Busy at the allotment

Our allotment visits are usually just at weekends unless we need to harvest or water midweek, so when we go at the weekend we can see what a difference a week makes.

Most things were doing really well when we visited at the weekend. I'm pleased with the brassicas they look really healthy and hopefully well protected by the new netting  frame which my husband made.

 
The broad beans were amazing and looked to have grown at least 2 feet, but probably not!

The peas are doing well too but I must take more notice of planting distances on seed packets as they were very overcrowded.

The climbing french beans were looking a bit sad and some had died since last week's planting, so I planted some of my 'spare' plants in the spaces left.   I don't know what the problem is, maybe poor soil or cold.  I also sowed some dwarf french beans in between the  fruit bushes. I planted some celeriac which I've grown from seed. I've  never grown or eaten it before so that's something to look forward to. Also sowed some oriental radish in between the rows of celeriac. Another new plant to try out.

The brassica bed is full of weeds, so I started weeding there, but it really needs an afternoon just focusing on weeding and we didn't have enough time on Saturday.

We were pleased to see the sweet peas planted in old tyres are starting to take off. They had looked a bit sad for a few weeks but now they are racing up the netting.

The fruit is coming along fine and the rhubarb is looking good, but I'm not picking it as it is in its first year. Shame!

My husband started work on the compost heaps after the council workers had almost destroyed all the work we had done so far. They had been doing some cutting back of conifers and some weeding around the plots and just chucked all these perennial weeds and stones on everyones' compost heaps. He cleared all the unwanted weeds and stones from our bins and put old carpet down on top of the heaps.

Every time we've been recently I've meant to sow swede seeds, but either forget or run out of time. That's a job for next weekend.  I also think we need more flowers to brighten the place up.  We planted some nasturtium in each raised bed last week, and the sweet peas will look lovely when they are in flower.  I've got some calendula seedlings at home which I'll take along next weekend .

Plenty of jobs to keep us busy.!

Sorting out my houseplants

The other day for a change I did some indoor gardening. I'm not really good with indoor plants, I forget to water them. But the front porch was looking a bit of a mess.   It needed tidying up since I'd moved the geraniums back outside after their winter hibernation.  The remaining plants were a few pots of rather tired looking Christmas cacti and an ancient Swiss cheese plant.  By ancient I mean nearly 40 years old. I bought it soon after we got married. Although I don't particularly like it, I feel that as it's survived so long under my care it deserves to remain there for as long as it is able to. I wouldn't like anyone to throw me in the dustbin, just because I'm old and past my best.

After a good sweep up of  all the dead leaves and petals from the geraniums, a mop of the floor and a wipe of the sill it all looked a bit empty.  "More plants needed", I thought,  'Something new to liven it up a bit'. But they would have to be sturdy, able to stand a bit of neglect.  Well, lots of neglect, if I was to be honest.  They would also not have to mind being in direct sun as it's a very sunny south facing porch.

So off I went to the garden centre to have a look at their indoor plants.  There was a large selection of plants to look at, but as most of them said on the label, 'keep out of direct sunlight', they weren't much use to me.

Then I spotted the succulents, not the prickly cacti sort, but the big fleshy leaved ones. There was a large Echiveria with flower buds on it that caught my eye.  I grow them outdoors in the summer and bring them in for the winter.  I'd never thought of growing them inside all the time.  The other plant has big leaves, I don't know what it's called but it's interesting. The great thing is that they like being in the sun.

Back home with my new plants, I potted them up into terracotta pots, topped with a layer of gravel and placed them on the porch windowsill. They look good, but I hope they'll stand the neglect.

Garden visiting

I love visiting  other people's gardens. Partly because I'm nosey but also because I can steal ideas. So throughout the summer at weekends, when I'm not too busy in my own garden, I'm often to be found visiting NGS gardens, with whoever I can cajole into coming with me. That's usually either my husband or my daughter, but sometimes I go on my own.

I always bring ideas back from my garden visits, even though  the gardens may be much, much bigger than my own. It might be just a seating area,  a colour scheme, plants which I've not used before or an unusual container arrangement.

There are some wonderful gardens in the National Gardens Scheme and they are not all big gardens. Last weekend we went to a village where a group of cottages were open. There were 4 cottage gardens, and they were amazingly beautiful. Two of them were small, long narrow gardens. The design of these 2 gardens was quite inspirational as to what you can do with a small area.  The owners had divided their gardens up so that it gave an illusion of space, like going through into different rooms. The other 2 gardens were bigger and also had their gardens made up as different spaces, so that you didn't see the whole garden at once.

All 4 of the gardens were real cottage gardens, packed full of plants which tumbled over the edges of borders in a lovely informal way. I love this style of planting and try to create it in my own garden. There were a lot of oohs and aahs and gasps of admiration coming from me as we walked round.

I also loved the way they all had surprises around every corner, like a little seating area, a statue, bird bath or some other interesting feature tucked in amongst the plant foliage.

Visiting gardens like these could make me feel a little envious, but on the whole I return to my own garden bubbling with ideas and it often gives me a new enthusiasm to go off and create something new.

Too much to do

One day last weekend I had a bad moment whilst in the garden.  I decided that I was fed up with gardening. There were so many jobs needing doing I just felt totally overwhelmed by it all. Every time I turned round I would see another job which needed doing. And then there was more to do at the allotment too.
I should be enjoying the garden, I thought, not working myself until I dropped.

Well, a week later I'm feeling better about it all. I've had a good week, lots of jobs done.  I've even managed to sit in the sunshine and enjoy being in the garden, (not for long though).  Chatting to a couple of gardening friends the other day and comparing notes made me realise it's not just me who spends huge amounts of time working in the garden.  I've also done some garden visiting (that's for another blog post). Now those people who open their gardens to the public really have their work cut out. That would really stress me out, I'm sure.

So I will continue to garden because I know that you never get to the end of a garden jobs list and for the garden to look good I have to work hard. But I will try to find more time to enjoy the results of all my work.

Down at the allotment

After heavy rain and gales during the week and with more rain forecast for the weekend,  I wasn't expecting to be able to get much done at the allotment. But Saturday turned out fine and I managed to plant kale, red cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli. I was disappointed to find that some of the brussels sprouts and cauliflower which I had planted 2 weeks ago had disappeared. I'm thinking it was slugs. Fortunately I still had some cauliflower plants left over at home so I replaced the missing ones. I sowed some seed of brussels sprouts, hoping its not too late, as I had no spare plants there.  The cabbage were looking fine. I also planted some celery plants which I bought as the ones I grew from seed didn't do well. I've never grown celery before so anything can happen!

Last weekend my daughter sowed  peas, carrots, beetroot and  parsnip. The beetroot and parsnips were sown using seed strips. We have not used this before so we will be interested to see how well it works.

My husband, who is not a gardener, but is always happy to embark on any building project, was busy building a netting frame for the brassica bed to protect against caterpillars of cabbage white butterflies which can cause immense damage. He throws himself into any project with great enthusiasm and I always know that any job he does will be a good job, even if it takes weeks to complete. The frame was finally finished this weekend and I think many of our fellow allotment holders have been following its progress with great interest. It's made so that we can lift panels off easily for access to the bed for weeding, planting or picking.

 
Last week there was some damage to the boundary fence of the allotments caused by fire which also damaged someones storage box and compost bin. We were pleased to see when we went on Saturday that the council had started to repair the fence. They had also done some weeding and cutting down of conifer branches but had put all these perennial weeds and tree branches on ours and other people's compost heaps, much to our dismay. So we now have some work to do sorting out the compost bin and getting rid of the unwanted stuff.

Everything else seems to be growing well and looking like a vegetable garden should look.

Walking round my garden

There's nothing quite like walking round the garden with a mug of  tea, seeing how everything is growing. It's part of my morning routine when the weather is fine. My garden is not massive, I hasten to add, but it's very full of plants, a bit messy really, plants tumbling into one another. So there's a lot to look at.


I spend a lot of time working in the garden, but those times I'm concentrating on the job I'm doing and don't  notice the other things.

It's when I'm walking round that I spot those first newly opened flowers, the plant I'd given up on just starting to emerge from the soil, vegetable seeds starting to germinate, or decide a plant is in the wrong place and make a mental note to move it when the time is right. It's when I get inspiration for a new planting scheme or my next project, or just see jobs that need doing.  But it's also a time for me and my thoughts, to just relax, wander around enjoying and appreciating.

 Like thinking how lovely these lamb's ears look against the yellow Alchemilla .

 Or noticing these interesting seed heads of the Pasque flower.

 And spotting the first of these beautiful blue Geraniums,

 this  gorgeous Knautia macedonia,

 and this bee.

My wish list for garden plants

Reading  through one of my garden magazines the other day (I'm a bit of an addict for gardening magazines),  I looked at the article on 'must have' plants and spotted a couple which I have been coveting for a while. That got me thinking about other plants which I would quite like to have in my garden.  So I decided to put together my 'wish list for plants'.


Echinacea purpurea--I love its deep pink flowers which would be great for late summer colour. I nearly bought one last year, I don't know why I didn't. This year I'm definitely looking out for one.

Helenium--I have a yellow one, but I'm looking for one which is more orange. This is another late summer flower and would look good in my sunny border which has a yellow/orange scheme.

Allium--I think these look lovely dotted about in borders, towering above the other plants.

Perovskia--this is a blue shrubby plant which looks a bit like lavender but flowers later in the summer. I saw it last summer at the RHS garden Harlow Carr. It looks amazing planted in groups in big borders.  Because it's very shrub like it would be too big for my garden, unless I was to dig something else up.

Fig--A few years ago we spent a weekend doing some planting for our daughter in her previous garden. One of the plants we put in was a fig tree. Ever since then I've quite liked the idea of growing a fig tree. I love the shape of their leaves as well as the fruit. But I think it would be too big for our garden, unless we could grow it in a container. I think also it would be too expensive for me.


Hamamelis (Witch hazel)--Whenever I go to the garden centre in the winter time I always look longingly at these with their spidery flowers. They bring colour to the garden in winter when it's much needed. But they are just a bit beyond my budget.

Hydrangea paniculata--I had this growing in a pot for a couple of years, but it died. I would love to grow it  in the garden.  The creamy white flower heads are so lovely.

Lonicera (Honeysuckle)--I have a couple of honeysuckles in my garden but none so lovely as the one I bought for my daughter last week. I've forgotten it's name, 'Sensation',  (I think),  it had big pale yellow flowers and smelt divine.

Some of these plants, I know are just not right for my garden, but I can dream. Others I will acquire if I see a bargain.  My wish list changes from time to time.  I might see plants, in other people's gardens or in magazines, which I would just love in my garden and by the end of this week after I've watched the TV coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show there could be a few more plants on my wish list.

What are your 'wish list' plants?