Back to the Garden

Spurred on by some good 'gardening' weather - warm, dry and not blowing a gale - I have made good progress in getting parts of the garden under control.

I started with the veggie patch - and have hopefully got out all the remaining potatoes, some of which were still edible!

Two of my three rhubarb plants are thriving, and the eagle-eyed will spot a few leeks that I have excavated around.

I then moved on to the long bank extension. I am really pleased with how the new bit is doing. The bulbs I put in have given a splash of colour. The day lilies have put on strong growth, and a week on I can see the irises are coming through. The rather sad looking heucheras that I split are now also putting on strong growth and hopefully I will have a nice zig-zag of interesting foliage later in the year. Even the tiny bits of veronica that I popped in more from hope than expectation are doing well - one is even flowering.

I then moved on to the fruit tree bed - two days and I have cleared the carpet of weeds. I rescued a very pretty pansy that was flowering gamely in amongst them and given it a new home. I really wanted to get this done as the ground is very dry and we were promised rain, so I wanted the trees to get the water rather than the weeds. I also got another bag's worth of potatoes out...

A few days ago I also weeded the herb patch, and have got the first raised planter back under control. Unlike the rest of the garden the planters are quite damp and muddy, being north facing alongside the high wall.

My packet of parsley seed said that parsley can be difficult to germinate - I don't think this is true. As well as all the baby plants in the herb patch I have it growing in the path, three very large healthy plants in the corner of the fruit tree bed and one has made it across the lawn to the planter above...

We eventually got the much needed steady rain yesterday.

Cardigardening

I realised that despite all my knitting over the last year and a half I had a distinct lack of cardigans. Jumpers overflowing, but very few cardies.

Well, that's not too hard to rectify...

February...

April...

And I also got around to buying and sewing in the zip for my hoodie jacket - I bought the yarn for this from a spinner/dyer on Lewis many many years ago (I guess the 1990s) when visiting my cousin Margaret and her husband Donald. Knitted the jacket last year. Zip only waited 9 months...

And possibly late April, more likely May:

Just finished blocking the body, first sleeve on the needles. I have no idea how this will turn out. I had 4.25 skeins left of this gorgeous Jaeger 4-ply silk that I got as an absolute bargain in 2011 and couldn't find a pattern I liked to use it. So I am making up my own...

I have also been busy in the garden. I finished weeding the LBE a couple of days ago - see April photo. And yesterday I started on the veggie patch. After my first abortive attempt when the weather gods sent down an onslaught of hail the moment my hands were covered in dirt I got back out an hour later and got in a good session.

This gives a good indication of the state it was in after a year of neglect due to last year's weather and my frozen shoulder. I actually got the next bed cleared as well by end of play yesterday evening.

Oh, and I have also bought some more yarn. 700g of organic merino aran. That was my allowed reward for knitting an extra mile over my 12 mile target of last year...

Getting Ahead

I really shouldn't say it because I got a great head start last year in the garden and then it all came to a grinding halt.

But I have weeded the LBE and even done some planting - the heucheras Penny bought me for my birthday and a couple of sisyrinchiums. I then pottered a bit, transplanting a few self-seeded primroses and self-rooted violets moved from other parts of the LBE.

I still have about 4 or 5 metres to convert from weed patch to LBE, to join up with the existing long bank. I had hoped it would get done last year. I did make a start on it last year, digging out the clay from the bottom metre or so, but never got any further :(

And today the veggie patch has been attacked. I started out only intending to weed it. Then I decided it needed some muck spreading. I managed a couple of barrow loads before deciding that was enough for the day. And then Paul came out so I asked him to do a few loads. I had fully intended coming in once those had been dug in, but as I was drinking the cup of coffee he had brought out for me I decided I wanted to change the layout. So I have ended up digging the whole lot over and moving all of my 'paths' to divide the area into 4 long narrower sections that hopefully can be weeded without me having to stand on the soil. The rhubarb is already growing away, and I seem to have three leeks from somewhere...

Waiting For A Bus - Part 1

Time passes and edible garden grows...

The mangetout are in full production - picked about 10 oz so far. Luckily we like them as we will be eating an awful lot of them in the coming weeks.


The peas, looking unamazingly similar, are beginning to fatten up. And still a lot of flowers on them. Just need some sun to go with the automatic watering system, aka as rain...


A few of the red onion sets I planted are now bulbing up nicely despite throwing up flower spikes while I was in Malta in May. A few of the flower spikes are now beginning to actually flower...


The onion seeds I planted are performing with variable results. I have precisely nine bulbing onion plants that have survived so far and are looking pretty pathetic.

The spring onions are faring a little better, but still nowhere big enough to attempt to harvest. I sowed another row which again have germinated quite well but that is about as much as they have done so far. They are now surrounded by the pak choi which I thinned and replanted. Having never eaten pak choi I just hope we like it if they all survive and thrive!

The pickling onions are the stars of my allium world. We haven't finished the ones I pickled last year yet, but they are very good.

The leeks are also doing okay - I have learnt from last year not to panic too much if they are not the size of pencils yet. Still plenty of time before they need to be transferred to the veggie patch to overwinter. The first-sown carrots are coming along well.

The dwarf purple beans are beginning to put on a spurt of growth and a few flowers can be seen. They were last year's stars of the veggie patch, along with the runner beans. Talking of which, I reduced the number of those that I planted from last year and restricted myself to the better of the two varieties grown last year, Red Rum. Inspection shows that a couple have made it up to about four feet up their supports, although one has decided it prefers to grow sideways into the mangetout...

I have lost two of the tomato plants that I planted at the back of the veggie patch, but I have gained one self-seeded one. So eight very healthy looking plants. I still have more than that 'surviving' in the sunroom - I think the time has come to plant them out or throw them out. Time is running out for Reg to get his polytunnel in place...

The curly kale that I never pulled out last year has come back stronger than ever. It is obviously a tough cookie, surviving the onslaught of the caterpillars last year, and then the two foot of snow over winter!

The rhubarb is gigantic. A couple of picks so far, but I really need to keep harvesting it. I just need to get to it!

The last, but definitely not least, of the crops in the veggie patch is the potatoes. Both those I planted and those that still keep coming up everywhere else. It's the same in the fruit tree bed. I have started harvesting those. This has given me access to tie the new growth of the fruit trees to their canes. At some point soon I need to get up my courage to prune the side shoots...


The salad crops in the raised planters are also cranking up after a slow start. In fact, the first sown rocket and spinach has bolted but the next sowings are coming on well. And a second sowing of radishes.

And the winter sown savoy cabbages are taking over the world...

All Systems Go

The apple trees (aka big sticks) eventually arrived. We had been phoned on the Friday to say they had just been dispatched and would be here on Monday. I was a little peeved as they had missed the good weather window. Luckily we did not have a hard frost and the ground was not frozen so in the morning I went out and dug 10 holes ready for planting. They arrived in the afternoon. I needed Paul's help to hold them at the angle of the canes while I refilled the holes and tied them loosely in place. Once in I tied them to the canes more securely and after checking my bible lightly tip pruned them to a suitable bud. Last job was to get the chicken wire in place to protect them from Jen and Poncho. This will have to be done better in the future as it is not rabbit proof...

I have a good selection with a long cropping season of August right through to the end of the year, and some storing in to the next spring:
Keswick Codlin - dual purpose
Belle de Boskoop - cooker
Saturn - dessert
King of the Pippins - dual purpose
Katy - dessert
Scotch Bridget - cooker
James Grieve - dual purpose
Suntan - dessert
Laxton Superb - dessert
Ellison's Orange - dessert

However, it will be 2013 before we should get any as my bible says to remove the blossom in the first couple of years to let the trees put their energy into growth...

I started weeding the LBE on Thursday. This hadn't been planned but on taking the dogs out at lunch time I had stopped to pick out a couple of weeds. And then I handed Jen over to Paul and just kept going. An hour and a half later and it looked a lot better.

I can now see more and more wild baby primroses coming through - the fruit of my labour last year in transplanting clumps from the rockery area. The pansies also seem to have spread their seed far and wide.

Yesterday was veggie patch day.

All the dead runner beans were unwrapped from the wigwams and obelisks and pulled out. Beds were weeded and forked over.

Cabbages were assessed and I now have one that is pickable, four that look as if they are attempting to form new heads and the rest were pulled out. Any greenery on them was bagged up and given to Margaret to feed to her geese. The curly kale looks as if it is re-sprouting - I have left it in but am not sure whether it is worthwhile.

I still need to hand weed that bed and around my disappointing leeks. Some look as if they may be worth picking, but the vast majority don't look much bigger than when I planted them.

The nettles are doing better :(

On the bright side, all three clumps of rhubarb are coming through strongly...

And I made a start on clearing the leaves and debris from the raised planters.

I still have a lot of last year's carrots unharvested and it looks as if a lot have survived the winter. They are pushing themselves out of the soil. I pulled one up and it tasted absolutely fine.

It may also be worth my time harvesting some of the larger onions that overwintered. And plant the Red Baron onion sets I bought a couple of weeks ago.

And my requested cow muck from Margaret has just been delivered - perfect timing...

I am ahead of last year , and this March I do not need to spend 30+ hours sifting topsoil and loading the fruit tree bed. I just hope the weather keeps behaving itself.

Weeding Between The Lines

The air is alive with dandelion seeds...

The rain followed by several days of heat and sunshine means that weeds are thriving, growing almost as quickly as my peas did.

Time to sort out the raised planters again. Wasn't too much of a problem in the first two but in the third I had to try to distinguish my rows of seedlings amongst the chaos of the weeds. Hopefully all in order again now. Butterfly netting now over the middle planter which has more cabbages in it.

I planted out my gutter-sown peas last night. I think I was a little over ambitious in my length of guttering - they were not as easy to slide out as my fruit and veggie book implied. Slightly easier after I gave them a good soaking and they do all appear to be standing, albeit slightly more squashed together.

I noticed that the number of cabbages planted in the veggie patch is going down. A couple of little stumps and fat slugs/snails somewhere :(

A couple more rogue potato plants dug out. Some more peas sown directly into the ground along with a few more dwarf beans. Another row of radishes as the old seed that I tested seems to still be viable. I noticed one of my red onions from last year that was too small to eat had started to sprout so I have planted it too.

A slight panic last night when I thought I had lost one of the plants from Lamberton nursery. I couldn't remember buying let alone planting a diascia. So this morning I went out and counted the plants I had planted. Hmm... seventeen. All present and correct and not a diascia in sight. It was another dianthus not a diascia as misreported in the earlier post (now corrected).

All Go In The Garden

The garden seems to be changing on a daily basis. Having been away for a week and a half the change was dramatic when I got home.

I felt a bit like a mother who missed her child's first steps - my blue poppy had come into flower for the first time ever while I was away. I planted it four years ago and I missed it's big day, but luckily it was still flowering. Not only that but when the first flower ended a second one opened.

Paul had posted a photograph of my Angelique tulips on facebook so that I could see them. They are stunning, and still flowering two weeks on. People have been stopping to admire them and ask me what they are.

In fact it has been a great year for many of my tulips - they have obviously thrived on the long cold spell at the start of the year.

The last couple of days I have been concentrating my efforts in the veggie garden.

Yesterday I showed my true Scottish heritage. I was thinning my carrot seedlings but couldn't bring myself to throw them out. I now have many more rows. A good watering and they all seem to be quite perky so I will hopefully have more carrots than I know what to do with in another month or two.

I then weeded the f-t-b-t-b/potato patch and have earthed them up as best I could.

It started to rain in the late afternoon and continued on in to the evening, but it was not the downpour that we really needed. The ground still appears to be bone dry today.

Today I have been sorting out the veggie patch.

I have weeded the whole area. I had potato plants coming up all over it. I have allowed two of the beds to keep them, but dug them out of all the others. A lucky few have been replanted in a spare part of the f-t-b-t-b and in gaps in the two veggie patch beds but the rest have been thrown in the rubbish sack. There are only so many potatoes we need.

I then planted out the Red Rum runner beans around my bamboo wigwams. They have theoretically been hardening off the last week or so, but as it has been so hot I am not sure what effect it has had.

Last Friday was the Paxton village plant and goody sale. Amongst other things I bought a couple of tomato plants. I am hoping they will survive outside as the veggie patch is well protected, almost a walled garden having walls on three sides.

Next I transplanted some of the cabbages from the raised planters. The home made cloches were not up to the strong winds we had - a rethink is needed. But I have reused the water pipe to make hoops directly into the ground and covered them with a couple of metres of the butterfly netting I bought a while back.

My dwarf bush beans were also ready to be planted. I have decided on a tactical positioning of these to act as a 'keep Jen out of the veggie patch'. So three of the obelisks have been placed at a couple of metre intervals along the front of the veggie patch. I then got Paul to help me untangle and cut suitable lengths of my bean and pea netting. This has now been attached to the obelisks, forming a barrier. I had planted two beans per pot, and in every case they had both germinated. I was supposed to discard the weaker seedling but I was too late as they had all grown so much while I was away. So each pair has been planted now alongside the netting. I have also planted Sunbright runner beans around the obelisks.

Everything has been given a good watering, including the raised planters.

To finish the day I have sown another batch of runner beans.

The sunroom is proving to be an excellent substitute for a greenhouse. I sowed some peas in one of my pieces of guttering last Friday and this morning I spotted the first seedling poking through. This evening I could see another four.

Hopefully tomorrow's weather forecast is as erroneous as today's. Next jobs are to thin/replant my lettuces, rocket and spinach...

A Year On

I started digging out my veggie patch a year ago yesterday.

Yesterday, after weed killer spraying the rose bed, I sowed my first veggie seeds. Not directly into the veggie patch but in the raised planters which I am currently treating as seed beds.

Planter 1:

Carrot Amsterdam Forcing - 2 rows

Radish Scarlet Globe - these are old seeds so just 1 row

Carrot Supreme Chantenay - 2 rows

Radish Red prince - also old seeds

Spinach - 2 rows

Rocket - 2 rows

Lettuce Romaine - 2 rows

Lettuce Salad Bowl - 2 rows

Planter 2:

Cabbage Surprise - 1 row

Cabbage Autumn Queen - 1 row

Cabbage Winter Tundra - 1 row

Curly Kale - 1 row

American/Land Cress - 2 rows

Spring Onions - 1 row

Leeks - 3 rows

Bulb Onions - 3 rows

Pickling Onions - 4 rows

I also weeded the herb patch. I decided the lavenders were dead so reluctantly pulled them all out. And now I have sown one small patch with garlic chives and another with Shiso Purple. Both these packets of seeds are old but had not been opened so may be okay still. I bought the latter many years back at the Chelsea Flower Show - apparently it's a bit like basil.

Paul made the second cloche frame and assembled my other three obelisks.

We were both back out today. Paul has painted the frames with wood preservative, pruned one of my shrubs for me and mown the lawn. There was a bucket dispute when he decided the dogs needed a bath as I was using the bucket for my stone collecting. I pointed out there was another one in the utility room and then he wanted them both... A slight inconvenience for Paul or a major inconvenience for me. I kept my bucket.

I decided today was a long bank extension day for me. I started off with weeding the middle section of LB11/10/9. This was in preparation for planting the summer flowering bulbs I had bought a few weeks back. And then I got side-tracked - I was told Penny was coming over to help and Paul had decided he wanted her to spray the back lawn-to-be area. So I was tasked with mixing more weed killer and filling the sprayer. Right on cue Penny arrived.

So when I got back to the long bank I then started working on the top of LB10. I got nothing done on this last year due to other priorities but I am determined to complete at least that section this year. The problem is that I am not sure of what to do. The buried path that I had excavated along LB12 and 11 is wonderful, but it was showing no sign of going up, unlike the wall. The level of the soil at the top of LB11 is still below the first faced brick layer of the wall and if the excavated path continues at its current level it is going to be over a breeze block too low. So I decided to procrastinate and start at the other end of LB10. And as I was digging out the weeds and stones I came across our builders buried dump site. Enough off-cuts of our wall stones to make a very nice edging for the bed I am planning along Margaret's wall and loads of that horrendous plastic tape that all building supplies seem to be bound with. I must say that it made quick work of making my way right along the wall but the level has now dropped even more.

Penny left about 5.30 having helped with stone removal, brick relocation and coffee break companionship. It was very tempting to just stay sitting on the patio enjoying the glorious sunshine. However, I then remembered what I had supposed to be doing so finished off the gardening day by planting all my Dutch irises and half my liatrises.

I will be out with my camera tomorrow. Things are flowering...

Last Gardening Post of the Year - Probably...

Paul was overly keen to get the muck spreading done. Half past one and there he was in his wellies. I was still drinking my coffee and said I would be out when I finished. But life never works out like that when Paul and garden are involved. Wheelbarrow loaded and 'where do you want it?' called through the window. Okay - coffee abandoned and out I went.

It was certainly a lot quicker than when I had been struggling to push the wheelbarrow over the rough uphill ground, past the topsoil pile and on to the veggie patch on my own last week. About a dozen loads with me spreading it was enough to finish the job. Penny arrived when we had almost finished so there was no point in her getting dirty too. Strangely the muck heap doesn't look much smaller than when we started.

All the gardening tools have now been put away in my shed to try to deter me spending any more time out there this year.

I quick wander round with the camera was the last thing to do. It is amazing what is still flowering, despite a couple of frosts in the last few days.


So, I may have been a little late in planting the lily bulbs and they are now flowering despite the foliage dying off...


The fuchsia that I bought last year and kept indoors over the winter only to believe I had killed it when I took it outside in the spring has not only recovered but thrived once planted in the garden. The free gift ones that got planted out after I got back from Bangkok are also still flowering away. It is November, isn't it???


The lavender is still thriving despite the herb bed being flooded several times this year. The polemonium is putting on a second flush of flowers. Next year I will have more of these as it seems to seed itself quite freely. The geraniums that I divided last year and planted this have increased considerably in size and are not only flowering but are covered in more buds.



The astrantias are also in a second blooming for the year. Several of my roses are still looking good. The heucheras have also put on a lot of growth this year from their rather sad state when I divided and planted them in the spring.


Of the things that should be flowering at this time of the year the mahonia is looking particularly good.