The outdoor blog

Bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Chilly.

2012-02-12T17:31:00.002Z

It's been a cold snap recently. Most distressingly, my fuscia seem to have been killed off. I'll cut them back, and see if they give life another go, but it doesn't look too hopeful :( I got them as plugs, and they'd grown to about a foot in pots...
The chickens have had a little extra protection:

I draped horticultural fleece over their 'bedroom' bit of their house. I have no idea if they slept better as a result, but I know I did! Thankfully, to date, all three are still with us.

Not much chance to do anything else outside. We've picked up a couple of big pots for a pear tree and an apple tree, and they can be done despite the weather, as they don't require digging! Perhaps a project for this week.
I keep promising myself I'll do an onion sowing session ... been saying that since December.

TIMBERRRRRRR

2012-01-05T19:47:00.002Z

Our tree's just fallen over.
It used to look like this:

Now it looks like this: (different seasons, clearly!)

Here are the bits of it...

It's been quite windy here...

It's cold outside.

2011-12-16T13:02:00.001Z

Nice to have some help in the garden...

Even it Big Boy didn't make it out, despite assuring me he wanted to help!
Trying to sort out the beds, need to plant a bunch more bulbs, and get set for sowing some onion seeds (they're going to be winners you know...)

Raking it in.

2011-11-13T21:45:00.001Z

Well. I tried last year, and failed. I thought I'd try again. Raking up the leaves is a pretty tall order if you happen to have an orchard.

It's also not that straightforward when you have children. They do sometimes like attention.
What complicates things further is the chicken population. When they insist on going up to your carefully piled leaves and kicking them all over the place...

... you start fantasising about pies. (Not really, I love our hens!)
But this was as far as I got before Little Boy demanded my attention, and the sun went down (thus the different exposure - my phone camera struggled with the light)

Not bad. Probably nudging a couple of hours work. Saves going to the gym (and I can't really take the boys with me to the gym, but I can have them in the garden!)

It's the fork that counts.

2011-11-11T16:43:00.001Z

I don't know how I can joke about it really. It's actually quite sad.

I was tidying up the front bed this morning, when disaster struck. Either the ground is too hard, or I am. Or perhaps a combination of the two. Either way, the fork wasn't up to the battle, and gave way. It was a nice border fork too. Ok, so the tines weren't exactly in line any more, and the top of the handle could pinch your hand something rotten, but it still had a good few years service under its belt.
The silver lining is that I now have a large hand fork (or will, once I've separated the handle completely) as well as a dibber perfect for planting leeks.
What's more, I could also get a nice new fork from Christmas. It is approaching apace, after all.

That time of year again.

2011-10-28T22:40:00.003+01:00

Cannot.

Get.

Enough.

Of.

This.

Amazing.

Tree.

Chickens!

2011-09-28T14:18:00.001+01:00

Which came first?
The chickens. Obviously. But before them, came the coop.

This is in the orchard (I'm hoping there aren't any foxes reading this...)
The chickens came from Highfield Happy Hens.

They were transported in potato boxes in the back of the car...

With veg trays for lids. Apparently that's luxury compared to what some people take them home in. I thought it was nice to set the bar high :)
They were then released into the coop...

They had a little potter around and seem to be happy with their new accommodation. They arrived last Thursday, and we've so far had four eggs from them. I expect production will pick up the more settled they get.

Big boy is so far the only one to have sampled them, but I intend to try one out soon! Still don't really know what we're doing in terms of how to look after the chickens, and am hoping that our ignorance doesn't kill them off...

Gazania

2011-09-18T22:38:00.001+01:00

Seedy business.

2011-09-10T22:02:00.000+01:00

What's the difference between seed envelopes and dinner money envelopes?
Well, the most obvious thing seems to be the price... I ordered a pack of each. At the time of ordering, the seed envelopes were £3.90, while the dinner money envelopes were £3.99. For the extra nine pence, you got 80 more envelopes. Now, I have to admit that the seed ones do seem to be a bit higher quality - more robust (I suppose a dinner money envelope usually only has to last until lunchtime...)
But anyway, I started using them today. I collected some lavender seed, some seed from a nice flower (probably technically a weed, but who cares?!) that sprouted along the drive, and a whole bunch of poppy seed. They're in the dinner money envelopes.
Other stuff that's been done in the garden recently includes:
Harvesting the carrots (they were purple),
Harvesting some spuds,
Trimming leaves off tomato plants (helps the fruit ripen, apparently),
Potting the fuchsia up into bigger pots,
Cutting back the lavender,
Pruning the wisteria,
Turning the compost,
Watching the sweet peas die back and waiting for an abundant harvest of seeds.
Dead heading the sunflowers out the front,
Emptying all the dead pots of compost (failing seedlings and the like) into a big trug, with the idea of planting a fig tree in it and sinking it into the ground (apparently they grow really big if unchecked)
And probably other stuff too...

Compost

2011-09-07T21:44:00.000+01:00

Just a quick compost post. To be honest, I thought the compost was a bit of a write-off. It didn't seem to be doing what I thought it should. For some time, I'd been meaning to turn the compost, as that apparently speeds up the process. (Monty Don said, 'any gardener who goes to the gym doesn't turn their compost often enough.) Well, today I got around to it. (Strictly speaking, I started yesterday, but genuinely did less than 20 seconds before being called away...)

It's quite a large compost area. There are three pairs of pallets, on end, which create two compost areas. The idea was that they were 'year 1' and 'year 2' areas, to allow the garden waste time to do its thing (become compost!) I've pretty much used up all the compost on the right hand side, and the left hand side is the stuff that's been added over the course of this year. I therefore figured I'd 'turn' the compost from the left side into the right.

I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Although the surface (top photo) doesn't look like much is happening, as soon as you dig down a bit, you find what could reasonably be mistaken for compost!

Some of the bits are still a bit big, so it might have to be sieved, depending on where it's to be applied, but all in all, I was pretty chuffed with the quality of it.

So this'll be applied liberally around the garden in the coming months. Some for winter mulch, the rest of spring feeding. Yay.

Are you bored of sweet peas yet?

2011-07-28T20:14:00.000+01:00

Well, mum mentioned in a recent 'phone call that grandad had once had 5 blooms on one stem. I thought this was pretty impressive. Today, I found this:

Ok, so it's past its best, I'll grant you. But there are (were!) clearly six blooms hereupon.
Yay :)

Marathon Garden day.

2011-07-27T08:07:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was pretty immense in the garden:
Front beds had some sunflowers put in to replace the (mysteriously) damaged ones.
Also planted some pansies (got enough from seed!!) in the useless front bed that will probably suck the life from them. If they work, it'll spruce up the drive a little.
Pruned the wisteria so it no longer looks like it's trying to gain entry to our house.
Replanted most of the pots on the front step to tidy things up a little.
Attempted to annihilate an ant colony on the front step.
Potted up some:
Pansies,
More pansies,
Sweet peas (bushy type)
A random rudbeckia
'Honesty'
Planted out:
A rudbeckia in the climbing frame bed.
Three 'honesty' (Lunaria Annua) in the rose bed, around the drain.
Sunflowers in the bed next to the rose bed.

Also:
Made up the four wedding-anniversary-present-chairs from Anna's parents.
Tidied the sideboard of solution a little.
Sadly, although there are still plenty left, many of the pansy seedlings died while we were away, because I forgot to put them on the table (where they'd get rained on) and so they dried and died. Oops.

Those sweet peas again...

2011-07-14T21:59:00.000+01:00

I think that they look better from this angle. This is the view from the South (so it's logical that they look floweryer)

This week I've:
Planted out the tomato seedlings,
Planted out a b'nut squash and 'yummy pumpkin' seedlings,
Netted the red cabbages,
Harvested a few raspberries,
Harvested loads of plums (jam tomorrow)
Found some flowers growing! (photos some time...)
And probably other stuff too, which I've forgotten.

Sweet (pea) aroma.

2011-07-04T21:18:00.000+01:00

Well, looking at the last picture of the sweet peas, posted on June 11th (ok, so it was, strictly speaking, a picture of the rose, and the sweet peas just happened to be hanging around in the background...) I thought I should perhaps update you on their progress:

I'm going to be bold and perhaps a little unhumble and say that I'm sure they actually look better in real life. And the smell of them is such a large part of their appeal that a blog post could never do them justice.
Other things that have happened in the garden lately:
Loads of people came for drinks and nibbles in the garden.
The raspberries have been netted.
The cherry tree has been netted (partly in response to the text I received last week from the friend down South we gave an identical cherry tree too, saying she was enjoying her first bowl of cherries of the year - ours are still somewhat green)
Courgettes and squashes have been planted in the orchard beds. (Maybe I said that already)
Beans have been planted in a new orchard bed. (Maybe I said that too...) And one replaced following its predecessor's consumption by unknown aggressor.
Red cabbages have been planted in the orchard, then attacked by the birds, and are now in the process of being netted and, while they wait, are covered in fleecey stuff.
On the flowers front, some of the zinnias have been spaced out a bit more evenly.
Most of the gazanias and rudbeckias that were heretofore in pots are now in the ground.
The pansies are flourishing in their modules, and should really be dealt with ASAP.

Yet another update...

2011-06-11T23:17:00.000+01:00

Remember this rose? It now looks like this:

Ok, so it's not a very clear shot, but the close-up shot with the camera phone was overexposed. The fact is, I'm really quite pleased that where I planted a twig, I now have a rose bush.

All along the wall is a mass of sweet peas. They're growing steadily and will hopefully fill up the netting placed there for them to climb. Should look quite spectacular...

And the lavender, which arrived in a tray about 6 inches by 10 inches now looks like this. Sure, we lost a few along the way, but given they started life as mini plugs a couple of seasons ago, it's nice that they've made it as far as this (again, it's not a hugely clear shot, but it's the strip of green at the bottom of the hedge).

Some of them have even had the courtesy to produce flowers. Last year we had one single flower along the entire row (I think there are about 60 plants), and this year most plants have a number of flowers each! What progress :)

Very pleasing, all in all. The runner beans are poking their heads out of the pots, the toms sown recently are about an inch or two tall. Nothing from the pumpkins yet, nor the b'nut squash. The pansies are growing steadily. We continue to lose a bunch of them, but given they're from seed from last year's pansies, they are completely free. Sunflowers are a bit ropey - considering sowing some and planting others along the long bed out the front (where the marigold were last year).
Anyway, bedtime.

Behold a revolution.

2011-06-07T11:04:00.000+01:00

It has arrived. The sideboard of solution has landed.

Yes, it does take up an extraordinary amount of space on the patio, but so does the junk that's there at the moment. You'll see there are five drawers along the front (which is why I'm calling it a sideboard rather than a table). These very drawers are cunningly going to hide much of the detritus. (I know what you're thinking; you're thinking, 'he doesn't mean detritus, he's just trying to be fancy'; you're thinking, 'detritus is matter produced by erosion, what erosion is happening on Nick's patio?!' Well, it's the erosion of order and harmony, if you must know)
This is a seminal moment for the outdoors space. It is a turning point. I strongly suspect that once the patio is better organised, I will be able to begin to make headway into the equally important matter of world peace. So it's really all for the best.

Over the last week...

2011-05-23T07:07:00.000+01:00

We have:
sorted the orchard beds (except the T one)
Sorted bean poles (need another stake though...)
Sown Turks Turban seeds in the L shaped bed.
Weeded the raised orchard bed
Potted on a lot of pansies from seed tray to individual modules in a tray (over 100 so far, and only about half way through...)
Potted on the sunflowers from modules to pots (8cm Vipots)
Potted on the chinese lanterns from modules to minipots (but still loads in modules)
continued to fail with the parsnips
Planted out some of the Gazania and Rudbeckia
Planted some spuds in the bins
Harvested some rhubarb (it's not doing famously well...)
Planted the last gooseberry (containerised, not bare root)
Sown toms in pots (cherry, 'normal' and big)
Sown butternut squash in pots
Sown more sunflowers (Joshua's from school)

Some pictures...

2011-04-20T14:37:00.000+01:00

Oh, just a boring old update.

2011-04-02T22:16:00.000+01:00

I keep realising that I set this up so that I could read what I did last year and learn from it.
So far, I haven't read last year's entries, and certainly haven't learnt from all last year's mistakes.
Anyway, latest projects include:
Sorting out the irises, which had been left to slump all over the garden for winter, so needed a drastic haircut before the new growth came up. Caught them just in time a couple of weeks back.
Sowing sweet peas in the bed by our 'front' wall. Staffordshire compost and a bit of seed compost too.
Having Anna build a mini greenhouse (is that a shocking thing to say?) It was altogether altruistic - she was clearing my garden detritus out of the kitchen :)
Build climbing frame.
Sow herbs in golden syrup tins. (Still not much success - causes some confusion)
Hoeing places (now there's a blog title for later...)
Employing a gardener (is that cheating?)
Wishing my tiny mind could remember all the other things

... you're very busy, man ...

2011-02-26T17:02:00.000Z

So, having filled up the wheelbarrow with old bush (I was told it wouldn't have taken too kindly to the cold, so I chopped it out - it's twin is still in there)

I cleared the space a little and popped in some gooseberries. Two in, one still to arrive.

Then I cleared away the carrot fly barrier and hoe hoe hoed, also emptying the colourful tubs of their weeds and plants remnants.

The plan is to have a lot more flowers in this bed this year, and use the raised bed outside for veg, as well as the other beds in the orchard.

RHS, how I love you.

2011-02-26T12:01:00.000Z

How cool is this:

I sent off for my seeds from the RHS, and they arrived this morning.
Yay. Now I have to find space to sow them all, and then more space to plant them... But what a fantastic deal anyway. £12 for 20 packets. All collected from the RHS gardens around Britain.
I'm sure they'll come up again in due course...

Fool!

2011-02-22T21:19:00.000Z

Gooseberry fool, that is.
Today saw the delivery of two gooseberry bushes. One is yet to come. Today's were Invicta and Hinnomaki Yellow (I think... They're downstairs and I can't be bothered to check)
The question (and it's rather pressing now) is where to put them. The two options are:
Next to the raised bed (I was going to make it bigger, then figured that wasn't necessary - I could just plant things like gooseberries in well prepared holes, rather than have a whole bed for them...)
Behind the raspberries. Slightly more complex, as this would necessitate the removal of a large bush, which I'd rather put off moving. Logically, however, this is probably the preferable spot for them... It's likely to get a little more sun in summer, and is in the main garden.
So, if I can muster up the energy, that's what I'll do.

We're also having the fencing people around tomorrow, so that'll be a hit to the old bank balance... I'll have to start selling gooseberry fools to cover it. (To cover the cost, that is, not to cover the fence in pudding)

And as for the seeds, we've got a good hit rate with the Gazanias, the rudbeckias are starting to catch up a little, some delphiniums are showing, and the sweet peas are about 8 inches tall. The physalis modules still appear empty... 21-30 days it said, and we're only a few days off the 21.

The herbs on the windowsill aren't doing that well. Parsley's doing ok, but the rest are a bit ropey. I can't seem to keep them damp, but then I don't know if I'm drowning them or dehydrating them. Ah, the traumas.

The shallots got dug up (maybe I mentioned that) and nibbled by squirrels. If only I had a gun...

The snowdrops are looking fab at the moment. Probably going to start dying down soon. Could Spring be on its way?

Sow good.

2011-02-13T23:16:00.000Z

Well, helper and I have been busy. We've been popping lots of seeds into seed trays and hoping for the best. Simple process - poke finger in seed compost (yes, I buy seed compost), put seed (or seeds, if the packet's got millions) in poked hole, cover hole, water lightly (I actually put them in a box of water to allow the water to come up through the compost, rather than top down...) and put in the kitchen.

They were then promptly neglected while we went away for a few days. And this is what they looked like today.

Far box is sweet peas. Middle one is chinese lanterns on the left and delphinium on the right. Near one is Gazania on the left and Rudbeckia on the right. As you can see, some are further on than others, although the Gazania, which thought they'd germinate after 14 days (according to the packet) are actually out after just a week, so you never can tell...
Needless to say, I'm pleased with their progress so far... Though the next thing is probably for them all to go weedy and fall over and die :)
Oh, and if you're wondering, this is the start of the cutting garden. We're expanding from vegetables and fruit...

The bed's made, now what?

2011-02-02T12:35:00.000Z

Well, some blackberries have gone in now. You'll be pleased to know that I've straightened up the far one since looking at the photo! They're supposed to spread about 6 foot, so will have to spill out perhaps, but hopefully will crop nicely... They cost a total of 9 quid. Can't write more now - other things to be done!

Projects for the year.

2011-01-23T17:39:00.000Z

Well, apart from the fact that I should really be blogging more often, here are a few things in the pipeline for this year:
We're going to put a fence around the hedge in the garden. This sounds pretty straightforward, but there's a lot of hedge, so it's a bit of a mission. Excitingly, we've got someone coming to help with it!
The bed where the parsnips were dug up with a pickaxe is (perhaps unsurprisingly) slightly messed up, so needs sorting out. It's going to have some flowers in it, and some of the veg are going to be moved outside into a...
Raised bed in the orchard. This is getting more into the realms of dreams, but I'd really like to have a raised bed in the orchard. I bought some blackberries to go in it, and will get some gooseberries too. We'll also go for things like red cabbage out there (might construct the raised beds with the ability to be netted)
Peony needs to be planted out.
Zillions of flowers for a cutting garden.
Tempted by some Mahonia but resisted (so far)
The hedge needs to be planted (thankfully the team will do that, not me!)
And loads of other stuff.

The green manure is chuntering along ok. Hopefully it will work!

Given it's all about parsnips...

2010-12-22T21:50:00.002Z

I should really have had this here, but I didn't. Wider audience and all that...

The white stuff.

2010-12-06T20:07:00.006Z

Which is generally snow, but in the following photos is more sort of freezing fog. Makes for some nice shots though. Not much comment on this post other than captions...

A bit of hedge.

Some sort of acer.

The dogwood (one of my favourites at this time of year!)

The window :)
A big lovely tree... with other littler trees

Wisteria by the door.

Bunting in the back garden (perhaps that should be a summer thing...)

Bush, complete with robin
Copper beech hedge
Huge evergreen.

A twig of some description.

Big evergreen thing.

Apple tree, complete with remains of the crop!

The orchard.

Plum tree.

Limp looking rhododendron.

Spider web...

On the holly near the door.

Snow.

2010-11-30T14:50:00.006Z

Good luck getting the parsnips out of here...

We've been busy (as ever...) doing bits and bobs in the garden. We've now made a leaf mould area. Here's Joshua working hard on its creation:
This is one half of it, the basic idea being six posts (four so far in this picture) with mesh around the back and sides, and down the middle. (Mesh should allow the leafmould to breathe more easily...)
The next job was to set up a way of hiding the leaf mould area a little, so on the right hand side (nearer the house) we planted some dogwood:
I should perhaps point out that it wasn't snowing when we did this job. That would have been a little too keen.
And on the left (nearer the public footpath) I thought we'd have a go at planting some more roses:
This is after the success of one such rose attempt last year. I figured I'd combine the time to prune with a planting job. Hopefully some of these will take root and produce nice rose bushes in future. Speaking of which I should probably finish the pruning of the other roses, including the one we planted last year! Hopefully the snow won't cause the new plants any problems. They were all dipped in rooting juice (organic, rather than the powder). In fact, the dogwood sticks were left in overnight. Probably horribly bad for them, but we'll see...
Sadly, one mow of half the orchard was enough to fill one side of the leaf mould area. That wasn't exactly the plan, but we live and learn...

Not such a rake idea.

2010-11-10T17:28:00.006Z

So, I had this plan. I thought to myself, I know, I'll set myself a little challenge. I'll rake the orchard.A Bad plan. A Foolish plan. A plan almost certain to Fail...
But I'm giving it a go anyway. To be honest, I might cheat towards the end, but here's the rough idea for now.
It's a job that goes in 3 stages (so far...)
Stage one is apple clearance. You'll notice lots of apples in the picture above (towards the back there...)

Same tree, different angle, apples cleared. Stage one complete (for that tree, anyway)

Stage two, outer circle raking.
Thus. This clears a lot of the leaves from the main bit of the orchard, gathers them towards the tree, and is nice to look at, as it suggests you've achieved something.

Stage three, inner circle raking.
Making sure, of course, that you don't pile it too much against the tree itself, so you don't end up rotting the trunk by mistake.
And from there, it will all mulch down and feed it for next year. That's the plan anyway. Given that all the rejected apples end up in the pile of leaves, does that make the tree cannibalistic?
Oh well, the apples taste nice. Anyone want one?

How's that for a squash?

2010-11-08T15:14:00.006Z

All taken at Wimpole Estate (National Trust property near Cambridge)

Green manure and other things...

2010-11-07T20:31:00.002Z

Well, I had a quick look at the beds in the orchard today and, blow me down, things were sprouting!
I think it must be the red clover (or, of course, some invasive weed that I wasn't planning on...) but it was very exciting to see.
Intended to take a photo, but then didn't get through the garden gate into the orchard - too much time with Joshua in the fallen leaves, then friends popped 'round. Ah well, maybe shots another day.
And did some raking today. Sort of feels pointless in some ways, given the magnitude of the task, but nevertheless is accompanied by a great sense of accomplishment.

Autumn action

2010-10-30T12:19:00.003+01:00

Well, have taken out all the pumpkin/squash plants. They were hit by the recent frost, so the fruit softened and was then munched on by vermin (probably squirrels). Today Joshua and I have weeded and hoed the beds, and sown green manure.
The long thin bed has forage pea - two rows about 20cm apart, and 10cm between seeds. One or two (or in Joshua's case, six) seeds per hole. I poked holes with a stake and then brushed over and trampled up and down.
The T bed has forage pea both horizontal and vertical (poked and covered). The horizontal then has winter tares broadcast and raked in, then flattened with the rake. The vertical has red clover broadcast and then raked in. Then flattened.
The corner bed has winter tares, broadcast (quite heavily) and then sort of tussled in with the rake, and flattened by rake.
Loving the colours at the moment...We've done mega work in the orchard recently. I've almost kept on top of it, and Paul and Penny kindly helped collect apples on Wednesday to take to be pressed. Probably about 60-80 kg. Should produce about 50 bottles, with luck...
We've also picked loads for the crumbles. Aiming for 100 this year...

Update (yeah, boring title again)

2010-10-18T21:47:00.005+01:00

Well, the last few days have involved some harvest (as mentioned, this has included inventions for the orchard...)
Here's some other stuff we've brought in...
We've had a little bowl of tomatoes. (A little bowl of little tomatoes, in fact). We've had boxes and boxes and boxes of apples (thus the crumble mixture that's being stockpiled in our freezer). I've taken off the last (sizable) squash things (we had a frost on Saturday night, which gave me a pumpkin and squash scare...) Ironically, there are now about 6-8 butternut squashes on the plants outside, no more than 3-4 inches long, and therefore not really big enough to pick. I've left them on, but don't envisage they'll grow much more before being killed off by the weather...
Plant them sooner next year!!!
I would also have pictures of the courgettes (the last of the season), but we ate them on Saturday night...
Tonight we ate some spuds from the garden (sadly, some of them died because I'd stupidly put them in a box rather than in a bag/sack.
I've ordered some onion, garlic and shallot sets last week, that will hopefully come in time to be planted in the holidays!

Time in the garden has also included a fair amount of clearance over the course of the last few days. The Sweet Pea and Tomato boxes have been cleared out. In fact, in the clearance process, I came across something that I thought was very cool indeed:
It's a tomato that had fallen off the plant and ended up buried in the bed. All its seeds have started to sprout! Very impressive piece of design there. It does worry me slightly about how many windfall tomato plants we'll end up with!
The rose bed has been weeded, cleared (the pumpkins in there didn't come to anything) and compost has been added. I've also taken a couple of rose cuttings to plant, with the hope they'll root and grow next year. I've done them in pair to double the chances, and if both of a pair root, I'll just pull one up anyway. It was a 20 minute job, so if it works, I figure I've saved some more cash!
I'll blog again soon about what's been going into all these beautifully cleared spaces :)

Apple picking.

2010-10-13T21:59:00.002+01:00

Well, 'tis the season, and it's fast approaching the 'crumble' time of year... So today saw apple picking. The most exciting thing about this was the apple picker. I've just done a blog on it, so if you want to see what about an hour's work can achieve, with coat hangers, home-made 'catchers' and poles, go check it out.

Yet another...

2010-10-03T19:48:00.005+01:00

Well, this is a quick update on things in the garden...
The Team have done some proper chopping in the front flowerbed, which may just have motivated me enough to create some sort of cutting-garden type thing. It will involve far more digging, but could be fun to do.
Out the back, I've dug up the lavender. No, not the stuff I've been carefully nurturing along the drive, but a plant that was probably nibbled on by dinosaurs in its younger days. It's created a rather bare patch. (Well, lots of weeding may have helped!). The patch will probably have some of the bedding plants that are still being 'brought on' on windowsills around the house.
(Yeah, the manhole cover isn't the most attractive thing to have in a flowerbed - we've got one in the flowerbed opposite too...)
Meanwhile, in terms of harvest, the toms that haven't died a horrible death (which most, regrettably, have) are pumping out their crop.
And the carrots sown a little while back have been thinned (a few days ago...) and are growing merrily. Well, wetly, probably. It's a bit damp outside for much merriment.
Can't be bothered to write any more atm. Am shattered and it's only 8.00.

Just catching up...

2010-09-12T21:00:00.002+01:00

A couple of things done recently.
I finally put some more compost/soil in the boxes, but the toms and sweet peas don't seem to have done much better yet.
Beef toms probably won't ripen before frost
Red cabbages taking a hammering from darn caterpillars.
Carrots peeking out of the ground.
B'nut squash sat on a tile growing happily.
Have fed squash, pumpkins and toms (on tom food)
Filled up courgette tubs a bit too. They still look unhappy.
Ate a couple more raspberries.
Tidied veranda (wow, such fun).

Need to:
sort lavender gaps
sort marigold gaps
prune raspberries

Consider ordering some sweet potato slips...

Many Marigolds.

2010-08-29T18:51:00.003+01:00

I finished planting them at long last:

112 marigolds, from seed, all along the driveway. It took three separate stabs to get the job done, but now it is. And they'll hopefully be blooming soon.

Meanwhile, the pumpkins are growing, the red cabbages are being ravaged by darn caterpillars, the tomatoes are struggling to life, the courgettes still producing. The spring onion and lettuces are just beginning to show themselves, and yesterday saw the sowing of two rows of carrots where the last lot was dug up (is it a problem, planting them in the same place? Hope not!) The lavender's ok, a couple of ropey looking ones perhaps. The sweet peas have decided to offer up a few more flowers, and the spuds should be dug soon (though we had a batch from Wales, which was lovely!)

The 252 miniplug plants (primula, pansy and viola) have arrived and the viola is now 'potted on' into the trays (40plugs per tray)

Update:

2010-08-10T21:04:00.002+01:00

So, we came back and the harvest started, but it's slowed down a bit since. In the last week, I've tidied up the long bed out the front of the boarding house (2/3 of it so far...) and planted marigolds. So far, I think there are about 80 in there. Need to do the last 2 1/2 sections and that'll take us over 100 I imagine. There are about 4 that haven't made it so far, so I'll have to replace them (I'd already replaced two which had been dug up by something - I blame cats.) They're all from seed. So apart from the hours of work, they cost about 2 quid. Not bad for 100+ flowers.
I've just (today) ordered 252 plants (£9.99 off Thompson and Morgan) with the following write-up
"Pansy 'Universal' is ideal for any season of the year and remains a best-selling variety. Viola 'Sorbet' is just as winter hardy and will produce an abundance of flowers, but just a little more dainty and in bi-colour variations. The gorgeous new Primrose 'Petticoat' Mixed gives a outstanding display of compact double blooms in bright-warm shades, which resemble miniture roses, again very hardy flowering through frost and snow." (Yes, they did spell miniature incorrectly)
They are sold as 'plug plants' but they may come as mini-plugs, at that price... We'll have to wait and see.
The squashes are growing well, it would appear. I'm going to put them on tiles tomorrow (we don't have bricks lying about, but we do have some roof tiles!) to keep them off the ground. Will probably also bung slug pellets on the tiles!
Sowed two rows (sideways) in the big bed. Next to the path, there are lettuces, and one row in are spring onions. Didn't want to start too close to the spuds, as they'll be harvested soon, and I intended just to tip the soil onto the bed and fish them out. The beef toms are beginning to appear. Cherries in the boxes are getting there too. We had the last of the carrots at the weekend, so I'm going to sow a bunch more this week too. We had some parsnips at the weekend too, which was satisfying, but I didn't take any pics!
Enough for now!

Carrots, carrots and more carrots.

2010-07-30T18:06:00.005+01:00

Mentioned the carrots yesterday. Well, today, I started to harvest them.
The first one I got (which was a bit of a sad start) was mutant carrot.
It had these fab little arms and legs, and a very stubby body. It was not an altogether glowing start to the carrot harvest, but they did get better and better from there in.

Here's a shot of some of them having just been harvested, and they're not looking bad at all. (That's mutant carrot in the front there, but he's lying on his tummy, so you can only see one arm and one leg).

And of course, you can't harvest carrots without the help of a garden gnome (a.k.a Joshua). He was very useful indeed (in that he harvested one carrot and then let me get on with it!)
And yes, he is still in his pyjamas for this. Shocking, I know.
Here's the proof of the amount of carrots - over 1kg! Very pleased with that, especially given how many more are still to come up. I think I'll probably dig up one row over the next week or two, and then plant some baby carrots we got free from the National Trust. That should mean that we've got carrots for a while yet! They take about 7-10 weeks, if the book is correct...
Apparently, the Table Queen should be ready in about another month, but maybe I'll be lucky and have some sooner. They are supposed to be about 6in diameter, according to one place I looked! So they've got a little way to go yet.

We have harvest!

2010-07-29T19:58:00.015+01:00

Very exciting day today. Got back from a two week holiday and had a look at the garden. Here's some photographic evidence:
Raspberries (sadly, this photo shows ALL the raspberries currently on our 12 canes...)
Pumpkins - Table Queen, if you're wondering. Not quite sure how to tell if they're ready to pick, but I'll look it up :)

Pumpkins (or maybe these ones are squash, come to think of it) Turks Turban. So named, because they end up looking like a turban. Although this one looks a bit flat, so I'm not sure if it actually will...

This is sort of the pumpkin/squash patch generally, which has come a fair way since the last photo. Also, the rhubarb in the middle is doing a whole load better than it was a little while ago. I think it's mainly recovered from it's long wait to be planted out.

These are the tomatoes. They're most (if not all) beef tomatoes, so we're going to have to consume a fair amount of tomato, basil and mozzarella salad... Sadly, the basil seeds I've sown inside have taken exception to not being watered for a fortnight...

Here are the potatoes. You can hardly see the bins now, which is slightly ridiculous. Again (as with most things...) I don't actually know when I'm supposed to be digging them up. Man, there's a whole lot more reading to be done.

Red cabbage. They're doing ok. Thankfully, the ones that were sown at the wrong time (i.e., when we were going to be heading south before they were ready to be planted out) have also survived, so will be planted out in due course. Note the nibbling that's happened on the far end. Not sure if that's slugs or caterpillars, haven't investigated properly. Note also the vast number of weeds that have flourished in our two weeks away.

I thought this was quite exciting. This is the carrots and parsnip bed (as you'll recognise from previous posts!) They're pretty immense. I also saw (though the camera phone wasn't up to the shot) a real carrot-looking thing at the bottom of the vegetation. Ok, so perhaps this isn't a big surprise, but it's EXCITING!

Here's the intercropping (pumpkins in rose bed) I mentioned before. They seem to be doing ok. Not sure that there'll be much pumpkin action in time for October, but hey. It's all a learning curve. Thankfully, there has actually been some rain up here while we've been away. This has help avoid a mass die-off in the garden. However, not everything has fared quite so well...

The tomatoes in the boxes, and the sweet peas with which they are planted, have not done quite so swimmingly. They don't really get much in the way of rain. They are outside, but probably get a bit of shelter from the patio roof, which means that the boxes can get pretty dry. Next year, I might have to line them with plastic, so that they keep the water in. The problem then, of course, will be waterlogging! There are, however, some tomatoes (they're cherry ones) on these plants.

And finally, the thing that actually came in from the garden today. It's tempting to make this a massive photo, but I'll resist. Unfortunately, these have actually grown a little too much. They're supposed to be courgettes, but have rather outgrown the tubs and are more marrowish. There were two like this, so we've kept one and given the other away. There's also a more normal size one, which we'll have at the weekend... Will also probably get some carrots up and maybe spuds and parsnips... Who knows!

In other news (roundup). Beans are doing much (well, it's in the singular, not plural!). PSB sown earlier is ok, but nothing impressive. Marigolds wilted in kitchen but not dead. Peppers in kitchen dead. Agapanthus growing. Pansies still going despite being uprooted (trying to find more seeds!) Haven't checked lavender. Plums beginning to redden slightly. (Still a way off though). Apples all doing well. Most roses over now. Loads of weeding to be done. Other rhubarb fine.
Will probably do a flower update tomorrow (or soon, anyway.)

Another rose...

2010-07-15T12:35:00.003+01:00

Found this in the garden.
Very nice indeed.
But sadly the only one to come of that bush!

And while I'm on here, I may as well mention that I planted 5 pumpkin plants during half-time of the World Cup Final. One's been a bit nibbled and will probably not make it, but the others are doing ok. I've got a couple more to go in with the hope that they'll produce pumpkins for carving in the house. Though they might be rather ... uh ... small!

Weeded the beds under the boxes ... Weeded bed near the carrots and parsnips. Carrots sown recently seem to be showing themselves.

Burial.

2010-07-08T19:44:00.004+01:00

Well, today we have:
Planted some agapanthus in pots by the door.
Put up galvanised wire rather than green garden wire for the sweet peas, and then tied the tomatoes into it too.
Dug a whole load of holes in the rose bed (finding lots of ants in the process) ready to put some pumpkins into.
Watered the boxes.
Watered the veg (main garden)
Dead headed the roses.
Taken marigold seedlings from the miniplug thing and put them in a 5x8 seed tray insert (there were 39 that had come up so far!)
Buried a bird. I think it flew into the window. A timely reminder that we could buy some of those bird stickers for said window...
Had a conversation with Joshua about the bird, including:
J: Is it dead?
Me: Yes, I think it flew into the window
J: (Looking intently at bird lying on ground) I think its legs have fallen off.
Me: No sweetie, they're just underneath him, you can't see them.
J: His eyes have fallen out.
Me: No, he's just closed them (I don't actually know about this one - do they shut them when they die, or what?!)
J: What shall we do?
Me: We'll bury him in the garden.
J: Are we going to bury him now?
Me: In a minute, I'm going to get my gloves first.
J: Why are you getting gloves, is he prickly?
Me: Uh, no, it's just that sometimes dead things aren't very clean, so it's better to wear gloves.
J: Why do we bury things when they're dead?
Me: (thinking, yeah, jolly good question) Uh, because it's nicer.
J: After a while, he'll come back to life.
Me: Uh, no sweetie, I don't think that the glorious hope of the resurrection extends to animals.
J: Who does come back to life?
Me: Well, people. Do you remember what happened to Jesus?
J: Yes, he died.
Me: And then what happened?
J: He came back to life again.
Me: And because he did that, we can come back to life too, after we've died
J: Is that why people pray to him?
Me: Well, yes, it's one reason.

I've also unplanted the pansies from the pot by the door, and moved them into a seed tray, where I'll keep them moist ish and harvest seeds. I hope.
Yesterday, I got a few seeds from the pansies, and some from a nice pink wildflower down the end of the orchard.
All the corn has now been eaten. Officially not doing corn ever again.
I planted a couple of the beef tomatoes into the bed at the weekend, as they kept wilting in the black plastic pots. Three more to do. The tomato from Paul and Penny has been dug up (again!) and I don't think will make it this time. (A moment's silence...)
The lone runner bean is doing its best, but is somewhat stunted by its attack earlier in the year.

Went to Calke at the weekend and was encouraged to hear that a volunteer in the garden (and oldish boy, so I figure he knows what he's doing) had had a bad year for parsnips, so I don't feel too bad now...
There might be some carrot seedlings from the latest sowing showing, but it's early to tell what they are...
The red cabbages planted at the weekend are doing ok, though one's been nibble a bit despite the netting ... slugs? Who knows!

By any other name.

2010-06-29T22:44:00.004+01:00

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

2010-06-28T20:53:00.004+01:00

(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...

2010-06-25T20:59:00.008+01:00

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 m an.
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

2010-06-23T22:37:00.000+01:00

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.

2010-06-22T22:39:00.000+01:00

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.