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.

Mistaken Identity (also known as Not-Quite-Sure-What-The-Hell-I'm-Doing!)

Saxifraga Peniculata 'Rosea'! THAT'S the name of the pink flowering plant I posted a picture of in last week's blog.  Lord knows where I got the other one from...........Note to self:  check several websites and books when trying to ID a plant which has lost it's label; don't just go for the first one you see!  So with it finally named correctly it can carry on helping to keep the weeds at bay in my border and rockery by slowly spreading itself across the ground.  Useful little plant and extremely pretty - I think I'll look out for some more varieties to plant on the rockery.

Now correctly identified, the Saxifraga adds a spash of colour to
borders and banks in my garden

Thankfully I had a quick reply from my brother and his partner Dancin' Fool (who also has an arboricultural blog - The Green Man) last week about the damage to one of my apple trees; frost damage apparently.  Although not good news, I have to admit to being slightly relieved that it wasn't caused by any animal...I get all sorts in the garden; rabbits, badgers and foxes.  Anyway, here's his suggestions for looking after the tree.  I've copied this straight from his email:

a) wrap the damaged area in hessian and leave it on as long as necessary

b) 30g of 'Tate & Lyle' per 1 litre of water per 1 square metre - this will artificially provide the tree with sugars (that it would normally obtain from photosynthesis) and encourage fibrous root development. Do this once a month for the next 4-5 months and repeat again same time next year. You could also try it on your other newly planted trees (or anything else that's struggling and requires photosynthesis) The more fibrous roots that a young tree (plant) can develop, the healthier it will be and the more able it will be to fight off any secondary 'host specific' pests & diseases that may want to take advantage of the exposed wound. 

c) If the tree isn't staked, you should stake it (windward side) and place the ties around the wound area to relieve any structural stresses. 

d) Don't prune it (except to remove damaged, diseased twigs & leaves 

e) pray

c) is already taken care of; d) is fine because I haven't pruned it so that just leaves a) and b) to carry out and then rely heavily on a lot of e).

Saturday afternoon was spent at The Lost Gardens of Heligan with a group from the dementia project - Creative Spaces. Small groups of residents and staff from the care home spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around the Northern Gardens with young people and their parents from the community.  One lad was provided with a recording microphone by a local radio station so that he could record some of his conversations with one resident.  It's going to go out on the station's gardening programme shortly.  These two chaps have formed a bond over the past 18 months and it was a delight to come across them sitting on a bench on Flora's Green, just enjoying their surroundings; not chattering but sitting quietly, arms and hands linked.

Unfortunately, due to a bout of illness over Sunday I didn't get any work done in the garden at the weekend.  However, a short walk up to the top revealed that the brambles this year have been replaced with intermittent 'rugs' of Forget-Me-Nots, gatherings of Bluebells, Red Campion and Buttercups. I even discovered one tiny Wild Violet that was struggling towards the light through a clump of nettles.  Ah yes, the nettles return each year........little do they know that the strimmer is coming in for a clean up this weekend in preparation for much use!

Does anyone else have an invasion of Hairy Bittercress? I pull it out of the borders around the lawn every year and this year it's gone mad in the rest of the garden; particularly in the area beyond the vegetable garden.  Reading up on it, in Richard Mabey's 'Food For Free', I've discovered that you can actually eat the whole plant; I thought you could just eat the leaves.  According to the book it goes well with cream cheese (sorry Jane!).  It has beautiful, delicate flowers which can be appreciated either by getting on your hands and knees with a magnifying lens or, like me, using the super macro on your camera.  The seed pods protrude from within the flower and look as though the stem has pushed through and beyond the petals.  Even the slightest brush allows them to scatter their seeds on the wind......how helpful to us gardeners!

A small army of Hairy Bittercress; strim or salad?

Take a closer look; there's beauty in weeds

Have a wonderful Easter everyone and I hope you all have a great time outdoors (illnesses and weather permitting!).

Friends + Fresh Air = Fun!

I had a really enjoyable Saturday morning up at the care home as part of the dementia project.  With the garden redevelopment well under way I thought we'd get the residents and young people growing plants to go in it once it's finished.  There was quite a group of us; staff, residents, young people from the local school and one of the relatives, whose a gardener, ran the session and had us sowing seeds, pricking out and potting on.  Obviously tea, juice and biscuits were involved, and with the sun shining and a slight breeze we spent a great few hours outside as a group of friends, laughing, chatting and helping each other. You can't help but come away from those moments feeling positive and proud.

I came home and got stuck into transplanting my own small plants, from seed trays to small pots and then moving them out into the mini greenhouse.  Was I inspired by the morning session? I guess so!  I spend a lot of time in my garden by myself.  Not that I mind, I find it's a place where I can think whilst I'm busy with my hands and gardening is very good for the soul of course. But I think the time that we spend with friends outside are some of the best times we have.  Whether it's in each others gardens or a day out together these times are often creative, inspirational and fun. I look forward to having many more of these days during this project.

So, how are my plants doing?  Well, the second lot of cauliflowers are looking better than the first; only 3 survived from the first batch. I'm not sure what killed off the first ones, so as a precaution against slugs and snails I've battened down the sides of the little greenhouse with planks of wood underneath which I've buried the 'skirt' of the greenhouse and then packed the wood in tight with soil and straw. If anything crawls over the wood it's only going to come across the plastic barrier. In addition to that, I've also sprinkled some anti-slug granules around the edge of the greenhouse - see if that works.  That's the theory at least!

An almost full 'greenhouse' housing sweetcorn, broccoli, leeks,
cauliflower,tomatoes, a couple of sad-looking brussel sprout plants
and a tray of, what I believe are Asters

I took a wander up beyond the vegetable area to look at the apple trees this weekend.  The two Sunsets are in full bloom and look amazing. At least double the flowers on them this year than last, despite the fact that I left half a dozen on last year just to taste my first home-grown apples! Not so the Plympton Pippins.  One has a few flowers on it and the other has nothing at all.  Oh dear! what's going on there?  To add to my disappointment I've found some bark damage on the one that has a few flowers on it. Not sure what that is but I've put in a plea to my friend Dancin' Fool who also runs a blog called The Green Man and her partner Mr. Dancin' (my brother!) to identify what the problem is and what may have caused it.

A Sunset apple tree in full bloom; planted last year

Not such good news for one of my Plympton Pippins
 - what's been having a go at this?

No more has been done to the fence around the raised beds.  Sadly that's going to have to wait until next pay day before I can get any more wire mesh.  Fingers crossed it won't be too long before it's finished and I can get some seeds sown into the ground, as well as getting my greenhouse plants actually into the ground. I don't want to miss the growing season another year.

I'm going to end this post with some lovely pics of flowering plants that are growing well in the garden at the moment.  Always end of a good note!

The first bluebells appear

Dainty Bleeding Hearts

Lost the label for this one but I think it's an Eridium

Forget-me-nots are in abundance this year due to full-on strimming
of The Field last year!

Frosty days in the sunshine

The Field

A bit of gardening on a sunny winter's day has soothed my soul and refreshed my mind; It's also created a twinge in my lower back and in my shoulders but hopefully a hot bath will take care of later!

How come, when you've spent so much time raking up leaves it just looks the same afterwards?  I picked up enough to almost fill my second compost bin this afternoon but you'd never know from looking at it afterwards.  You turn your back and all the hazel trees in the hedge have a good shake and drop more leaves onto the path, patio and lawn!

After the non-effective leaf clean up it was time to check the compost heap. Earlier in the year I'd made a compost container out of old pallets  and then spent months filling it up and turning it over.  It seems my reward was a great pile of compost ready for use. In addition, I was given a plastic compost bin which I'm filling up at the moment, but it doesn't hold much so maybe I'll build a second one from pallets.  It's easier to access, not likely to blow over in a strong wind and I can get much more in it. The only downside is that it's a much harder job to turn it all over, but that's a small price to pay to have enough compost for both the garden and Field in the future.

Jasper joined me, taking  up his usual spot, like a sentinel, on a corner of the compost container. I think it's because not only is it a great place to catch the sun but he also has a strategically placed high point from where he can see the various mouse holes in the nearby bank without the poor unsuspecting mice seeing him before it's too late!  Besides, evidence suggests that not so many rabbits are coming in at the moment - one attempt at a new hole which was instantly filled in - so I guess he's looking for smaller snacks at the moment.

Don't let the looks fool you...he may look relaxed but Jasper is ready to pounce at a moment's notice!

The compost came in handy for my apple trees.  Planted this year, they could still be susceptible to any hard frost so it was time to clear the ground around them and ensure that they didn't have to battle with the weeds for soil nutrients.  The sun was reaching the trees but not the ground around them so it was hard with frost and I was expecting it to be a really difficult job.  However, it turned out to be easier than I thought to get the weeds out. Having had decent weather in the summer and more chances to strim the weeds and brambles, thankfully I was only having to dig up ground cover plants around the apple trees.  After that I used a layer of dead leaves and compost around the base of each one to help keep the frost away and to give their roots some extra 'food'. I think perhaps a trip to the garden centre to get some fleece for them might not be amiss next weekend.

I took time too to take some photos of The Field; I like to keep a record of it's development and seasonal changes. It'll be great to look back at them, and this blog in the coming months to see the journey of this project.  Today was a great opportunity to see the frost lying on the ground.  In previous years I haven't been able to get into the Field for the 6ft weeds, wildflowers and brambles.  It was lovely being able to wander through it, through patches of sunshine and hard frosty ground where the sun's warmth hadn't managed to reach.

Mr Robin sits camouflages in the hedge eyeing up the worms

Frost makes even the nettles look attractive

Leaves on the brambles add some colour in the sunshine

Is that a lodger in Room 3 at the bug hotel?

 Tiny flowers of the Fatsia Japonica

It was so enjoyable,spending time in the garden on a crisp sunny day this time of year, but to end that with a mug of hot chocolate by the wood burner is the icing on the cake.  Jasper wouldn't know about hot chocolate, but he'd agree about the fire - he's sleeping in front of it.  Probably dreaming of mice and rabbits.