Gardens

I gave myself the day off today, partly because I needed a break (there's only so much fluff you can inhale in a week before you start to get high on the fibre fumes!), and partly because we needed to go food shopping.
Our nearest supermarket is 35 minutes drive away so we try not to go too often. We also call in the butchers in town. He wins lots of awards for his meat, and the service is fantastic, they always give us a bag of bones for the dogs too.
We also called in at the garden centre, the garden was a wilderness when we bough the house, and while there are some hidden gems, the brambles and nettles had taken over. Apparently our house used to be famous for the rhubarb it produced, and we did find a few very sorry looking plants hiding in the undergrowth, we're slowly nursing it back to health, but these things take time, as does filling 3/4 of an acre. We keep going back to the garden centre, and car boot full at a time it's filling out.

This was when we moved in, you can't see the giant conifer tree just out of shot, but a sense of the undergrowth is there just above the house. The drive was also a grassy, muddy mess, it took 18 tonnes of slate chippings to solve that problem!



Eighteen months later and the shrubs are becoming under control and the giant tree is gone.



Some of the few surviving plants were roses that were positively thriving despite years of neglect, after a good prune, they're growing really well.



This winter we dug a pond, the garden is full of springs, and has loads of land drains hidden away so we designed it to be filled with spring water, and have a natural overflow in to the other end of the land drain. The constant flow of water keeps the pond really clear, and the wildlife seem to love it.


In this picture you can see the gaps though, and gaps mean the weeds just keep growing, so the gaps have to go.
I think it will take a few more car loads though!

In flight

Last week when Mum and I went to Powis Castle we spent ages walking round the gardens. The gardens themselves are on a steep slope with terraces and beautiful flower beds that lead down in to some more formal gardens, with lots of yes hedges, and apple trees planted in avenues.
Whilst we were admiring the flowers we spotted a bee going from flower to flower who was laden with pollen. This is where I'm very grateful I have my new camera because I actually managed to snap a shot of him.



It's really encouraging to see bees about, they're not doing very well right now because of the cold winters,wet summers, illnesses and other reasons we don't entirely know about. Gardens are really important for bees because they provide flowers with lots of the nectar that they need!

Mary, Mary how does your garden grow?

Well not quite with silver bells and cockle shells but certainly it's growing at a great rate of knots.
While I was away riding the weather was sunny and warm and this last week it's rained a bit and the plants have gone crazy! Some of them a bit too crazy as some of the salad leaves have started flowering!

My tomatoes are flowering like crazy, and even the pepper which has clung to life for the last month has put on an inch. The courgettes are starting to show signs of flowering and I had my first mange tout for lunch on Friday. To think, this time last year I hadn't even moved in yet so nothing was growing!

Summer is over

The only tomato of summer. I'm back at work and the rain is falling, I love it as I have no objections to being indoors. My tomato plants on the other hand are disapproving. There are very small green tomatoes on them but the plants themselves are dying.... Luckily the tomato tasted delicious, delicious to make me try again next year!

Homegrown

Does life get much better than this?


Homegrown lettuce, rocket, land cress and radishes. It looks wonderful it tasted even better. Now to get a few more things planted to keep me supplied for the summer.

Everything in the garden was lovely...

Good job too. I am stuck at home as a suspected swine flu case. Three days off sounds wonderful, but not if you're confined to the house with nothing to do. That's a slight lie, I've been busy knitting and spinning, and have even pulled the sewing machine out. I have done my year end Rainbow accounts and sorted out changing lots of addresses, however I am now ready to be allowed contact with other living beings again! I am still waiting for test results to come back, hopefully they will arrive today...

Meantime here's the garden-
Mum gave me a courgette she had potted up and it's positively thriving, as are the lettuces, radishes, rocket and cress. The nice man across the road also gave me a couple of spare tomato plants. They need potting up in bigger pots as they're very leggy but I need more compost, and need to be allowed out to get it!
At the bottom is a peg bag that I made yesterday, it's rough and ready but will do the job perfectly well.

A garden

I foresee a new trend with my posting. Because I have a new flat I can now have a garden. My chosen spot is accessible by climbing out of the bathroom window on to the flat roof over the bay window on the flat below.


Some bonuses are that it's a sun trap, there are no slugs, and the walls on 2 sides and felt on the floor means it's really warm. I planted all these lovelies on Sunday, most have already germinated, how awesome is that!
On the negative side you do get odd looks from the beer garden of the social club when you crawl out of the window!

We have radishes, cut and come again lettuce, land cress (supposedly like water cress), radishes and rocket.