A Busy Day

A Busy Day 


Well today has certainly been busy.  I started off harvesting all the last tomatoes, chillies  cucumbers and turks head squash in the greenhouse in the greenhouse to get ready for bringing the pot plants inside before the weather got cold. 
 I set to and cleared all the tomato pots out and with a trowel weeded the earth.  Next with a cloth and soapy water and made one side of the green house clean.  Then I turned to see the cluttered mess and weeds and dirty windows under the staging on the other side and the realisation dawned that I really did have to clear out that side as well.

Having decided to take the plunge I removed all the plants off and put them on the newly cleared space.  The only trouble is moving a full length block of staging is tricky.  Luckily I had the bright idea of pushing an end out of the door so I could get round the other end.


Once all the plants had been placed back on the staging I then had to clear the accumulated mess on the other side.  SPIDERS!!!! Huge great big black one came creeping out from every crevis.  I think they must like the warmth or something because they were the biggest spiders I have ever seen.  Being VERY brave I got rid of them using long sticks.  They really didn't want to leave and refused to let go despite a lot of tapping!

Once this side was also cleared, weeded and cleaned at last the time had come to bring in all the  tender plants before the frosts that are due any day now.  I finished just as it was getting the sun was setting.

The last thing to do was to plant out a block of lettuces in the planter that had held my cucumbers  enriched with a top dressing of compost ready for a few weeks of salad in the short days of winter.  It was a day well spent and long over due.  

On the way back to the house I even managed to find some ripe strawberries and a few raspberries to enjoy helped to ripeness by the hot sun just a couple of weeks ago!

Help I cant get into my greenhouse!

The triffids are filling my greenhouse doorway!

The chard is growing very well and tastes wonderful in loads of dishes.  The mange-toot is the 2nd batch and has given us loads of  really crunchy pods.  The sweetcorn is less successful, It may end up in a stir-fry! And lettuce was over picked too young but hay ho it tasted nice.

We have had SO much parsley out of this pot.  It's one plant I can grow well.

The kale has replaced the garlic and onions and the leeks are beginning to fatten for the new year.

This is the first time I have grown horseradish.  Going by the leaves there should be a nice root later in the year.

Chillis and oregano growing

This is a turks head squash plant i grew from a squash I got in an organic veg box

SO many tomatoes this year.  I have a kitchen full and still they grow.  They obviously like being crammed in together and not fed much.  Must do this again next year!

Way back on 9th July!

I should have posted these a month ago but I forgot! better late than never

My hanging baskets in full flower

Leeks in,  Onions thinking about fattening

Sweetcorn crowing

Garlic nearly ready to harvest

Bramley apples fattening nicely

Tomatoes growing well

First early potatoes ready to harvest

Main crop potatoes growing like mad!

Back from a festival and when the rain stops WEEDS!

My beautiful basket to brighten my garden shed.

Over last weekend we were at Sunrise Celebration so the garden wasn't tended.  It has been raining for a few days now and after it had stopped this morning I wandered down to the veg patch and was amazed how many weeds had shot up at the slightest drop of rain.  As you can see there are thousands!

My onion patch is full of weeds as are my broad beans and mangetout and  chard :(

some where under that lot of chick weed is coriander

Having spent all afternoon in there I have found my veggies and managed to plant some more.

Weed free onions

I found my coriander and planted out my french beans (boston)

Weeded.  Sweet corn planted and more mange tout and cauliflowers and more french beans

My cucumber plants are on their way up and already have several baby cucumbers on them.  No E-coli for me!

First tomato flower and much planting

My tomato plants have their first flowers - I LOVE tomatoes thats why I have a double row in the green house and loads more to plant out side.  I have spent the afternoon potting the tomatoes into their final pots.  I also sowed some Turks head squash, courgettes and more french beans

The first tomato flower

Some of my tomato plants

Way back on 12 May

When I took these photos there was a problem getting on blogger so here they are now.

My garden had gone past the spring flowers of daffodils and forget me nots and the more magestic flowers have opened. 

My Clematis - wonderful flowers

A beautifully coloured poppy  - I may have to paint this one!

An Iris.  I had left this plant in a pot for far too long.  When I eventually planted it out in the garden this is the beautiful flower I received.

 Further down the garden in the veg patch I managed to plant out my cucumber plants.  This year I'm only growing 2 as last year I grew 4 and took a whole carrier bag of cucumbers to the Off Grid Festival with me!  The cafe was very pleased with the donation but I think 2 plants will suffice!  I have filled the bag with compost from the compost heap and a well of bought compost around each plant.  It wont be long before they are off!!

Cucumber plants revving up to produce loads of baby cucumbers

 Here are my tomatoes awaiting planting out into their final places.  I must find time to do that very soon.

My first early potatoes are really enjoying the sunny weather.  I shall top up the soil in the pots soon so I will have more lovely potatoes.

These are the main crop potatoes and salad blue potatoes I planted in my flower bed where I had loads of ground elder.  I thought I may as well grow a crop as I will only have to re dig it in the autumn to get rid of more ground elder!

My garden has lots of organic matter in it so it is coping quite well with the lack of rain but everything could still really do with a good soaking.

A descending moon leaf day

Royal wedding today. 

Today I harvested my first coriander - it smalls wonderful!  I have also sown multicoloured Swiss chard, more coriander, Pak choi and planted my Asparagus - Gijnlim F1 in the flower bed so that it will look good as a background fluffy plant by the fence.  In 2 years time I will be harvesting tips mmmmm

I potted up 44 acers into separate pots - here are 30 of them.  I had to go on a pot hunt for more pots but managed to find some :)

I dont have room for many of them but I shall give/sell the spare ones.  I love acers.  They are SO beautiful.

Libra Full moon a Flower day

 I got back in the garden again today!  Things have been busy growing so much behind my back!


I have managed to get the broad beans and mange tout planted out as they were over taking my cold frame.  As you can see the beets and spinach from last year are giving us several leaves for salad and stir fry until this years are up and away.

 These are the acer seeds the "fell" in my pocket from gardens and arboretums I visited in the autumn!!  They are all coming up fast.  I think I will need a field to plant them in.  I already have 10 acers in my garden.... surely there is room for more!

 The Blueberries are all in flower and the leaves are a beautiful lime green.  The poor plant on the right is a bit slow bit with some TLC lets hope it will catch up. It has the most flowers on it for sure.


The strawberries and raspberries are filling their space and the strawberries are coming into flower.

 The bramley apple tree has loads of flowers on it this year and the bees are very busy visiting each flower so lets hope for a bumper crop this year.


Below the apple tree are the first early potatoes in pots that I planted out last week.

 These are some wonderful tulips that I found in the Hilliers magazine last autumn.  They said they are resilient and beautiful.  They certainly are.

As always at this time of year my weeds are a riot of colour.  They are so beautiful - how can anyone call them weeds?

Woo Hoo Space in my kitchen a root day

At last a warm root day with the moon in Taurus. Time to plant the potatoes which have been clogging up my kitchen since the end of January!!

I have planted the main crop ones in the flower bed by the pond where all the ground ivy was as I will have to dig it over and over to get rid of the roots hiding in the ground so what better thing to plant than something that needs digging up anyway!

Today I have also weeded the veg garden beds again as soon it will be time to plant out all the veg I have growing in the green house.

One little weed I left - a violet growing path side of the bedding edges - so beautiful

Salad days are here!

Today is really warm and sunny in the garden reaching 23C, the hottest day of the year!  I picked myself a wonderful garden salad with baby salad leaves, radish thinning leaves coriander leaves, English mace, parsley, baby beet leaves from last years beetroots, chickweed, ground elder, mint and lemon basil.

Today is a fruit sowing day so I sowed mangetout, cauliflower, french beans and aubergine.My garden is growing like mad and lots of things are about to flower.  This is the red currant that I planted this year.  It has grown like mad helped by the big sack of oak leaf mould I had left there until it rotted!

The Black currant has also burst into bloom.  Last year I put a net round the bush and managed to get lots of meals off the one plant, sorry birds :(

The lettuce is growing well under the cloche

My strawberries are coming into bud and the raspberries that I planted between them are growing well.


The blueberries are all potted up in ericeous soil and there are yet more lettuces under cloches.

The garlic are growing well having been protected from the birds when first planted

I have managed to get several meals from the spinach and beetroot I didn't harvest Last year as they burst into growth again this year.  As the other veg comes into use I will compost these and use the ground for something else but until then they are very useful.

 The greenhouse is getting pretty full at the moment as the veg has been potted up.  The tomatoes are doing really well this year - moon planting is working wonders!

Here are carrots, last years parsley, new parsley for this year, salad leaves and chickweed for salad

 Look what happens when you leave the weeds to grow - beautiful forget me nots

......and a dandelion too!