Clean up time

A TV weather presenter recently referred to the weather we are having at the moment as 'yo-yo weather'. I think that's a good description, up and down, rain for a few days, then a dry day. If you're a fine weather gardener then I suppose you just sit back with a good book and wait for the spring. But there's lots to be done in our garden and down the allotment, so on fine days I rush outside to get a few jobs done.

We managed to get to the allotment twice last week. The paths were slippy with mud and moss and there was water running out of the gate. The lane outside the plot was really muddy. I was glad that we had finished manuring all the beds so there was no need to disturb them. Richard started work on mending the two of the compost bins which were broken and I set to cleaning out the little greenhouse. I had cleaned out the big greenhouse in the autumn, but the other one still had the dead remains of the chillies, peppers and cucumbers. Once they had been got rid of the greenhouse got a good sweep and scrub down with disinfectant. It's always a good feeling to see the greenhouse spotlessly clean ready for the new growing season.

I am a lists person and my allotment journal always has a current list of jobs which need doing. I was pleased to be able to cross cleaning the greenhouse off the list. The problem with lists though is that you never get to end of them because there are always more jobs to be added. And as we sat having our lunch at the table under the tree I noticed that the cold frames needed cleaning too. Another job to add to my list. A gardener's work is never done!  Also as I sat there I spotted a flash of blue peeping out from the debris under the tree and there was a little iris reticulata in flower. A sign of hope that Spring is not far away.

A sunny start to the new year

January is a rather dreary, dark, and depressive month and I often feel that way myself. We hadn't been to the allotment since November and I hadn't felt inclined to do so, but motivated by a few sunny days, we got down to the plot to start work.

Not having been there since November meant there were quite a lot of jobs to be done. It was quite cold so we took soup and hot drinks to keep us going. I set to work weeding beds whilst Richard followed on topping the beds with manure. It looked much better once we'd finished--all covered up and snug for the winter. The leeks are not looking very big yet, they might need a boost of chicken manure pellets which I usually do at this time of year. I was pleased to see the garlic which I planted in November is coming through now.

My next job was to clear some weeds and cut back the dead comfrey leaves growing under the hedge. Once I'd cleared these I was pleased to see daffodils shoots coming through.

Another job which needed doing was to clean out the shed. This was a job I had been putting off as it had got quite untidy and dusty over the summer and I know that there are some really big spiders which live in the shed. But first I had to sort out the onions which were being stored in there and taking up a lot of space. I decided it would be better and more convenient to store them at home in the garage. There's nothing worse than running out of onions at home just as I'm preparing a meal. So I trimmed the onions and put them in net bags ready to take home.

It was hard work cleaning the shed but it looked much better once I'd finished. It had a lovely fresh disinfectant smell too. I only found a couple of spiders which I swept outside, but they always seem to find their way back in even though there is a step.

I filled up the bird feeders which hang from the conifer hedge. This  hadn't been done for weeks and within minutes of me filling them and putting  them back, the sparrows and blue tits were there pecking away. We sat watching them whilst we warmed up with our soup.

In the last week the weather has turned cold, wet and snowy, so I was glad we managed to get the jobs done. We never know when the next spell of fine weather will be.

End of the year on the allotment

December is the month when there are very few visits to the allotment. We go to pick  a cabbage or some leeks if they are ready and to cut some greenery for my Christmas door wreaths.

Everything is quieter and the pace is slower. There is no rush to get seeds sown and plants in the ground or weeding done. The leaves are now all fallen from the sycamore tree, we have swept them up and put them in the leaf bin. There is a lot of mud and water about because of the heavy rains, so not a good idea to work on the soil. On our few visits to the allotment we always feel it looks really sad, dark and gloomy.

 We have been so busy at home during the last 6 months, making a new garden, doing work on the house so our visits to the allotment haven't been as frequent as usual. It's not looking too bad though. On the last few visits we cleared away all the veg which was finished, weeded and spread a layer of manure on the surface and  planted the garlic. There is still some tidying up and weeding to be done, more compost or manure to put on the beds, the shed and little greenhouse both need cleaning out but I feel we have got most of the important things done for the time being.

I love this time of year on the allotment.  I love the clearing up process and putting the beds to rest for the winter.  There's a sense of slowing down and resting, but at the same time looking ahead to next year and planning. I have a few plans in my head and over the winter I will set them down on paper. I will be thinking about what to grow next year and any jobs which need doing. Mistakes may have been made, but I will try again or do something different.

The seasons come and go and now it's the season to slow down. The allotment will come back to life and will soon look fresh and green again.

Wishing all my followers a peaceful and happy New Year. If you are a gardener I wish you also a productive and bug free New Year.

Through the garden gate--November

If you've been following my blog posts about our new garden project you will know how we are struggling with wet clay soil. There has been quite a lot of rain in November and the garden is now very squelchy. Squelchy is a word I use often to describe our garden. The garden is a bit drab looking too as we haven't got many plants in yet. So not much colour about now in November.

The front garden looks better though.  The weigela  took on some lovely colours before its  leaves started to fall, and the hydrangea by the front door still has dark red flower heads just starting to go brown now. I'm hoping I'll be able to use some for Christmas flower arrangements.

This week I heard a lot of noise coming from a massive chaenomelese by the front gate and spotted lots of sparrows in there. This made me realise that  my bird feeding area is focused on the back garden, so I shall have to start putting food out in the front too.

Because there's not much colour in the back garden, I planted up a couple of tubs for autumn and winter colour.  I used cyclamen, trailing ivy, skimmia and a silvery leaved plant--I've no idea what it is but it looks good.

I've also been planting bulb pots with tete a tete, crocus, puschkinia and chionodoxa, so there should be a colourful display in the spring.

Thank you to Sarah at  Down by the Sea for hosting this monthly Through the Garden Gate post

Our new garden project 2--making plans

Over the last few months since we started working on our new garden, I've spent ages pouring over garden magazines and books on garden design. Although we knew some of the features we wanted in the garden, how to put them all together was difficult. The books said make a plan before you do anything else, so we measured the garden and made an outline plan of the shape.

Having assessed the soil and shape of the garden we knew we had a few problem areas. Clay soil, waterlogging and a sloping plot were not going to to be easy to deal with.  We thought we could see signs that there had once been borders around the perimeter of the plot because of the change in the grass and weeds. There were also some big bumps on the right hand side, an old rockery maybe?

A few weeks after we had moved in to the house, our daughter Sarah came up to visit for a weekend and was full of enthusiasm for getting started on the garden. So Sarah and our other daughter, Helen set to work digging out a border down the right hand side of the garden.  Sarah also drew up a garden design plan.  As I still hadn't done a plan of my own, I found this really helpful to form a picture in my mind as to how it could look. The soil on this side of the plot is easier to work as it doesn't have the drainage problems as that on the other side of the garden.

When Sarah had gone home I continued digging but once I reached the bottom end of the plot I encountered stones, lots of them. It was impossible to dig so I left it for a while.

We then started on the bottom of the garden digging out a bed along the fence. The soil here was really bad and filled with water whenever it rained. We bought grit, topsoil and farmyard manure to try to improve the drainage and soil structure.

I had brought a lot of plants from our old garden and I started to set them out along the newly dug out borders. I decided not to plant up yet as I kept changing my mind on where to put them. It did at least make the garden look a bit more colourful.

As Richard started digging along the bottom of the plot he reached that bottom corner with the stony area and we both decided that this was an impossible area to dig and we needed to make it into a feature of some sort. We decided to put some paving slabs down. First the area was levelled then a membrane was put down. This was topped with some gravel, then the paving slabs were put in place. We weren't sure at the time what we would put on this paved corner, but it looked quite good.

It has now become a bird feeding area. We bought a bird table, the bird bath and  a few potted plant arrangements have been put in place and it looks quite good. The birds like it.  At first we had a couple of magpies, later we spotted blue tits, a couple of sparrows and a blackbird. We now have starlings and a robin. The squirrel likes it too.

Our plans are flexible as we encounter problems, but we are progressing.

Our new garden project

When we moved into our new house nearly five months ago one of our priorities was to make the back garden look good.  Having a lovely garden is important to us. The garden in our previous house had been my pride and joy and we loved spending time there so we wanted to make this new garden into a space where we could sit and relax, and enjoy.  We still felt that we had enough energy in us to be able to create another garden, although we didn't want as big a garden as our last house had. Over the years we've created two gardens and two allotments so we're not afraid of hard work. Although we're much older now, so we didn't want to tackle anything too adventurous.

The new garden was a blank canvas, just a lawn. We thought it would be easy to dig out some borders and plant them up. A couple of seating areas for different times of the day would be nice, morning coffee in the sunshine on the paved area near the house and later in the day, sitting with a glass of wine over the other side of the garden in the late evening sunshine. I'd love a pergola with climbing plants,  a water feature and of course a shed.  

We thought about our budget which wasn't going to be very much. Being in our late sixties, early seventies we don't want a garden which is going to take years to develop, we want to enjoy it now. It's a bit like those garden makeover programmes on TV which provide instant gardens. The only instant colour and interest was from plants in pots which I had brought  from our old garden. I placed them around the garden where I thought they might eventually get planted and put some on the flagged area to add a bit of colour.

We soon found out that the garden has lots of problem areas. The  garden slopes down south west to the bottom and we noticed a number of  humps in the lawn, we wondered what those were. When we started work on digging out borders we found heavy clay soil. When it rains (and it has done a lot of raining this summer) the garden does not drain well. There were puddles down at the bottom of the garden and the lawn was very squelchy.

We've dealt with clay soil before in our first garden, so we had an idea of what to do. Digging a land drain and trying to break down the soil by incorporating plenty of bulky organic material was important and maybe building raised beds.  I have been making lists of plants which will grow in wet, heavy soils. There are lots of plans going around in my head and I need to put them down on paper.
This garden project is not going to be as easy as we first thought.

Through the garden gate--September

It's a month or two since I contributed to Sarah's 'Through the garden gate ' post, but things are moving on in our new garden, so I thought I would share a little bit of  it with you.

September and October are lovely months in the garden as the colours change. The trees beyond our garden are taking on their autumn colours and every day the leaves are changing from green to yellow or red. Our new garden is starting to look better as we spend time working on it. I have planted up borders and this month I have been so much enjoying seeing some colour. 

I bought a hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight'. It has lovely greeny white flowers which are now starting to take on some pink tones.

We discovered another local garden centre  recently which had a sale of perennial plants. I bought a lovely yellow/orange  crocosmia which has a dark ring in the centre. This is brightening up my new border at the moment and contrasts well with a dark red grass.

Also in the border I planted some hardy geraniums which I brought with me from our old garden when we moved house. I have no idea of their name, only that they have bright pink flowers. They have no flowers at this time of year but the foliage is starting to go red and goes well with the other plants around them, giving the border a lovely autumnal look. 

 In another bed I have planted a pink Japanese anemone. It has been brightening up the border for a few weeks now.

Our garden is a little bit sparse yet, but I know it will improve as plants grow and fill out the borders. There is a lot of work still to be done, but next year it will look much better.

Thanks to Sarah at 'Down by the Sea' for hosting this monthly post.