July, August and September

I really haven’t kept up with my garden blogging as much as I hoped I would. Time just seems to have got away from me and now we are nearing autumn!

The potatoes were delicious! I grew Charlotte, was very impressed and definitely going to grow them again.

Tomatoes. It was all going so well until the other day I noticed signs of blight on one of the plants. I’ve dug it up and put it in the green bin. Fortunately it didn’t spread to the other plant and I’m getting some very nice fruit from that.

The onions were brilliant! I only grew three but they’ve all been cut up and put into the freezer.

I’ve been given a couple of strawberry plants, so far so good, they are in the greenhouse for now.

Chilli plants are very tall, lots of leaves and some flowers coming, also in the greenhouse (I now have two) fingers crossed I get some fruit!

The pepper plants gave me about six fruits but four got munched.. the remaining two were very nice though and I think more are coming.

Don’t talk to me about herbs. Just don’t.

Flowers though, Oh my! lots of lovely flowers in the garden. I ended up splitting my two dahlias as they were competing for space in the pot. Not knowing if it was the right thing to do or not I went ahead anyway. Both have survived, one is in the border and the other remains in the pot, that one is doing really well.

Today I planted out some of the winter flowering pansies I ordered early in the summer. They’ve been in the greenhouse, but some have started to flower so out they went. I’ve taken out some container plants that looked a bit straggly and put the pansies in instead.

I’ve found a new favourite flower – Snap Dragons! pollinators love them, it’s been an endless source of amusement watching them disappear inside the flower and then come back out again – I am easily pleased!

The Japanese Anemone’s are out in flower too

Finally the Spider Plant (Triffid) has grown more spiderlets, these have been given back to my son’s school – where the plant came from originally- so that other kids can have a go at growing one. I am banned from taking any more cuttings for the house..

Hopefully I shall post something next month!

March Gardening with a Social Distance

Has anyone else had those little seed pots from Marks and Spencers? They are brilliant! I have eight done at the moment, two lots of carrots, chilli, pepper, parsley, beetroot, radish and some violas. Plus some cress that is ready to pick. I have also planted some tomato seeds which were free with my Gardener’s World magazine.

My carrots have started to sprout! I have about seven and also a beetroot. I’m hoping the tomatoes will start to spring up soon.

I am currently waiting for some seeds I ordered online just as everything got locked down. Once they are here I can really start planting in earnest. I’m sure a lot of people will also be growing there own veg for the first time.

My lilies are starting to shoot up, and my azalea is in flower.

 

Gardening Update for January 2020

Not much going on in the garden as you might imagine, certainly the weather has not been conducive to getting outside. My greenhouse fell over during one particularly blustery spell. It’s okay, nothing broken and Hubby helped me set it straight again.

My house plants all look lovely and green, no flowers but that’s okay, I like greenery! I bought a new Jade plant over Christmas and that is now sitting in a bigger pot.

I’ve planted a basil seed and some Cayenne peppers, they are also on my kitchen windowsill.

I did get to clean the lid of my propagator using some clean, warm water, wasn’t sure whether to use detergent on it so I didn’t.

February is on it’s way and I will be looking to see what other seeds I can sow.

Kind of related, I got Monty Don’s Down to Earth book for Christmas and I am enjoying reading it. As you might expect it’s full of sensible advice that even a novice like me can understand. Our garden is already sorted as far as *big design* goes, we know how we want to use it, I’m just looking at ways to improve on that. Mostly practical stuff like repainting the table, re staining the decking, finishing the garden wall the way we intended and sorting out the lights. Hopefully with some decent weather we can get that done!

Gardening update for June

It’s been a very mixed bag to be honest, my potatoes have done really well and I’m very pleased with the results. My salad peppers have been a bit hit and miss.. three of them are doing brilliantly, the other two not so good. The Cayenne pepper has nearly died three times.. I’ve taken it out of the green house and put it out on the bit of the decking that is more shaded, it looks a lot happier today so fingers crossed. The lettuces have been a complete wash out.. cannot get them to grow for love or money. My basil is doing quite nicely. One of my tomato plants has looked half dead for weeks but there are three little tomatoes on it! Don’t talk to me about carrots….

One of my new lilies has a flower on it! the established ones it seeded from flowered, looked beautiful for two days and then all the petals fell off…

My fuchsia is starting look very good, and the lavender is much happier in it’s bigger tub. 

On a side note I bought a new garden lamp, have put it in amongst the plants on the decking 🙂

 

Planting 21/4/2018 #WotW #FragileX #Gardening

Much like the compost I’ve been using, this is a multi purpose post LOL!

I’ve been planning to start planting vegetable and flower seeds for a while now, I already have some basil and sunflowers done. When I went food shopping, I picked up a propagator set from Aldi, which came with a bag of compost, some pots and three packets of seeds: peppers, tomatoes and lettuce. I bought some carrot and onion seeds a while ago.

Yesterday I had to go to Morrisons for some *bits* and came away with a spray bottle, weed killer, a trowel, a fork, some gardening gloves, a hanging basket liner and a mini terranium.. as you do.

The whole lot cost me less than £20.

I put the weed killer down yesterday, hopefully it will do the trick. It’s a gel so mess free and easy to use.

Today Sir and I have been planting seeds. He was in charge of putting the compost into the container “Let’s plant seeds!” and also helped with sowing and watering. He really enjoyed it, Madam is at her horse riding lesson with Hubby, so it was nice to get Sir involved, just me and him.

and this is my terranium

Quick edit:

I’ve also planted lettuce, tomatoes and pepper seeds in my propagator, and I’ve discovered that my garden lilly has seeded, there were about eight new ones sprouting up! so I’ve put them into another pot that was standing empty. Flowers for free!

5th April 2018 A few bits.

The sun is out! the kids wanted to play outside so I decided to do a couple of small jobs I’d been meaning to do for a while but the weather hadn’t co operated.

I have some garden lilies, I noticed a while ago that a couple of the bulbs had somehow become uncovered, so I scrapped the soil off the top of the pot so I could see where the other bulbs were and I’ve put the escapees back where they should be.

A couple of Christmases ago I bought a little plant in one of those cute festive containers, someone told me it could be a money tree. I’ve noticed it’s a bit big now for it’s dinky little pot so I’ve transferred it to a slightly bigger one. Seems I’ve never thrown a plastic plant pot out as I have loads in the shed, in all shapes and sizes, the bonus of course they can be reused so I don’t have to buy more. I also have some of those trays that the bedding plants come in, so I cut a section off the end and stood the new pot in that. It’s not as decorative as the original but it will do for now!

That left me with an empty dinky pot and planter, so I’ve put a couple of sunflower seeds in there. They can sit on the window sill quite happily until they are ready for a bigger pot, eventually they can go outside.

Sir came to help me, he put some compost on and got the watering can for me 🙂

Still no sign of life from my basil seeds but the packet says 14-21 days till germination.. I must remember patience is a virtue!

Gardening 2018

I’ve decided to set up a new section on here to write about gardening. Now don’t get me wrong I am no Monty Don! although I do love to watch Gardener’s World and not just for the dogs 😉 I’m very much a novice, I have no grand desires to start digging a multitude of flower beds or anything like that. I have read though that gardening is very good for both your physical and mental health, I like the idea of growing a few vegetables, having some nice containers with flowers in, involving the kids and generally trying to get everyone out in the fresh air – weather permitting!

We have some shrubs outside the front of our house that are to be honest a complete pain. I’ve spent several hours so far this year pruning (hacking) them into some semblance of something! One of them is a Buddleia, it is known for attracting butterflies so I don’t want to get rid of it however when Monty Don said how far they could be cut down I may have cheered… We used to have a tree but it started to lean and became dangerous so that had to go. Now little plants are springing up where it used to be, I also found some dead roots that have now been dug up and disposed of.. £36 for emptying the green bin does give you a certain amount of fresh impetus to get out there and do stuff. I don’t think I’m going to be able to cut much more off the shrubs until autumn now, there are birds that nested in there last year and never moved out, I think they may nest again.

I put some basil seeds to grow in the conservatory but so far no sign of any life. Will update about those as and when.

My garden plans are very basic and very simple, I want a tidy garden that’s nice for the kids to play in and for sitting out on nice days/evenings. I’d like a few veg and will be sowing some carrots after the Easter holidays. There aren’t any big jobs that need doing, we have a large patio and a decking. Hubby did say he’d like a bigger shed. I might invest in some new gardening gloves and maybe a new trowel..

That’s enough rambling for now! Hopefully the weather will start to improve now and I can get out there more often 🙂