Yet another update...

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.

Snow.

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...

Another rose...

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.

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.

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.