Through the Garden gate--May 2021

What awful weather we have had during May, I believe it has been the wettest May for a long time. The garden seems to have enjoyed all the rain, though. I have been amazed at how quickly plants have grown.  The borders have filled out and not only do they look good it means that I don't have to weed so much. That's the benefit of cramming loads of plants together.

In the  raised bed are some clumps of  Chaerophyllum Hirsutum 'Roseum' or pink cow parsley which I brought as cuttings from my previous garden. They have taken a while to get established and this seems to be the year when they have decided to make a good show of themselves.  They look beautiful next to the alliums which are starting to open up now and the blue perennial cornflower.

Another lovely plant similar to the pink cow parsley is Myrrhis odorata or Sweet ciceley. This is in the front garden and hangs over the wall. It has lovely creamy white flowers, delicate feathery foliage and smells lovely. Can you see Holly the cat hiding underneath?

The hardy geraniums are starting to flower, I keep spotting little blue flowers here and there. I have quite a few geraniums in the garden of different colours and they flower at different times.  Some are short flowering, others keep going throughout the summer.

This is Persicaria, a tall pale pink variety, I don't know its proper name. It came in a big pot which I was able to split into 4 and plant around the garden. It does spread itself about though and I have been trying to dig some of it up. Much as I love its pink flowers I don't want it taking over the garden.

The Aquilegias are in flower now. These self seed over the garden, but they are so dainty I'm quite happy to let them.

This little corner was planted up two years ago. It's a shady area next to the holly tree and I got the planting idea from a gardening magazine. The colour scheme is blue, white and yellow. At the moment  the Dicentra is in flower, it has put on a fabulous show all on its own. The Aquilegias are just opening up now, they are blue and white. Still to come are white Camassias and blue Geraniums. The yellow colour is kept going throughout the summer with the  Hostas and Alchemila mollis.

In the last week the lilac near the front door has come into flower. The gorgeous smell wafts around the garden.

With the weather being so unlike May I hadn't realized it was time to start planting up my patio containers with summer bedding plants. So my job for the next week or so is to go to the garden centre, get the plants and plant them up.

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

A sunny afternoon planting

The last couple of weeks we've been busy at home. With all the rainy weather we decided to tackle some much needed decorating. I popped down to the allotment for a quick visit every couple of days to check the greenhouse plants and on one or two dry days I left Richard doing the decorating while I could catch up on some weeding .  It doesn't take long for weeds to take over. 

It looks now like we're in for a spell of better weather. Yesterday we went to catch up on jobs, the weather was warm, dry and sunny and it was really lovely to be outside again doing jobs. Now at the end of May there's plenty to do. The cold frame is full of plants waiting to be planted. 

I started by planting a block of sweetcorn -- 16 plants in the block. 

In the next bed I planted some sunflowers.  This bed has peas and broad beans in one half and will have some brassicas at the other end with the sunflowers in the middle.

The greenhouses are full of plants too. The big greenhouse is mostly full of the tomatoes which are now ready to go in their final big pots. We moved out some of the staging to make room and  filled the pots with compost.  I have set the tomato plants out where they are going to go and as I was running out of time I will plant them next time we go. 

In the little greenhouse are flower seedlings growing and also the cucumbers. I planted four cucumber plants into big pots-- 2 'Louisa' and 2 'Passandra'. I grew these last year and they were good.

Checking around the plot I could see that the first lot of broad beans now have flowers. The first lot of peas which were started off in guttering in the greenhouse are doing well, but the second sowing which was done directly into the ground are not looking good with poor germination and nibbled leaves. I'm blaming the pigeons for the nibbled leaves although it could also be weevils. But the pigeons hang about that area quite a lot and are a nuisance on the plot. Fortunately I grew another lot of peas in the greenhouse which are ready for planting out now. I will plant these in the gaps in that row and cover them with netting. The beetroot is also looking like its been nibbled and I wonder if that is the pigeons again. More netting needed, I think.

The plot is looking green now with plenty growing.  There is so much to do, so let's hope this better weather will stay for a while.

Through the Garden Gate-April 2021

 

Only a few  weeks ago after I had mulched all the garden beds, I was thinking how flat and boring they looked. But now they are filling out and looking greener and more colourful day by day.  Everyday as I walk around the garden I can see more new growth and buds appearing on trees and shrubs.  All this new growth seems to creep up on us giving lovely surprises as we spot something else which is now in flower or has filled out a bit more.

The tulip tubs have been in flower.  I am more of a pink and purple person when it comes to colour in the garden, so I was surprised when two tubs which I had planted up in the autumn produced orange tulips.  The colour on the label must not have been as true to life, but I really like them.  I moved them away from the pink pots so they wouldn't clash then I spotted  pink tulips coming through in amongst the orange pot. I don't know what went wrong there!

I planted up a lavender hedge either side of the archway with some free lavender plants which I got from an offer in a gardening magazine. I was really pleased when they arrived to find that they were good sized plants. There were ten so five on each side of the arch fitted nicely. I'm looking forward to seeing and smelling the result later in the year.

My husband fitted a wooden edge to one of the borders in the back garden to neaten it up.  It should help to contain the plants which flop over and had been damaging the lawn.  

Holly seemed to approve of the new development!

There was a Ceaonothus shrub in this border which I bought a couple of years ago and had grown way too big for its space, next to the Liquidamber tree. We decided to move it and checking its label I read that it could be grown as a wall shrub or a tree. Not surprising it had grown so big then. What a job it was moving it, with branches all over the place and heavy roots! Its now in its new place further along the border with more space. I have pruned it into a tree shape and its blue flowers are starting to open up. We had to do quite a bit of moving plants around to accommodate the Ceanothus, but the border should look better now.

There has been so much blossom about in April and many trees are still opening up with their blossom. We have blossom trees on the grass verges outside our house and they are looking lovely at the moment.  

Our Amelanchier tree has blossomed and gone over but the crab apple is now opening up its flowers.

There is so much to enjoy now in our gardens and much more to look forward to.

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

Getting busy on the allotment

Its getting busier on the allotment now with plenty of planting and sowing jobs to do.  I have planted out two rows of broad beans  which were started off in the greenhouse in cardboard tubes. One row is 'Super Aquadulce' and the other 'Bunyard's Exhibition'. Once they were in the ground I sowed a double row straight into the ground of 'The Sutton'. They take two or three weeks to germinate and I always get impatient thinking they are not going to grow, but last week I was so pleased to see one poking through the soil. Then at the weekend the full two rows were almost through.  Never give up on plants!

The first lot of peas 'Douce Provence' were also started off in the greenhouse. These I do in lengths of gutter.  When they are ready to plant out and the soil is warm enough I make a shallow channel in the soil and ease the peas gently out of the guttering into their new home. As with the broad beans,  I sowed another row of peas straight into the ground to follow on.  This time it was the variety 'Kelevdon Wonder'.  

We have had all sorts of weather this April, very little rain, plenty of sun, but also some cold nights with frost. On the allotments people use different ways of keeping their greenhouse plants protected as most of us don't have any heat source. Some put mini growhouses inside their greenhouse, some make tents with fleece. I use bubble wrap or fleece. I try to keep very tender plants at home in the kitchen until they are strong enough or the weather warm enough to move them.  But space at home can be a problem. I had moved the tomato plants to the greenhouse and then we had frost so unfortunately I lost a few. Luckily I had grown more than I was likely to need and some had survived. It was also not too late to sow some more.

Most of the onion sets and shallots are now planted, just a couple more rows to get in. I have to do it in stages as all that bending down planting is not good for my back. These are in a big bed, the rest of the bed will be for the leeks which are growing on in the greenhouse.

All the potatoes are planted now in bags. This year I am growing Rocket, Charlotte and Estima. The bags are in various places around the plot wherever I could find space. Richard filled up the water butts at the weekend from the tap on the lane outside. We haven't had rain for ages and so I have been doing a lot of watering. When some of the fruit and veg are grown in containers they need more water.

There is a lot of planning and preparation and thinking ahead to be done when growing vegetables. So although some of the beds are looking quite empty at the moment, I have plans for what will be growing in them later.  Richard has put up new frames for the sweet peas which will soon be planted out. Next, the climbing bean wigwams will be put in place. At the weekend I took the membrane off the bed which will be growing brassicas.  There were still some weeds on the surface of the soil, but they were soon removed with the hoe. 

The asparagus has started to grow, I cut the first spear, there was only one, but we shared it carefully. Next time there will be more.

The flowers in the wildlife area are making the place look colourful. I also planted up a few pots with violas and  now that the daffodils have gone over the tulip tub is in flower.

Through the Garden Gate--March

The garden in March seemed to be dominated by daffodils and crocus. It was lovely to have that spring colour.  

Now the crocus has gone and the daffodils are going over, the tulips are coming into bud and some have opened.  They are all grown in pots and I have them on the patio or by the back door. I'm looking forward to their display of colour.

I spent the last few weeks mulching the borders after tidying them up, it was a big job but they look so much better now. At first the beds seemed very empty looking but now more and more plants are emerging and I always have a job trying to remember what they all are at first.

There is a lot of blue about now in the borders from the muscari, anemones and pulmonaria. The native primroses and cowslips are providing some more yellow. 

My daughter bought me some native primroses for Mother's Day after I had said I would like more in the garden and hadn't been able to get any in the local garden centre. She was quite disappointed and apologetic when they were delivered as tiny plug plants. But I potted them on and a few weeks later they have grown bigger and are flowering now. I'll let them get bigger before I plant them out in the garden.

We've had some lovely warm, sunny days recently when we've been able to sit outside in the garden. The birds are getting busy building their nests and I often see them collecting bits of twig and dried grass from the garden. I'm so glad that our garden provides material that they need.

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

Getting ready for Spring

We've been going to the allotment a couple of times a week recently when the  weather has been fine enough. Some of the beds were cleared and  mulched in the autumn, so I have been sorting out the other beds. As winter vegetables were gradually harvested I have been able to clear any debris away, then hoe the weeds and lightly work the top surface of the soil. I don't dig the soil, just clear any weeds and then mulch with compost or manure. The worms do the rest of the work. Its been a few years since we have been able to get any manure for the allotment, so I have been using home made compost, which is as good. Sometimes we buy bags of manure from the garden centre and mix this with the compost.

Now the beds are looking tidy and are just waiting for the soil to warm up enough to plant or sow.  But there are other jobs which we have been getting on with. This time of waiting in the winter and early Spring is a good time to get on with  maintenance jobs around the allotment. Our allotments have been kept supplied with plenty of bark chippings from a local company. I have been using these to cover the non growing areas of my plot after weeding. They help to keep the weeds down and  make the place look tidy.

The pond has been needing a good tidy up and as soon as the weather improved I got my rubber gloves and a scoop and got rid of some of the mud and silt which was building up. I cut back some of the plants in the little garden around the pond and then covered the ground with some of the chippings. No sign of frog spawn yet, I just hope I didn't frighten the frogs off with all my work.

The greenhouses needed cleaning out and that's another job I leave for warmer weather. Once they were done I put the staging back in and I'm now ready to fill it with all the plants I'll be starting off from seed in the coming weeks. Already in there are sweet peas, broad beans, onions and peas sown in guttering. There are more seedlings at home which I'll gradually bring to the plot for growing on in the greenhouse.

Richard has been making a new fruit cage for the blueberries.  He bought a metal shelving system which he saw on offer and worked out that it would be cheaper than buying a proper fruit cage. He likes a project and this has kept him busy for a week or two. It's finished now and is great, its higher than the old one so I can stand up straight inside it which is much easier on my back.

The days are getting warmer now and work on the allotment will increase as I start to plant and sow in the ground. Its good to know that we are well prepared on the plot as we start the growing season.