Garden Update

I have had a little potter today, picking the last few veggies from my garden and troughs. I think this year has turned out pretty well considering my late start and I'm feeling much more enthusiastic again. I'm making some plans for what to grow next year in my secret garden and the troughs I have at my mum's. My experimenting over the past few years has paid off and I know what will grow and what not to bother with. I also know that the most important thing is to get the longest growing season possible, not throw some seeds in at the last minute! I think there will be a lot of seeds on top of the kitchen cupboards and in Gaby's bedroom next year - if she lets me!

I still have cucumbers and butternut squash in the garden...

 

...I've never grown butternut squash before so I'm hoping they will ripen but this may be wishful thinking.

I am still getting plenty of chard and I think these are probably the last courgettes. They are teeny!

We are going to eat these with our roast dinner tonight :)

 

Garden Ramblings ~ Sophie

This year seems to be rushing by and what with illness and weather I had just not got myself together with the plans I had for the garden.  I didn't start any tomatoes, shock horror!  I am a bit fed up about this as I have been experimenting for a couple of years with the best way to grow them in our little, quite shady, garden.  Last year, I sowed the seeds very early, transferred them to raised beds under tunnels and positioned them slightly higher.  This seemed to do the trick - or it could have just been a good year for tomatoes, who knows?!  I may buy some plants this week, but because I've always grown them from seed, it feels like cheating!

After a couple of weeks of better weather, I now have planted,

spinach

peas

courgettes

runner beans

garlic

aubergine

peppers

a raspberry plant (just given to me, will see what happens!)

carrots

swiss chard

kohlrabi

lettuce

onions - 3 have grown lol!

I'm also going to put some french beans in pots in my mum's garden this week.  I've decided I need twice as many of both french and runners as I had last year.

My herbs which I started from seed last year are looking quite good.  These were...

parsley

lemon balm

sage

chives

In the picture below, the darker mint is a chocolate mint plant which was a present and smells wonderful!  I need to sort the other mint plant out as it didn't do much last year and I use it quite a bit.

 I've also got basil and oregano starting up in the 'attic greenhouse' (Gaby's room!).  I will probably keep my basil plants on the kitchen windowsill as I find this works better for me here, more sunshine :)

In other exciting garden news (for me anyway !), I have a flower coming on this Agapanthus plant which I rescued from our boys a few years ago.  After it had been unearthed on several occasions, I popped it in a pot and it's not done much since - until now whoop whoop!!

The weather has been so nice that even Willow has been outdoors, which is quite rare....

I See Sunshine....Sophie

We are having some lovely spring days here at the moment and our garden has started to show some signs of life.  Gaby and I on the other hand are very much resting! Gaby has another cold and I'm still not fully over my little tooth op.  The sun is shining though and the daffodils are out so I'm sharing some pictures and introducing our unique effort to have a garden!

I really enjoy gardening but family circumstances make it quite tricky to grow much.  (You can read about why that is over here on my other blog)!  A few years ago, I decided to do up the tiny bit of courtyard area we have fenced off from our main garden.  Gaby helped a lot with this and we regard it as our 'Secret Garden'!!

It is really shady down there and after 3 years of trial and error, we're getting to know what will grow and what won't!  Last year we had really good results with tomatoes, runner and french beans and courgettes.  We did potatoes in containers which worked well too but I don't think it was cost effective at all so I'm giving them a miss this year.  

We also have some raised beds at my mums house...

....and we are on the allotment waiting list.  Gaby also lets me use her bedroom as a greenhouse :)

We've had to improvise!

Here's what we are enjoying seeing pop up at the moment...

spring containers....

a very early variety of peas we are trying out....

and our roses, the only plants we can keep in our main garden, are coming back nicely after a ruthless pruning....

....with one of our cats, George :)