Erm, hello!

It would be nice to say that the reason I haven't been blogging because I've been too busy gardening, but it wouldn't be true. I have been neglecting both I'm afraid!
That said, the little bits of gardening I have been doing are paying off.
That sad plot of wilderness is now looking much better, although still wild.
It's the sort of wild I like though, look!
I have poppies:



I also have loads of this stuff... Unfortunately I don't have a clue what it is!



I'm also excited to report that I have potatoes! (well, I have potato plants, hopefully they have some potatoes attached to them!)
Most exciting of all though is this cheeky little unseasonal Narcissus, which defied all odds and has appeared in my border from the mysterious and rotten looking bulbs found in a bag at my Grandads house.
Narcissus! In September!



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Not a travel blog

As an antidote to my recent text-only whingy posts, have a gratuitous picture of a seaside donkey, escaping from it's handler to chase a seagull:

Long time no wittering

Well hello there blogland, how are you?
Progress on the plot is slow and disheartening right now. After my chemical drench, the horsetail and nettles took the opportunity to just carry on growing... Presumably blowing raspberries, pulling faces and singing ner-ner-ner-ner-ner at me at the same time.

So, summoning up all the determination of her dad*, my mum took a dual attack approach yesterday: strimming till the blade fell off, then immediately drenching the lot in more weedkiller. I wait in anticipation...

As well as the plot looking like somewhere dinosaurs might go to play, I got home from a weekend at the seaside to find all my seedlings had died... Have managed to revive some of them but I think I'm going to be re-planting.

It's not all doom and gloom though, there are blooms too... Well, sort of, but blooms rhymes so I'm sticking with it.

I've been given a chilli seedling, have had some new ideas for ways of tackling things, a friend has dug over a good starter sized bed, and the border is blooming and full of cheer.
My mum alsodiscovered that someone has planted some pansies and primulas at the front of the plot... RAK for me!


*My grandad was a fantastic gardener. My grandma is convinced he used to lie in wait for new shoots of horsetail to appear...

Lettuce glut

My garden is glutting already!  Despite the 10 weeks of almost no rain, my tiny raised bed planted full mixed leaves is lush and leafy.  We're having stir fried pak choi and mustard, rocket pesto, mixed leaf salad with beetroot and radish greens, anything that is leafy, clean and crunchy is getting eaten at the moment.

I have discovered that the Small likes picking the leaves and rinsing them, but isn't sure about eating them while still fresh and a little bristly.  As soon as they're in more manageable pieces, she can't wait. 

My friend's herb garden got planted at the height of the dry dry spring, and didn't look very verdant when I last saw it, but we've both been so busy I haven't had a chance to be out there.  I have promised to move her enormous rosemary busy, and put lavender plants in there instead, and I will, I promise, but we need some time for blissful garden days.  It will probably be june before I get out there again, and I must put up the pictures of our hilarious planting day.

Just know that we're living in the garden, our pea plants are coming up like billyo, and the first one of the dwarf peas in the porch is flowering.

Pea shoots are tasty, let me tell you!

Right! Onwards, there is more office work to be done.

Looks like I may be buying veggies for a little while yet.

Well, blogland, long time no see eh?
Spent Easter Monday with a watering can and some weedkiller, dousing everything except the border, the rhubarb and the gooseberry bush.
A couple of weeks on, and the result is disappointing. I now have slightly sickly looking horsetail and nettles poking through some yellowed grass! Not quite the spectacular result I wanted. I'm certainly going to need more weedkiller, and I think may have have to put plot planting plans on hold till next year.
Never mind there are always containers!


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May Encounters

I had a wonderful neighbourhood gardening moment on the last day of April.  During our very dry spring, we have been watering the garden every evening.  It's a long process at our house, as we don't use a hose, and the waterbutts are all at the back of the house. I pick up the watering cans (always left in the front garden, which is our main gardening space), I walk around our little terrace of houses (we're no 3 in a terrace of 5), to where the waterbutts are in the back yard.  I have to fill up twice to manage the sweetcorn, the carrots, the peas, the sunflowers, the lettuce bed, the potatoes and the random flowers in tubs. 

It's a really pleasant ritual, especially on these warm evenings, and nobody else ever seems to be around as I do it, a sort of oddly enchanted space in a very rushy day.  The last evening of April smelled warm and calm, and as I walked around the corner I saw a man I might describe as looking like a greying hippie (greyer, and more old school than me) carrying the most enormous armful of hawthorn blossom.  I asked him whether he wanted some lilac to add to his bundle, because the tree in our backyard is very generous.  We had a lovely chat about picking the may, and how it came of him having an Irish wife.  I maintained that he should be collecting dew for her at sunrise the next morning.

The lilac tree was at its absolute best that evening, so I bet their house smelled of rapturous spring on May day.  He was so thankful and cheerful about us offering something that we get more than enough of every May that I came back into the house full of peace and laughter. 

The lilac have all gone over now, so we need to prune what are really mammoth bushes, so we have a bit more light throughout the rest of the year and still get our blossom next spring.  Every time I see them this year I think about a man walking around our neighborhood looking for blossom for his love.
   N.

Tragedy!

Creepy crawly horrors invading my garden!  Uck uck uck!

A massive sawfly larvae infestation all over my green and happy gooseberry bush.  At first we thought they were quite sweet, until we saw how they stripped the leaves clean down to their veins, and just kept on eating.  According to the Encyclopedia of Gardening, you have to pick them off by hand and for "severe" infestations it's insecticide, baby! 

Yeah.  It looks like we might be at that level.

Luckily pyrethrin is an organic insecticide, and is supposed to be safe for us, and for most of our other garden residents.  I still hate the idea of using it, but it beats picking handfuls of little green wriggly things off my poor mutilated gooseberry bush every 4 to 6 hours.  I say again UCK!

No pictures, but just imagine a tiny green caterpillar with a black head eating its bodyweight and expanding at the speed of light.  To the garden centre I go!

Apparently, I'm the head gardener!

We've just moved offices at work, and our new site overlooks the railway.  The bossman suggested that a hedge might make our little patio more pleasant, so there I was, with a big bundle of beech hedging, a tiny "lady's shovel" and a bank made up principally of rocks, chunks of concrete and quite heavy clay. 

I know you're supposed to dig a trench, but that was not gonna happen, no way.

I was quite proud of my 27 holes excavated, filled with water, and eventually with tiny twiggy beech plants.  It took me all afternoon, and freed me from 4 hours emptying boxes.  Despite all the effort it looks just as if I poked 27 twigs into the ground.  Today they looked a little fuller, and a bit more relaxed.  Hopefully they'll leaf up eventually.

I asked for a pay rise based on being the official head gardener, but sadly that's not a long term job title.

Prehistoric Monsters Have Invaded My Garden

I knew there was horsetail in the plot, I thought I'd pulled a lot of it up and there were just a few patches left.
What a fool I was.
It's now over-run with the stuff.




It's quite pretty in a way, but that doesn't mean I want it overtaking my whole garden like this




Fifteen minutes with the strimmer, now I need to go back out with the weedkiller.
This is not a good time for mystery fatigue to hit. Hmmph.

On the upside, I have a lovely lovely hyacinthoides non-scripta that has fought through the prehistoric spikes!



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Not a parenting blog

Except when it is. I have to post pictures today of the small opening the present that Diane, my sister non-scripta blogger, sent her in the post. These are for you Bloo:

Do you think she likes them?

This is when I told her who the parcels were from.  Admittedly, she's hugging Claire's present there, but she thinks it's all from you!

Commentary on the wrapping paper.  Serious inspection. 

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS MUMMY.... BOOKS!

Dis one DIS ONE READ IT NOW!

Ahem.  Very well appreciated.  I'm trying to decide which is currently my favourite.  She asked for three of them at bedtime tonight.

Dear internets, I have lots of gardening pictures for tomorrow, but I also have  job application to fill in, so we'll see.

Cunning plan

My plan of attack for the next couple of weeks is:

• repot enough seedlings to start hardening off
• put them somewhere cooler than my windowsill
• plant them in final location
• plant more seeds
• Rinse
• repeat

Anyone ever had any luck with physalis giving fruit? I want to grow to eat, not for decoration, although that's an added benefit.

I have also been given a load of carrot seeds, are carrots hard to grow? I have heard of carrot fly...

The small is obsessed with watering and weeding. This is mostly good, however, what she wants to weed isn't always quite right. Luckily I have more than my fair share of rocket seedlings.

Our exciting planting venture of the week was to put loads of fresh potting compost into the planter that lives on the shelf in our porch. Normally we regrow morning glories there every summer. This year we're trying morning glories AND dwarf peas. Both lots are coming up already, after being planted and heavily watered on Thursday. Impressive!

Photos

See, I do sometimes take pictures, honest!




What a difference a couple of weeks makes. Look at the size of my chives!









Notice my little mutant sweetcorn? One of them is coming up twisty and turny...



























These pictures are of the teeny tiny raised bed that my mother-in-law gave me as a birthday present. We filled it with two growbags, and the small and I planted a whole load of mixed lettuce type things: red mustard, pak choi, rosette pak choi, lambs lettuce, and some beetroot. The things in pots are the rosemary we're rooting from the giant and straggly rosemary bush we got rid of, and the black grass (Ophiopogon nigrescens, I think) that lived where we've put the bed. I think it looks lovely in that turquoise pot.

So much growing, so much that I have probably planted a little early.

Very little is as exciting as sweetcorn seeds coming up. Little green spears springing up. I feel like Medea sewing the dragon's teeth. Luckily I don't think my spears will turn into warriors. Hopefully we'll get really delicious sweetcorn.

Everything I have going in the seed trays has come up apart from the fennel (very ancient seeds), and the Salvia lavandifolia. The trays are really beautiful and desperately need thinning.

My friend's garden has got a reasonable number of herbs already planted: two types of thyme, a purple sage, mint and a huge rosemary bush. They are sort of scattered around a patio that is going to go, so I think I'll be moving the plants, and planting my seedlings all in one section. She would prefer to have everything together in one place, so we can definitely do that.

My first lot of gardening for her was to trim the giant rosemary bush (which I am NOT moving), and put the clippings into the compost heap. Excitingly, despite her nerves about worms she has said she'll feed the compost, which is a great bravery, so there will be loads of rich lovely compost for her husband's planned veg bed.

We also planted some dwarf sweetpeas in a pot for her conservatory craft room. My small was ecstatically happy all day in the garden, which makes all of us equally gleeful.

Cockney Rhyming Slang

Rhubarb Crumble is cockney rhyming slang for 'grumble'. I feel that this is very unfair to the poor rhubarb.

My rhubarb is growing like mad, without me having done anything at all with it.
three weeks ago it looked like this:










I've done absolutely nothing with it, and now it looks like this!

Sorry, no photos

Well, I haven't done much more myself since my last post, but both my mum and my dad have been busy (they're both helping and sharing the space).
I now have both borders dug, and the first plants in them, I have some snowdrops, and some random things that were getting too bug for the pots my mum had them in. I will be planting more things once I've got them started from seed, and am debating a couple of rose bushes. Much as I appreciate design in general, when it comes to a garden I like a bit of chaos and eclecticism.
We've also got a gooseberry bush planted, and my mum has discovered that the path goes all the way to the front, which saves me a few quid on paving slabs!
The rhubarb looks like it's flourishing even more than usual too... Hopefully I'll get some progress photos soon!

something from something else

We had a completely blissful afternoon yesterday discovering the garden I had been planning for. Of course it meant that all of my plans went out of the window, to be replaced by dreams of the actual place. So many empty beds! So many healthy plants!

It's going to be great fun. Pictures tonight.

Buying Seeds... a mini-review

Being a non-driver, my seed shopping so far has been restricted to Wilkinsons and the pound shop, seeing as none of my local garden centres are accessible on public transport.
This is all fine for the basics, but part of the reason for wanting to grow my own veg is to be able to have more exciting things than I could get at the supermarket.
So, after mooching around online a bit, I found two places that I decided to order from.
Both appealed to me because of their cheeriness, and the fact they were utterly non-threatening to a newbie gardener: a lot of places I looked sortof screamed "serious knowledgeable people buy seeds here", and put me off.
But you don't want to hear about those do you?
No!
You want to know about the lovely newbie-friendly cheery ones don't you?

The first that caught my attention was Moreveg, which was simple and straightforward but had interesting things like Spaghetti Squash and Atomic Red Carrots. I also liked the 'what to grow this month' page and the fact that the seeds are listed alphabetically. I also loved the fact I could pay by paypal.

The second drew me in with an offer of a freebie, but then held me with its general niceness. This was Vegetable Seeds. Again, there were interesting things to be had, pleasingly presented in a newbie-friendly way, and I could pay by paypal. The seeds were cheap, and there's free postage too. But then it got better. Straight away after ordering, I got an email with the instructions for my seeds, which just made me smile, but the best bit is the lovely customer blog space (beautiful example here).

I'm now just waiting for my seeds to arrive, so I can get planting!

Things I found while tidying the garden:

Amongst the expected pile of broken glass, beer cans and sweet wrappers I found:
Three different bits of a lock mechanism.
A large colony of woodlice.
A single, solitary bed spring.
Two pence.
Some very pretty bits of china.
A knife and fork (not a matched pair).

I feel like it's an archaeological dig, not a gardening project!

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Phew!

Something in there has mammoth roots... 1 1/2 hours of digging and pulling and tidying and really not much to show for it!
Hopefully I've cleared the biggest clump of nettles. I have also marked out the borders (and first dug one of them) and the veg plot, and marked off a compost heap in a corner. I was also heckled a lot by the kids in one of the flats overlooking the garden. All I can say is they must have been very bored.
I now have very shaky arms and shoulders!

Big mug of tea with a planning notebook now, then starting some seeds off this afternoon.
Maybe a bit more digging, we'll see.

Plans for the Day

Well, I have both beautiful sunny weather and time today, so I am about to start tackling the biggest job, making my not-ver-planned-plan into some sort of reality: yep its big dig day!
Because of the springy weather, alternating between sun and showers, this is looking rather more green now: which is good in places, but some of it needs to come out!

Wish me luck, I'll be back with more photos later!

Pease! Groweeeeeng!

The title is a quote from my small person, who has developed a passionate and perhaps dangerous interest in what is sprouting in our seed trays. It is unlikely to be dangerous to her, but let's see how the toddler level trays last out the spring. I'm betting we have at least two potting compost across the floor type collapses.

Anyway, she's wrong, the peas are outside, sitting in the cold cold ground, and I hope that the hard frosts haven't killed them. We keep looking for them though, every time we walk past.


Groweeng in seed tray no1 we now have Salvia horminum, common basil, greek basil and Calendula all sprouting. In amazing, planted on Sunday, seed tray no2 we now have sweetcorn, and parsley just starting to go.


Seed tray 2 also contains:

• Viola- johnny jump up
• Coriander
• Chives
• and Rocket.

There was a definite spring-y softness to the air this morning, despite the -2 °C thermometer reading while we walked to nursery, and the Small is pointing out buds, and flowers. I get so excited this time of year, as the clouds of the February blues start to part, and I can believe that the light and the lovely smells and colours of the year are coming round again.

Test post 2

The second iPhone app post in a day is usually the point where it all goes wrong, so here goes!

Lovely words, on a gardening theme:
Secateurs
Potash
Bloom
Cultivate

Any more?



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Test post 1

Hello, just testing whether I can post from my phone. On my other blog I've had problems with the antispam robots when I've tried this! So I will be trying again in a little while.
In the meantime, have some daffs:



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Seeds sprouting!

Salvia hormimum is coming up. Quick work that sage plant.
Pictures tomorrow!
Plus my friend's house becomes hers tomorrow, so we get to go and look at the prospective space, or decking above the space. It's so exciting.
Have more planting to do, and then I should probably take some pictures of the space, and maybe do some planning of what might actually go where. I know smaller plants at the front, etc etc, but we'll see where we go,
We also have a pile of bricks sitting in our back yard, so there's a possible border for the garden. Woo!

Why I'm Blogging This

My name is Diane and I am NOT greenfingered.
I have never gardened, and I have always maintained that I am possessed of some evil plant-killing aura. I have always been the sort of person who gets given Cacti, or Ivy, or something equally hardy and the generous giver gently teases, saying, "You can't possibly kill these!"*.

But I love the idea of gardening. Of watching things grow, of being part of the process of beauty emerging from earth and water and tiny specks of seeds. I also love the idea of having a garden.

So, as a clueless beginner, I turned to my first port of call for free information: the internet.
But I was to be disappointed. Although I found lots of wonderful friendly forums, and cheery sites full of useful stuff, I couldn't find anything that was aimed at my practically non-existent level of knowledge. Most of the library books I found were similar.

Luckily, I was rescued by friends! I know people with varying levels of expertise and equally high levels of enthusiasm, so I do have some good sources of advice.
And now I have a starting point.

I always think that the best way to learn any practical skill is to try it, so that's what I'm doing. And because I can't be the only person who is a clueless dreamer with a plot of land, I'm going to blog what I'm doing, what I learn, what happens, what grows and what doesn't, all of it, so that there will be a gardening resource for the clueless beginner!

*Yes, I killed both the cacti (it went mouldy) and the ivy. I've never met anyone else that's managed to accidentally kill off an ivy plant.

First seeds in...

A sunny weekend, and generous toddler naptime (bliss) has led to me being able to do more than just dream of the herb garden. I managed to have a much needed sort out of my seed box.

As you can see, it's not the most ordered of places. What it tells you about me is which plants I have had crazy enthusiasms for, and which plants I still love the best. Who really needs to grow crocus from seed?

Apparently me, but I'm just not ready for them yet, those seeds require years of commitment, and I'm not good at quick decisions. And yes, a professional gardener did tell me that keeping seeds in a sealed tupperware in the fridge was the best way to keep them going for a long time. I hope he was right, because some of these things have been in my fridge for a number of years.

So today, I weeded through, and found things that will be beautiful in my friend's prospective plot (and in mine too, because I always plant extra!). I microwaved my potting compost for 20 minutes, and let it cool (my potting compost has been sitting in a bag next to a disused flower bed in the back yard, who knows what might be in it).


So, into the seed tray went:

• lemon balm; invasive, tall, beautiful for tea, for bees, and for the soul
• fennel; feathery delight, although I know I'm supposed to plant it in the ground where it's to grow, we'll see how this works
• calendula; or pot marigold, a herb and a lovely bright flower
• basil; both greek and the common or garden variety, my friend has a conservatory, and if we're lucky enough sun in the garden for the greek basil to go out,
• two different types of salvia or sage; a bit experimental, but worth a try
• a mix of peppers; corna di torro, jalapeno, cubanella, all for the conservatory
  

I can't wait to see what comes up, if and when it does. There has also been a rapid trip to the aquatic shop and garden centre, and we now have peas for our own garden (toddler and parental joy at being out in the sunshine, she planted, I wielded the hoe, Mup directed the planting operations) as well as chives, thyme and parsley for the next round of planting. My packet of pansy seeds was sadly empty, but I'm going to get some species violas, which will do a better culinary job anyway.

Ooh, waiting for things to come up is my one of my favourite gardening things (along with reading seed catalogues).

Something from nothing

Bloo and I are trying to make beautiful gardens from our vast enthusiasm, little knowledge, and the work of our hands.

I'm trying to create a herb garden for a friend who seems to dislike the mud, insects and unpredictable nature of the garden, despite wanting the beauty and usefulness of a herb garden. I've never started from a blank slate before. My previous lovely messy garden spaces have always had something that I valued in them, so I've been adding to the existing pleasures.

This time, I'm working in a space that was once (and is currently still) under decking. My friend's desires for her garden are lavender, some tasty spicy herbs, something beautiful, more lavender, and ease of maintenance. I want to lure her into the delight of watching things grow, seeing the nature that lurks in British suburbia as a positive thing, not a frightening one.

This is a non-scripta blog, because we have no written plans, no formal outlines for our gardens. Currently I just have a list, and the idea of a circular plot. My list is as follows:

• 15 lavender plants,

• thyme (I have never had much success with thyme before)

• rosemary

• pansies

• basil and hot peppers in pots

• sage

• fennel

• chives.

I love to grow things from seed, so this weekend and the next I'll start to put things into trays, to see what little darlings will come up from my carefully hoarded seed packets. I'm going to post on freecycle too, to see if I can get some bricks to outline the bed, and maybe we'll be away. This is definitely learning by doing

Bloo has much more exciting, adventurous plans and I'm eager to see what she comes up with.

The starting point....

For three years now, I've been looking out onto a small wasteland.
This small wasteland to be precise.


Horrible isn't it?
A couple of months ago I decided I'd had enough, and that I was fed up of looking at it.
So I determined to make a start.
Then I walked out to have a proper look.
In short, I felt defeated before I even started: there was loads of rubbish, and the weeds were so thick I couldn't see earth under them, and this was in frost-flattened January.

I gave up on my idea.
Then I had another thought... It wasn't the idea of growing things in it that was putting me off, it was the prospect of clearing it without power tools, experience or even the faintest clue what I was doing.
So what if I got someone with those things to do that bit for me?

A very reasonable sum later (paid to a very worthy local group), I have a rubbish free blank canvas, strimmed to perfection, all ready and waiting for me to start planting things in it.

And of course, a pretty new blog to record my muddy exploits...