Showing posts with label my garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label my garden. Show all posts

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Spring!

"Now the warm sun of spring melts the frost all around..."
(From 'the table that ran away to the woods' by Stefan Themerson)


 At least that was the story last week; this week I'm feezing my bits and bobs off and it's snowing again(!)
 Still, there are things happening in the garden: here are some of the photos I've been taking over the last fortnight:


Top row l-r:
Snakes Head Fritillary, Tulip 'Doberman'(?), Senecio Rowleyanus (on my windowsill)
Second row l-r:
Victoria plum blossom, Viburnum, Climbing rose
Bottom row l-r:
Euphorbia Characias, Forsythia, Maple (maybe Acer Pseudoplatanus?)

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Allotment Update

Remember this:?
My allotment, feb '15

Well here it is now:

My allotment, July '15


There's a willow playhouse covered in purple and yellow french beans at the back, parsnips, baby and regular sweetcorn, 2 types of peas, bush and broad beans, courgettes, nasturium, sunflowers, calendula, chamomile, coriander, parsley, stripy chioggia beetroot, borage and black cumin. The white thing in the middle is my 'carrot cage' made of old net curtains, trying to keep the carrot fly off my multicoloured carrots. The ramshackle arches behind it are some pvc pipe I found in a skip, with netting stretched over to protect a motley assortment of cabbage, brussels, purple sprouting broccoli and dinosaur kale (cavolo nero) from the caterpillars. 
And that's just in the top half of the plot!
The rest of the plot is home to strawberries, red orange and yellow raspberries, plums, 'discovery' and 'james grieve' apple trees (not fruiting yet because I only put them in this year), a morello cherry sapling, blue honeysuckle berries, worcesterberries, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, blackberries, japanese wineberries, cucumbers, 4 types of tomato, 3 types of squash, 5 types of potato including purple fleshed ones, rainbow chard, spring onions, elephant garlic, leeks, lettuce, mixed oriental salad leaves, rocket and radish. Oh, and some chervil too.

Try reading that list without taking a breath!

More photos to follow soon, including a scintillating (tittilating even!) glimpse at the no-dig experiment I'm running on the bottom half of the plot. 

Sunday, 29 March 2015

A New Allotment for You Dig? Gardens

Apparently, the allotments that house the plot I've just taken on have been allotments for over 200 years. And mine seems to have 200 years worth of brambles, thistles, couchgrass, nettles and bindweed growing on it. None the less, it's a magical place, expect regular photographic updates as I battle the weeds & get it ready to grow.






From top to bottom:
My gorgeous, if overgrown, 300 sq yards of happiness
Making friends with the allotment creatures
The first plum blossoms of the year
Shed (with possible pot of gold) on next door's plot
View through my shed window.

Hooray for spring!

the latest lot of photos from the garden...






Monday, 29 September 2014

Plant Love: Some Sensational September Smells.

Favorite smells from my garden this month...
Pictured top to bottom:
Rose geranium
Lemon Verbena; smells like lemon sherbert
Corsican mint
Heliotrope; smells like cherry pie.
Sniff them out!


Sunday, 28 September 2014

Yesterday in the garden








Top to bottom:
Iceland poppy (Papaver Nudicale)
Cyclamen seedlings
Regal Pelargonium 'Lord Bute'
Iris Ensata
Boy & pumpkin
Carex 'frosted curls'
Pilotus & watering can.


The view from the back door: Choisya, Cotoneaster, summer flowering Jasmine, yellow roses, Iris Ensata, Sedums, Cyclamen, alpine Viola, Succulents and Iceland Poppies in pots.

Behind the Choisya: Flowering Rush, ferns, Weigela, Primula Denticulata (drumstick primulas), Black Zantedeschia & Corsican Mint. Salvaged chunky terracotta quarry tiles are in the foreground, a contorted hazel that has just been planted should grow across to break up that big expanse of bricks in the next few years.