Saturday, 17 June 2006
Sunday, 11 June 2006
Note - having problems posting pictures at the mo, will put them up ASAP.
Wow, summer is finally here thank goodness and my veggies look a bit happier.
Had a week off a the end of May and managed to make another 3 beds, now have 11 in total. Also managed to make my herb path. Not quite finished, but its looking really good.
My birthday surprise from OH was a pond ! Here it it, still needs edging stones, but its already attracting quite a lot of wildlife:
Here's a shot of the site, think my lottie is somewhere in the middle of the picture.
Have planted out my sweet potatoes, which look frighteningly like bindweed. They are under black weed naterial, so I'll have to wait and see what happens with them.
Courgettes, squashes and pumpkins are all in. Just planted another 25 sweetcorn (have 50 plants in total now - eek !) Sunflowers are visibly growing.
Carrots have finally germinated and I think I've even seen some parsnips poking their heads above the soil.
Broadies have very small pods on them, strawberries are showing and I have my first tomato - about the size of a 20 pence coin. Pepper looks as if it will flower any day. First peas have flowers on them and second lot are peeking through (although I think my mouse family have been helping themselves too).
Potatoes are all about to flower and I can see colour appearing on some of the sweetpeas.
All in all, very pleased with myself - just need to keep up with the watering now.
Wow, summer is finally here thank goodness and my veggies look a bit happier.
Had a week off a the end of May and managed to make another 3 beds, now have 11 in total. Also managed to make my herb path. Not quite finished, but its looking really good.
My birthday surprise from OH was a pond ! Here it it, still needs edging stones, but its already attracting quite a lot of wildlife:
Here's a shot of the site, think my lottie is somewhere in the middle of the picture.
Have planted out my sweet potatoes, which look frighteningly like bindweed. They are under black weed naterial, so I'll have to wait and see what happens with them.
Courgettes, squashes and pumpkins are all in. Just planted another 25 sweetcorn (have 50 plants in total now - eek !) Sunflowers are visibly growing.
Carrots have finally germinated and I think I've even seen some parsnips poking their heads above the soil.
Broadies have very small pods on them, strawberries are showing and I have my first tomato - about the size of a 20 pence coin. Pepper looks as if it will flower any day. First peas have flowers on them and second lot are peeking through (although I think my mouse family have been helping themselves too).
Potatoes are all about to flower and I can see colour appearing on some of the sweetpeas.
All in all, very pleased with myself - just need to keep up with the watering now.
Friday, 2 June 2006
The sweetest thing
It was nearly carnage on the lottie yesterday. Have been in full digging mode, ruthlessly casting aside dandelions, bindweed and other such horrors. The ground is so thick with weeds that I have to dig a bit and then hand sift the soil.
Had just turned some more soil ready for sifting when I heard a strange, but persistent and alarming noise. With a bit of trepidation I started to pull away the surface weeds ... was it a bees nest I'd disturbed, had I accidently injured a small critter ?? Saw some dried grass that had been made into a circle, gently pulled it away to discover some lovely little mouse / vole babies !
They came unbelievably close to being sliced or stood on, poor little things. Covered them up again and sat down next to them to sift the soil I'd dug, thinking maybe the mother would move them that evening, when a small movement to my right caught my eye.
I glanced down and there was the nervous but very focussed mother. Managed to stiffle my scream, after all this is their territory more than mine, and sat stock still.
She moved really quickly, using the weeds as cover, ran under my feet, into the nest, grabbed the first baby and quickly made her way back to where she'd come from.
She made another 6/7 runs until all of the babies had been moved. She's a beautiful little thing, has a very short tail so I don't think its a mouse, but perhaps a vole ?
Maybe thats where my peas disappeared to ...
Monday, 29 May 2006
Wednesday, 17 May 2006
Gosh, that's a big one
Folks and I treated my OH to his first garden centre visit ... not being the green fingered type its hard to tell if he was appreciative or not - when asked what he thought he said he didn't know garden centres came in the size of Manchester ! Maybe starting with Reighton at Hunmanby was perhaps a little overwhelming - its enormous and absolutely crammed to bursting with every plant under the sun. Got some pink lavender and some lavender lavender, lots of herbs for my planned herb patch (OH interest perked up at this bit), a lovely succulent (OH interest peaked at this point), some alpine strawberries and a cucumber.
After that we took him to Bempton Cliffs, just down the road from Flamborough Head. The birds clinging onto the cliff face were an absolutely breathtaking sight - we saw gulls, gannets, razorbills, guillemots, puffins and ... pigeons. Yup, they get everywhere. The puffins were sooooooooooo cute. The cliffs are around 400ft high - its a stunning part of the country - but it was FREEZING.
Have abandoned all hope of ever getting any of my tomatoes to germinate and gratefully accepted all offers of spares (thanks Francis & Mike xx) ... heard they were supposed to be fool proof but obviously NOT !! Got some large plastic storage boxes today which will form part of my ring culture in the potting shed. Think I know what I'm supposed to be doing, so shall have a go at the w/e. Will be extremely busy as we are also dismantling a friends greenhouse to take to the lottie (hurrah).
Still not managed to find any Munchkin seeds, but by chance happened across a seedling in my local garden centre - so he is now sitting on my windowsill until the weekend. Definitely want to build some sort of structure to grow my pumpkins and squashes up ... looking around for some inspiration at the moment.
It's my birthday next week, so have booked a week's holiday. Hopefully will make some good progress on the lottie.
After that we took him to Bempton Cliffs, just down the road from Flamborough Head. The birds clinging onto the cliff face were an absolutely breathtaking sight - we saw gulls, gannets, razorbills, guillemots, puffins and ... pigeons. Yup, they get everywhere. The puffins were sooooooooooo cute. The cliffs are around 400ft high - its a stunning part of the country - but it was FREEZING.
Have abandoned all hope of ever getting any of my tomatoes to germinate and gratefully accepted all offers of spares (thanks Francis & Mike xx) ... heard they were supposed to be fool proof but obviously NOT !! Got some large plastic storage boxes today which will form part of my ring culture in the potting shed. Think I know what I'm supposed to be doing, so shall have a go at the w/e. Will be extremely busy as we are also dismantling a friends greenhouse to take to the lottie (hurrah).
Still not managed to find any Munchkin seeds, but by chance happened across a seedling in my local garden centre - so he is now sitting on my windowsill until the weekend. Definitely want to build some sort of structure to grow my pumpkins and squashes up ... looking around for some inspiration at the moment.
It's my birthday next week, so have booked a week's holiday. Hopefully will make some good progress on the lottie.
Saturday, 6 May 2006
Summer's Here ...
Planted out my peas and sweetcorn today. Only have 20 peas ... did some investigating and the other 20 pots no longer have any peas in them !!! Those naughty mices ... have sown some more today and put under cover. Potted up my aubergines, but my peppers and okra have suffered from the increase in the temperature and being in the propagator too long. Have resown - no sign yet of my tomatoes. Sowed some parador (?) courgettes (yellow) and black beauty (green).
Here are my pumpkins, Carabocha:
and Big Max:
Started making a seating area last week - am hoping that the sweetpeas will provide some protection from the sun - its been unbelievably hot up there today. I've collected all the bricks together and plan to make a herb garden in front of the bench (Basil is just popping through in the potting shed)
Here are my pumpkins, Carabocha:
and Big Max:
Started making a seating area last week - am hoping that the sweetpeas will provide some protection from the sun - its been unbelievably hot up there today. I've collected all the bricks together and plan to make a herb garden in front of the bench (Basil is just popping through in the potting shed)
Tuesday, 25 April 2006
Spent Sunday making bed 6 and a teepee for my sweetpeas - although I think I'll go and check out the arches in Home Bargains, as they sound like, erm, a bargain.
Planted out my globe artichokes into their permanent places and repoked my onions back into their warm beds after they'd been plucked out by the pesky birds ... gave up on the netting after it threatened to engulf me mummy-style !
Beans have been munched slightly, looks like slugs, so I'll sow some more in a couple of weeks just in case.
My sweetcorn is looking fab and I think my pumpkins may have arrived by the weekend, but my sunflowers look very sickly - will give them another week or so, but think I may need to sow some more. Peas are starting to pop through.
Just got back from digging up loads of strawberry plants from a lovely lady that I met through the freecycle network. She has also kindly given me a loganberry or tayberry bush (not sure which until it grows) and some evening primrose seeds - thanks Diane ! Have promised to make her a strawberry tart in the summer.
Planted out my globe artichokes into their permanent places and repoked my onions back into their warm beds after they'd been plucked out by the pesky birds ... gave up on the netting after it threatened to engulf me mummy-style !
Beans have been munched slightly, looks like slugs, so I'll sow some more in a couple of weeks just in case.
My sweetcorn is looking fab and I think my pumpkins may have arrived by the weekend, but my sunflowers look very sickly - will give them another week or so, but think I may need to sow some more. Peas are starting to pop through.
Just got back from digging up loads of strawberry plants from a lovely lady that I met through the freecycle network. She has also kindly given me a loganberry or tayberry bush (not sure which until it grows) and some evening primrose seeds - thanks Diane ! Have promised to make her a strawberry tart in the summer.
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