You win some, you lose some

A trip to Ireland, then Milton Keynes (this girl knows how to travel!) and bad weather intertwined with bouts of illness equals very little time spent in the garden over the past few weeks.

Came back from Ireland to find that something had eaten all the leaves off my carrots despite the use of netting and some slug pellets! Still over the past few weeks my pea pods have appeared, the sweetcorn is flowering and I've been able to eat my own broccoli, rhubarb and some teeny weeny beetroot (well, I had to thin them out so one or two small ones have made their way into my salad for tea).  The broccoli wasn't huge, but enough for me in a meal, and there's still some florets coming on the plants.

Looking forward to eating some of these straight from the pod

Weeny beet; grated on a salad they're...
well....great!

Really delighted to see the peas coming on though; considering I got nothing at all from planting dwarf beans seeds.............I wonder if mice got to them?  Haven't seen any holes in the soil though.

Managed to strim a third of the field before the bad weather came in a couple of weeks ago (it is July isn't it?!! sure it's not October?) and now I keep looking at the rest of it growing and waiting for a chance to get out with the brushcutter again. I was hoping the weather would be kinder this month so I could keep on top of the strimming. Ah well sometimes you just feel like you're losing the battle.....but I will win the war!

at least it's not brambles and thistles this year

still got access to the shed........just about!

The Plympton Pippin apple tree that had the frost damage seems to be none-the-worse so far. I've wrapped up the damaged area using a piece of that fibrous material you use to line hanging baskets with.  It's good for retaining water, which will help the scar to heal.  One of the Sunset apple trees got attacked by Blackfly and several of the leaves were curling in and wilting as a result and it generally looked tired and poorly!  There was only one thing for it.....the bug spray I'm afraid!  I try not to use chemicals on the garden but every now and then I don't feel I have a choice.  If anyone knows of any other non-chemical way of getting rid of Blackfly from an apple tree I'd really be interested to hear about it.

A couple of weeks ago I bought some herbs from People and Gardens who are based where I work;  Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Sage, Thyme and Oregano.  I've planted them in the bed with the cauliflowers in, as most of the caulis died off and left me with some space to fill. I haven't had much success with herbs in pots for some reason so I'm hoping they'll do well in the bed.  So far everything seems to be surviving. I also bought a pumpkin plant and a courgette plant and planted in the same bed.  The pumpkin has already started to spread along the bed but it shouldn't interfere with the herbs and both are flowering nicely.  Once the fruits start to show I'll mulch around them to keep the moisture in the ground.

Today was a goo day for getting out in the garden so it was time to attack the weeds that have grown up along the path into the garden and the Alpine bank I'm trying to create as you enter.  An accidental dislodging of a stone on the bank revealed an ants nest.  Talk about frantic! Operation 'Rescue The Eggs' kicked in instantly and I was so fascinated to watch them that I just had to record a little of the highly coordinated recovery plan!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention - I was surprised and delighted to discover recently that my two surviving cauliflowers have grown hearts! Brilliant - I thought I'd failed on that one.  Fingers crossed they grow a bit bigger. I read somewhere that it's a good idea to bend the leaves over the hearts to keep them white, so I've done that today and I'll be keeping a close eye on them - the Cabbage White butterflies are hanging around - time to get more fleece I reckon.

Fencing friends

Not the duelling type who charge at you wielding an epee in their hands; but the sort that  lower your garden fence so that finally, after 4 years, you can see right to the top of your garden. It's always bothered me that it's separated the garden so I asked my next door neighbour if he could cut it half way down.

Saturday provided good weather and after my neighbour set to with the jigsaw it wasn't long before I had a stack of sawn planks and a view up the field I haven't seen since before I moved in.  Once the fence posts have been cut down I can make a gate for the fence around the vegetable garden and use the cross bars as top rails for the fence. I'm also considering making an outdoor table from some of the leftover wood, and the rest will come in handy for something I'm sure.

Now you don't see it.......

.....now you do see it!

The veg plot feels enclosed and separated

Now it feels open and has views down as well as up the garden

I wanted to keep a small fence so that I can grow a few climbing plants along that border and still retain some sense of 'formal' and 'productive'.  They'll have to be plants that like partial shade as this border faces north-west and doesn't get any sun until late afternoon; even less in the winter time.  Perhaps an evergreen clematis and a jasmine? Hmmmm, further investigation is required I think.

So it doesn't feel right to call it The Field anymore. the garden not only looks but feels different, you can see the true expanse of it now.  Of course, it also means that I can see everything that needs doing every time I walk up there but that's not a bad thing.  It's been too easy sometimes to sit on the patio and not open the door to the 'Productive Area Formally Known As The Field', to ignore thoughts of strimming brambles, clearing piles of cut branches, moving heaps of soil and checking to see if the rabbits have tried to dig into the old warren. Now there's no avoiding it!

In the meantime, I've laid more straw around the veg patch as the weeds are starting to grow through last year's layer, and cleared the area underneath the Box that the 'THGT' (that's Tywardreath Highway Gardening Team for any new readers) cut back last year; making room for a bench this year. No doubt I'll be trawling the garden centres, DIY shops and online to find a lovely seat for this space...........then again, maybe I could make one.

On a plant-related note, my rhubarb is coming back lovely this year. As soon as I saw it popping through the mulch I placed a plant pot over it and over the last week or so it's really begun to shoot up.  The problem is we're in for some frosty nights this week so the plant pot has promptly gone back on for the time being!  This will be it's second year so I should be able to make some lovely rhubarb crumble later in the year and perhaps some rhubarb wine.......the possibilities are endless.