I have a jungle!

Well, here we are, another two weeks gone and goodness, what have we here! The sun room's resembling a jungle!



Three of the four beans in this pot have reached the top of the canes, the fourth one was a late addition, planted a couple of weeks ago and is about half way up.





The tomatoes are now 3' high and all have two or three trusses on, one truss even has flowers. We were putting them out in the daytime to harden off and bringing them in at night but last week, despite the most glorious sunshine, the wind was very cold and it affected some of the leaves so we're keeping them inside for now.


The three red pepper plants on the window sill have now been repotted into their final large pots and are looking very happy. In front of them, on the little bench (we bought two shoe racks from Asda, £5 each, perfect for putting the trays on!) there are, in the black tray, two cherry tomato seedlings I've grown waiting to go into their permanent pots, the poppy seedlings we've kept inside for now (the ones we planted out are doing OK), plus five leek seedlings I've grown (one didn't make it) waiting to be potted on. To the right, on the small green trays, are the African marigolds I've grown from seed, very healthy but again got a bit of "wind burn" when we tried to harden them off last week. They're fine and we'll plant them out in the next week or two. In front of those, in the two black trays, are the petunia, verbena and nepeta plug plants we bought from the garden centre last week. They're waiting to go outside into their pots but again it's still a little early. We also have some begonia and trailing lobelia bought yesterday ready to go out into tubs.

There's plenty going on outside. The primroses have now finished flowering and are obviously very happy from the amount of fresh new leaf growth.



My little azalea (Mother's Day present last year) is in full bloom and looking gorgeous!




The two hostas have come on a bundle in a fortnight:

It's quite surprising that they're almost at the same stage as normally the one in the top photo is quite a bit later than the other.




The rhubarb's doing well but as Paul split the crowns this year we can only pull two or three sticks, we must wait until next year before we can harvest it properly - that's really sad as Paul was looking forward to rhubarb crumble!


The paeony's doing well, as is the tall lobelia behind, and the bluebells in the pot started to flower a few days ago.




Miraculously the arum lily seems to be recovering well from the frost damage, not sure if it will give us such a good show as last year but at least it's still alive! Lesson learned - protect from frost if we have another winter as bad as this one.

You can just about make out the two red sprout seedlings I planted out this week. Apparently they prefer a shady spot and in front of the fence is the shadiest place in the garden.


The potatoes have been working hard and I've had to earth them up every few days. Today I earthed them up for the last time and as the soil's at the top of the pot I can now leave them to just grow.


Parsnips and carrots in these two tubs. The tub in the top picture had seeds directly sown into it a couple of weeks ago. The tub in the second picture has parsnip seedlings grown on in the sun room and carrot seeds planted directly this week.


I managed to catch Paul while he was clearing out the fence planters, he's taken out the daffodil bulbs and we can get them ready for summer planting. I'm not good at balancing on the little wall to reach the planters, it was hard enough for him!

What a difference two weeks makes

Well, here we are, just two weeks after the last post and what a growth spurt!

Here are the tomatoes and runner beans. The tomatoes are now about 2'6" high, they've grown another 15" in a fortnight. The runner beans are also roughly 2'6" tall which is amazing as they had only just broken through the soil in their small pots two weeks ago. The nights are still a bit too cool for them to be outside but the days are warming up nicely, time for them to be hardened off so they'll be going outside in the daytime and coming back into the sun room at night for the next couple of weeks.

At the back there are the three red peppers, they've also grown considerably and are looking good. Leeks and parsnips are in the tray in front of the peppers, only at first leaf stage so early days but alive and kicking! The beautiful paeony type poppies and a couple of cherry tomatoes are also in this tray. Some poppies have already gone outside and I'm holding on to these inside for a while in case the other seedlings don't make it. The cherry tomatoes are doing well but still too small to pot on.

The African marigolds are coming along nicely, very strong and I'm tempted to put them out but I should really wait a couple more weeks. Also in this tray are two pots each with a healthy red brussel sprout seedling.

On the right, in front of the tomatoes, are a few pots of aptenia seeds which Paul planted yesterday, fingers crossed these germinate as this is the plant we first saw in Oz. Also some pots with penstemmon seedlings, the seeds were planted at the same time as all the veggie and poppy seeds but they seem to be very slow growing although healthy enough.

In the black tray at the front are some trailing verbena, nepeta and some trailing double petunias which we bought yesterday. These I've potted on today and will keep in the sun room until we're ready to plant up the big pots and urns outside.



These are Rooster potatoes which I planted two weeks ago, growing nicely through the compost so today I've earthed them up for the first time.





My all time favourite, proper wild primroses (bought from a garden centre a few years ago and brought with us to this house, not dug up from their natural habitat) and they are thriving under the camelia. It's the shadiest part of the garden so the soil doesn't dry out as much here and it seems to be the perfect place for them. These are doing better than the others which are in a drier and sunnier spot. I'm really pleased with the way these have settled down in this spot.


Last but not least the rhubarb is doing well. This is a very dry part of the garden which gets the sun all day so regular watering is a must.



I've planted some carrots, parsnips and salad leaf seeds straight into outside tubs. Our carrots last year were very successful and it's lovely to pick them fresh whenever you want them, the taste is so much better than what you get from the supermarket. I shall continue to plant more seeds every few weeks to ensure we get a continuous crop which should take us right through the winter.

Spring has sprung - March 2010

The winter has been very cold, we've had snow and frosts here which is very rare. It seems to have gone on forever. But in February we had a good two weeks where the sun shone every day and I decided it was time to start tidying up the garden and get ready for this year.

My big clear out of the wild garlic last year was mainly successful although there were still quite a few which reappeared. They must have been so small that I missed them first time round. Without disturbing the plants we want to keep I dug over the borders again and removed a lot more although some were impossible to get to as they're growing through other plants. I also weeded as I went along and after a couple of weeks of working every afternoon the garden was tidy and free of uninvited guests!

The white camelia blooms in February so all that remains on there are a few rather rusty looking flowers, but the spring bulbs are coming through bringing colour and life to the garden once more.



The pink camelia is in full flower with plenty more buds waiting to open. It seems to have liked the clear out around it's base last year and the pruning. The primroses seem to like it there too.



The strawberries have been removed and replanted in a couple of containers to keep them off the soil, hopefully we'll get a better crop this year. The rhubarb has been dug up, split and replanted giving it a lot more room. It's looking healthy and a few stubby sticks are coming through.


The corkscrew hazel has now been planted in this border, along with a new gooseberry bush this year.




Gladioli are planted each side of the concrete urn but we'll have to wait quite a while for them to show. The hyacinths and miniature narcissi are doing well and the perfume from the hyacinths is lovely.


The cranesbill geranium is coming through and there's signs of life from the paeony and the two tall lobelia. We'll have to be careful to cut back next door's plants when they start to grow through as that's a hiding place for snails and if not kept in check they devour the lobelia. The blue pot contains bluebells which I love but don't want rampaging through the garden.

The alpine bed's looking good, the Blue Moon rose has had a good prune and there's one of the tubs ready for runner beans to be planted out a bit later on.



My lovely azaelia is in the pot at the front, behind it is the Michaelmas daisy which we're hoping will give a better show this coming autumn than last year. We've pruned and kept the fuschia to see how it goes this year.

The two grassy clumps either side of the tulip leaves are Armeria Maritimia and will have little pom pom type flowers on during spring-summer. The white camelia with it's fast fading flowers and the rest of the primroses seem to be thriving underneath.

Salvia Hot Lips is in leaf and the lobelia is poking through. The large hardy fuschia has been heavily pruned and the slate chippings have been put down around the base of the bird feeder as so many seeds were falling into the soil and germinating giving us a variety of unwanted grasses. We're getting daily visits from pigeons now who are pretty good at tidying up the dropped seeds from off the slate and the path.

The curly red's looking nice and healthy and the prairie mallow is coming on. A few of last year's primulas are in flower and the hosta in the pot has just started to show through the soil.


The big red rose has been pruned hard to try and get a better shape and I think that's another old fuschia next to it which has been pruned. The two concrete planters are ready for some summer bedding.


Miniature fuschia on the left, lots of montbretia coming through and a few tulips and daffodils dotted about.




Hopefully the arum lily is coming back to life, there are some fresh green shoots so fingers crossed the frosts didn't do any lasting damage to this lovely plant. We now know we need to mulch it in future if the winters are as cold as this one has been.

We've plenty going on in the sun room too.

Four tomato plants are potted up, about 15" high and ready to go out when the weather is good enough. There are three red pepper plants coming along nicely but I'll keep those indoors this year. There are runner beans, parsnips, sprouts and a few leek seeds planted, also some cherry tomato seeds. We have lupins, sunflowers, penstemmons, African marigolds and paeony type poppy seeds planted and the seedlings are looking healthy.

The sprouts have just sprouted! I only planted three seeds for now, we're not too keen on sprouts but this is a red variety so we're happy to give them a try. I just need to read up to find out how to grow them now!

The tubs are filled with compost and ready for the carrot seeds to be sown outside in the next couple of weeks. The strawberries are in the tall two tier containers and I'll plant some salad leaves in the little white tub.



I've put some Rooster seed potatoes out in the big tub.





Hopefully the snow that's fallen today in Scotland and Ireland wont reach us, I'd hate to lose anything now.

September 2009

August had been a month for admiring the flowers we'd grown, geraniums in pots, and enjoying the runner beans and potatoes.

By September we'd cleared out some things that had finished and was giving thought to some winter colour and starting to move some things that were in the wrong place.

Salvia "Hot Lips" and a lobelia "Cardinalis" were new additions along with a campanula and some miniature cyclamen. Spring bulbs had also been planted at the back.


The dwarf runner beans were cleared out and some of the alpines moved over to this bed as they were too tall to go with the others. More spring bulbs were planted and the places marked.


Most of the gladioli had finished flowering and as these were dotted about all over the place it was decided to move them and group them either side of the concrete urn.



Some more cyclamen and spring bulbs planted here. The montbretia, now finished flowering, was moved to join some others to hopefully make a better display next year.




The tubs on the fence were planted up for the winter with primulas, pansies and cyclamens.




After discovering that primroses like shade, those that had been kept in a tub since we moved were split and planted beneath the two camelias.



That's just about it for 2009 but during the winter we did have a couple of visitors as well as the sparrows, various tits and robins. We were delighted to see a chaffinch as we don't see them very often:


And Paul thinks this is probably a fieldfare, he thinks it's too fat and spotty for a thrush:

July 2009

Things are really coming on now and I'm beginning to feel like all the hard work was worthwhile.




Potatoes



Dwarf runner beans




Butternut squash. Flowered and fruited but needs to be in a bed not a pot. Unfortunately rotted away before they grew big enough to eat.







Red peppers






My first pepper!






Paul's Blue Moon rose







This has the most wonderful perfume!






By the end of the month we'd harvested the first of the potatoes.