A Quiet Bank Holiday

It's been a quiet few days here - mainly because I have almost totally lost my voice so am unable to speak!  However, the weather has been lovely so I've managed to get a lot done in the garden, which I think is looking rather lovely.

On the first patio rosa Fighting Temeraire is flowering and has clematis Ville De Lyon scrambling through it.

The oriental poppies are also in flower - this is Patty's Plum.

Going further down the garden there are more Patty's Plum in bloom,

alongside rosa Felicia.

The potato vine is flowering its little socks off

and there are more oriental poppies too - this one is Ruffled Patty.

But it's not all been about flowers, I've managed to plant most of the veggies out too.  On the this side the runner beans, broad beans and courgettes are planted with an edging nasturtiums and calendula so I can have some edible flowers in salad.

I finally planted the tomatoes out in the greenhouse too.

It's that time of year when everything looks lush, even the self sown 'weeds' amongst the paving!

So even though I have no voice, I've had a lovely few days :-)

Treasures From the Loft

Yesterday I was at Mum and Dad's in north Norfolk to help them start sorting out the loft.  It'd got into quite a state as Mum hadn't been able to get up and down the ladder to it but now that she's the owner of a new hip she wanted to start tackling it.

We did quite well, with a bag of stuff going to the tip and 3 bags ready to go to the charity shop, oh and I came home with a car boot looking like this!

Amongst cushions, bedding, and old jars I also brought home some boxes of treasure:

playing cards with this delightful lady her elegant cigarette holder,

old christmas decorations, mainly old glass baubles but also the Father Christmas model and paper fairy that, as a child, I used to get so excited about when they reappeared from the box,

a clay chess piece (about 10 inches high) that I made during my PGCE,

and all these other ornaments, some of which I remember and some of which I don't.

And loads of old photos, including this one of my mum as a bridesmaid that I don't ever recall seeing before - shame she doesn't have the dress and jacket anymore as they look amazing!

When I eventually got home I also found treasure in the greenhouse

the first of the tomatoes :-)

I am sure there are more treasures waiting for me in the loft - I'll be back there in a fortnight to continue the mission!

And Breathe....

I'm enjoying having a little more time to sit in the garden this week, the weather is still glorious and fortunately a little less humid today, and it's nice to be able to sit in peace (before the builders start next door) and look at the flowers.

There's quite a lot of purple and pinks: self sown viola, Eryngium, Hibiscus, Verbena Bonariensis

And quite a lot of orange: Rose Fighting Temeraire, Rose Lady Emma Hamilton, self sown viola, Dahlia Walzing Mathilda, Hemerocallis (name forgotten!).

There's a self sown Salvia growing out of the patio,

and Echniops, Shasta Daisies, self sown Hollyhocks and Echinacea White Swan, all growing happily together.

There's veg growing well too, except I might not have properly thought the bean support through when I made it out of very long hazel sticks as I can't actually reach the top and will soon need the step ladder to pick the beans!

Lunar Planting - Truth or Tosh?

As some of you may know, this year I've tried the 'planting by the moon' method for my veg garden. I've always been fascinated by the old folklores of gardening as I'm sure that our ancestors were much more in tune with the rhythms and logic of the natural world than we, in our digital modern age, are. I have to admit I've tried it once before, when I had my allotment, but the logistics of following it whilst trying to work and travel to the allotment were just too difficult.

First of all I bought myself this calendar that was recommended to me on twitter.  This was invaluable and was really easy to follow.  

I sowed all my veg seeds according to whether they were fruit, leaf, root or flowers on the appropriate days.  It was a bit phaffy at times as I couldn't just sow everything on a Sunday afternoon like I wanted to, so what I did was make a note on my phone reminder app when I could next sow things. 

I didn't go as far as digging and transplanting according to the moon calendar too although I did make sure I transplanted within the northern hemisphere weeks.

If you're still with me, and haven't decided that I've lost the plot, you'll be wanting to know if it worked.

Yes is the answer!  I have never had such healthy and productive plants.  The beans set better than they usually do, I started cropping them on 17th July and they are still going.  

Also there's no sign of disease on the leaves which I've had in previous years and I've been harvesting this amount of beans practically daily!

The courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes have all cropped well and stayed very healthy too - this was today's haul.

Interestingly the two tomato plants given to me by a friend have cropped less heavily than the ones that I grew from seed by the lunar calendar, but of course this might be due to the different varieties rather than anything to do with the moon!

Although this isn’t a like for like comparison (as one was in open ground and one in a container), this is some salad that I sowed by mistake on the wrong moon calendar day 

and this was sown on the correct day but a week later. 

Both pictures were taken on the same day and you can see that the later one has not only caught up, it's over taken and remained healthy despite almost being drowned in the monsoons we had which meant it sat under an inch of water for a while!  

Do I understand how or why it works?  Basically it's to do with the water levels in the soil and the moon’s pull on the tides, but beyond that I don't really understand it. 

Interesting there was a discussion about it on Gardeners’ Question Time last week - (scroll to 14.08) and they seem to have had initial success with this method too, although the full results won’t be known for a few more weeks. 

Would I do it again?  Yes definitely. It is a bit restricting at times, but it made me more organised and was do-able because I was gardening at home and not on an allotment a few miles away.

Anyone like a borlotti bean - I have quite a few!

A Meander Down the Garden

My garden is very long and very narrow but it is not as it would first seem; it is full of twists and turns, of dark and light, of colour and texture.  Come with me on a journey, a journey from one end of my garden to the other and you'll see what I mean.

Our journey starts with roses (as you might expect). Around the first sitting area are roses planted by me

Rosa The Generous Gardener

and a rose planted over 20 years ago, with tiny and delicate sprays of flowers.

Rosa Dorothy Perkins

Clematis also abound, again some planted by me and some planted by previous owners.

Clematis Venosa Violacea and Clematis Betty Corning

It's a nice area to sit, to eat, to think.

But that's not all, it might look as though the garden ends here, but it doesn't.  There's a little gap in the 'hedge' under the naturally formed rose arch, can you see it?

Come with me and explore further.

The path winds round and there's a change of feel now. It's darker and shadier now and the shrubs reach skywards trying to find light. The Deutzia and Cornus meet overhead as though they're holding hands above the path.

The verbascum

and newly planted silene fimbriata are thriving here in the shade.

Silene Fimbriata

Another twist, another turn and the path goes through the semi shade under the snake bark maple where more roses, delphiniums and grasses are flowering.

It opens up here, you can stop here for a sit by the pond if you wish (you'll just have to ignore weeds in the patio!).  There's sun or shade here depending on the time of day.  There are more clematis, roses and lilies.

There's a frog wearing a water forget-me-not flower over there!

Another arch of roses and we're through to the veg garden where roses and foxgloves grow through the runner beans and squash.

We're nearly at the end - welcome to my favourite bench under the paper bark cherry.

Prunus Serrula

If you sit quietly no-one knows you're here.

I hope you've enjoyed your meander down my garden, but before you go just sit for a while and smell the roses.

Rosa Chinensis Mutabilis

First of the Harvest!

Today I ate my first homegrown pea of the season.  It was a mangetout, Shiraz.

It's been flowering for a while, then the first tiny pods appeared and today one was ready to pick, ready to eat - so I did!  And it was quite delicious too.

I don't have a large veg plot but I manage to grow quite a lot. This year, as well as planting by the moon (more about that another time), I also tried the 'square foot' gardening method for planting.  It sort of works in that it made me more ordered, but I don't like trying to weed between veg planted very closely together.

However everything is looking very healthy, the courgettes have flowers and baby courgettes,

the tomato jungle is growing rapidly (and does actually have flowers although I can't see them in the photo!)

and the beans (runner, borlotti and climbing french - fosse violetta) are all growing cheek by jowl with a red climbing rose and foxgloves,

the runner beans even have flowers.

The frogs are doing a good job of keeping the slugs down, although I have just spied a snail amongst the beetroot.

I've been cropping salad leaves for several weeks and have discovered that self sown rocket is incredibly fiery.

Now that I've had my first tastes of salad and pea I'm looking forward to many, many more harvests this year.