Mid May 2007

The weather has been warmer but very changeable of late. After finishing off in the garden following a glorious sunny day suddenly the clouds darkened and showers ensued....great i thought just what the garden is needing. Then the sun shone and i had the most beautiful rainbow, not an unusual sight up here but this was the first i've seen this year. It looked like I was at Rainbows End.....was tempted to go digging for my pot of gold.

So well what have i been up to lately. Despite the weather being windy and rainy i've managed to get some stuff done but the planting has backed up because of this. This week i've got my onions in, not sure i've done the right thing in growing them from seed this year. They don't look to me as though they will make large onions later in the year! So i wait with baited breath. Planted three rows; two rows of white and one row of red.

When i prepared the onion bed in the Autumn i spread garden compost on the top and let the worms take it down. It was interesting to note just how nice and workable the soil was with this treatment and with a rake just levelled it out. I was interested to note that whilst planting that the compost was mixed in with the topsoil a good four inches down, a sign that the worms had done their job over the winter. This should give my onions a good start and will not be too much for the carrots.

The shallots and garlic are doing fine and i've sown another row of carrots, Autumn King and beetroot, Boltardy between the onions and shallots. I sow two rows of onions to one row of carrots. The theory is that this will confuse the lady carrot fly. The fly is attracted by the scent of the carrots which is why they frequently attack just after you have thinned the crop. Cow Parsley is a member of the Carrot family so it may well be an alternate host for carrot fly which could be the reason the crop is always under attack. In fact, there is an old gardening practice of sowing carrots only when the Cow Parsley is not in flower, ie before the flowering stems develop or after the flowers fade. This timing avoids the two important generations of the fly. I noticed today that the Cow Parsley is just starting to open so i can only hope that my sowings today will miss the attentions of the carrot fly.

The first attack comes in late May or early June and the second in August and September. Delaying sowing until late May, can help to avoid this first generation. Alternatively, sow very thinly eliminating the need for thinning.

Managed to plant a row of Iceberg lettuces today too. I only plant one row and when i crop them i do so by cutting across the base and leaving the stump in the ground. I then cut a cross in the stump and after a few weeks a new lettuce forms. This gives me two crops from one row and saves on space too.

Whilst busy in the garden i was very aware that there was a large amount of birdsong, they are busy nesting in the Rosa Rugosa hedge just outside the garden in the wild area. I've a bird table which is handy for them to feed their young and so far this year i've seen, Great Tits, Pied Wagtails, Chaffinches, Blackbirds and today i was delighted to see a Bluetit and Greenfinch. This is the first time i've seen these two birds in my garden and was taken by surprise. The birds that visit my bird table seems to change as the garden matures. I found an interesting site called British Garden Birds which i've found helpful in identifying my feathered visitors.

Clematis Nelly Moser is covered in buds and i've been eagerly awaiting their opening to reveal those glorious flowers. Typically the one that did open was at the very top of the trellis, so here's my first clematis flower of the season. It's a topping plant that if pruned lightly after the first flowers will give a second display later in the year. The flowers are two tone pink and striped. However, the only draw back is that if planted in full sun they tend to fade quickly but their beauty is a joy and eagerly anticipated. This plant is only three years old.

Easter 2007

This weekend is the the Easter holiday weekend, yippeee. Good Friday is traditionally the day for planting your tatties and I'm no exception.

I'm planting Lady Christyl, my favourites and have proved to be a good cropper in the past and taste just like a new tattie should. I'm also for the first time planting Swift and a row of Vanessa so not sure how they will turn out. So this morning after dropping my cat off at the vet for a check up i was down at the beach collecting kelp. Plan is to pop in the bottom of the trenches and throw a bit of soil over the top and plant the tatties in this. The ground has previously been manured so this should set them off to a good start.

I'm now finding that i'm being forced out of my home by the numerous seedlings that i've got growing in all the bathrooms. Most folk are reputed to keep coal in their baths but i keep plants and seedlings! Even the dining room isn't sacrosanct. I really need to get my greenhouse up this year!

The runner beans are really romping along and i need to slow these down a bit, so i'm going to transfer to the cold frame. It's still too early to plant them outside as we've had a lot of mornings with frosts. What a difference a week makes.

The courgettes are also starting to produce their second leaves but seem ok at the mo. The Impatiens are growing away quite nicely and are looking sturdy plants already. Will need to start potting them on in another couple of weeks.

In the garden the Asparagus continues to put up spears, Purple Pacific only so far though. My garlic is going great guns now although the shallots are a bit slower. No sign yet of the beetroot or carrots that i had sown two weeks ago, but it may be the temperatures aren't quite right yet....also it's been a very dry April so far, the ground could do with a bit of rain.

I'm popping to the garden centre over the weekend too as i'm going to try and pick up some lavender for the veggie garden. Thought i would edge the currant beds with it. This would make a nice decorative edge and also attract insects and bees. Lavender also repels aphids. I thought i would also see if i could get some more Box (Buxus Sempervirens) as i could edge the beds with it where i've got the kerbstones. The plan is (through time) to train the box so that it obscures this and again provides a decorative edge to the beds. Having got the fruit and veg garden whipped into shape (just about) i'm now looking at aesthetics. I want it to be pretty as well as functional. I've always wanted a knot garden and was looking at the utility garden to see if this was possible....i haven't drawn it out to scale but there may be room for a more simple design.

The grass has grown this week again and needs cutting again but this is useful as i've acquired some paper shreddings from partner's mum and useful to mix with grass clipping to compost. I'm really into recycling now....it becomes addictive.

Happy Easter everyone!

November 2006

Despite the worst of the recent weather there are still some plants that are continuing to flower. The Fatisa Japonica is now starting to put out it's first flower of the year and i eagerly await this as it is the first year it has flowered as the Fatsia has to be mature before it will flower and mine is now three years old. The plant is grown in a pot and is needing to be repotted and i was in two minds whether to repot in the autumn or the spring, i'm so glad i decided to wait until the spring.

I find the Fatsia a stunning, architectural plant and is lovely when it's rains, as the rain stays on the leaves creating further interest and really set off the leaves. Fatsia is better as a specimen plant on it's own where it can make a nice impact. I was planning a fig to compliment it for next year in another pot.

I'm now picking Apple Greensleeves in earnest and they are lovely, i need to get these wrapped and stored for the winter. The recent high winds didn't help matters resulting in a quite a few windfalls so these will need to be eaten pretty quickly and i've left these on the window cill meantime. I've still one or two Scrumptious ripening but not in earnest yet. Likewise the Red Falstaffs are rather slow to ripen but one or two starting to come now.

Notice how the Falstaffs have the lovely red tinge to the skin, the more light and sun they get the redder they will become.

The grass is still growing, albeit slower but the needing a trim, the unseasonally warm weather isn't helping it at all. Some of the plants are starting to put out flowers whilst the fruit is still on them, so they are very confused. I noticed that the large trees have become bare in a week always a sign that winter is truely here. I just hope that the temperatures also start reflecting this soon. Not that i'm a fan of cold weather but the likes of the strawberries need a frosting whereas at the moment they're putting on too much sappy growth with the wet warm weather and they'll likely suffer if and when the colder weather comes.

My patio rose is also continuing to give it's best in the pot on the patio, despite the wetter weather, significantly shorter days and the cooler nights.

My runner beans that i've been growing for seed for next year are starting to turn black now and should be ready very shortly for harvesting. I'll need to get them off the vines and into the house for drying. The plants have produced much more pods that i had hoped for so should have plenty to give away too.

I've finally place my order for Asparagus, i decided to go for a mixed bed of green and purple Asparagus. Having had the bed fallow for two years to ensure that all the perennial weeds are gone i've just got to add more compost and well rotted cattle manure which i saved from the spring to the bed ready for the plants when they arrive. The ground is very free draining as it's a sandy loam and plenty of stones, also added to this is the fact that the bed is raised about 19 inches off the ground so that should ensure that the roots aren't subjected to water logging in the winter.

My compost bins are full to overflowing and a quick look today showed loads of 'black gold'. It's sounds daft but i get a real buzz from making compost. It's the idea of turning something useless into something very useful and putting it back in the garden. I need to get the bins emptied and on the soil which i should hopefully get done in the next week or two. I've stock piled stuff i couldn't get into the bins so that will make a good start for next years compost.

I made a hot heap in one of the bins when i did the strawberry bed and cleared some stuff in the ornamental garden, this rotted down in six to eight weeks, whereas my cold compost heap has taken all summer. Well worth the wait though. For anyone not had the pleasure of making their own compost theres a strange sense of completeness when you spread it on your garden ready for your plants for next year, like the circle is complete.