Oh my .... has it really been so long !

The UK finally seems to be emerging from the grip of winter ... at last the sunshine seems to be winning thank goodness !

As I look around at the spare beds and everything that 's germinating I ponder that age old question ... where the heck is it all going to go !!

I've got the A team potted up and sheltering in the small greenhouse that will be mine to use this season - 3 x Goldena Courgettes, 3 x Green Bush Courgettes, 5 x Butternut squash, 3 x Turks Turbins.  The B team - the additional plants - are still in smaller pots whilst I decide just how many I need and where I can squeeze them.

The 'A' team !

The 'B' team !

My beautiful autumn sown peas didn't survive the endless weeks of snow that we've had, despite the makeshift fleece tent that I erected over the top of them, so I've sown some new ones this weekend. In fact I've sown three types - Dolce Provence, Hurst Greenshaft & mangetout

My broadbeans have also suffered, but those that made it through are now festooned in flowers - I've filled in the holes with some new plants and really must stake them before they all topple over.

The onions, leeks, garlic & elephant garlic seem to have mostly made it through the winter, hopefully a bit of sunshine will encourage them to have a little growth spurt.

I've spent most of April frantically sowing seeds - already germinated and potted on are:


Bunyards Broadbeans
Turk's Turbans

Butternut Squash
Courgettes - as above  A lot of the seeds didn't germinate (think they were Lidl's)

Violas
Cauliflower - three varieties, white, green & purple I think
Marketmore cucumbers

In the salad greenhouse I've sown direct into the bed:
Fennel
5 varieties of carrot
basil
parsley
coriander
lemon coriander
rocket
spinach
several varieties of lettuce
Spring onion

and still waiting to germinate are:
Queensland Blue squash
Lidl's special 'mixed Gourds'
Sweetcorn
Tomatoes - Roma & Gardeners Delight
Melons
Crown Prince I think
The trombone looking squash
and something else !
Borlotto beans
French climbing beans

In the allotment beds I've added in some more onion sets, replanted the strawberries, sown Beetroot (3 varieties) and planted Pink Fir Apple potatoes.  I'm trying my main potatoes (Charlottes & King Edwards) in bags this season, partly down to space and partly down to being too lazy to plant them in a bed - I can't face having to dig them up again at the end of the year !

I've also got around 6 globe artichokes that also made it through the winter and need to find a permanent home for them to live.

Just in case I didn't have enough plants, I've also been to a nursery in Aston today - I bought tomato plants: chocolate cherry, gardeners delight, Roma & Golden Sunshine and a red pepper which will go into the small greenhouse, once the A team have vacated it !

All in all it's going to be a busy season I think !

Our front garden has about 10 varieties of different flowers in bloom at the moment: violets, yellow tulipss, miniature daffodils just turning, violas, primulas, blue iris, blue grape hyacinth and a few others, along with possibly a very special Fritillaria Sibthorpian:  http://www.fritillariaicones.com/icones/ic100/Fritillaria_Icones108.pdf  In the back garden, which is more of a patch still, the kiwi plant has kicked back into life along with the fig.

Fritillaria Sibthorpian ?

Love this time of year ! Happy days are here :)
Here is Fergie on Mouse watch @ the lottie

Very pleased with myself ... I've managed to make a holly & ivy wreath for my front door :)

 Hope you all enjoy the holiday season x

Well despite natures best efforts the allotment hasn't quite blown away yet

What a grey and miserable weekend - here is the view from our upper garden, looking out towards the cemetry & church and then the moors of Door & Totley beyond. In the foreground you can see some of the allotments

The drainpipe peas are looking super - they seem quite happy hanging off our railings, overlooking the lower garden. Not quite decided whether to plant into the beds, or keep in the drainpipes through the winter. I'm a bit worried about their roots freezing in so little soil. Will see if the weather picks up next weekend and try to make decision.

Beans are all present and correct thank goodness. 

Here they are under their pigeon / squirrel proof cages, next to the garlic.

Here is naughty cat no. 3. He always follows me down to the allotment and appears to have discovered that the greenhouse is a warm spot to shelter

My artichokes were being chomped by something, not sure what, so I've moved them to a different bed. I'll be gutted if they don't survive.

I'm disappointed with the progress my onions have made - they were planted early Oct from memory, but it's taken them all this time to make an appearance. The peas are due to go at the end of this bed, but I wonder if it's in a cold spot ? Vic was going to cover the bed in polythene (over his waterpipe hoops) - am thinking this might not be such a bad idea.

The Jerusalem Artichoke bed is looking very sad. The JA's are tiny and not very many of them, possibly as they were left in from the season before. Between me and Vic we've cleared about half the bed.

Vic's crab apples look like bedazzling jewels - he a second variety which is a rich ruby red. Hope he is making some crab apple jelly - they're too good to waste

I forgot to get a photo of the leaf mold store, drat ! It's nearly full - I managed to persuade some of my neighbours to bag up their leaves for me hahah - they probably think I'm a nutter running up and down the street with black bags full of leaves :D

Now I have a question - in the summer I bought an 'olive' tree under the presumption that I would be able to eat the olives, should they ripen. So I tried one a couple of weeks ago and it was about the worst thing I've ever tried (well apart from OH's red rice, but I can't bring myself to recant that tale, I'd need therapy ... again). So are they decorative only and not edible ? Or is it just that they need a long time to ripen ?

I think the only thing in flower at the moment in the garden is the hebe. It has been chopped and chopped this year and still needs some attention in the spring - but just shows how resilient they can be. Hope it survives the winter.

Beautiful weekend, blue skies, lovely winter sunshine ...

...  lets not think about what's ahead !

After much debating I've decided to take the plunge and plant my broadies out in the big wide world.

They are lushiously green and about 4" high ... they've survived the frosts so far, but have had the protection of the house.  Hope I didn't make a bad decision.  The pigeons were gathering as I marked out my bed ... I could hear the dratted things salivating.  I'm relying on Vic's fabulous chicken wire type cage thingy to keep my broadies safe !!!!

awsome day out :)

We had a wonderful day out visiting an otter & owl sanctuary - amazing to get so close to wild animals.  We arrived at feeding time - the little yellow chicks were a little grim, at least they were dead.  There were Asian, European & giant Amazon otters. 

All were incredibly playful and the sizes varied quite considerably.

There was a lovely herd of fallow deer - two of them had been hand reared, so you were able to get quite close - very bambi :)

Here comes autumn

Standing outside our house there is the sensation of it snowing as the leaves from the street trees rain down on us - autumn is in full swing, so I've been out and about collecting bags of leaves for the leaf mold store - Vic has also been out sweeping the streets and it's about half full so far :)

Just one broad bean left to germinate, they are growing well and have lovely roots developing. They'll be big enough to transplate to bigger pots in a couple of weeks. I can't decide whether to plant them out into the bed ahead of winter, or keep them in pots ...

Some of my early peas are looking fantastic, but I've had sporadic germination which is a bit strange. One drainpipe is completely germinated, but the other two have germinated at each end, but not in the middle. I'm not sure whether something has been nibbling or whether they are just taking a while to pop through. I'm going to transplant them to the bed in a couple of weeks and tuck them up with some protection to keep them safe

Here are the lovely Peru 'Chinese lanterns'

The Hydranger in the lower garden has an amazing array of flowers in different colours and shapes - is this normal ? I'm having second thoughts now about removing it completely ... maybe I'll give it a very hard prune instead.

The Welsh poppies are having a resurgence and adding some welcome colour to our slab of concrete in the upper garden area

The two acers in the front garden have their winter palette colours - the green one is transformed and looks as though it is on fire ... but the leaves are dropping fast, so it won't be long until we are enjoying their structural branches - Tom, the guy who planted up the garden, was an amazingly skilled planter. We've enjoyed year round colour along with a succession of interesting plants and textures.

The Japanese anenomies have just about finished flowering, they've had an amazing season - I will definitely be trying to split the tubers :)

The front garden also has some beautiful little cyclamen nodding in the sunshine, the pink ones have just replaced the white ones:

I've planted up one of the china sinks with succulents

Not so keen on the dying tree that is attached to the property next door, but the fir cones are pretty ... will have to think about how I can use them in my Christmas door decoration ... did someone say Christmas !!

oooo sunshine !!

What a great weekend - brilliant sunshine, beautiful blue sky and not a cloud in sight :)

My peas are coming along nicely - two drainpipes are fully pea'd and the third one is almost fully up. Thirteen broad beans have already germinated :) The temperature is dropping pretty quickly here and overnight frost is becoming a real risk.

I decided to tackle the alpine strawberry bed this weekend as the various self seeded flowers have finally finished flowering. The bed has some blackberries which in theory are trained up against the stone wall that borders the bed, but in reality they're sprawling over the bed. Initially I thought the strawberries just needed thinning but it soon became apparent that the bed was riddled with those old favourites, creeping buttercup & bindweed, grrrrr.

here's the after shot !

It has now had a thorough dig over and I've tamed the blackberries. Access to the fruit has been tricky this year, so I've added a couple of paving slabs along the back of the bed.

I've now got a lovely square of clear earth to plant up next year - maybe my sweetcorn will go there :)

There are still around 50 alpine strawberry plants to be moved - for now they are heeled into a bed to keep them alive until I find somewhere for them to go permanently.

Kittie no. 4, Fergal, obviously thinks she is a herb, as she has taken up residence in the herb box - it was hard to admonish her, as she does look so pretty :)

Here is naughty kittie no. 3 practising his second favourite activity - lolling around in the sun.  He loves following us around the lottie - I'm not sure he's going to shape up into much of an apprentice though...