Beautiful carrots

This year we had a go at growing carrots. As our veg patch was, until only a few months ago, under several tonnes of gravel the soil was no where near smooth enough to plant in the ground so instead I made up two 56 litre potato planting bags with a 50/50 mix of potting compost and sharp sand for good drainage and lot of wiggle room for the developing root system. I was paranoid about carrot fly so I kept them under a light mesh in the greenhouse.

The seeds germinated pretty quickly but then failed to mature. At the end of November I did a big clear out of the greenhouse because it was the end of the growing season. I honestly thought that they'd failed so I turfed them out of the greenhouse to die back so I could use the soil for mulching. I was a bit disappointed with the failure of the experiment.

I was amazed when I went back last weekend and found these beautiful little carrots. I was so pleased and I'd consider starting them much earlier next year and possibly keep them outside so I could do more containers.

Pumpkin harvest

This year we were given some pumpkin plants, when I planted them it wasn't really something that particularly interested me as I don't like the way they look or the way they taste. As I wasn't that interested I didn't really do much research on how to look after them so where I planted them was completely unsuitable.

The pumpkin sprawled at least twelve feet from where it was originally planted

Despite all of this we produced two beautiful big fruit on the most unbelievable sprawling vines which tumbled over the side of the raised beds and along the lawn.

I'll certainly plant them next year but I'll think a little longer about where I'm going to plant them.

June in the garden

The potatoes are coming along nicely. On the right is the second set of first earlies which we succession planted into the ground. On the left is the main crop potatoes. You can also see the canes and the netting and the CD's that we're trying to scare away the pigeons, but to no avail.

Also, out lavender plug plants arrived on Thursday and we've potted them up. I've not included the picture of the mixed box that we got. I was amazed by the packaging and that the plants actually look reasonably healthy. From the mixed box quiet a lot have died but there were so many it didn't matter so much. For £5.95 for 30 plants from Thompson & Morgan I don't think you can complain, especially as the RRP for these is £34.95 + £5.65 P&P . These particular ones came with a little of free snips and were the gardeners world offer which you can see here if you're interested.  But be quick because the offers don't last forever.


Also looking pretty good at the moment is the clematis and the climbing rose.

Plants amongst pebbles

I've spoken before about about the huge expanse of pebbly nothingness at the end of the garden which was only interrupted by much large rocks. One of the first homely touches we put in place to put our mark on the place was to put some alpines and sedums in between the rocks. We've developed quite a collection now.

My favourite is below, its a sedum Cape Blanco and the yellow star shaped flowers are amazingly bright set against the background of the aqua coloured foliage. Plus, they take no looking after, the only thing that they really don't like is too much water or attention.The less I do for them to happier they are.

The poor, abused, nameless bush that we dug up and moved about a month ago has actually flowered, I can't quite believe it, this thing has every right to give up the ghost and die but this morning I went outside and it flowered all over. It produces the most beautiful open white flowers with yellow middles and most importantly it covers up the compost bin which is behind it. You can just about see it peaking out at the bottom left, but don't look there because you'll also see the piles of rotten wood that used to be the raised beds which I still haven't got rid of.

First early potatoes - From spade to plate

Today was the day for the first set of first earlies. They were planted at the end of February in bags, this particular variety is Rocket or Solanum tuberosum for those who like the latin and they produce very sweet baby new potatoes. I've only pulled up one bag which had five tubers in it but we got 30 potatoes. On reflection I think five was too many for the bag because they were very tightly packed in the end so one or two were very small indeed.

The biggest one was about four inches long and the smallest was about the size of my thumb nail but most importantly, they tasted fantastic cooked with paprika like potato wedges.

Garden evolution, Part 3 - raised beds

Pretty much the day that we move in to the new house Tom climbed up into the existing raised beds on the left hand side and broke the first post. I was, if I am honest, pretty annoyed about this because I thought what a pain it would be to replace it. I didn't know at the time that this was going to be the first of many posts that would just crumble, splinter or snap in half once you started to look at it.

It became clear pretty quickly that the whole thing would have to go and it would all need to be replaced so we decided, as so many gardening books suggest to "just build some raised beds". It's a phrase used in the same tone as just going to the supermarket or just make a cup of coffee. I'd realised it wouldn't be as easy as it was made out to be, but I hadn't factored in just how exhausting it was going to be

So we had some hardwood sleepers delivered by a guy with a lorry with a crane attached to it came along and annoyed the neighbours by asking that everyone in a two mile radius moved their car. I wanted to suggest that he re-positioned his lorry but I was worried he'd drive off never to be seen again and all that wood was expensive. Once the wood was on the drive we had to pick it up and carry it into the garden. This was a whole days work. After we'd done that my arms felt like they were both six inches longer. It was then that I realised how hard this was going to be.

Day two of the build was taking up the turf and digging the holes to sink the sleepers in to. I had the physical but not technical jobs whilst Tom had the technically difficult jobs of preparing and drilling the wood. By the end of day two we'd managed to get the first layer of the biggest raised bed in place. Things had not been helped by having every possible type of weather to deal with.

By day three we had a better idea what we were doing and the middle sized and small bed went into place by mid afternoon, which was good because we were just ruined from all this very physical work. I'm not used to this sort of labour, I'm very out of practice and my body was telling me so.

We left it a while before we leveled off and dug over the soil, I tell people this was to let the wood settle and the lawn recover, but that's not true at all, I was just too tired to do any more. We're now at the exciting stage of filling it with all of our plant purchases and making it look like a garden instead of three big wooden boxes with dirt in them.

Garden evolution, Part 2 - Greenhouses

The original rip - and I'd thought this was bad...

For Christmas Tom's dad bought us this tent style greenhouse. It was a pretty awesome place to be but, understandably it did not stand up very well to storms. About two weeks after we put it up there was a big storm and the roof ripped right open, so I decided, no matter, I'll repair it. I took it down on Friday night, sewed it all day Saturday and then put it back up on Sunday.

I then proceeded to fret about the damn thing at even the hint of a breeze. About three weeks after that we did have a very big storm again and the whole thing ripped to pieces. The only thing left in tact was the repair I had made the previous weeks - so that was a little tiny win.

I was pretty gutted in all honesty, a lot of my baby seedlings had been smashed and thrown on the floor as it had blown over and the garden looked very bare and a little sad without it. Thankfully my very generous cousin and her husband were on hand with a replacement. This was a massive turn up for the books because I truly believe that my sanity and the little growing space outside the house are intrinsically linked.

Below is the current incarnation, a more traditional affair but far less likely to blow away and end up in Kansas.

A tiny patch of garden

Before

After

So one of the more enjoyable jobs on my half term to do list was to sort out the front little patch. It's about 3 foot square and it's got to be a bit of a mess. I'd planted daffodils and tulips before Christmas whilst I was pressure washing the drive. 

So I'd been thinking for a while about what to do with this patch and I'd also been thinking about what to do with the dozens of sun flowers that we've grown from seed and also the summer flowering sea holly and freesias. 

It's not yet the pretty little patch I was hoping for but I've de-cluttered the greenhouse and used up the end of the bulbs, thus killing several birds with limited stones. 

Garden evolution, Part 1 - a blankish canvas

When we first met our house on 8th June 2014 the whole experience was pretty overwhelming. I'd tried so hard to look at and notice everything but it was virtually impossible to take it all in. 

The garden was something which was high on the list but only in as much as it had to be a decent size. That was it. I didn't care whether it was manicured and pristine or a wild, overgrown jungle. Just as long as it was an outside space then I was happy. So this is what we inherited. A bit run down and lacking in features, as well as this the raised beds pictured above were rotten and falling down so would need to be replaced. Also, you couldn't tell from the house but the pebbled area that can just about be seen in this terrible photo is actually as big as the rest of the garden combined but there is nothing up there aside from one out of control climbing rose. There is actually another patio up there! 

But it didn't stay like that for long.