A Simple Update

So Saturday after two days of rest from the garden chores I picked up where I left off and returned to the task of digging and preparing planting holes for the curcubits, etc. The ten remaining holes for the squashes and pumpkins took me all Saturday to do. Each pole represent a hole of which there is 14 in total.

Sunday morning saw me constructing a fenced barrier against fox cub damage to my vege plot see previous posting, the only thing is I did not have enough fencing to encompass the squash and pumpkin area, I hope the plants won't be to interfered with when I plant them out (so far they have left the cardboard alone). Later in the afternoon found me digging six more holes, this time two more for the tomatoes, three for courgettes and one for a patty pan summer squash.

The kid's spring flower pots and planters have been moved to a quiet area behind the greenhouse and their six old wellington boot planters which were sown with morning glories, sweet peas and nasturtiums have been put into their final place in front of the play house.

Monday I potted around planting out flowering plants into the flower bed. The garden looks filthy as we have been having some high winds which have dumped all the old dusty flowers and some young leaves of the surrounding oak trees into the garden, causing the place to look like it needs a good sweep.

Had hope to start planting out the squashes and tomatoes but with the high winds dropping the air temperature by a few degrees I though it would be wise to keep them in the greenhouse till the end of the week when the ground should be saturated by forcasted heavy showers and the winds should have also died down somewhat.

The thyme I under sowed the brassicus plants with have started to germinate.

Here are a couple pics taken on Monday:

Tuesday morning saw me at the museum with my youngest for story and craft activities but the afternoon found me cutting the lawn which was followed by its second dose of feed. I also got round to staking the taller plants in the flower and herb beds to prevent them from being flattened by any heavy rain that may fall.

Wednesday this morning showed evidence of rain fall during the early hours of the morning but it was not a lot. There has been a fine drizzle since 14.00 which i s getting heavy but very slowly. The garden could do with a good drink so hopefully the heavy showers do fall later this evening.

The turnips I was growing for winter harvesting will be ready way before then (the one in the photo is only the second biggest). I'll probably sow a fresh set to grow for those winter months.

About midday I happened to look out the window and was lucky to see my first sighting of swifts for the year :), there were about five of them but they didn't hang around and so I was not able to procure a video shot of them to show you.

I've been practicing with the camera in taking macro shots here a few taken today:

Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!

Well the sun has been beating down on us here in the south of England as though its the height of summer not that I'm complaining, I just hope the weather doesn't burn itself out and give us another wet cold summer like it did the last two summers.

Sunday I finally got round to tidying the strawberry tower by removing all the dead vegetation from last year. I only lost one plant and I gave the rest a spray of rhubarb insecticide as there was some aphid infestation observed.

The lawn had its second mowing of the season and it has fulled out really well in comparison to last year, so the resowing of grass seed last autumn and the application of fertiliser three weeks ago seems to have had a good result thus far. There is one area though that looks really sad, mossy and full of perennial weeds, I'll have to sort that out before it becomes a bare patch.

The compost bin which holds the rabbit droppings and bedding material from last year was investigated. I removed a sack full of the stuff at the bottom and added some of the fresh grass clippings to it, to help break it down further as I want to use it in the bottom of the pots I plan to grow the ochroes in this year.

Just before cutting the lawn I noticed a plant in the weedy patch, it had some very pretty flowers and my wildflowers book identified it as a forget-me-not, I think it may be the water variety. I do like these plants but they can be a bit invasive. I believe it came from two doors down, I observed this year that she has a large patch of these plants in her back garden and although I have some miss giving about letting the plant stay in my garden I have decided to give it a spot in my bog garden and aim to keep the spread under control.

Fledgling birds are starting to appear and today I saw a family of mistle thrushes, two fledglings and one adult. The adult flew off as soon as I approached but I was able to get fairly close to the fledglings and so got this picture.

Monday found me weeding and scraping that weedy, mossy patch of lawn and although I may have to go over it again I got most out this time. Once I'm done I'll reseed and fertilise before the next forecasted rain which is for next Sunday according to the Met.

Got some sowing done as well, seeds of khol rabi, chinese cabbage, 2nd batch of lettuce, calabrese and early purple sprouting brocolli. Also finally got round to pricking out the lemon grass seedlings and generally shuffled things around the greenhouse to make more space.

Tuesday I didn't really do much besides lots of watering of plants to keep them alive, I also potted on the largest cabbage plant and weeded under the larger of the two apple trees. While I was weeding I found numerous oregano seedlings which I potted up and a what I believe is a wild dog rose seedling, so I potted that on as well. Under the freshly weeded apple tree I planted out two more sunflower plants.

While I was weeding I observed there were lots of twigs on the lawn under the apple tree, now earlier in the morning I did notice a collard dove taking one of the twigs and flying away with it and just assumed it had dropped them earlier but since there was much more there than in the morning I decided to look up and blow! the darn things are trying to construct a nest in the apple tree. Now collard doves are easily spooked so why would they think about constructing a nest in a tree where we pass daily many times a day is beyond me.

On another note, I saw quite a lot of a blackbird fledgling and was lucky enough to get a really close photo.

The cucumber and salsify seeds have started to germinate.

Wednesday was very hot, too hot to stand in the greenhouse and do any pricking out of seedlings, so I opted to working outside and got some weeding done on part of the unpaved footpaths. I was also busy with watering everything due to the hot weather.

The chinese cabbage seeds have started to germinate.

The collard doves have been busy adding more sticks to their mess of twigs, describing it as a nest is a bit of a stretch. Well either they thought it was finished or maybe the female couldn't wait any longer because there is now one small egg perched precariously on top the mess of twigs aka nest. I can't see it surviving as the nest is so badly constructed (not surprising as this family of birds are notorious for badly constructed nests) and as the birds keep panicking and darting of the nest every time some one goes into the garden, I expect it will get knocked off or through the mess of twigs fairly soon.

Here is one of the parents and I have to say, though they can't build a decent nest they know how to pick a beautiful location.

Thursday I attempted to make a dent in planting out some of my flowering plants into the flower beds. I also got some weeding done again in between the vege beds footpaths.

The greenhouse is still way to hot to work in, those seedlings that need pricking out are glaring at me every time I go in there. Lots of watering continues to keep everything alive.

The inevitable has happened and the collard dove's egg has fallen. I think it might have happened when one of the birds attempted to add more twigs to the structure, I did see it flying to the apple tree with quite an awkward looking twig and wondered how it was planning to incorporate it into the nest aka mess of twigs. Maybe now they may get the idea its not such a good place to build a nest or they may be slow to learn and try again.

The robin family on the other hand are much better off and yesterday I was able to hear for the first time the chicks cheeping when the parents approach with food.

The Flowers in the garden were looking really beautiful in the sunshine and were very well visited by the bees. Not much longer till the spring flowers are all spent and the summer ones burst into bloom. Trees in the area are all of a sudden becoming

bright green with most now in new leaf.

The kids second pot of daffodils are finally in bloom and are perfectly beautiful in its own miniature way.

Friday not much done today, I have noticed that the early purple sprouting broccoli, lettuces have begun to germinate along with the lime basil.

The Sun is Back, Yah!!!

Well after a couple of wet days the sun is back out this weekend so I'm back on track. The kids sowed some more sunflowers, sweet pea and nasturtium flowers to be planted along the new picket fence later in the season. I sowed some lime basil, parsley, coriander and some Violetta globe artichoke that was sent to me by an A4A member.

I finally got round to adding more soil to the potato planters all were earthed up except the main crop potatoes as the only broke through the soil surface late last week.

Another job I was procrastinating over was the potting up of the bodi plants. They have been potted up into a large pot with their supports and will be moved from the conservatory to the greenhouse mid May or when the nighttime temps remain consistently at 15 degrees plus.

I've noticed the red orache has begun germinating already, that's only four days since sowing.

With the arrival of the sun the wildlife was abundant. I saw quite a few butterflies, but only was able to identify and photograph two types. On the left we have an orange tip, I saw both male and females, only the males have the orange tip to their wings. And on the right we have a speckled wood, I can't remember ever seeing this one before so its a first for me.

The robin I introduced yesterday has now been joined by Mrs robin in gathering food, they were both observed flying to and fro with food to the nest box, so I believe its safe to assume the eggs have hatched. They are sure being kept busy, but so far there is no chick noises coming from the nest box as yet.

The cowslips I planted out last year are really doing well I am so happy to have them in my garden.

Busy Week

First off sorry for not updating sooner but I was getting to the PC quite late at night and didn't quite feel like typing much. Today is Friday an its been a wet start so thought along with my weekly washing I might as well dedicate some time to my blog.

I'll start from when I stopped before.

Last Saturday turned out to be a lovely day after all but just relaxed. The pace was picked back up on Sunday, when I finally got round to transplanting the young celeriac plants into their final growing positions under cloches (again because I didn't harden them off first). Mum and a friend cleared the back area where I plan to grow the majority of my squash and pumpkin plants this year. It wasn't to heavy to do as it was done last summer so it was just some autumnal regrowth to be cleared and then the area was covered with numerous sheets of cardboard to slow down anymore weeds from claiming the area again. When it is time to plant out the plants I will simply cut a hole dig down about a spades depth add some composted rabbit bedding replace the soil and plant away.

Sunday there were two firsts to report, the first was my first orange tip butterfly, no pic cause it didn't land, there were two more sightings of these during the duration of the week. The second first was the bluebells beginning to bloom.

I am afraid I also had to evict some wildlife from my greenhouse as well, it was a wasp she has been trying since last month to set up in my greenhouse but I was always disturbing her but my week away obviously gave her the peace and quiet she needed to set up shop. So when on my return I heard buzzing and saw her disappear into a cardboard box I new I had to act fast or the greenhouse would become unusable for a season. After chasing her out I got the box out which was full of my biodegradable pots. Now her nest was so perfect and delicate I felt really bad for having to remove it. She later returned and was getting really agitated when I tried to shoo her away again so I killed her. Two more showed up the day after but didn't hang around. it looks like this year my greenhouse is prime wasp real estate.

Monday I finally got round to moving the tomato, squash and pumpkin plants into the greenhouse, nighttime temps have generally hovered around 8 to 10 degrees Celsius. If the temps drop under these I would fleece them for extra protection but so far they have settled in well.

I have observed the globe artichokes have begun to germinate. The last melon plant has finally reached a size for it to be potted up into its final pot for this year. It will remain in the conservatory with the other more tender plants such as the torsha, bodi, ochro, basil, melongene and the hot and sweet peppers till mid May at the least.

Tuesday the weather is still very sunny and warm. I sowed a new one for me, it a grain called amaranth. I know another plant in this family we call it bhaji in the Trinidad and use it like spinach. the plant back at home grows wild and is also considered a weed, it is normally picked before it goes to seed while the plants stems and leaves are young and tender. The variety I am planning to grow this year gets to about 3ft in height and is multicoloured, the grain is quite small and easy to thresh or so its claimed, we'll see when I have to do it later this year.

Other jobs that got done was the planting out some donated plants from members of A4A into the herb patch, namely buckler leaf sorrel, chamomile and summer savory. The last bean trench was dug out and lined with shredded paper ready for more kitchen food waste. I also moved some of the snails and tadpoles out of the fruit mini pond into the recently cleaned veg mini pond.

Wednesday I sowed some cucumber, red orache a leaf veg used like spinach and salsify a root veg. The cucumber are in the conservatory, the orache is in the greenhouse and the salsify has been sown directly in to the veg bed, what a palaver that turned out to be. Now being a root veg I knew the soil had to be as light and friable as possible with not too many stones of which I normally have a lot. The salsify can grow as deep as 12" so I decided to dig down that much and remove any larger stones IE a child's fist size and larger. I also planned to sift the soil back in because the salsify can remain in situ till its needed and is used mainly as a winter veg, I thought if the soil is really light harvesting should be easier in the winter preventing the root snapping off when it is being pulled up, but I may also fleece the ground come autumn to prevent the soil from freezing.

So I began digging, well I think I must have hit an ancient beach because 6" down and I hit not only stones and bits of brick (old greenhouse structure used to be there) but I also hit pebbles and tons of seashells (basically the daughter of the previous residents of our home used to collect seashells and pebbles for polishing) and it looks like she dumped a lot of her spoils in this area. So that job took a while and i gained a bucket of gravel for my toils and will bag it to put to some use in the future. The only thing is the same thing will have to be repeated in about two weeks time when I prepare another area which is adjacent to this area for another similar root veg called scorzonera.

The romenesco, brussel sprouts, kale and cauliflower have started to germinate. My first ladybug of the season was seen, a harliquen which is not a native to the UK. Other wildlife I spotted was the peacock butterfly, a robin foraging and a bee fly which I have been seeing a lot of since early March but I thought it was a type of hoverfly only found out a couple days ago that it isn't.

The robin I believe is a male who is currently feeding a female while she sits on a nest of eggs which she built in an erected nest box under my neighbour's rose arch. As soon as I get a picture of the chicks I'll share with you.

Lastly on Wednesday I harvested my first rhubarb of the season and made rhubarb and ginger jam, its yum but a bit sweet, the next time I'll use less sugar. It will probably be next year as my rhubarb is quite young and I really should not have taken any stalks from it this year to allow the crown to grow really strong but it was looking so healthy I thought I would take a chance and harvest from it at least once this year. The leaves which are poisonous was not just composted but was turned into a homemade insecticide to spray the young plants in the conservatory which have the beginnings of aphid attack and we can't be having that.

Thursday I went visiting with the girls to an old friend of my sisters, it was a lovely day out and it was nice seeing a face from the past who has done really well for herself and family. She also has a brand new baby just three months old who is the cutest little boy I have seen for a long time.

My garden inspection revealed that all four asparagus plants have shoots now, so I won't have to replace any :).

Well that's it for this week so far, haven't got up to much today as the weather hasn't been conducive to gardening outside, not that there aren't jobs to be done, my 1st and 2nd early potatoes need more soil to be added to their containers, hopefully I will get this done tomorrow when the weather is expected to be better. Did notice though that the amaranth sowed earlier this week have started to germinate.

Here are a few more pictures taken this week:

The apple tree is full of buds so hopefully lots apples in the autumn.

I'm Back

Well it was a great week away visiting a friend the kids played to exhaustion and a good time was had by all, I even got to do some gardening for my friend, so didn't have to experience any withdrawal symptoms.

Came back to my own garden with a little trepidation because the weather away and back at home was great lots of sun and warmth and my hubby informed me on Wednesday night that as I didn't give direct orders to water plants he didn't. So all he was doing was opening and closing the greenhouse he didn't even venture inside once to check if all was ok! The greenhouse on inspection had three casualties, my emerging cabbage and brussel sprouts went to the great garden in the sky along with one echinacia seedling. Everything else looked well though.

We arrived home with the sun still shining and the garden looking great, everything have grown so much in a short space of time, new flowers are blooming or in bud such as the violas and the cowslips which were planted last year. The tulips at the back and the wild/alpine strawberries are also blooming and the flower beds are beginning to fill out. The mini meadow area is full of all types of seedlings along with a few differing grass seedlings.

Other developments to greet me was a newly cut and fertilised lawn (thanks mum) it looks really lush and green but there are a few bare patches to resow. The tadpoles were now all over the pond's surface with no signs of spawn jelly anywhere. today on further inspection I found a few of them gobbling up a small patch of algae bloom which must have grown due to all the increased sunshine and warm temperatures of the last week. I'm hoping that their ferocious appetite will halt the algae from overtaking the pond and turning it into green soup (blech!).

The carrots and the parsnips are also up and growing well. Another asparagus plant has produced a spear and this is from one the plants that was dug up this winter. The chillie plants that were pruned and cleaned up have also shown they are still alive with new leaves sprouting on the cut stems, the second early potaoes are up and the first earlies are growing away and will soon need earthing up ie adding more soil.

So today's tasks was to water everything inside the greenhouse and outside as well as the newly transplanted veges in the beds which were all doing very well with no signs of slug damage (yah!!!).

Resowing of the killed off seedlings were also done along with some new sowings of romensco, cauliflower and kale two varieties red Russian and Nero De Tuscany.

Germination of the cornflower seeds and the onions have been observed and new shoots of the autumn sown jerusalem artichokes are beginning to come up.

The vege mini pond finally got cleaned out there were eight pond skater on its surface. I also got the opportunity to remove all the leaves from last autumn from the unpaved area of the vege area, so hopefully if there is any wind tonight none should end up in the pond.

Anyway the rain finally came as was forecasted and I called it a day, not sure if I'll get anything done tomorrow as heavy rainfall if expected, so I'll probably check back in on Monday.