to the Grosvenor to get some more compost and as always I checked out the bargain bin! Picked up half a dozen small herb plants so I've put them in one of the wooden troughs.  They look quite healthy so I'm confident that they'll take.  What I was most proud of was the Alstromeria in the 3ltr tub that I picked up - £4 instead of £10!  Looks a bit sorry for itself now, but I've potted into a bigger tub so hopefully it'll perk up.  Eventually it can go in the second flower bed (when it's built/cleared).

Few other things of note from the weekly garden tour.....

• There are four pots of heuchera under a tree in the copse - and something has made a nest between them.
• My apple trees have pretty flower buds :-)

Bzzzz

Looking back now (and I really should go to bed instead of writing this) I can't remember what we did this weekend.  Most of Saturday was taking up with the first full day of the Beekeeping course (more on that next month), then it was out in the garden for Sunday.  I did skive off for the morning to go out on my bike and visit the bike shop and whilst I was out Mal got stuck in to burning stuff and scarifying the rest of the garden lawn (as opposed to the straggly meadow). He'd also done more digging/clearing of the polytunnel excavations on Friday.

So I got stuck in to cleaning and proofing the bricks on the patio wall above where the cottage garden is going to go. I got a big pile of plants in pots on the patio - either from seed or cheap offers, and somehow they're all going to fit into the one small flower bed!  Maybe I'll have to save some for the next bed.

I'm really happy I got that done as I've been so keen to get that area planted up (for the last year!) so next weekend I can get stuck in.  Good timing as the plants are starting to break free of their pots....

Then I planted some seeds - I think it was Tom's, Peppers, Squash, but I can't remember what the forth thing was... oh well. Bed now.

No stink at all

Well I finally did it. Something I'd not been looking forward to but knew needed doing (I had Monty in my head telling me off). I dug over the compost bed! Mal built two fantastic compost bins from pallets last year - one he put more rotten stuff in, and the other the really fresh stuff. We've been filling the fresh one with all the kitchen waste (but not grass clippings). As the lawn area is so huge, the grass clippings would fill up the compost bins in one go, so they all go in a separate pile at the top of the garden.



So I took all the top fresh material out of the bin and into a pile, then the more rotten material out and into another pile. We'd just cleared last years Brussels Sprouts out of their bed so the waste from them went into the bottom of the bin, then I tried to layer in fresh and rotten material with some wet cardboard (Monty say's that's a good idea). I was really impressed with how much everything had already rotten down, even though we'd done nothing with the compost bin - and there was no smell! Hopefully turning it over will improve things even more.

Last year's new blueberry plants (3 - all Top Hat variety) were starting to outgrow the trough that I had them in, so they've been separated into individual pots - containing a mixture of the soil from the trough and fresh ericaceous compost. Hopefully there'll be lots of blueberry pancakes (with maple syrup!) and blueberry muffins this year....

Next job was tidying up the front yard. We'd bought some box cones last year but failed to pot them up and water them properly so one has died.  Trying not to make the same mistake again, Mal potted up the new box balls, and while he was there I tidied up a few other pots - getting rid of weeds and leaves, and top dressing (adding more compost) to a few that looked a bit low.  All the pots had been grouped together for warmth over the winter, so we spread them out for the summer.

As well as all that, we dug over two of the veg beds behind the shed as they'd been given more soil (dug out from the polytunnel excavation).  One of the other beds there already had red onions planted, so we put white onions into the other half of the bed and covered with fleece and netting.  Hopefully there will be no little creatures digging them up this year.

Have to say it was really nice to have help doing all the little jobs today.  Usually Mal is so busy with digging something (a ditch, or more recently a polytunnel platform).... I've realised how much I've learnt over the last 18 months, as he's been asking questions about planting and stuff!