Spring Update

Well, this is an impressive lapse in output, even by my standards! I'm prompted to start blathering again by a flurry of activity over the last few days.

First and formost, my dad built us this rather spiffy raised bed. Good innit? Roughly 2m by 1m, it should mean some actual decent edible output his year. I've got peas already going on a window sill and am hatching plots for beans, kale, plenty of interesting salad, and a smattering of whatever else I have lurking in my seed box. We filled it up with compost and horse shit, and I've watered it in so I'm just giving it a few days to settle before it starts sprouting cloches that look remarkably like plastic bottles. Looking forward to seeing what it brings us this year.

First Of The Year

The stars were aligned and the conditions were right. The kids napped, and it stopped raining for long enough for me to get outside for a couple of hours.

Garden Log - October and November

The imminent arrival of child number two has meant that the garden has been nearly as neglected as this blog of late. My time has been taken up with things like nursery painting, and hauling baby clothes out of the loft, not to mention trying to make sure that our two year old tank/elephant doesn't break the heavily pregnant missus too badly.... I still haven't managed to plant anything out, and I suspect that by this point I'm probably too late. I could theoretically still get some bulbs in, but realistically, that ain't gonna happen. The stuff in pots will just have to stay put until things warm up again. The only stuff I'll be really cross to lose will be the astrantia that I've grown from seed as they've taken the entire year to get to any sort of size, and I really want that in the garden. It'll probably be fine, but we shall see.

Garden Log - September 2013

Once again I stand guilt of blog neglect. It's amazing how quickly life passes by if you let it, and there's been a fair amount going on of late to keep me busy!

The garden has a definite feel of winding down at the moment, but at the same time I'm still getting the last bursts of fruitfulness. Tomatoes are ripening, courgettes are still appearing, and some of my cosmos and sunflowers are only just flowering.

Garden Log - August 2013

Shock horror. A garden log posted in the month that's being written about! You may not see this again for some time...

Everything is looking and smelling fab this month, but there is a definite sense of things reaching a peak and winding down. The ornamental stuff has, for the most part, done better than I could have hoped. The veg on the other hand has been somewhat disappointing. A few strawberries earlier on in the year, and I'm getting a few courgettes and a bit of salad, but still no tomatoes. They're on the plant, but taking forever to ripen. I suspect this is probably down to the soil being a bit crap and nutrient starved. I've been reading about how last years constant deluge will have washed everything out of the soil so I'll have to take some steps to address this once things have died back a bit. My compost heap appears to be doing well, so I should have a good load of mulch to stick down, and the missus and I have been discussing building a raised veg bed in the border under the kitchen window which will allow me to import some good top soil and horse shit. None of this can hurt even if it doesn't improve things (which I doubt will be the case) so we shall see.

Without further ado, here are some pictures!

 

Garden Log - July 2013

Since we've come home from our little jaunt into the middle nowhere there hasn't been a single dry day. Not really complaining as A) we had lovely weather while we were away, and B) the garden REALLY needed it. The upshot of this has been that getting some non-soggy shots for this monthly update has had to wait a few days. That's this months excuse anyway.

Garden Log - June 2013

Late again. Sorry and all that...

The garden has been looking brilliant this month. Lots of stuff flowering like mad, and loads of green growth making the beds look pleasantly full.

Garden Log - May 2013

What a month it's been for growth. Plenty of rain mixed with a reasonable amount of sunny days have sent things rocketing up! Lots of colour is appearing and the amount of soil showing is shrinking by the day. I've dug a new bed in the main garden (it's against a south facing fence, so hopefully that should allow me to try a few more sun lovers), and moved a few bits and pieces around. Here are this month's pictorial highlights.

Garden Log - April 2013

The peony seems to be growing as I watch!

Spring is, thankfully, finally springing and things are growing astonishingly fast. The evenings are getting light enough for me to get outside after That Baby is a-bed and the soil has warmed to the point where I feel happy planting and sowing directly. There's still a fair old bit of catch-up to be played, but that's all good!

So without further ado, here is this months photo log. Enjoy.

Garden Log - March 2013

Not much to see here! Like everyone else I'm suffering from non-appearing plants due to the ridiculously cold weather. It's all getting very tedious, and I'm sure everyone could do with a little bit of the old sunlight and warmth... Anyhoo, for what it's worth, here's this month collection of incredibly exciting garden pictures.

Stuff Sprouting. Slowly.

Garden Log - February 2013

And so it starts. The first proper session outside for the year, and the beginning of the photographic deluge. The Other Half decided to take That Baby off for some minor galavanting (a trip to the shops and then a visit to the great grandparents) so I took the opportunity to start getting to grips with this years planting.
The main job I wanted to do was to pot on some of the seedlings from the agapanthus seeds I sowed back in November that were pinched from Alfabia, the garden we visited on holiday. That done I also potted up some of the swag I acquired from the mighty Poundland yesterday. I got a load of Oriental poppy roots, some Lupin roots, a bare root rose, and a blueberry bush/root/whatever. These have all been potted up today. I also got some crocosmia 'Lucifer' corns and some gypsophilia roots, but these have yet to be planted. Poundland seem to have an astounding assortment of plants in at the moment. I know that these are not going to be of the greatest provenance, but I'm trying to garden on the ultra-cheap, so they'll do me fine. The main problem I have is that they don't give you the full name of what you're buying. For example, the climbing rose I've just potted up (yeah, I know it could be planted, but the bed where it's going doesn't exist yet) is labelled simply as a "purple climbing rose".

Garden Log - September? October?

Another thoroughly tardy post. I do actually have an excuse this time however! A few (to me) exciting things were taking place mid-September that I wanted finished before I started taking photos and writing my gardeny drivel.

Garden Log - August Update

This has been a really exciting month for things getting going and loads of fantastic flowers appearing. It's nice to start getting a proper idea of how things are going to develop once the planting ages and gets denser.

Garden Log - July Update

One of the main reasons for doing this blog was to give me a month by month record of how things are developing. One of my main problems when I'm gardening is that, as I've said before, I'm impatient. To much time spent looking at mature gardens in magazines and on online make me want things to fill in and look beautiful now. Posting these words and pictures allows me to look back and see that, actually, things are developing quite rapidly. Looking back at last month and comparing it to this I can see that things have rocketed up and that the garden is developing nicely.