Another Gardening Confession time - It's So Embarassing ...

What have I achieved in the garden?

Here we are, 2nd July,
And I cannot tell you a lie
I haven't sown any seeds at all
Have I hit the gardening 'wall'?

Okay, enough of the dreadful poetry, but it's true, it's 2 months since my last post, and I don't feel much further on than I was then.

But I suppose I have done some things... the weather has been absolutely dreadful, which hasn't helped matters, but I know my heart hasn't been in it so far this year :-(

So what have I done?

My kind neighbour gave me a stack of seedlings, flowers and vegetables, and I've planted most of these out in the garden (please don't mention the lottie :o! ). So I have now got some sweet peas and french beans flowering.

A little bonus I discovered yesterday, is that an unpicked Achocha fruit, from last years plants, has seeded itself into the raised bed, so I've got at least three plants appeared, and they look nice and healthy.

Flowers

The summer bulbs I planted in the 'woodland' garden are starting to pop up and look super, especially the lillies and anemonies. It would be lovely if I had some looking good for the Summer Show.

MiL is moving house this week (sad, but very sensible), and I managed to dig up a couple of particularly pretty Aqueligia from her old garden. It's kind of nice, because now there will always be a little bit of 'Longfield' (my OH's childhood home) here in our garden.

I managed to plant up the hanging basket and window baskets at the front of the house, and they are filling out really well.

I took some cuttings from a nice Dianthus at our old house, and they have taken root and put on new growth, so I've popped them in the garden here at the new house.

I've clipped the hedges back a bit, but the rain has really encouraged them to bounce back, so I have to keep revisiting it.

The delphiniums have flowered quite well (not as well as someone I know), but they do suffer from being under the neighbours monsterous leylandii trees.

I have Hollyhocks about to start flowering - the first ones I've ever managed, so I'm really excited to see them do their thing.

Summer Fruit

I've got lots of summer raspberries forming, which is really exciting, as my little wood mouse has eaten every single strawberry, just before it's been ripe enough to pick - little monkey! So, today I've bought some plastic bell cloches online, and hopefully they will protect the last fruits for me to enjoy.

So...actually, that's quite a lot ... I don't feel so bad now :-)

I'll add some piccies soon.

It may be a while since my last post, but I haven't been idle...

There's been lots going on since my last post.

In the garden, I have planted out lots of Spring bulbs, tulips, daffodils, narcissi, muscari and crocus. That was really hard work, as most of them went under the trees in the front garden, which is a mixture of tree roots, clay, chalk and hardcore! Classic!!

I've harvested lots of Achocha from my crazy vines...

This little group look like a family of hedgehogs...if you have a good imagination...and hedgehogs were green!!

I planted out my baby leeks (it was probably faaaaaar to late, but what the heck), and the Ailsa Craig onions I'd grown from seed in spring. I'd sort of forgotten about them, so they've been in modules all summer. I'm not sure they'll survive the winter (they are an exhibition variety rather than a tough over-wintering type), but they've been in open ground for about a month now, and seem to be okay.

I planted out my pot grown brassicas, including brussel sprouts, white sprouting broccoli, normal broccoli, cauliflower and a couple of cabbages.

 

...the girls have been impossibly cute!!

My glut of beautiful green tomatoes got made into a huuuuge batch of 'Green Tomato Chutney' in my lovely new Maslin pan (Thank Crunchie for Wilkos!!)

Today I planted out my garlic and shallots, with varying degrees of pleasure...

My garlic bulbs, 'Solent Wight', purchased from Kings Seeds was pretty disappointing. They say that 2 bulbs should give you an average of 30 cloves to plant, hopefully equating to 30 bulbs of garlic by June time. However, one bulb (the one on the right) was looking a bit squishy. I wasn't too worried, thinking maybe I'd lost one or two cloves max...

...but as I took off the outer layers of papery skin, I realised it was worse than that.

...I ended up with four iffy cloves, that I am giving the benefit of the doubt, and the rest (however many there were) were a squishy, mouldy mess :-(

The second bulb was the complete opposite. I got 14 good sized cloves, and 5 small ones (which you would normally cook with rather than plant, but bearing in mind the disasterous first bulb, I've planted them too).

See the difference between a 'good' clove from the 'good' bulb (left) and the 'best' clove from the 'bad' bulb (right). Though it's a good size, the bad one is a sort of brownish colour, and didn't feel as firm as the good one. I think I'll be very lucky if they come to anything.

Here are some of the Banana Shallots that I planted out today too. They are from Wilkinsons and are firm and a really super size. I have great hopes for these for next year.

...and finally for today, I wrapped up the brassica beds, with fleece, to protect them from the mob of local wood pigeons, who can dessimate brassica crops just by looking at them!

This will probably be one of the last trips to the lottie for this year, so I want to be sure my little brassicas will survive through to the spring.