Carried on tidying beds in garden plot, potted up some pansies, blackberry, gooseberry and redcurrant into nursery bed.

Plant Sortout

Still trying to get ahead with jobs before the big rush in spring. The garden plot beds needed sorting out. Some plants needed moving either to make space or spread them out. I tend to plant too close together at times. Some of the grasses have spread out so they needed digging up. The space where the greenhouse was needs filling in with soil. So far i have filled it with turf cut from extending and tidying the edges of the beds.

Saturday. Cold but sunny. The ground was too hard to dig so i tidied one of the beds and hedges in the garden plot.

Ordered potatoes for this year. Belle de Fontenay, Juliette and Vivaldi.

Before and after on the south facing bed

Garden Plot August

Just a few views of the garden plot. Plenty of work to do but its nice just to relax and unwind and let nature take care of itself. Most borders need extending a little to accomodate the growth of the plant

A quick view around the garden plot just to record how things are doing

I think some of the beds need extending out to accomodate the growth. I tend to plant too close and they soon outgrow their space and encroach on other plants. The grasses especially need thinning out.

Clematis 'Markham Pink' . Despite many seeds sow only one germinated but i am very pleased with its growth so far. This is an early variety with profuse pink flowers. I'm not sure what the variety is in front of the green house but this always puts on a spectacular display each year. The bottom photo is of the grapevine inside the green house. This does well also with small sweet black grapes.

Garden Plot in June

These are a series of photo's taken over the first weekend in June. So far this month it has been very hot which means lots of watering. Some beds are quite shady so they dont need to much watering but the south and west facing beds are drying up and the newer plants need watering well to allow them to establish.

As the spring plants begin to lose their flowers its time to tidy them up and put the flowers on the compost heap. Now it leaves gaps which can be filled in with annuals and repositioning with perennials. The big house and the kids house have now been painted which will keep them lasting longer and looking better. The 'toilet' was in a small shed but has now been moved to a my bigger tool shed! When the weather is nice there is no better place to be with my family. Now that most of the jobs are done their is a little more time to relax. But i cant resist just tweaking here and there when i see something that needs either staking, pulling or replanting. I guess its the nature of gardening.

The grass is growing well and is a good place for the kids to play and for the adults to sunbath. I am always tempted to make the beds bigger as i keep growing too many plants each year and need somewhere to go!

My favourite part at the moment is the newest part next to the pond under the pear and buddleja trees. I have tried to make the ground good for shade and moisture loving plants and so far they are doing well. There are hostas, hucheras and a gunnera.

Dad's little helpers. Matthieu and Elisabeth have sowed their first seeds of the seasin in a couple of raised beds i made for them. Here they are sowing peas mange toute as well as some carrots parmex and radish french breakfast In a couple of weeks they can some some more to keep them going. We only received some of the bbc 'dig-in' packets of seed through the post. They have carrot early nantes, butternut squash hunter, lettuce lollo rosso, tomato gardeners delight and beetroot boltardy. What the kids dont use i can!

These next three are from the garden plot. Alchemillia, Geranium and Eurphobia. Followed by poppies and aqualegia. Finally azalea and apple tree in full bloom

Garden Plot in April

These photo's are from the garden plot, they give an idea af what is growing where

Busy Bank Holiday

The forecast for easter and bank holiday weekend was supposed to be quite poor but was really pleasant and sunny. Earlier in the week on Thursday i did a couple of hours for Margaret and planted up some of her snowdrops at home and in the allotment. Saturday morning was blue skies and sunshine so was able to get quiote a bit done on both plots. Made a new raised bed from some pallet wood next to the shed for salad crops because it does get a little shade from the shed and conifer. The salad potatoes that were planted under the polythene have broken through the surface of the soil so the polythene has been removed and i will just have to be careful of any frost and cover the shoots with fleece. The other potato beds show no sign of growth so the polythene warming up the soil seems to have worked.

New raised bed ready for sowing

Homemade soil improver

Matthieu, Millie and Ziggy come to visit

Sunday was a busy day so i didn't spend too long working on the allotments. Topped up the soil in the potato bags which can go outside now the weather is much better. Planted 3 jersey royal s into tyres and moved the flower seedlings and plants to the garden allotment greenhouse. We all had tea together in the evening with a small bbq and a fire to keep us warm until i went dark.


Bank Holiday Monday was a perfect day. Blue skies, sunshine and a little warmer than the past couple of days. Spent all day up the allotments with Sarah and the kids comming up at dinnertime with some food for a hungry worker. Started the day off by digging an overflow pipe for the pond which had overfilled and was not draining away. Saw a couple of small frogs in the pond which is good news. Moved the golden rod and gunnera into better places and finished digging over extended border. Had a look at the Heys allotment site which is having improvements to drainage and tidying up existing plots and creating new ones to meet demand. It was good to relax a little in the sun with most of the bigger jobs out of the way. Next year will be so much easier and i can consentrate on growing fuit and veg.

Little frog in the pond

Butterfly

Butterfly. Think this is a brown tortoieshell

Looking good. Everthing doing quite well.

Strawberries and vegetables well protected from birds, cats and children

Delphiniums and Astilbe make up the colour with budleja in the background

Flowers

This is a selection of flowers from the garden

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