Over a Barrel...

The weather has been glorious, really 'springy' lately so we have been very busy outside.
Marc has made 4 raised beds now and they are all painted and in position. The path round the beds is also finished. Two of the beds were covered with fleece to warm things up a bit. Today I sowed 2 rows of parsnips, a row of carrots, a row of beetroot and a row of turnips, all under the fleece. I also planted out some lettuce under it too. One of our cats likes to sneak under the fleece to 'sauna' himself so I have sprinkled garlic 'cat off' granules in the hope he won't like the smell and will sunbathe elsewhere. I have also finished the onion bed and it is no full of garlic, shallots and red and white onions. No idea where the leeks will be going... I had to put a few onions in with the flower beds but by the time anyone notices I will be ready to harvest them!

Marc has made a water butt, from some old food barrels he picked up locally and cheaply. As they don't have taps etc attached we had fun and games getting one on. He had to climb in it to attach the tap and came out of the barrel smelling of olives! Could have been worse, if he'd bought an ex-marmite barrel!) He has moved the small one which was on the house onto the greenhouse and put guttering round it.

I have potted on some more tomatoes and been putting the big ones outside of it's warm enough.
I sowed some celeriac and asparagus and alpine strawberries in the house. I have also been sowing more flower seeds. I have also managed to get my summerflower bulbs in the ground and in pots.

The peach tree has been in the greenhouse all winter and is now full of pink buds and flowers. I have been hand-pollinating them with a paintbrush. You could call me a 'busy bee'!

One of the compost bins has been emptied and spread about the flower beds. Another one was turned - that's hard work. Not my favourite garden job!

Cheeky Deer...

We have been busy as usual. The weather is being kind (that will jinx that now then) and progress is being made.
I now have 4 raised beds made and painted up. 2 are now in final positions.
The transplanted garlic is fine (phew) and I have got some spring planted in with it too. I have also got lots of shallots in. This means the 'onion' bed is half full, and I've not got any onions in it yet!
Other things I have been doing include, digging the area to be paved (almost there and I can see the finish line...) potted on some savoy cabbage that I managed to drop a brick on (doh!) and think I've only lost 2 out of 12. Sowed a pot of chives in the greenhouse. Sowed some flower seeds including aquilegia, cosmos.
Potted on chillis, aubergines, and tomatoes again.
I have got some potatoes in buckets in the greenhouse and discovered that one that got frosted (was meant to be for Xmas spuds) has re-sprouted and needed earthing up. So we may be in for some early earlies!
Some parsnips have been sowed into loo-rolls (the crop was delicious but minimal last year so I am experimenting). I transplanted some radish into troughs and popped the min the greenhouse.
I planted a grapevine that a kindly member of the garden forum I frequent sent me.
I have also received free strawberry runners from GW magazine and potted them up.
I have planted some Jerusalem Fartichokes, oops I mean artichokes too, they are in the bit of garden we won't get round to doing anything with this year.
I put some of the early tomatoes outside while I potted them on yesterday, it was beautiful, but I swear within half an hour they were shivering!
The new mini-greenhouse is up so some of the things that were clogging up the windowsills have been moved into there, eg, sweetpeas and french marigolds.

The funniest thing happened at breakfast the other morning. Some 'frisky' deer came chasing into the garden and Louis wanted to know what they were actually doing. We told him they were making babies.... after breakfast he declared he was going outside to see the baby deer! Hopefully they have now been fenced out as they have been so destructive lately. Then the first night they couldn't get in the back garden, they decided to trash the front instead. Whole pots of tulips have been uprooted and bulbs bitten off at ground level. They look lovely but boy can they eat!

Good news - on of the PSB's has about 12 buds on it and will be ripe for eating anyday - yay!

Feels Like Progress....

Well the snow has finally left us (it took ages to clear, very unusual) and I have managed to get out and do a bit more on the new bed area. Yesterday we managed to get the first of the big new beds in position (11 feet by 5) and I transplanted the autumn garlic into it. It would have been intersected by the edge of the bed had I not done so. The poor things had to be put into buckets then transplanted into their (hopefully) final positions. The rows are a bit wonky now but I am sure they will be fine.

Today I managed to get some more digging down. Marc laid a few more slabs and has started on bed no2. This one will be bigger still at 13 feet long by 5 wide. It is starting to take shape and I am very excited to view the larger growing spaces!

I thought about putting the onion sets in today but think I will give it another couple of weeks. It might have felt like spring today and yesterday but I am sure I am just being fooled....

I have also potted on the second lot of tomatoes I sowed. The chillis and aubergines will be done within the next few days. I have got 13/15 strawberry seeds germinated, they are tiny, but will come good I am sure. No sign of the golden berry yet, or the cayenne chillis.
I need to sow a few more Roma tomatoes for sauces and I have also promised to nurture a few plants for a friend so will sow some more later in the week.

I also need to pot on the original tomatoes to the next size pot as thwe roots are just visible at the bottom. I will hopefully get this done next week too.

Most of the herbs I sowed are up, including parsley ( I am clearly the boss of this household!), basil, sage, coriander. The oregano has vanished, maybe I took the clingfilm off too early?! I am also trying some lemon balm and thyme from seed. I bought a rosemary plant and that is now on a pot on the decking. I never do much with fresh herbs so this year I am going to make a real effort with them.

I include a pic of one of the PSB plants lovingly cleared of bugs and the like all last summer. I wonder if they will EVER be ready?! The pigeons are eyeing them up too.

Meant to be raining tomorrow so glad we got lots done this weekend...

Snow Stops Play!

Well after the rest of the country having lots of snow and us missing most of it we woke this morning to about 4 inchs of the white stuff.

My eldest son was VERY excited as school was shut and he has had fun in the garden with daddy making snowmen and throwing snowballs at each other. I went out with our younger son who hadn't encountered snow before! It was so deep he couldn't walk in it! He loved it though and cried when I brought him in again.

The chickens were less than impressed with the snow. In fact it is the most they have encountered too. I went down to feed them some warm porridge and they were still in the coop! Wusses. They all huddled under the shelter for their porridge and I threw some scraps under the conifers where it's still dry. I don't think they quite know what to make of this weather!
There were still 2 eggs this morning and I believe Delia (white one) has also laid as I heard her crowing later on.

I had planned to take Dominic to mum's this morning so I could get outside and dig some more, but I think my plans have been revised somewhat!

Yesterday however, I managed to move the strawberries from the open bed which is going to be raised, into pots in the greenhouse, and lift the raspberries and put them into temporary pots while the beds are made. I think it will affect their harvest this year but can't be helped. The strawbs may well put on a spurt now they are indoors though which would be nice. We love strawberries.

Seeds sown:
I have lettuce, rocket, and salad leaves all up and doing well in the greenhouse.
Sowed a big pot of spring onions into the greenhouse.
I have 2 out of 4 aubergines up in the propagator. No signs of the strawberry, golden berry or toms yet though.
Basil is through in the windowsill.
I am waiting for parsley, coriander and oregano on the windowsill.
I sowed 2 types of cabbage yesterday, a tray of french marigolds, 2 types of globe artichoke, all indoors. Running out of window-sill space now.
I also sowed 2 trays of leeks in the coldframe, and a few summer and autumn ready calabrese.

Run out of seed trays now.... I think a trip to Wilkos is due once the snow has gone.

Pics of us in the snow were more interesting than ones of seed trays!

So today and yesterday we have been busy. I have been digging and Marc has been making me some new raised beds and making modifications to the chicken coop (the darn thing has been a work in progress for about 16 months now!). Still the girls are happy, although they don't knwo what to make of the shredded papaer I have been using lately as bedding.

I managed to paint the first raised bed (5 feet by 11) just before it snowed. Oh well it has got 2 chances like everything in my garden!

I also had a lovely afternoon in the warm sowing seeds while Marc took the boys visiting. This meant no little hands in the compost 'helping'.

I sowed (in no particular order): Parsely, Sage, Oregano and Coriander on the kitchen window-sill; strawberry seeds into the propagator along with, 3 types of tomato and golden berry; radish, beetroot calabrese into the coldframe (although the snow means they will go in tomorrow morning, on the landing window at present.

I was going to chance my arm with some early peas but as it was snowing thought it best to wait.

No need for pics today, a tray of compost is rather dull!

Aubergines, chillis in the propagator almost a week - still no progress.

Wanted to move the outdoor strawberries into the greenhouse by lifting them from the bed as we have got to get a raised bed in behind them and I fugure with clumsy and clumsier doing the job they will be safer off in the greenhouse for a while - might even get some early fruits, but it was just too cold for me so I gave up and came inside to potter instead.

I also want to lift the raspberries (1 year old but not much of a crop last year) for the same reason. I am going to try them in pots for this year while we re-organise the beds.

Hope this cold spell doesn't last long, I was just being lulled into a false sense of 'spring is coming...'

So after missing lots of last week due to the whole family being ill (not sure our healthy lifestyle agrees with us!) I was back out again digging out the new beds this morning.
Inside, my early tomatoes (following moon planting with them for an experiment) have been potted on. I have about 23 plants. Hmmm, and a couple of seeds left to sow next month too. Need a bigger greenhouse maybe? Some of them are looking a bit leggy still despite being potted on deeply.

I have moved some salad leaves (2 types) from the cold frame to the greenhouse as they are looking good (only sowed them a couple of weeks back), 2 out of 4 grafitti caulis have germinated in the cold frame. Still no sign on the onion seeds I sowed just into January. Might bring them indoors for a bit and see if it speeds them up. Nothing yet from the sweet peas or the broadbeans... BUT I am a very impatient person. I normally expect to see shoots appearing the next day or I am disappointed!
Moved the red fuego cabbage from the landing windowsill where it's coldish to the coldframe. They have been put outside most days if it was sunny enough so I think they will be ok.

Tonight I have sowed into the heated propagator: 5 varieties of hot chilli and one of mild chilli (WHY?? I only like them mild! I must be bonkers), 2 types of aubergine (I am told they can be tricky. I had a plant from the garden centre last year and it was fabulous), and 2 types of sweet peppers. Only a couple of seeds of each of the above as it's still coldish and I will run out of windowsill space before they can all go in the greenhouse! And for insurance of course in case they fail miserably...

Nothing like optimism!

The Journey So Far...

We moved to this house Jan 2008. Mainly because I had decided that we absolutely had to have a big garden for growing stuff, keeping chickens and so the children could run around. I had only ever grown a few strawberries, herbs and tomaotoes in pots before.

The garden was a mess, in two parts with half of it overgrown, and some massive evergreens near the house.

We set about clearing some of the trees (all except the apple), and bringing the two parts together.

We made 6 beds, 4 of them raised, which I thought would be all I needed for growing (beds were 8 feet by 3 feet each). I had some veg in the flower beds (courgette, pumpkin, squash and PSB).
We put in more fruit trees as well as a 4 year old cherry we brought with us from the old house.

We got 3 chickens, put them in a homemade 6 feet by 6 feet run, let them weed some of the ground for us, then moved them to a permanent run of about 24 feet by 20 feet. They are much happier in there but sadly the grass is long gone!

We bought a coldframe then a greenhouse.

I had success with most things last year (but don't talk to me about brassicas, I should have listened to the man next door) but have decided we need more growing space, so we are currently working to make 4 raised beds, 11 feet by 5 feet each, plus one smaller one at the side of the greenhouse. I hope this is the only time I will say we need 'bigger'!

Not been able to get out much this year so far as it's been sooo cold - and I have a lot of digging to do to get the new beds ready for planting!