Ouch - I'm going to ache in the morning

Sometimes you really need some extra muscle, today I had the help of Clive to put the stepping stones in place. If you've lost the thread, don't worry.

Ok, let's recap what I'm up to.

A couple of years ago we reclaimed an overgrown area of the garden to create Laura's first garden. This area was full of holly, willow, nettles and the dreaded brambles. We wanted her to be able to look after her own garden, and grow not only flowers, but herbs and vegetables. It has been really successful and unfortunately due to exams and homework ended up back under my care and attention with the odd bit of help from Laura. It has remained under Laura's direction though, so is full of mauve, blue, white and pink flowers, just NO YELLOW or ORANGE that's for Grandma's garden, any accidents need moving.

We did have a bench seat tucked in next to the garden with an area of lawn in front, a real pain for Grandad to mow, but it was manageable when the mower went into reverse.......

............ok the mower currently isn't going into reverse, ah well, time for a change methinks.......

So I've moved the bench, and removed the grass making laura's garden bigger. But, there is a special storage area for wood at the back of the garden, I still needed to give access to this from the front if necessary. There is a trellis, but it is on hooks so it can be removed to give access. How do I manage the access? That's where the stepping stones come in. We have created a path of stepping stones in a lovely warm cotswold stone to the storage, filling in around the stepping stones with small Cotswold chippings. This gives a lovely warm glow to the area. At the end of the path, I've put a planter with variegated ivy, cyclamen, a bay tree and violas to give a focal point over the winter. I've also put in lots of bulbs and more pansies, violas, polyanthus and sweet williams.

The aim of this garden is to be full of herbs and roses, useful all year round and full of heady scent in the summer.

At the back of the border there are 2 beautiful jasmine's which are clambering over the rails of the veranda supporting Laura's tree house (this needs some repairs now, the steps leading up are beginning to weaken, so hopefully we can get this fixed and she can still vanish in to her hidey hole with her nose in a good book. There is a climbing hydrangea which is doing really well, it should give a good evergreen barrier helping to generate interest and stopping the different areas of the garden being seen, I love secret gardens and would love to be able to build more areas like this with paths leading you to new discoveries.

We also planted a couple of grape vines. These haven't done so well, we will be tying them into the veranda, but we aren't sure how successful they will be.

Clive started to cut down the branches of the willow which were overhanging the garden, it is a beast, the roots are a nightmare and we hope eventually to be able to remove it, the top branches came down in a storm the other year, it's covered with ivy and is taking valuable sun from the middle of the garden.

We do have one major hiccough to our plans, deer, they love Laura's roses and despite us blocking where we thought they were coming in, the plant I carefully pruned the other day ready to go in this week, which I left on the freshly dug earth, had a haircut overnight, all the lovely fresh leaves had vanished, and the tale tale hoof prints were there in the earth. I've bought some special connectors, small green connectors shaped in a ball that take bamboo canes (we aren't short of those). The idea is to use some black netting which I can thread a cane through at the top and make a barrier around the garden. Deer like firm barriers to jump over, this will not be easy to see, so hopefully will stop them having breakfast on this area of the garden. As the farmers say, either don't grow stuff or use barriers, either the deer or rabbits will get you. We get additional pests here in the country as well as the usual pigeons, slugs and snails. Clive's put the uprights in, now I just need to cut the net, which is 4.3m x 4.3m into 3, I think 1.1m high should be enough. I also need to make an easy to manage gateway so I can access the stepping stones, as that is where I'm hoping to plant most of the herbs next year.

The temperature suddenly dropped and the rain started just before I had finished, not being one to give in to a bit of rain I finished the planting, then had to clear everything away and wash off the path from all our muddy feet, I also gave the plants a quick water, I know it was raining, but I wanted to give them a good start. By the time I'd finished I was freezing, a hot cup of tea and my snugly fleece started to thaw me out, but I was shattered and the aches and pains started, who needs to go to a gym!

Fingers crossed the weather isn't too bad tomorrow, we can then put up the fencing, and plant the rest of the shrubs and roses. I might even manage to start on mum and dads anniversary garden, it's visible for their patio door, I've got wallflowers and loads of daffodils to go in, to give them some early colour. This garden needs some serious work as its got overgrown, the perennials need splitting and some movie as they are in the wrong places. Once this is all done, I can dig up some strawberries for mum to plant in the polytunnel, and plant my peas and lambs lettuce to overwinter.

There is always something to do in a garden......

Time flies and I forgot to blog

Good intentions failed me, I got so busy I forgot to blog, it did get manic balancing work and everything else. Still I now have an iPad which should improve my blogging.
I'm determined to get loads of veg in to overwinter this year. I got a deal through mr fothergills for some cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plants, plus some lettuces and they are now safely in the ground. I sowed some broad beans and turnips, using radish as an intercropping and all are doing nicely. I just need to keep the slugs and pigeons off them.
I have a packet of meteor peas to go in, these are supposed to be hardy and cope with overwintering. I've also got the garlic and onions to go in.
Before I can plant anymore, I need to move all the shrubs we bought earlier in the year into Laura's garden, this is now going to be our rose and herb garden. I've reclaimed some of the lawn, made a larger bed, we've bought the stepping stones to keep the access to the wood storage. This pathway will be great edged with thymes, but for now, lots of bulbs, violas and polyanthus are ready to go in, with some beautiful cyclamen for instant colour.
As soon as the herb garden is planted, we can start on the next veg bed and get that planted.
No peace for the wicked, we've also got to clear the greenhouse completely out, so we can let off a sulphur candle in it, this will kill any moulds, bacteria etc before we put up the bubblewrap and bring in the fuchsias and olive, also all of the geraniums and then we can take loads of cuttings.
The forecast is wet, wet, wet, but the garden needs the rain.
So there are the plans,
How much will we achieve........

Early sow and sow

Well the clocks went forward and I can't stay in bed or 6am up tomorrow will be killer, 7am this morning and by 8am I was in the greenhouse.
I've decided to capture my progress in pictures, so here goes.

 This is the first of the veg beginning to show through, the beetroot is coming through the most followed by the spinach.

 These are the plug plants, there are twenty little modules for each type of plant, there are lobelia, geraniums, busy lizzies and petunias.

It's getting full, I've already moved some of the pots outside that don't need greenhouse protection, loads more planted today including, broad beans, courgettes/marrows, celery, onions, shallots, summer cabbage, lettuce, thai basil, parsley, leeks, some unusual french beans called Ying Yang that can be used fresh or dried.

Loads done, all watered and now waiting to see what happens.


I think I've planted more, but what, escapes me until I see the labels in the daylight.
Productive day, you bet!

Sunny Saturday

A beautiful day, I was in the greenhouse by 9am and it was already 18 degrees Celsius. I've cleared out all the old pots, planted bulbs watered everything.
After lunch we nipped to the Garden centre and bought some plug plants and seeds, all potted on now.
Loved gardeners world last night, didn't realise that I could grow dahlias from seed so bought some, going to back in greenhouse tomorrow to sow them and more.

Loads of vitamin D, and relaxation, recharging my batteries.
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Gardener's World is back

Friday was the start of the new series of Gardener's World on BBC and yippee Monty Don is back and they've returned to the original format. Back to the presenters talking to us as equals, camera men and editors showing us what we want to see, no "arty shots". My personal belief that if you don't notice the camera angles and just see the presenter, then you've got the best behind the scenes team possible, you don't go and see a show at the theatre and see the backstage crew appearing (just those sound men setting the levels too high so you don't forget them).

It was great to see lots of tips and tricks in a "real" garden that is a family garden, loved the beetroot module idea, off to plant some in a moment for both of the veg plots.

I would like a timelord though, I don't have enough time to do the gardening as my students' need my attention whether planning or marking. My reward for hard planning is a few minutes in the greenhouse.

The sun is just beginning to shine between the clouds, so I think the time has come to stretch my legs, grab a packet of seeds, label & pen and head to the greenhouse.

Happy growing

New year, new plans, time to make the garden work

I can't believe that I've neglected my blog on my garden for so long. Spookily today my daughter had the same thought as me, "Mum, we need to get the veg garden planned properly this year".

So time to work out a plan of action to clear the ground in the veg plot, clear off the grass that's managed to embed itself under the fruit bushes and trees.

I've just realised that the potatoes are still in the ground (unless the rats have been using them during the freezing weather).

Well a couple of seed catalogues have arrived, I've bought a couple of packets of seeds today, now to check what I've already got and work out what I still need.

We are also going to try some microgreens, I've bought 3 packets of seeds, broccoli, red basil and rocket. I've also decided to use up some of my old seeds as microgreens, I'm going to clear the windowsill and get them going to provide some great leaves to go in my salads and sandwiches.