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| Autumn planting gives spring colour |
We've been busy in the garden, taking advantage of the warm, sunny days and long, light evenings. And it's paying off. The bulbs we planted in the autumn are just about finishing their showiness, just a few alliums standing tall and purple amongst the last tulips.
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Rhododendrons
in spring woodland garden |
Our garden is a woodland spring garden, having its best colour at this time of year. The glorious azaleas and rhododendrons are magnificent in their colour.
We have also been busy making more structural changes. It started with the re-locating of the compost area earlier in the year. This has made space for the new potting shed. The little greenhouse has been moved too, and the site marked up. So, any day now, the men will come to lay the concrete base.
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Greenhouse for sentimental value,
on the plot for the new potting shed |
Our wildlife area is home to bees and spiders and baby birds, and many other creatures I hope.
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| Bee nest, for solitary bees |
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| Blue tit box, always in use |
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| Bumble bee box, now home to various spiders |
We moved the old veggie box into its new position next to the hedge, a perfect spot for the raspberries. I have to treat the timber first though, and line the box, before I can sieve the compost back into the box, erect the tall bamboos and put up the birdnetting. All quite achievable.
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| Renovating the old veggie box as a new raspberry planter |
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Mr B's lawn, and potato planter, mini greenhouse for
tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines, new planter for raspberries |
The veggie patch is planted up. The kitchen garden is planted up. After last year's awful crop, I was a bit wary about doing veg this year. I heard a garden expert on a local radio station talking about the problem of the long cold winter and what home veggie gardeners should do to get a crop this year. He said (more or less) 'Don't sow seeds, buy good quality plants. The plants need to be strong this year and raising weak plants from seedlings in the cold spring won't help. Buy lots of plants. Plant densely, especially in the kitchen garden. This will keep the pests down, and encourage cut and come again picking. And finally, he said don't swap self-propagated plants with your neighbour. In doing this, we risk passing on plant diseases, weakening the crop in the future.' Wow, that was a lot of do's and don'ts.
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| Veggie patch |
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| Kitchen garden |
Last weekend, I popped out to the garden centre and chose loads of veggie plants - sweetcorn, carrots, leeks, red onions, dwarf beans, broad beans, beetroot, celery, sweet pepper, beefsteak tomato, aubergine and cucumber. I planted densely, but less so in the veggie patch. I had already planted my early potatoes and those plants look fabulous in what has now become 'the potato planter'.
I did get a few cabbage plants from the neighbour's Grandma. They are doing well, and in return I sent Grandma a few celery plants.
So veggies planted, brambles under control, hens eating the weeds, I painted the metal warthogs red. Job done.
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| Metal warthogs, travelled from Africa |
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A serene setting for the warthogs, next to a bench
and watched by the wood carving man |
I think we can relax for a bit. Except for Mr B, who loves looking after his lawn.
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| A passion for lawn mowing |
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| And a couple of mad Boxers thrown in for good measure |
