Through the garden gate-- July

Once again I'm joining Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' slot.

Everything is growing well in the garden now, the borders have filled out hiding the weeds. Occasionally I spot the odd weed raising it's head above the plant foliage and I can pull it out. It's a relaxing way to do the weeding--no bending! There's a lot of deadheading to do as flowers go over--that's another gentle sort of job--especially if the weather is very warm.

Some of the earlier flowering plants have needed a good cutting back, like the hardy geraniums which get to look very untidy when they've finished flowering and will sometimes flower again if cut back. This has left some gaps in the borders. It's a problem I have in my garden during July and early August that there can be a lack of colour before the vibrant hot colours of August appear. I bought a dahlia and a liatris to fill a couple of gaps, in other places I have put pots of flowering plants.

We went to a car boot sale last weekend. Richard hates car boot sales, but I love wandering around looking for bargains. So it's not a thing we do often, but we always manage to get a few bargains, usually old items which we can put in the garden to use as plant containers or simply to add a bit of interest in little corners. This time I bought an old copper coal scuttle complete with verdigris even Richard thought it was a bargain and was happy for me to buy it. 

I also bought an old metal lantern which the stall holder said she had bought in France, she said French stuff has lots of character! There were some other good things on her stall but I'd spent enough money by then. In time I will plant something in the coal scuttle--when I find the right sort of plant. I think a fern would look good.

It's good to be able to take time to enjoy the garden and July and August are the months for that. We have been spending time  having lunch outside when it's been warm, sitting with a coffee in the morning or a glass of wine in the evening. Hope you've all been enjoying your garden this month.

At last the leeks are planted

One of my favourite winter vegetables is leeks and I like to grow as many as I can. We've usually had a good lot of leeks to harvest down at the allotment, but last  year they didn't do at all well. So I'm determined to do better this year.

We have been planting leeks for a few weeks now as space has become available. The first lot were planted at the end of the onion bed in late May, another lot were planted a few weeks later in what I call the spare bed which is not part of the plant rotation. The last lot were planted this week.

I łove planting leeks, it's so different from planting other vegetables. Make a planting hole with a dibber, pop the leek plant in then fill the hole up with water. Easy but back breaking! It's also a job which the grandchildren enjoy doing.

I sowed two varieties earlier in the year-- Autumn Mammoth and Blauwgroene Winter Bandit. Two problems we have with our leeks are bolting and rust. Blauwgroene claims to have some resistance to both of these problems so I am hoping for better results this year.

All the leeks are planted now, and the first lot are doing well. I am now dreaming of all those lovely leek dishes, soups, cheesy vegetable bakes, stir fries and more.

A fruit cage at last!

 Ever since we've had the allotment I've struggled with finding a secure way of netting the fruit. Last year I thought I'd netted the blueberries well but arrived on the plot one day to find one of the plants completely stripped of its fruit. Throwing a net over might deter the birds for a while but they will soon find a way in if they really want that juicy fruit.

We've been working on the fruit bed for a couple of years and now it's finished and planted up my dream has been  to have a proper fruit cage. It would have to be a home made one as we try not to spend too much money on the allotment.

The last few weeks as I've seen the fruit slowly ripening I knew we'd better get something in place before we lost the fruit again. As usual Richard came to my rescue with his DIY and recycling skills.

The fruit cage was put together in a morning using the old net brassica frames which had been used on the raised beds on Helen's old allotment. These had originally been made using recycled wood, so they were put back into use again. Held together with string and a few screws it may not stay put for very long, but as long as it's in place until the fruit can be picked that's fine.

The blueberry bushes are on the other side of the bed to the rest of the fruit so had to be netted separately, but there were some smaller net frames which could be used. It's always good to be able to reuse and recycle.

We can now watch our fruit ripening and hopefully we won't have to share it with the birds. I'm also looking forward to some jam making sessions.

Through the garden gate--looking back on June

June was spent mainly potting up plants in containers, weeding and deadheading.  Everything has been growing so big. That must be a result of the home made compost I brought over from the allotment to mulch the beds with.

My sister in law who is a great dahlia grower gave me some Lilliput dahlias and I planted those out a couple of weeks ago in the back garden. They are a miniature dahlia with  really tiny flowers.

At this time of year we like to go out and about visiting gardens and in the last few weeks we have been to RHS Harlow Carr, and an NGS garden.  I love visiting other people's gardens. No matter what size the garden, large or small we always come back with ideas to use in our own garden.

We had a few days away in the Lake District near the end of June and everything seems to have grown even more while we were away. There has been quite a lot of rain recently which has brought plants on. The owner of the B&B we were staying at showed me round his garden. He is an enthusiastic rose grower and had an amazing number of roses. I was a bit envious as roses don't do well in our shady garden, although there is a yellow climbing rose in our front garden which is flowering well at the moment.

On the way back from our holiday we called at 'Cath's Garden plants', this is a plant nursery near Levens, within an old walled garden in the grounds of the Heaves Hotel and Cath is a Chelsea award winner. It has been on my list of places to visit for a while.  It was pouring with rain when we visited, so not the best day to linger.  I bought an Achillea 'Inca Gold' because of its orange flowers and I thought it would look good in my yellow/orange/blue bed.

I need to get out in the garden to do some weeding, deadheading and cutting back and then I might be able to find some space for my new plant.

I have joined with Sarah at 'Down by the Sea' for this monthly 'Through the garden gate' post.

 

Rebuilding the bug hotel

The first bug hotel we built on the allotment was a bit thrown together. It was done as an activity for the grandchildren when we made the woodland den a couple of years ago.  It was quite untidy, but wildlife like untidy places.  However being used as a step by an intruder to climb over the fence from the next door plot hadn't helped with its stability.

So one of this years projects was to build a new bug hotel. I was really looking forward to doing it, but  I couldn't get the grandchildren interested in helping this time. That didn't matter, I could build it to my own design. There's a lot of wildlife on our allotment, we have a big tree at the top of the plot, a hedge along two sides, plenty of debris and places for creatures to shelter and find food. So building a bug hotel may not be all that important.  But I think they look really good.

 I wanted to build the new bug home in a different place so I decided on the top of the plot behind the big sycamore tree and next to the privet hedge.  It's already a good place for wildlife with plenty of rotting logs, leaves, twigs and places for little creatures to hide. Hopefully it's also out of the way of any intruders who might want to stand on it.

foxgloves growing under the sycamore tree

Richard made a frame out of an old pallet which just fitted the space.  I collected pieces of bark and twigs from the woods across the lane outside our plot.  We had bricks, old tiles and pieces of drain pipe on the allotment already. Twigs with holes, pieces of wood, old broken plant pots, straws, stones, pine cones and leaves were used.

rotting logs

 I spent a very pleasant afternoon putting it all together and felt that the grandchildren were really missing out on this activity. Now it's finished, it looks really good and I have left  plenty of spaces where we can add more nature stuff if we want to. The grandchildren came down to the plot recently and were quite impressed by  my super deluxe bug hotel.

A busy time down at the plot

It's been a busy few weeks down at the allotment, getting seeds sown and plants in the ground.  We've had some lovely weather too which has made our time down there much more enjoyable. Gradually the beds have been filling up as plants have started to grow and it's started to look like a proper allotment full of produce. I love to see rows of vegetables and peas and beans climbing up frames.

climbing beans

The onions got planted early on and the leeks were put in a couple of weeks ago. We still have another variety of leeks which I would like to plant but there's no space left. I might have to find some big containers to plant them in. I particularly wanted to to grow these as they are supposed to be rust and bolt resistant and those are the problems we often have with leeks.

The brassica bed is looking very neat and tidy at the moment with cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, swede and five sorts of cabbages. The whole bed is covered with a netting frame to deter the pigeons and cabbage white butterflies.

brassica bed

There are two double rows of broad beans, three rows of peas and two wigwams with climbing beans. The first lot of carrot seeds I sowed in April and put a fleece cloche over, but not a single one germinated. We don't give up easily though so another lot has been sown, along with parsnips and beetroot. Courgettes and sweetcorn are also in the ground now.

sweet peas, sweetcorn, beetroot and more

It gets to the stage at this time when there's the mad rush to get everything in the ground and just when I think I have it all sorted, I remember that there is still fennel to sow and celeriac to plant and where am I going to put them.

As well as the vegetables, I have been planting annual flowers which I grow for cutting. There is no space for a separate bed for them, the fruit and vegetables take priority, but I always manage to squeeze a few in  various places, between crops, at the end of a row or in amongst the fruit bushes. The sweet peas though are allowed a special place with a big frame. I love sweet peas and so do the bees.

Now I am hoping for our work to ease off a bit with just the odd row of salad leaves or radish to sow every couple of weeks.  I'm not sure it will though, there's always plenty to do on the allotment and as I write this we have had a day of drizzly rain which wasn't enough to fill the water butts but it was enough to get the weeds growing.  I know what my next job will be.

What's growing on your allotment at the moment?

Through the garden gate-- enjoying the flowers

This week I am joining with Sarah at  Down by the Sea for her monthly garden slot--'Through the Garden Gate'.

May and June are lovely months in the garden, more plants are coming into flower and all the foliage is a lovely fresh green colour.  When it rains this green looks even more vibrant against the dark wet soil.

I finally got to the end of my early spring weeding sessions and mulching the borders with compost.  Working through from the back garden to the front takes an awful long time, but it looks good when it is finished.

 I have been doing some planting in the front garden borders where we have cleared some space.  I had divided some big clumps of flowers from the back garden--a white campanula, giant scabious and lambs ears.  I also planted a geranium psilostemon which a friend gave me last year and I have spent ages deciding where to plant it.  I had some hostas  (from the same friend) which needed planting up too and I decided to put these in containers in the hope they may be less prone to slug damage.

For some instant colour I bought some container bedding plants from the local garden centre and potted these up.  I have big pots of them at the front and back doors and in various places around the garden.

There are so many plants now starting to flower that it's easy to miss them, so different to early Spring when you appreciate each new plant as it emerges. The aquilegia are all over the place, but I love them. There is one clump which has appeared in the yellow border, and is a lovely creamy white which goes perfectly in that bed. I wonder how it knew to put itself there?

We're having a spell of dry sunny weather at the moment, and it's lovely to be able to sit in the garden and just enjoy looking at all the flowers.