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!

Rain dance

Hooray!! Thunder and lightening and rain today. We've had hot and dry weather for what feels like weeks - unusual for the UK in recent years.  We'd just reached the bottom of the water butts around the polytunnel and I wasn't looking forward to carrying water in from the house... So hopefully the wetness will continue and these will fill up...

I'm ridiculously excited about these little beauties.  Sweetcorn is this year's experiment as I haven't grown it before. And at the moment it looks like it's going to be a big success.  I planted two blocks of nine plants with about a month between the block planting, in the hope that it won't all arrive at once....One plant in the first block has just rocketed up and is way ahead of the others, so I think we should have good succession.  I'm so excited that all visitors to the house are not allowed to leave until they've been to the polytunnel to visit the sweetcorn!

 

The tomatoes are doing well (as they always do), there's a variety called Marmalade there which are big beefsteak toms and seem to develop into a more bush like plant.  The companion Marigolds are looking good - so things must be OK.  I love the smell as you brush past them both, reminds me of summer, and my Dad's greenhouse.

The cucumbers are making their own way - their vine like tendrils are grasping hold of the supporting string and climbing up by themselves. I don't even need to tie them in.  We should have a good crop - there are a couple of good sized ones already and tons of tiny ones and flowers all the way up the plants.

Spring time and storm damage

More crazy weather going on here. After the large quantity of snow a few weeks back, and the below average temperatures, this week we had a big storm.  Gale force winds were forecast so I was very careful to tighten the sides of the polytunnel, and I slept in the quiet room (around the corner, away from the prevailing wind!).  It was fully justified - several of the neighbours lost roof slates, one of the fences to nextdoor collapsed, but my polytunnel remained unharmed! The sides had pulled out of the clips, and a few things had fallen off the bench inside, but I was so relieved that there was no damage to the plastic.

Unfortunately the conifers didn't survive so well - both the ones at the top of the meadow and the big one in the back of the copse had branches broken off... We'll get around to clearing it up sometime!

It's finally started to warm up a bit in the garden and the daffs are out at the top of the meadow - the ones nearer the house always come out a few weeks later, maybe they're different varieties, who knows.... But it's still way to wet to clear out the veg beds near the tunnel/shed, the weeds took over in the monsoon of last year so there's a fair bit of work to do but every time you try it just turns into a quagmire.  One day we'll have a dry garden! Fortunately the beds nearer the house were better, so I finally cleared out the sprouts/broccoli and planted some potatoes. 

And in more potato news... The ones I planted in the tunnel a few weeks ago have finally started to come up! No sign of turnips or carrots that were planted at the same time, but maybe I was being a bit to ambitious with those. Some of the seedlings are going great guns so have been potted on - tomatoes, broccoli, beans, pumpkins.... I love the way that the big seeds just explode, you turn around and suddenly there's a massive pumpkin seedling that appeared from nowhere!  Garlic is coming on well in the pots in the tunnel so I've had to plant them on as well...  

I'm very excited about the Battenburg Quilt project..... all the blocks are now complete!! Hooray!!! Now I can play around with deciding where they'll all go (cue: clearing the lounge and going back to the state of fabric everywhere).... Soon I'll have my very own quilt - just need to tidy up the blocks, sew them all together, cut and sew on the plain border, cut and sew on the pattered border, pin, quilt, bind. I really don't know what to do about the quilting - do I just do some lines (ditch or offset), or do I practise free-motion quilting on scraps and then quilt this one?

Almost enough time in the day

Sometimes it's nice when external forces mean that you just can't do some of the things on the list.  I always have so many things in my head that 'need' doing and I never get as much done as I feel I should.  It's something that I constantly beat myself up over.

Last weekend, I just couldn't do some things.  It snowed. Lots. Almost 2ft of snow over a couple of days. So not much could be done in the garden. No biking or running. And the only sewing I could do was those projects that I had the supplies for as there was no point even trying to drive anywhere.

So, one project I hadn't even looked at was the bunting I promised to make for the dining room.  I let Mal pick out the fabric ages ago and just never got around to starting. I quite like making bunting as its a relatively quick (half a day all in) and it looks so smart when it's done.

Even though there was deep snow (for North Wales/Cheshire border, that is deep) there was still an opportunity for some gardening.  I had to clear the snow from the polytunnel anyway so while I was out there I planted five of the early potato tubers.  I was going to experiment by planting some tubers outside and some in the tunnel to see what the difference in growth was - but with the snow around, I don't think I'll be planting the outside ones for a week or two. They'll just have to continue chitting on the window ledge!

The experiment continued with the planting of carrot and turnip seeds in the tunnel - it's a bit early for outside planting but I'm hoping the extra protection will give an early crop.  And as well as them , tomato, chili, sweet pepper, broccoli and sprouts seedlings all went into seed trays to be kicked off on the window ledge.

As well as all that, there was a bit of progress on the Battenburg quilt - I've made over half the blocks now, and the strips for the border are all sewn together.  And I've even sewn some of the binding on the Christmas table mats. I really should crack on with them and get them finished and out of the way.

So all in all, it's been a highly productive weekend!

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

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.

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.

Rainy days and Mondays

From the hard work and impressive progress on the polytunnel and new vegetable garden, it looks like we'll have more raised beds in production this year. So as the weather was so good for filling up water butts today, I stayed in and did a stock take...

The programme manager in Mal couldn't cope with my handwritten notes, so I had to draw him a picture:

Have to say it's been quite nice today to not really do anything. Usually I'm rushing around trying to do everything at once....

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!

Moss and sneezing

Mal had a bit of help from Alice (my cousin-in-law) last weekend and has made a real push this weekend, so the digging out for the poly-tunnel is pretty much complete! I think he's not happy with the down-slope edge as he took a bit too much soil out, so is planning on putting a bit back in and stamping it down. He also wants to put a small drainage channel around the down-slope and new fence sides, so it can drain to the bottom corner and into a new drainage ditch!

My contribution to all this effort was to suggest that he starts building the new vegetable beds for this area, so that he has somewhere to put all the excavated soil.

I like to do a tour of the garden when I haven't been out there for a while (week), just to see how everything's growing, what need care, what's taking over etc. This time I found an interesting hole in the grass pile. This is last year's pile of grass behind the conifers.

The hole is about 10 inches across and is at the back of the pile, facing out to the field. I think it's either a fox or a badger, but probably a fox.

I thought it was time I got cracking with the vegetable planting for this year (I have been a bit slack, everything is a bit late). So the tomato seeds I planted a few weeks back have germinated so have been potted on to 3'' pots. They do look a bit lost now.

The leek and chili seeds have germinated and are doing well, but I'd like them to be a bit more established before I do anything with them.

I've also planted seeds for more chili's (different variety), sweet peppers, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

I spent most of the afternoon walking slowly backwards and forwards across the lawn with next-doors borrowed scarifier. Very tedious! Got loads of moss and rubbish out of the lawn though, enough to fill the tractor up six times.... Hopefully, I'll get a chance tomorrow to do the rest of the lawn area then we can think about putting some seed down.

Oh, yeah. Sneezing. I suspect scarifying is not good for those of us that are allergic to pollen.

A busy weekend

Lots happening this weekend and I'm knackered now! First off I cleared all the weeds from the soft fruit bed and then spread a little mulch over it. I think I should probably add some more. I really wanted to crack on and get this done at the weekend as the rhubarb was starting to look impressive but one of the crowns was competing with a teazel weed.... The raspberries have perked up from last year,  but the blackberries are still looking very sorry for themselves. So I've put some plastic bottles over them - I'm not sure if they've been munched or not, so if they have then this will help.

The other really big thing was to clear and build up the two veg beds that have been gathering weeds for the last 18 months. I cleared out all of the weeds and grass that rooted and even tried to get rid of the roots as well.  Then we added another layer of boards to the side of the existing bed and built the new bed with new posts and boards.  Both of these were filled with the soil that Mal is taking from the polytunnel area (more on that below), and the closest one now has red onions planted.

 

Not only all that, but Mal's also finished clearing all the turf off the area for the polytunnel and started levelling from the bottom corner.....

 

The vegetable garden begins

Right, I know we've done a bit in the garden already this year, but I think it's time to take the "State of the Garden" picture for the start of 2012, so here it is:

Biggest differences from the one last year are the lack of snow (!), lack of flooding/pond, the addition of the big path and extended patio in front of the shed, and the fact that the shed is now blue! Oh, and the Brussels sprouts... there's still a few left.  The major achievements for the last 12 months have really revolved around drainage ditches, and vegetables - Mal spent a lot of the year digging out the main ditch and filling with a drainage pipe and gravel, and I've grown lots of vegetables for the first time.  The big successes being the potatoes, garlic and onions.  Other notables were the beans, peas, sprouts, carrots and tomatoes.  The tomatoes didn't do that well - I think they needed more warmth and daylight. So hopefully if we've got the polytunnel in place they should do better this year.  Talking of polytunnels......

This weekend we've made a significant start on the new Vegetable Garden.  The windproof netting has gone up and half of the hedging has been planted. Only half, as the lower end of the hedge line is completely water logged and we didn't want to drown the poor little things.

The hedging is a collection of six different evergreen varieties picked to give interest throughout the year, and provided by Buckingham Nurseries.  The collection includes Berberis darwinii, Cotoneaster franchetii, Pyracantha Orange Glow, Photinia fraseri Red Robin, Escallonia Donard Seedling, and Viburnum tinus.

As well as the hedge planting this weekend, we've also started on clearing the area for the polytunnel.  After much discussion and pacing, we've decided on a 3m by 8m tunnel, and need to clear .5m all the way around.  The area has been marked out, and the turf removed from half of the tunnel footprint so far.  The ground is so waterlogged that we didn't start on the second half, and didn't start on the leveling of the ground that will be required.  Instead we've started to put in a new drainage ditch that will run from the entrance to the Vegetable Garden into the copse.  Hopefully with that left open for now, it will help drain the ground where the tunnel is going.

For a weekend's work, the change to the garden looks impressive.  It's really starting to break up what was just a huge expanse of grass.... I can't wait to get the tunnel in!