Through the Garden Gate--May

May and June are lovely months in the garden, everything is fresh and green with new colour popping up almost daily. If we are lucky we get plenty of sunshine too. Well we did get plenty of sunshine and warm weather in May and we've really enjoyed watching the garden grow. 

May has been lovely for flowers.  The first of the Clematis appeared , I don't know its name, I lost the label. I even forgot it was there until it started flowering.  It's growing up the archway mixed in with the Passion Flower which flowers later in the summer. So it's good to have an early flowerer there.

The hardy geraniums started flowering, there are several different varieties, most of the names I don't know. One lovely one has planted itself right at the front of the shed border. It's tall, blue with a white eye. It isn't seeded from any other in the garden. I'm wondering what it is, maybe Johnson's Blue? 

In the last week the Gertrude Jekyll rose has started flowering. It grows up the wooden arch next to the patio, it gorgeous scent wafting across to us as we sit out there. There are plenty more buds so we should be enjoying the blooms and scent for a good while yet.

Down in the damp border the Candelabra Primulas which I planted last year are putting on a good display of pink and purple. I bought two more this year, one to plant with this clump and the other to plant next to the pond. So I'm hoping for an even better display next year. They are Harlow Carr hybrids, bred at RHS Harlow Carr. The display there along the streamside is beautiful, we often visit at this time of year. I don't think my display will ever get so good!

The Alliums in the raised bed have had to compete with the Geum 'Totally Tangerine' and the pink cow parsley both of which have grown quite tall this year and although this bed is looking a bit crowded now, I am enjoying all the colours and the untidyness of it. And of course the bees are loving it too. 

I am linking this blog post to Sarah's blog at 'Down By the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

 

Time to get busy

It's that time of year when suddenly everything gets really busy on the allotment. So many things to do, veg plants to get planted, seeds to sow, seedlings to transplant. You just think you've caught up when you notice something else needs doing.

Recently at the allotment I've been busy weeding, trying to get the sycamore seedlings out which are growing along the plot boundaries and up at the top of the plot. There are so many they're almost taking over. I was doing really well and quite enjoying getting areas cleared when I noticed the cabbage plants in the cold frame were getting quite big and thought I'd better get them planted before they got too big for their pots.

Then there were the peas which I'd started off in gutters, they seemed to shoot up while my back was turned and were flopping over, so in the ground they went with twiggy sticks to support them. I'd already sown some straight into the ground a few weeks earlier and these were looking a bit nibbled. Weevils or pigeons? I don't know but we decided to net all the peas in case it was pigeons. That was last week and the peas from the gutters don't seem to have been affected. The others are growing well too. 

Richard had the first of his cataract operations just over two weeks ago and he has to avoid any lifting, bending or strenuous work for a few weeks. So no heavy allotment work for a while. He still comes to the plot with me, usually just sitting or helping me with any simple jobs. He sowed some cucumber, courgette and sweetcorn seeds in pots. And he's potted on the tomato plants. It's not the sort of thing he does as he prefers to do maintenance type of jobs, building, mending or heavy work, but it's all a great help to me.  He decided not to attempt transplanting any delicate seedlings as he felt he might be a bit heavy handed.  As he walks around or sits watching me work he see jobs which he plans to do as soon as he is able to. I saw him with his tape measure the other day which made me think he's planning something. 

I've also been planting strawberries. All our strawberries are grown in containers. I'd noticed that the plants in two of the tubs had not survived, so I pulled them out and as I was turning over the compost I noticed some little white grubs. I don't know what they are and if they are the reason why the strawberries died but I emptied both tubs of compost, gave them a good clean out and refilled with new compost before planting the new strawberry plants.

The asparagus has started growing and I've been picking  spears as they get big enough. We never get very many, but it's only a small bed. It's hard to keep up with the weeding in this bed, it gets a lot of thistles and mare's tail. Once the asparagus starts to grow the weeds seem to grow more and it needs hand weeding very carefully so as not to damage spears just below the soil surface. So this is a job which has been needing  doing for a while and every time we've been to the allotment I've looked  and thought I must tackle that soon. So last week I finally got around to doing it and it didn't take long. It looks much better now but I'm sure the weeds will be back again very soon.

My kitchen windowsill has been full of seedlings for weeks now and gradually as they grow bigger, are transplanted and moved to the greenhouse at the allotment. Last week I transplanted cabbages, cauliflowers, swede, cosmos, cucumbers, courgettes and squash.  Both greenhouses are getting full now and I am gradually moving plants to the cold frame to harden off before planting out.

I got the sweet peas planted and some lettuce, then I noticed the onion bed was full of weeds. There's more lettuce, radish and carrot to sow, more peas to plant out, potatoes to earth up, flowers to plant and more brassicas too.

So lots of jobs needing doing, plenty to keep me busy for a while. And I hope I will  be able to get back to weeding out those sycamore seedlings soon before they grow into trees.