July 26th, 2009

The garden has been taken over by hedgehogs!!! (giggle)
You can find out more here.
And the garden is growing like mad!!!! We have harvested peas and loads of lettuce so far along with herbs and strawberries. The red currant bushes have done extremely well this year and our main bush produced 4 lbs worth of fruit, which I made into jam. :)
The apples are getting bigger on the tree and we had two drop off during the June drop.
The weather has been a bit weird and we have just about had rain almost every day now. Which is a blessing as since I am looking after the babies, I don't have enough time or energy to do all the watering. :)
The courgette plants are a bit disappointing. They have mildew again and I have been diligently getting rid of any leaves that I spot that has it. I think next year I will plant them with a black plastic covering on the ground to see if this helps.
The tomatoes are starting to get loads of fruit, but no red ones yet.
The runner beans keep toppling over in the high winds.
The flowers are doing brilliant.
The purple Brussel sprouts are growing and have a few cabbage white eggs on them. We are wanting the caterpillars to feed to the hedgehogs. :)
Hope to get some photos soon, but the camera is full of hedgehog photos as of late. :) Baby hedgehogs are just sooooooo cute.

June 22nd, 2009

The garden is growing and growing and.......

This is the veg patch. The new beds are growing like mad as are the veggie pots. And the tomatoes have shot up.

We have had quite a bit of lettuce so far and have enjoyed some of the mange Tout and sugar snap peas already. The corn is going to be knee high by the 4th of July.

I am keeping a really close eye on this little one!!! Can't wait for him to get just a little bit bigger.


I am battling with mildew again this year, but hopefully it won't be as bad as previous years. I pick off any leaves and have sprayed a few times with diluted milk. The plants are getting rather huge leaves on them now. :)


This is my pot of runner beans. My friend Linda said I didn't have a high enough support for them and she was right. I think it would go even higher if I had another cane to top it.

I think runner bean flowers are so beautiful!!

Here are the pepper plants that I started from seed. The flowers are just about to start blooming on them. And then it is wait and see what develops. :)


This is the red currants from the old bush. The new bushes have already turned red and I picked them all yesterday to make some jam. :)


This is an experimental pot. I have some extra tomato plants in it and along with those some beans and maybe some Aubergine(eggplants) too.


And this is my other experiment pot. More extra tomato plants. (I just can't bring myself to throw them out and don't know anyone other than Linda who would want them. Who I gave tons of plants to already.) In this one I have some cucumbers and aubergine plants also growing next to the toms. :)


And here are some of my main crop of tomatoes. :) They are now as tall as their canes.

These two little hiding toms are my first fruits and they are on the smallest plant I have. LOL I think they are ones that should have gone into hanging baskets.

Here are my brassicas..... shhhhhhh don't tell Brian, but some of them are Brussel Sprouts. :) Also lots of parsley and turnips in this bed.


The potatoes are doing super and are taking over and hiding my rhubarb plants.


Our apple tree is doing well this year and we have 6 apples on it!!! I can't wait till they are ready for going into a pie.

They are Bramlies by the way.

Now for some of Brian's flowers...

One of his fuchsias ready to burst forth in bloom.

Our peonies

They had some massive blooms this year.


And are flowering longer too. :)

Our new plants some Osteospernums. We hope to put this in the ground where they will spread and grow again next year.

Now for a few of Brian's Geraniums. :)

May 13th 2009

The garden is growing!!! And changing!! We had apple blossom on the apple tree and hopefully we will get an apple or two this year. :) But the blossom was so lovely!


At the moment our Mexican Orange bush is blooming like mad. And is quite heady when we sit next to it enjoying a glass of wine after our work in the garden.

Our Rhododendron is blooming and is gorgeous this year.

The potato barrel is producing the next crop of potatoes. :)

And next to it we have a mini potato grow sack, some rhubarb, the plum tree and the currant bushes and in front is tomatoes!!! :) They were started back in February and are doing really well.

I have put out 9 tomato plants in grow bags so far. I have a few more plants in the mini green house which I think may go into pots. Although I do have another grow bag. Just need to find a place to put it.

We thought we had loads of red currants last year. Well I think this year is going to be our best yet!!!!

I may regret this if the weather turns cold, but I have courgettes(zucchini) in the raised bed already. :) And some patty pan and a few varieties of courgettes. Yellow, globe and Lebanese.

I am doing the square foot plan on this bed. I have some lettuce, beans, radishes and a few other things planted in with the squashes. :)

I also have my sweet corn planted in a trough. The wind lately has been beating it about, so I may loose two of them. But I have some others in reserve. I have been doing alot of succession planting this year.

We have the cut and come again lettuces that we are enjoying now!! We have had probably 5 or so salads already. from just these two troughs. :) I have more little ones on their way too.

And here you can see I am well on my way to the next lot of seedlings.


As long as the weather holds out and we do eventually get some rain we are going to have a good year I hope.

Brian's flowers are growing well and my next post hopefully you will see some of his beauties. :)