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.

The wildlife pond

 

I really love our little wildlife pond and bog garden at the allotment. It was new last year and I loved finding plants which would grow in those wet and boggy conditions. It was a whole new area of gardening which I had little knowledge of, so I learnt quite a bit.  As the new plants started to grow, the wildlife came along to live there and by midsummer it was looking great.

Over the winter it has looked a bit sad and dreary. The heavy rain flooded the area and the pond filled up with silt. Earlier this year we had a few sessions of removing as much of the silt as we could. In the bog garden the weeds started to grow and I didn't want to disturb the ground too much by digging them out as I couldn't remember where I had planted some of the plants. So I left them until the new plant growth appeared.

Weeks ago we heard frog activity in the next door allotment pond and wondered if we would get any frogs. And yes, a few days later we spotted frog spawn and a few little frogs in our pond. Later there were lots of tadpoles, but we have only seen two recently.

Here come the frogs

The pond plants are now growing, the marsh marigold flowered for weeks and was a lovely patch of bright yellow which brightened the place up. It's finished flowering now so I cut it back to allow room for the other plants to grow. In the bog garden the plants are coming back to life. Every time we go to the allotment they seem to have grown another few inches.

lovley blue iris

Most of the hostas which I planted at the edge of the pond are showing no signs of coming back though, I think they may have got drowned when the pond overflowed in the winter rains. They may like damp conditions, but perhaps not so damp! However last week I was really excited to see that one of them is now coming back, no sign of the others though.

Last year when I put the plants in I thought I would see how they looked and grew and then assess it again this year. There is a grass which I have found to be a bit invasive so I have been digging it out but instead of getting rid of it completely I put some of it into pots to contain the roots. There are two pots which I have placed on the rocks around the pond. My sister-in-law gave me some little candleabra primula plants last year which she had grown from seed. I planted these out this week. I've always admired the displays when I've seen them growing by the streamside at RHS Harlow Carr and by the lake at Rosemoor, so I was keen to have some in my own damp garden area. They're on a much smaller scale of course, but they are still a delight to see. One of our local garden centres has just started selling pond plants, which pleased me, and of course I couldn't resist buying a plant-- a little geum rivale.

candleabra primula

We find the pond fascinating and spend a lot of time insect and tadpole spotting. There's a lot of movement in the silt at the bottom too, like tiny little wriggling worms.

        

A new addition to the area is a pile of rotting logs, for insects and frogs to hide in. I also made a small animal house with the help of the  little girl from the plot above us who likes to come and chat to me and we often do jobs together. This is a little box with a hole in it, which we filled with leaves and twigs and covered with more twigs. Hedgehogs or toads will be welcome to make their home there.  Whoever claims it first. Finally as we so enjoy looking at the pond we put an old bench by the side, so when we take a break from our gardening we can sit and enjoy watching the pond life.

Passing by

I always stick to the same path on my morning walk, it's just long enough for me to have some healthy exercise and then get back home to start my jobs for the day. But as I walk along I'm often tempted to go off in other directions as I pass by places which look interesting, other paths which seem to be inviting me to walk along.

I love the stile at the top of the hill--I know where it goes--we've walked along there before.  It goes over the fields to the scout camp where there are beautiful views.  But that's for another day.

Down through the park and I pass by the woods.  It's always muddy there and I'm reminded of when our daughters were young and they used to play on the big rotting tree trunk.  It's rotted down completely now to feed the earth with its remains.

Further along a haze of blue catches my eye--a clump of bluebells beyond the trees enticing me in.

Then past another entrance to the woods is the wild garlic, a mass of white flowers, the subtle garlic smell will linger long after the flowers have gone over.

I continue along  and take in the pink confetti like blossom fallen from the flowering trees lining the path. It will be blown away in an instance with the first strong breeze.

Down the lane to the farm, I stand at the gate looking over the fields for a while then back home with thoughts of places to go, paths to follow on another day when there's more time.

A different sort of garden place

Last week we had a lovely morning out with lunch at Stydd Gardens, Ribchester. We first attempted to visit the gardens a year ago but turned down the wrong lane so of course we couldn't find it. This year with better directions we finally found it.

It's  an unusual garden place. I thought it was going to be a garden centre and although there is a plant centre there are lots of other things too. It's full of rustic, vintage gardenalia, some of which are for sale.. There's a garden to look around which is divided up into different areas, with a pond and fountain, a dove cote, pergola, lawns and borders. There wasn't much going on in the borders, it's a bit early in the year yet, and it needed a bit of a tidy up, but I expect that soon there will be lots of colour. The one plant which caught my eye was a big clump of white honesty. I have purple honesty in my garden which I love, but this was beautiful. It's now on my plant wish list, I will have to find some seeds.

The garden is  well designed and as we walked around we admired the way it was decorated with old garden paraphernalia. This theme continued as we left the garden and walked around the rest of the place.

 

 There were old stone troughs and sinks planted up with alpines, massive ones. Big old metal containers and statues, all very artistically arranged.

 There were also little shops housed in wooden units which were like trendy garden sheds. But the place which I found really amazing was the cafe in the big greenhouse.You could be forgiven for thinking it was just an indoor plant area because the place was full of plants in pots of all sizes.

Lovely old rustic pots with scented geraniums, big galvanised tubs with trees, benches with old tools, garden ornaments, and even a little frog pond.

 

The cafe tables were nestling amongst all the plants and statues. Some of the tables and chairs were fairly rustic and vintage too. I liked the fact that a lot of the tables and chairs didn't match, it all added to the rustic charm.  I thought we might go again in the summer when there are more flowers out and it's warm enough to sit outside for lunch or coffee.

Through the garden gate--planting alpines and herbs

 

 It's been a busy month in the garden. I've had a couple of projects on my to do list which I've managed to complete this month. The first one was to plant up an alpine sink garden. I bought the old sink from a second hand shop a couple of years ago and since then it's been stored in the garage. There's been the occasional comment from my husband about it lying around doing nothing, so I finally I decided to get a move on and do something with it.  A visit to the RHS garden Harlow Carr inspired me. The alpine house there is something quite special and there are lots of stone troughs planted up with alpines which gave me some planting ideas.

Alpine house at RHS Harlow Carr

Alpine troughs at RHS Harlow Carr

I got carried away when I was buying plants and bought too many! That was no problem though as I have a couple of little stone alpine troughs which were looking a bit untidy so I replanted them with some of the new plants.

The sink was very heavy to move but we got it in place outside the back door. I used a mixture of John Innes compost, sharp sand and grit as a planting medium and after planting I covered the top with a layer of grit. I also put some slates on end in between the plants which finished it off nicely.

The next project was to plant up a herb bed. My herbs have always been dotted around the garden, some in pots, some in the ground and I have often thought I would like a specific area for them. We have three raised beds at the top of the garden which have become redundant since we took on the allotment and stopped growing vegetables in the garden. So I decided to use one of these as a herb bed. There was already a clump of sorrel in one of them which had seeded from a nearby pot, so it seemed an obvious place to start the herb bed. I planted chives, lemon balm, French tarragon, three sorts of sage, bronze fennel, oregano and a golden marjoram. There is room for more, so I will add to them over the next few weeks. I have a variety of mint plants growing in pots which will be left as they are to contain the roots.

As usual I have joined with Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly 'Through the garden Gate' slot. Have a look at her blog it's really good. I hope you have enjoyed coming through my garden gate this month. Maybe you would like to join us and let us come through your garden gate to view your garden.