By any other name.

Yes, it might look like just another rose. But it isn't. You see, I made it (other than in the Theological sense).
I dug a trench, and put some sand in the bottom. I took a cutting from a rose bush (about 12 inches I guess) and dipped it in some rooting stuff (organic). Then I planted it in the trench and filled the trench in. I did this with about 8 cuttings. This is the most impressive. They didn't all work, probably only about half. But I'm dead chuffed anyway! The planting was back at the tail end of the autumn, if you're wondering.

Other stuff today. Gave in and bought some red cabbage plants at Bretby. Brought them home and planted them.
First sweet peas arrived (2 of them...)
Sunflowers have been out for a few days
Watered everything (including lavender).
Cursed the fact that I still haven't sorted canes for the tomatoes.
Planted the last of the lavender in the gaps that have appeared (I can't now afford to have any more gaps, as we're fresh out of lavender!!)
Sowed some echinacea (don't know about spelling - spell check suggests chinaware...) out the front by the fence.
Yes, you've guessed it - earthed up spuds. Left bin is now full, so can't have any more earthing. Right bin will probably take one more lot.

Saturday/Sunday

(26/27 June)
Weekend off, so some time was available for the garden!
Earthed up the spuds (no, seriously)
Sifted two barrow-loads of compost for the 'main bed'.
Put a mesh over two butternut squashes.
Pinched out the growing tip of one of the Table Queens, as it seemed pretty long.
Sowed some more carrot seeds in the gaps between the carrots.
Watered lots.
Cherries on the new cherry tree seem to have died.
Apples setting pretty well (Loads dropping, but loads left)
Rhubarb in partial sun seems to be better off than the one in the orchard (though it's had almost a week extra in situ...)
Weeded the rose bed. (Or maybe I'd already done that...)
Marigolds in tray are sprouting (and brought inside to prevent further attack from some random creature than got into the tray) Marigolds in miniplug thing aren't yet.
About half the jack-o-lantern seeds have appeared. Turks Turban ones also appearing. PSB too.

Yesterday and today...

We did some digging.
No real reason for it - we just felt like it, so why not?!

And if you're wondering about that stick thing in the ground, it's stick man.
We also earthed up the potatoes again today - they were looking like this:
despite the fact we only did it yesterday. I'm beginning to wonder if there's enough room in the bins... (not that I know anything about growing them!)
We were also stalked by a robin: (watch out for where Joshua almost buries it, and it still doesn't fly away)


Very bold little creature! If you're wondering why I show my shoes, it's to demonstrate how close the bird is!
And we followed it and found its nest too - very dodgy picture, but the white little stripes in the middle are the beaks of the babies. The red blob in the top left quarter at the end is the robin (possibly slightly disturbed by our presence - Joshua doesn't do subtle...) who was back happily feeding the young soon afterwards (like about 7 seconds)



Here's the butternut squash bed, having been planted up.
Another of the runner beans has died, and the third has had it's head chopped/bitten off by something. Oh dear. Not a roaring success.
Transplanted a couple of corn to rationalise the bed somewhat, though may have said that yesterday.


And finally, in other news, we saw a Goldcrest yesterday (I'm pretty sure, anyway!) And we saw a huge bird of prey today. If it weren't for the fact that they don't live 'round here, I'd say it was an eagle... But I'll accept Buzzard instead. I was driving at the time, but it was definitely too big to be anything kestrely! Unfortunately, the RSPB site doesn't tell me the relative sizes of the birds...

Today's effort

Watered lavender (at last I remembered)
Watered veg.
Raspberries seem to have been attacked by something (someone?!) as they've lost a couple of branches...
Watered rose bed and cleared space for intercropping pumpkins :)
Watered sweet peas.
Slug pelleted pumpkins/squashes and lavender.

Need to plant out some more lavender to plug the gaps that have appeared ... (Some eaten, some just upped and died...)

Getting started.

Well, I'm having a nightmare with the i'net connection, so this is later in the day than I'd hoped, so I'll be quick.
Basically, this is going (probably) to be a sort of garden diary in the main. It'll have some pictures and stuff, but it's as much for me as for anyone, as I hope I'll be able to learn next year from this year's mistakes, and I'm more likely to write it down on the computer than in a book! Some of it will be about veg type stuff. Other stuff will be general garden stuff like flowers and cuttings and all that jazz. There might be a couple of 'projects' too (the compost heap springs to mind).

A whistlestop tour of the garden, veg related areas.
The 'main bed' in terms of veg production. (Currently lying empty...)
The carrots and parsnips.
The raspberries and a couple of strawberries.
The pumpkins and squashes beds (with rhubard)
The tubs with courgettes in and bins with spuds in.
The helper.

So there you have it.
I'll add some more photos and maybe update some of these in better light conditions...
As for today's efforts:
Sown French marigold in mini-plug things. Indoors.
Sown French Marigold in a tray. Outdoors.
Planted out butternut squash in bed (6, 3ft apart - about a foot tall)
Weeded.
Sown Jack o lantern pumpkins (10ish) in little pots indoors.
Sown 3 turks turbans (a couple died outside so need replacing)
Sown 3 pots (2 seeds to a pot) of purple sprouting broc. indoors.

And yesterday, as I'm on here:
weeded raspberries.
Watered everything veg related.
Watered roses.
Meant to water lavender but forgot.