Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

What a strange spring we have been experiencing this year. Apparently, we have just gone through the warmest May and spring since records began in 1884 provisional Met Office figures show; the figures especially influenced by high overnight temperatures over recent weeks compared to the norm. It was also the wettest spring since 1986 and the sixth wettest on record with some areas in the South receiving over a third more rain than would be expected.  My garden is certainly in a different condition from what I would expect for this time of year, a number of plants flowering later, but there has been some success stories, nonetheless. The native Foxgloves have been particularly beautiful and stood up well to the wind and rain; I had one at nearly seven-feet tall. The climbing rose on the other hand, that is usually covered in blooms from late May through June, is noticeably less floriferous this year following the battering's that took through the winter winds and unpredictable sprin

Tis the season to be jolly and all that , and tis also the season to begin planning for the garden in 2024. I have been thumbing through the seed catalogues, a pastime almost as dangerous as Christmas shopping . I always s eem to find something that I had never heard of , but now knowing of its existence , simply now must have! Rarely does a year pass that I am not growing a vegetable or flower completely new to me; for me it is one of the great pleasures of gardening, there is always something new to grow.    I have been busy clearing the ve g beds removing the remnants of the Butternut Squash plants and Runner Beans to be composted and digging out the inevitable Dandelions , trying to get the entire tap root out as I do so. I will be adding quite a bit of compost and manure to the beds over the winter so having cleared and slightly dug over the bed where I grew outdoor Tomatoes this year, I have placed tarpaulin over this bed for now to keep weed seeds out . I will add the

Firstly, as we were rain free in my neck of the woods at the weekend, the  Lillum Casa Blanca  bulbs are in. I have placed one in front of the two bulbs that were already in-situ forming a nice little triangle of lilies with two new bulbs planted either side around a foot apart which will hopefully produce a lovely backdrop to the border come summer.  As mentioned in the original post a few days age I have been thinking of other plants to add and have ordered six C hrysanthemum Silver Princess bare roots which are  clump-forming herbaceous perennials that have single daisy like flowers that should bloom from early summer through autumn. I have also ordered a packet of  Chrysanthemum Polar Star seeds, completely new to me, they are an annual with  tricolour daisy flowers described as a  white bloom with an intriguing inner yellow halo surrounding a central darker cushion. The picture I have seen they look great and will sort the White Border perfectly.  As it was a nice sunny if chilly

Wildlife Friendly Gardening is a very popular search term on the internet these days and actually quite trendy; plenty of column inches have been printed in magazines and newspapers on the subject as well.  I have always tried to garden with wildlife in mind, I suppose it goes back to tricks my old Grandad and Dad both taught me down the years. People talk about Companion Planting and Plants for Pollinators as if it is a recent discovery but I can remember my Grandad using these tricks back in the seventies when I was no more than knee high to him and I am sure he had been doing the same things for years before that.  Wildlife friendly Pest Control is an issue that can cause confusion - how do you get rid of the pests you don't want whilst attracting the insects, birds and mammals you do? Down the years there have been a few weird and wonderful practices undertaken by gardeners. As a child, perhaps no more than five or six-years-old, I remember watching my Grandad sprinkling salt a

The vegetable patch is beginning to look a little sorry for itself now in November. The Green Manure mix sowed a few weeks ago has really shot up, I possibly sowed a little to thickly, but it will do no harm and does at least add some foliage to the plot at this time year and is of course doing a very important job. I mentioned in a previous post how Green manures stop weeds spreading and prevent nutrients leaching from the soil over winter. With the amount of rainfall we have had at times in October I am very pleased I sowed the mix! The plants will be cut down and lightly dug into the soil come spring.  The Runner Bean plants are pretty much done for with the last having been picked at the weekend. They have been brilliant this year, I have bags and bags of them frozen to get me through the winter. I will leave the plants for a week or two as they die down to let the leaves fall off; makes it much easier unravelling them from their supports. All the remains will naturally be composte

I have been pretty useless updating the blog recently, my apologies for that. I have though been busy on the plot with plenty going on.  What a crazy year so far with the weather. We've had late frosts, baking sunshine and temperatures in the thirties, torrential downpours and near gale force winds at times all in the space of a few days! The mid-month heatwave meant the UK had its fifth warmest July on record but we'd also had the wettest May as I understand it and June was simply all over the show!  It has certainly kept me busy and meant some harvests are going incredibly well whilst others are struggling.  I have a Parsnip that has gone to seed, honestly the first time I have ever seen that in August and the Sonesta Dwarf French Beans (yellow) have been a disappointment thus far with lots of misshapen beans and the slugs have had a real go at some of the plants. There is hope though with some nice looking beans coming through now. The  Amethyst Dwarf French Beans  (purple

Firstly, sorry for the title but I do love a poor pun.  I managed to get a few hours in on the plot Saturday morning in the lovely sunshine which is always a bonus. I was down to my vest and shorts at one point, nice for me, not so nice fof the neighbours!  The Runner Bean seedlings have been planted out into the bed, some were significantly bigger than I had thought, and all look well and healthy as I write on Monday. They were given a real good soaking and I will continue to keep them well watered throughout spring and summer as they are thirsty plants.  The  Sonesta Dwarf French Bean  (yellow) seedlings have moved from the conservatory to the greenhouse as part of their hardening off programme and all seems well with them. The  Amethyst Dwarf French Beans  (purple) sowed direct into the bed have clearly failed - it was pretty ambitious on my part sowing them in March - and I have sowed a number into pots now which have taken the place of the Sonesta seedlings in the conservatory.  O

Sorry for the delay in this post, it has just been a bit manic down at mine one way or another and finding a few moments to sit down and compose some content has proved mission impossible. The good news is, the British weather being as it is, you haven't missed that much!  The best of the Tomato plant seedlings have been selected and planted out into the beds of the Greenhouse this week. So far so good as they say and they appear happy in their permanent home. I have a number of seedlings left over which will be grown on in their pots for now in case disaster strikes in the Greenhouse; I have a couple of friends and work colleagues who already have their name on a few and the spares will eventually be distributed appropriately. Sharing any spare plants remains a greats way to stay popular 😃 The Runner Bean seedlings were moved into the wood store to harden off around 10 days ago and shall be planted out into the bean bed this weekend with the forecast being warm and sunny for my

True to form it was certainly chilly for the Bank Holiday weekend but the worst of the weather never reached me down in the south-east and I was able to get a few things done out on the plot.  I have planted out three rows of the Leek seedlings into the raised bed to be used for veg this year. As I am trying to stay off the soil as much as possible a scaffold plank is laid across the bed which I crawl along slowly and surely. Whilst balancing on my board I quite simply poke a hole every six inches with a piece of bamboo cane, marked at six inch depth so each hole is roughly the same depth and width apart, and drop the seedling into that hole, very gently working the soil back in around the seedling. I do this for the entire row before then watering in well to settle the soil. It is a somewhat time consuming job but once you are focused in on it it is a pleasant little task and the rows look like a proper veg patch all the seedlings in a line straight as a die. I have talked of the Runn

 The Runner Bean and Tomato seedlings are growing on strongly in the conservatory, pretty much every seed having germinated. I do have two beans that appear to have failed but I will give them a day or two yet to pop their heads up or the contents of those pots will be consigned to the compost heap.  I will be preparing the greenhouse at the weekend, washing down the glass and a bit of general weeding of the beds, it's surprising how weed seeds seem to get into anywhere, plus I will be adding some blood fish and bone to the soil. It's a job I actually quite enjoy and all being well with the forecast weather being fine it should be a lovely hour or so under the glass getting some warmth into my old bones as well as the soil. There is something about working in the greenhouse in spring with the sun shining that just makes you feel better. Apologies in advance to my neighbours for the singing along to the radio.  I will be keeping an eye on the weather forecast and providing the n