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!!

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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

garden diary

Fourth week of March
25/03/11

I sat in the garden this morning in the blazing sunshine planning my next step!
Whilst smoking and drinking coffee I mapped out in my head how I want to proceed with the mess that is the back of the garden.

At the moment there is two large half dead shoots (practically trees in their own right) from the large tree, a hell of a lot of live and dead ivy, an old Xmas tree, some wooden planks and chunks of concrete.
What I would like there is some lovely paving to put the BBQ and general summer goodies on.

I am going with paving mainly to give the cats less soil to do their business on and because there is a hugh chunk of paving left over from when I did the garden all those years ago that I will never ever be strong enough to move, and I certainly don’t want to give myself another hernia by trying!!

As I want to keep the costs down, my ongoing job is to source some second hand paving for free from somewhere, any advice??

The rest of the future plans include:
•Cutting back the tree
•taking the old Xmas tree, concrete and planks to the tip
•re levelling the back section
•cutting out the two unwanted trees
•tackling the ivy
•re digging the hole for the wood that holds in the pebbles

I began the final job this afternoon at 12.10pm knowing fine well I have to leave for work at 12.25, that is the reason there are no photos for today’s post, maybe tomorrow!!!

garden diary

Fourth week of March
(22/03/2011)

As today was so beautiful I decided to continue with my garden pledge. I soaked all of the seeds I had planned to sow today overnight in organic seaweed feed ready for the big day!!

However before I could get the seeds in I wanted to put up the cold frame I bought a few weeks ago as the kitchen window ledge has no room for seedlings!

This proved a lot harder than I anticipated!

That damn cold frame was the hardest thing I have ever constructed and believe me I’ve put up my fair share of horrid flat pack furniture!
It took me an hour and a half and a great heap of my own sanity but I did it!

It certainly does not look as good as the one on the box but half way through the construction I realised that was because it was not the same as the one on the box, that one was a lot better quality!
Anyway I’m sure it will fulfil it’s purpose!

So with the cold frame up I got on with the seeds.

I now have 4 pots of coriander, 3 pots of San marzano tomatoes, 3 pots of budau taupe tomatoes, 3 pots of aisla Craig tomatoes, and a hugh tray of carrots!!
Those who know me and my tomato allergy may be questioning the amount I have sown! I just like growing tomatoes!! Anyway I can cook them and make lovely sauces for pizza and pasta!!!

Roll on germination!!!