Friday 13 May 2016

Bloomin' marvellous

We've had a week of summer and now everything's looking stunning. Blossom everywhere, all the leaves out, bluebell carpets in the woods.

Apple blossom

Cherry blossom

Pink apple blossom

Pear blossom
Looks like we might have some fruit this summer!

Blueberries forming
 Other flowers are also appearing.

One of Sally's perennial donations - identification, please
These are doing well on the heather slope - again, identification, please
One of my highlights this week was discovering that six asparagus seedlings had survived the winter. They've all got individual windbreaks now.

Hello asparagus, welcome back
It seems a bad year for slugs and snails (bad for us, good for them, that is) and the battle has commenced. We are trialling pots with copper bands to protect brassica and lettuce seedlings - they make a handy windbreak for smaller seedlings, too.

Spring cabbage with slug defence
The conservatory has been given over to the Native American plants - sweetcorn, squashes, beans, sunflowers - as well as cucumbers, chillies, peppers and okra.

Sweetcorn

Squashes

Crystal lemon cucumber

After having been warned about the growth rate of the achocha, I managed to kill one of them. Overwatering? Too much Scottish heat?

Dying achocha

The geraniums have moved outside again and we've been having most of our meals out by the triangle, too.

Stone slabs as coffee tables
The animals have been having a great time in the sun. The incubator is running for more chicks and now one of the hens has decided she is broody - great timing!

Resting in the sun

Poppy snoozing al fresco


Thursday 5 May 2016

String game


The first beech leaves
The first beech leaves have unfurled and everything's starting to grow in the garden. On the weekend, temperatures are forecast to reach 20C, but we believe it when we see it.

This year, we've decided to string up our tomatoes rather than stake them with bamboo canes. Jim lovingly cut and dipped 41 lengths of coir rope in wax, before tying a slip knot with a stopper in one end, slipping it over the tomato plants and then tying off the other end with a clove hitch. Those sailing knots come in handy on land, too!

Clove hitches in the garden
Strung up tomatoes
Work in progress in the polytunnel
The greenhouse has had a major reorganisation and has been filled to capacity, but still looks tidy.  It houses 10 tomatoes, 4 achochas, 12 tomatillos (awaiting planting out in mid-June), 4 chillies and 8 peppers and the extra brassica seedlings in case the first ones get chomped by slugs.

Nicely spaced-out greenhouse
The conservatory is much less crowded and much tidier this year because of the extra polytunnel space and because I've decided to sow the courgettes, squashes and sweetcorn in early May rather than mid-April, as before. I think this works better here - last year I got stuck with enormous plants when the weather didn't warm up properly until July.

Tidy conservatory
Chilli-ringed sofa
The conservatory is reserved for cucumbers (crystal lemon), chillies, okra and melons this year.

Okra seedling
Watermelon seedling
Outside, I've just planted out lettuces, peas and mangetout. The peas are in a high-security netted tract to keep out the blackbirds. Please help yourself to layers' pellets, blackbirds, and leave those tender peas alone.

Pea wigwams with nets
The Jerusalem artichokes, early potatoes and onions are already poking out and the bumblebees are enjoying the broad bean and kale flowers.

Shallots

The earlies
Broad bean with bumblebee
In the top corner of the garden, we've tidied up the raspberry and mint beds, removing all traces of the former playground, and dug over a new area that is going to be a herb garden. To be planted this week - watch this space!

The new herb bed to be
Tidied-up raspberry enclosure
The mint bed is getting going