warm up for winter

Walking home from the cinema yesterday it hit me just how cold it is getting.

On Saturday night we were in the garden BBQ-ing some Beer Soaked Bratwurst and it was pretty warm as I only needed a cardi however suddenly it has decided to become icy!!

I really love an icy, snowy winter but now that I don’t have any soil or grassy area in the garden and everything I grow is in pots there becomes a much higher risk of the roots of my plants freezing in the winter months.

As I would normally dig holes in my soil and put my pots inside them to keep them snug I knew I needed another method, so I’ve been planning for a few months in preparation for the frost in the garden by collecting as much bubble wrap as possible.

This morning I went out and put my most vulnerable plants in the mini greenhouses (the chilli, the blueberry, the pond plants and the rush) and wrapped the remaining small potted plants in the bubble wrap.

Look at my lovely Chrysanthemum in bloom!!

There were plenty of new leaves on the ground so I gathered them up and placed a light layer over the soil of each pot too to keep in any heat and hopefully the leaves will decompose and collect the frost and not the soil directly. This method is pretty much taken from my old garden where I left all the fallen leaves on top of my plants over winter!!

I really hope that my trellis plants survive (clematis, honeysuckle and vines) as they are very delicate when in pots and they were doing soooooo well. I really need some good coverage next year to deter the crazy dog!!

Fingers crossed I’ve wrapped it all up warm enough I should maybe knit them little plant hats!!

‘No two gardens are the same…..

…… No two days are the same in one garden’ Hugh Johnson

It’s been a bit of a dramatic few months.

Me and my love decided we wanted a place that was all our own, we found a flat we loved, got a mortgage, bought it and moved in! All in the space of a few months!
We are slowly getting settled, however the big move for me was, of course, my garden.

My old little garden featured heavily on loumms,

from it’s beginnings as a weed filled mess

through becoming established

to the glory of a working kitchen garden,

I photographed and blogged my way through the process.

My pitfalls and triumphs were posted here along side all the wonderful food I got to make from what I succeeded in growing.

So as you can imagine it was hard to get my head around leaving it.
However I would never buy anywhere without an outside area and it turns out that my new little garden (all mine, not shared with 18 cats, loads of slugs and a tree!) is a dream!!!

I knew that I’d never be spoilt again in terms of the size of the last place and all I really wanted was a little area to relax in and grow my veggies.
I certainly found it!

As my dad said ‘you’ve got yourself a little sun trap here!’

I brought everything I had planted, 4 trips in the car with Emmms, in pots as I now have decking, and they are all thriving!

There is always a risk when up heaving established plants but so far they are all loving their new home.

My flowers, the Rush and the Vera are all sitting on top or some lovely early 19th century bricks I got from Freecycle and my Lily flowered for the first time ever (sorry no pic but it was a lovely delicate pink flower)

Along side them is my big pot containing what I originally thought to be two courgette plants which turns our to be one courgette

and one cucumber!!

Sooooo happy as I thought all of my cucumbers had died!

Beside the big pot, along the side wall are my two greenhouses.

One protecting my fruit trees (thanks Emmms!)

and the other has my 3 tomato plants, and my peppers and chilli plants.

For the moment, until we get our new garden furniture, I have some lilies, my onions, and a couple of my old rockery shrubs sitting on top of my old green wooden chairs and huge metal bucket.

Waiting for a home of its own is the thriving raspberry bush which is temporarily sitting between the BBQ and the wooden bench.

Dotted around on top of the walls are the Periwinkle

The silver fern

some thyme

and al load of general bits and pieces including the gift from my sister for my birthday, a cute little welly boot pot!

And perched on the window sill are my other herbs waiting for a new home on the balcony with the salad leaves.

and I’ve got a tap by the back door!!

So there it is, my new garden,

I love it!!!!!

spring time sawing

I’ve got the spring feeling at the moment thanks to all the fresh, sunny weather however I’m not spring cleaning the house, its the garden receiving the attention.

The tree at the back has bugged me for years however the new trees, full of disease and aphids and ivy, growing out of the big tree have bugged me more.

Since I began the garden all those years ago, I’ve never had the time/energy to do anything about it other than cover it up, so I took the opportunity now that the rest of the garden is doing well to saw off the tree growth!

Not only was there a new tree growing there was also the ivy to tackle with trunks the width of my calf winding their way around the branches.

So I took the saw and got on with my work.

About 3 hours later I succeeded.

Unfortunately I didn’t take a pic before hand and I can’t see to see one from last year as I always avoid this area when taking pics so we only have after shots!

As you can see from the stumps there was a lot to do!

Now I have a good extra foot and a half of garden space to play with, no nasty aphid covered tree and tangly ivy to contest with!

I also have 3 bags of firewood to use with the chiminea this summer!

Since I had the saw and the shears out I decided to cut back everything else ready for this years growth.

The best thing about mainly container growing my vege every year means that at the beginning of the season I can re arrange the whole garden!

I’m going to take everything out and work around my 3 surfaces, the back patio, centre lawn and front gravel patch in the next week or so and create myself a brand new garden to fill with my newly potted veggie plants!

I did courgette, cucumber, tomato, chilli’s (3 varieties) peppers, basil, coriander, mint and squash!

Obviously there will be more to come once the garden is prepared!

ugh it’s tuesday

Me and Tuesday’s do not get on.
I normally make it into bed at about 7.15am after a terribly long 24 hour Monday!

I then magically wake up at around 10.30am sometimes 11am if I’m really lucky!

Probably best to say that I’m not a great night shift worker/sleeper however it does mean that I normally get quite a lot done on a Tuesday before I’m back at work again that night.

Today was the garden.

I needed to get the Pund plants out before the frost hit as it is so small it would not take much for it to freeze over, so I organised for a friend to take them in his bigger pond over the winter.
Now at least they will have a fighting chance!

Both the lily and the water soldier that survived are bagged and ready to go to their new home.

(Check out the lovely leaf-less grass, all thanks to my new leaf blower a friend gave me!)

I also took the opportunity to re pot the Yukka and bring him indoors for the winter months. I’ve managed to leave him outside for a lot longer this year as the weather has been pretty mild.
I think it’s about time for him to feel the warmth of the central heating though !

Whilst I was in the re potting mood I also did the Aloe Vera. She is staying on the window ledge in the kitchen this year, so she may get a slight bit of sun, as last year when she was in the living room she received so little sun that she nearly didn’t make it through.

After all of that, I went back inside the house to wash up just as my alarm went off at 1pm!

slight confusion

I think I’ve slightly confused my little garden!

Last week I decided to begin preparing my garden for autumn/winter.
I noticed that the nights were getting colder and I read an article about how we were expecting an early winter (end of October)

I had a spare few hours on Saturday so decided to begin preparation for winter.

It turned out that my veggie patch had been completely over run by snails (a lot worse than I originally thought) and the cats had managed to get in a do their business everywhere totally ruining what wasn’t destroyed by the snails.

So, holding back the tears, I dug the whole thing up.

At least now it will have enough time for the soil to recover for next years sowing.

I moved some flowers to the place I want them next year tidied the lawn and put down some more grass seeds in the patchy sections.

I also moved the blueberry bush to where it will spend the winter. I dug a large hole to fit the pot and am planning to cover the entire thing in muslin as the nights grow colder.

I thought I was well on the way!!

That was until London starting experiencing a late heat wave!!!

It’s so hot!! 26 degrees C!

I’ve been noticing a red colour coming from my tomato plants so it looks like they are turning!! The sun has brought them out!!

I picked a few and heard they tasted lovely ( allergy prevents me from trying :( )there are plenty more however that I can use to make a sauce!!

My little peppers who seemed to be unsuccessful this year have started fruiting

and my pund has been given a new lease of life!

To think I almost took the pond plants out to give to a friend who is looking after them during the winter!

As the weather is so good and my garden is so tidy I’ve been able to spend my (very rare) spare time enjoying it!

I went out today and bought a few evergreens for the containers in the front garden as the Lobelia didn’t survive, and also have added a lavender bush (bit sad looking at the moment) and a pretty Pieris Japonica.

I also planted a few more rockery plants round the pund.

Looks like I’ll be getting a lot out of the garden this year than I thought!

BBQ anyone????

beauty

After the week we have had so far in London and across the country (I’m not going to go any deeper into it right now) I decided I needed a little beauty in my life.

So I headed to the garden centre to buy new plants!!

On Monday I cleaned out our front garden which had been needing it for a few months now. I got rid of the three foot weeds, cut back the dying and dead branches off the Rose and bush. And generally made the area nicer.

It needed to be an area that was going to develop over time and that didn’t need much care and attention.
I decided to go with a few flowering evergreen shrubs, a few perennials, and some smaller border plants to brighten it all up.

After I dug up the soil and added some compost I was ready to plant!!

I began by planting the Fuscia I was given from a friend for my birthday, against the small wall as it will continue to grow (hopefully) and become a nice cover for the wall as it is not particularly attractive.

I added the yellow Chrysanthemum to block some old roots and placed the Dianthus around the border.

There was another old root that I can’t remove slightly sticking out so the other side of it I planted the Hebe Variegata as once it grows it should help to hide the root!!

Sticking to the yellow purple theme I added the other Chrysanthemum to the front corner and surrounded it, and the Hebe with Gazania.

I have had a few beautiful containers sitting in my kitchen now that were gifts from my family for my birthday so I took the opportunity to pot some beautiful hanging Lobelia in them and they just look adorable!

Tool basket

Watering can

To sit in the centre of the Lobelia I potted a pretty Argyranthemum and my front garden was complete!

I really wanted to add a lavender too but ran out of space so maybe I’ll just buy one anyway and keep it in the pot!!

garden diary

Second week of may
09/05/11

Well it seems as if the glorious weather is going to continue!!

There have been a couple of weeds growing through in the last week, mainly I think because we had a good few downpours of rain, so as I looked out of the window this morning and noticed them ruining my garden satisfaction I went out to tidy up.

I always get carried away in the garden, and what was meant to be an hour before I began my knitting, turned into 4!!!

I got the grass cut, which is looking lovely!!

Then I got on with the weeding! The main areas were the pond (still with no plants!! Agh, got to get to the garden centre!)
It’s looking better now!

And the vegetable patch had some little ones which didn’t take long so I also re spaced my broccoli

And my cabbage

I moved the yukka and the raspberry bush to the other border beside the lavender

And tidied and re arranged the front section to look as good as the back

The good thing is that everything else has been shooting up as well as the weeds!!

Tomatoes

Garlic

Carrots

Courgette

Even my peppers and chilli have shown their heads!!

I got a great first crop of lettuce

And I have some strawberries!!

It’s all really starting to come together!

garden diary

Well my garden is growing!!!

It’s been a great couple of weeks for all my Vege, grass and plants, they (and me) have loved the spring weather!

The last time I posted I had just layed the paving at the back of the garden and since then I’ve been super busy.

The seeds I sown at the beginning of april are now steaming ahead!
The only things now left in the propagator are some little tomato seedings waiting for Emma to collect and the chilli and pepper seeds I planted today, every thing else is out enjoying the abnormal heat we have had!

I pricked out the tomatoes and re-potted them using emmas great tutorial!

Under cover are my salad leaves, courgette, broccoli, and cabbage. Last week when re potting my carrots I realised I had too many to fit in the tub so I found some space in the patch and put them there, I just can’t bear not to use them all!

salad

courgette

brocolli

cabbage

carrots

Today, to the vege patch, I added some pepper and chilli seeds and two little pea seedlings which I couldn’t fit into the pea pot!

The peas are just shooting up!
I had them in quite a small container to begin with so I pricked them out this morning and gave them a new home!

My strawberry are pretty happy in their new pots but need a good tidy! I didn’t really do to much with them when I uprooted them from the Vege patch!

The new additions to the garden are a cute little blueberry bush, raspberry bush, and garlic.

Today I also tidied up my Borders and re arranged the container Vege.

I’ve tried to get rid of as many places as possible where the cats can do their business but my borders are something I don’t really want to lose.

The main chunk of soil in the borders now houses the containers, dug in quite deep to prevent the cats from pushing them aside!

I also moved some plants I put down last year and re arranged the lily tubers.

 

To the rest I added some more flower seeds, not sure what they are but I’m sure it won’t be long till I find out!

My lavender is growing so happily in the other border that I decided to add some more seeds around it! Fingers crossed!

It has been so lovely to get out here so much, pruning, potting and just relaxing, my grass is growing well too, only a few patches which I touched up today!

My next step is to get some pond plants!!!

garden diary

first week of April
(04-04-11)

Well I’ve been busy!!

As I mentioned in my last post I picked up the sand and timber on Saturday morning, dragged it all home in my poor little car and began my paving project!

I began by mapping out a border with the timber, levelling out the soil and adding the sand.
Once it was a sand pit I started to organise my paving slabs only to find that there wasn’t enough!
Thankfully the couple I got the flags from had loads left so after an email and a good nights sleep I went back to Lewisham to collect the rest!

Confident I now had what I needed I got up this morning and headed to B&Q to buy the only items I’ve actually had to pay for!

3 bags of gravel and a bag of sand later I was ready again!
After I laid the paving, I filled the main gaps with more sand then covered it all in gravel!

I built a bench (flat pack!) arranged some plants and my chiminea and the paving was done!!
I can’t believe how amazing it looks and to think it only cost me £20!!!

I am going to write up a little tutorial on this soon with more pictures, but for now, here’s my before and after shots!!!

garden diary

Last week of March
(28/03/11)

Thank god for glorious Sunday’s!!
I managed to get 5 out of my 6 jobs done, plus I organised the collection of some paving I sourced from freecycle! I am collecting on Monday night so next opportunity I get I’ll take some photos!

It did take me a good few hours but it was worth the pain! ( a large gash to my finger resulting in a tetnus shot and my arms shredded to pieces!)

I have decided to leave the two trees and work around them, mainly because it is way out of my capability to sort them out however I did cut them right back and removed all of the dusty dead leaves that was covering them!
The wooden screen covers the trees now but no longer covers the mess that was originally there!
The dead stuff (12 bags!) is now at the garden tip and the little lumps of concrete are surrounding my future pond!!

I managed to level the ground I plan to put the paving on but have not yet sourced the timber needed to create a proper bed for them. I have mapped the area out with some old wood just to give a bit of an idea of how it’s gonna look.
It is as square as I can get it, to make my life easier, which means I’ll have a little triangle of grass up the side. I’m sure this could become a design feature!!
I am also going to have to move the raised beds back a few feet but that’s not a big job and I’m also going to get rid of the border down the right hand side and just make that grass too.

Unfortunately time ran out on me before I could re dig the gravel bed but I’m hoping the dry weather will hold out till tomorrow so I can get that job off my list too!!

So the new list is:
•source timber
•pick up paving
•dig up grass
•buy sand, top soil and grass seeds
•move raised bed