Wordless Wednesday

New veg bed and John Seymour

The new veg bed is well and truly up and running now.

I've planted loads in there: courgettes, summer squash, sweetcorn, runner beans, dwarf french beans, lettuce, coriander, parsley, spinach, radish, beetroot...
Now the weather has finally warmed up a bit, I'm hoping it will all germinate and catch up. I had already sowed seeds in the greenhouse, but it's been so cold this Spring that everything was very slow - most of them barely germinated. Anyway, hopefully now off to a  better start.

We've had some good news about our allotment: the new owners are considering leasing the plot to us so that we can use it as an allotment again. We would be over the moon if they gave it back (I posted some time ago that our allotment was taken away from us at the end of last year - 3 years of digging and planting all rooted up and destroyed. We were heartbroken) I'll post more on this when we've had some more definite news, but for the time being it's looking promising.

I've also been working through my distance learning course on Organic Gardening - it's really good so far and I'm really enjoying it. It has re-kindled my love of the John Seymour books and now I am considering buying the new edition of "The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency" (published in 2009). I am very familiar with the old edition, and not sure how much has been updated in the new edition. If anyone out there has any idea, please let me know...

Happy gardening in the sunshine everyone!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Organic distance learning course

OK, so the big veg bed is now dug! It took ages to double dig the whole thing and then top it up with soil from another part of the garden, but it was worth it. I now have a great space to plant veg in. The soil isn't great, but I'm hoping to improve it in time by adding lots of organic matter to it.

Talking about organic matter, I've just enrolled on a course by Learning Curve called "Organic Gardening" and I have just received the course documents. There is no qualification at the end, just a Learning Curve certificate, but I just want the knowledge rather any qualification. The course book is written by Monty Don so bound to be good. In all honesty, the course I really want to do is the RHS level 2 and 3 (also provided by Learning Curve)  but I'm doing this Organic one first to ease myself into this type of learning and to test whether I really have the time and determination to take on the RHS courses.
By the way, Learning Curve do lots of really interesting courses: Wildlife Gardening, Horticultural Therapy and Heritage Horticulture to name a few. Check out their website for more details: http://www.learning-curve.org/

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Accidental planting

I just thought I'd share a happy outcome of accidental planting. Last autumn, I decided to plant quite a few bulbs in the back borders. Only, I forgot what I planted where and ended up just bunging all the bulbs in randomly. Some Forget-me-nots then self-seeded over the top of them. Results are not to be sniffed at:

Perhaps planning isn't everything when planting; sometimes it just all comes together by itself.

Wordless Wednesday

Revamp of front garden

Recently I have been working on a small project to revamp our front garden. Over the years I have neglected it while concentrating on the back garden. I was prompted into action by a neighbour. We were standing out the front of the house talking about hobbies and I mentioned that I loved gardening, his eyebrows shot up and he immediately looked to the front garden and said "Oh, I didn't realise"! Oh dear, that made me feel awful, so I decided to make it a project for 2013 to get the front of the house looking a bit nicer.

We have a bit of an awkward front garden, in that there is already an established privet hedge separating the garden from the pavement, and there is also access for Husband's van to be parked down the side of the house. The aspect isn't terrible, but not great either - it's east facing so gets lovely morning sun, but then is in shade for the rest of the day. It's also very dry, so I have to remember to water it regularly.

I tried to choose plants that were suited to shady conditions, but I do get a bit carried away when buying plants and always end up with at least one or two which aren't suitable and I just think I'll bung them in and give them a go anyway! At the moment, we've got only spring flowering plants in there, and my plan is to add to it over the course of the year with some summer-flowering plants too. The Acer looks good in autumn and winter, but I think I will try to add one or two other plants/shrubs for autumn/winter interest. What I'm finding particularly difficult is to get enough plants to give year-round interest into such a small space.

Anyway, this is how it looks so far:

Unfortunately, I'm not able to remove the grey box, so I have planted Crocosmia in that space, which will hopefully cover it up.

(Hmm, that stack of glass needs to go...) I will hopefully plant a Dahlia in this empty space to give some height and colour. A little worried about the lack of sun, but a lady three doors down from us has Dahlias in her front garden and they do really well every year.

These daffs are so pretty

Anemones which I transplanted from the back garden (they're making way for the greenhouse)

Muscari and Primulas - these should look better next year. I transplanted the Muscari and I don't think they liked it much :-/

I planted the Hyacinth because I thought that it would smell lovely every time you open the front door (it does the job brilliantly) but I'm a bit worried about how it will cope with the shade. Th Hellebore flowers in the foreground immediately turned from white to green as soon as I planted them - not sure why that happened!

This Acer has been there for years, and is very happy. I added the Fern because I like ferns and I think it will quite like the conditions here. 

The Magnolia in the foreground has been there for years and is finally flowering (a full month later than last year!) I am hoping the grass will grow back quickly and cover that patch of bare soil.

So, that's been my mini-project for the front garden. It's still looking brand new and hasn't filled out yet, but hopefully I can improve it over the year so that next year it looks a bit more mature. I was quite impressed with the brick edging - something I've never done before. I was surprised at how easy it was and I like the effect of it. It will look better once the grass has grown back though, I'm sure. 

Right, must get out and plant the potatoes now, while the rain is still holding off. Hope everyone has had happy gardening days in the sun!

Wordless Wednesday

Dunnock in flight

Dunnock

Blue tit

Lunch!

Spring gardening

I know, I know, I haven't posted in months! Writing regular blog updates is proving to be quite a challenge for me. I almost closed this blog a few months ago, but sentimentality made me think twice. And now I am very glad, because I seem to have found my blogging enthusiasm again...

As I posted last time, we lost our allotment at the end of last year, so Spring this year has been very strange for us. I've got no potting shed, half a greenhouse and virtually nowhere to plant any veg plants. I have, however, made a good start on converting the lawn to a huge vegetable bed:

Just need to finish double-digging now and then my husband can make the wooden frame. And then I can plant all my veggies!

All of last year's bulb planting has proven a success, and we've been rewarded with a lovely spring border this year. All the daffodils and Snakes Head Fritillaries have come up.

And in the damp garden, the Pulmonaria "Blue Ensign", the Forget-me-nots and the Hellebores are all doing really well:

Now that the weather has warmed up, I'm looking forward to getting out there a bit more often and getting stuck into the Spring planting. Happy gardening everyone!