Pottering

With the mostly glorious weather throughout April, I have been able to spend a lot of time in the garden. Breakfast on the new patio on a sunny morning is a particular delight, and is also a lovely place to sit and watch, and listen to, the wildlife. And shoo the cats away! I now know the names of all three of the pests, but it makes no difference to their behaviour. Ah well.

We have lots of blackbirds, with at least one nesting pair, all expert worm hunters. There is also a robin, who is a little bit fluffy around the edges and is an expert acrobat. I have seen a wren, sparrows, pigeons, blue tits and crows. In the skies above are gulls, terns, ducks and the occasional buzzard. Other wildlife includes black and red ants, several species of slugs and snails, slow worms (babies too!), red aphids, woodlice, wolf spiders, jumping spiders, bumblebees, honey bees, mason bees, beeflies, several species of hoverfly, shield bugs, earthworms, tiger worms, millipedes, centipedes, cabbage white butterflies, blue butterflies, red admiral butterflies, speckled wood butterflies, peacock butterflies with larvae in the nettles, several spiders I haven't identified yet, and probably a great deal more!

The plants are doing well too! Most of the vegetable seeds we sowed in the ground are growing well, particularly since three wet days last week. The radishes taste good. Potatoes planted this year are thriving, and we have some coming up near the garlic that I must have missed last year. In the flower garden, the marigolds are abundant and providing cheerful splashes of orange. The Alliums planted out earlier in the month are bursting into deep purple bloom, and the flowers are breaking out on the Nectoscordum bulbs too. The flower spikes are shooting skywards on the foxgloves, flower buds are forming on the hydrangea, the night scented stocks are blooming and blooming and smell amazing, and there is a bud, just one, on the climbing rose. Behind and beneath the conifer is a large leaved Arum maculatum with a large flower spike forming. It's all rather lovely really.

Patio

When we moved into the property, we found, beneath a lot of broken roofing plastic, a large slab of concrete in front of the shed. After we had cleared the brambles, nettles and junk from the side of the shed we found a pile of bricks that was in danger of pushing the fence over. This week, with nothing better to do, we moved the bricks to the concrete slab, cleaning old cement off with a bolster and lump hammer as we went. We now have a brick patio! It is somewhat wobbly in places as I need to secure some of the edges, and the bricks are old. When the DIY stores reopen properly I shall spread a mix of sharp sand and compost on top to fill the gaps.

Once the patio was finished I realised that there was no view so spent this afternoon dismantling the existing wooden structure that obscured the view. This had been put together very badly (proper bodge job!), but most of it came apart relatively easily. I have another pot of rusty screws to add to my collection. The outer structure is still there as it has been bolted together and looks difficult to dismantle. I will find a way! 

Lastly, I moved the compost bin. To my delight I found a slow worm, as well as lots of worms and woodlice. When I had finished I sat and watched our neighborhood blackbird hen come back and forth collecting grubs and worms. Lovely! Next step is to make a flowerbed where the compost heap stood.

Dig for Victory

22nd March
Well, not quite, but we are in the middle of a pandemic and it seems wise to grow whatever vegetables that I can. Today was gloriously sunny with a cold breeze in the afternoon, so teenager and I picked up the seed packets and divvied up the prepared veg patch into rectangles and sowed seed. Small amounts of each variety, but we can do more later. We have started with three varieties of carrots, parsnips, two varieties of radish, spring onions, three varieties of lettuce, rocket, perpetual spinach, mixed salad leaves, leeks, and three varieties of beetroot. We then put netting up to try and keep the cats off. I sowed French climbing beans in pots in the outhouse too.

2nd April
All that is coming up so far is bindweed and ash seedlings, but we'll keep fingers crossed. The weather has been chilly but beautiful so am trying to get out into the garden every day. I have painted two sides of the shed in sage green, and trained the passionflower up chicken wire on the front. I have weeded the long border as far as the conifer, and now need to do the other side so that I have space to plant the seed potatoes and the vegetable seedlings growing rapidly in the outhouse.

There are plenty of flowers blooming in the garden, with a glut of dandelions and daisies in particular. Red and yellow deadnettles are also in bloom, as well as bluebells, cowslips, primroses, hairy bittercress, and celandines. Gorgeous! There is plenty of wildlife too, and I have seen peacock and red admiral butterflies, several species of bee and bumblebee, and can hear a multitude of birds singing in the nearby trees now that there is little traffic making a noise.

I have been busy planting in the flower beds too, and have planted Allium, Nectoscordum (both grown in pots), Peony, Sedum spectabile, Sweet Williams, Penstemon, and a pink-flowered shrub that I can never remember the name of, but the bees like the flowers! I have also removed the ivy and soil from under the back door step, so that the step fits properly in place.

Between the Storms

It has been a busy few weeks in the garden between the wind and the rain of February and early March, with the weeds, wildflowers, vegetables and garden plants beginning to grow rapidly. I took the plunge and cut the grass on a day when it seemed reasonably dry; the lawn looked awful for a few days but is now recovering. The clippings were mixed with shredded paper and put in the compost bin.

Borders are slowly being tidied; I have cleared a small patch near the fence and transplanted a Hemerocallis ("Day Lily") and an Iris to it from the vegetable patch where they had been overwintering. Another Iris has been potted up and popped in the mini-greenhouse as it hadn't sprouted. It has started now. The mixed border by the water butt has been cleared of pernicious Geranium seedlings, and everything remaining is flourishing, as is the Melissa officionalis ("Lemon Balm") by the compost heap. 

The Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple' that I bought in a sale last year has finally been planted in the flower border near the patio and is now sprouted. The Rudbeckia plants that were in the vegetable plot have been potted up until I have somewhere better to put them. On the opposite side of the patio I have planted, eventually, an Alchemilla that my Mum gave me last year, whcih seems to be taking, after months spent bare-rooted in a plastic bag in the lean to. I have put vine eyes and wire along the fence to support a thornless bramble I found there, which I hope that will produce lots of blackberries.

One vegetable patch has been cleared of overwintering perennials and weeds, with a daisy transplanted into the lawn! The garlic and elephant garlic planted on the Solstice is going strong. Seeds have been sown, including Broad Beans, Sugarsnap Peas, Kale, Cauliflower, Spring Cabbage, Swiss Chard, Sunflowers, Sweetcorn, Echinacea, and ornamental Alliums. Many of these are now sprouting.

Finally, green paint has been purchased and I have started painting the shed - the wood is rather dry and sucks the paint straight up!

February 22nd

We seem to have got away with little damage from storms Ciara and Dennis, but the garden is sopping wet from all the rain. However, there are flowers, with the miniature daffodils and the crocuses looking particularly lovely and the English Marigolds still as bright and orange as ever.

As there's not much I can do outside, I spent a peaceful hour sowing seeds in the lean-to, before putting them in my shiny new mini greenhouse. Neither lean-to nor greenhouse is heated so I may have been a bit optimistic, but have left the more tender seeds until next month. Seeds sown include sunflowers, celery, Swiss chard, cauliflower, spring cabbage, French marigold, sweetcorn, flat leaf parsley, and Kale 'Cavolo de Nero'. I realise many of these can be sown directly outdoors but we have voracious slugs, so I like to give the plants a head start.

I also planted some Sword Lily bulbs in pots as I haven't space to plant them out yet. Earlier planted pots are doing well in the other mini greenhouse, including Alliums and Honeybells. Spring should be busy!

February 2nd 2020

Out in the garden this morning as the weather was dry and mild, and I needed the feel of mud on my hands. I was surrounded by birdsong and could hear the burble of the brook behind the house. The garden is burgeoning with life; wildflowers galore (weeds....) are holding the soil together until I am ready for sowing and planting. I discovered the rhubarb poking it's  crinkled leaf into the air, stem the colour rubies. I am glad that has survived, my 50p purchase from a roadside stall.

Flowers are appearing: dandelions, common daisies, Scabious, stocks, English Marigold, hairy bittercress, crocus. In the local area I have seen snowdrops, catkins, Daphne and bergenia.

Bulbs are growing in the pots in the mini greenhouse and I have sorted out all the packets of vegetable seeds I possess. I am not sure where I will show them all! The garlic planted on the solstice is thriving, and nearly six inches tall. The elephant garlic is poking up through the soil and will catch up soon. This will, I think, be a busy year in the garden.

Solstice

I've not been out in the garden much as the weather has mostly been awful when I had free time and daylight! However, today the sun came out so I thought I would mark the winter solstice by planting garlic. Not sure if there's a connection, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I have planted three varieties: Lautrec Wight, Provence Wight, and Elephant garlic. These have gone in the patch where I planted potatoes; this experiment didn't really work as the frost came as soon as any shoots showed, but I did find a small handful of spuds today so will have them for tea.

The garden is still quite verdant, probably due to the relatively mild weather and lashings of rain. The English marigolds are still flowering, as are the wild deadnettles. The Gingko turned a beautiful shade of buttery yellow which lasted for about a week, and now the leaves are spread all over the garden.

In the coldframe potted snowdrops are starting to show their shoots, as are one or two other bulbs. The garden birds are singing loudly, and everything is looking promising for the year ahead.