Results are coming in!

At last i can see the fruits of my labour coming through and most of all i have a flowering rose..cool...i've been watch that rose develop for months, so hopefully more will follow, more good news as you can see in the pic's is that there are lots of peas coming my way now too! and i have tasted on of the cheeky pods and yep...they are very nice, starwberrys too are now starting to ripen and gain size and quatity (looking forward to eatin those) and with god like promise of some good weather to come this week, it should help things on. Everything else is just plodding along at natures own speed, savoy is good but not ready until august, along with parsnip, onions, leeks. The tomotoe plants almost got killed in the winds as i forgot to put longer support sticks in, hence when i went out to water them the day after they were all lying down, so there was an emergency rescue at hand, all seem to have recovered including the one that had almost complety snapped in the main which i stuck back together with gaffer tape (you can't beat gaffer tape). thats it for now

June update

So then...it's been a while since i last put an update on as i keep meaning to do it but never seem to have the bloody time!. Anyhow as you see from the photos thing are moving on quite well at present, although these photos were taken about 2 & 1/2 weeks ago when everything was great and the sun was shining, since then, like last sunday there was quite a big storm to say the very least which also included the biggest hail storm i think i have ever seen which left my garden completly covered in a sheet of hail ice, well when i went out the next day to check the plants, there has been some major damage, all the peeper plants had been completly wiped out by the power of the storm!, as in mashed into the soil by the force of it, the savoy cabbages actually there branches snapped! (and they looked quite strong to me) the tomatoes did not enjoy it at all, nor did the starwberrys..the peas stood strong but still took a good battering. I will be posting some of the photos to show this, but seeing how it's been raining pretty much since, its not ideal photo taking weather. The storm seems to have left a white staining on everything which seems quite odd, however you'll see the photos. the only plant that did'nt seem to give a shit about the storm was the good ol beetroot....???odd that. thats it for now.....

13th may update 'which compost'

Hmmmm,..well there is now some action starting happen within the garden after all the turmoil so far, the peas as you can see seem to be on there way, althougth the photo might not show it most of them are now about 1ft tall and looking healthy, you may have noticed a small bed next to them with a new netting, well that what was left of all my dwarf beans, so in ther i think there are 7 plants in total and i think they will be alright. I have however come across an interesting problem with compost's...note from the photos that the savoy cabbage in the big black pots by the beetroot and peas are growing quite happy with big healthy leaves to boot (they are in a john innes compost) however the othe5 savoy cabbage on the table (planted at the same time) but using a organic compost designed as it were for veg!....are growing at the same rate at all if any..?????confusing stuff , or should i just re-plant in some john innes?...who knows? all i know is there is a good 3inch (general) growth between the two. Everything else seems fine at the mo, toms seem to be happy, althougth i think these will need to be bedded in at some point rather than grow bag, leeks are good, peppers are thinking about, parsnips have finally got the idea nad ...oh yeah i moved the final strawberry basket to the back of the garden, so now there are 3 hanging pots all looking very good, although i might adjust the line they hang on to go across to the othet trees so they get more sunlight (you see) One last phot was of my two climbing roses who are springing into life qute happily. thats it for now.......

A short blog

Ah,....seeing how you 'Mr B' have some very odd growth going on as per your pic's' and well done by the way as you guy's have put the effort in by the way, i'm not gonna post any pics yet as its tooo earl from the last...but there is movement...i think i'm gonna post pics...every 3 weeks or so.......so you'll have to wait now for how they are gonna look..ah...haaaaaaaaaaaaa!

After the weekend Project.

Ah......the blog...some time to sit down and waffle abit...so the garden, well after finally submitting to the red ant problem, which seems to be anywhere you put something on the grass, they suddenly know about it and think...ohhh .....nest...hmmm...bloody gits,..i told by my neighbour about it, he said that as the gardens already have red ants nests dotted about that if you leave something of a large size on the ground it creates warmth and they create there nest there because of it (smart little gits) i'll give em that, anyhow he knows about this stuff cause he's a pest controller and yes i have thought about getting him to deal with it....so the above photos is the garden after the re-arrangement and what was left after the feast.

Well i lost quite a few of the french dwarf beans, i have only 6 left, clearly they are quite tastey, onions, shallots are all ok as they have not popped up yet, savoy cabbage which half is now off the ground and on the table is fine and so is the other half on the undiscovered path behind the peas and beetroot, also now on the table is the leeks..they seem to be fine although it's pretty windy today....note to all...there is no poly tunnels ...(bummer) errr....peas seem to be doing fine although there is still alittle munchin going on but quite alot less now. The strawberrys are going great guns as they were already hanging, looking forward to some of those...hmmm.....

So the other job was to split the beetroot plants,....not a good job as they are so small and all tangled together...dunno know?,...just a tricky job, and you kinda feel whilst doing it that this is the end, however the ones that i have split seem to be recovering fine and a couple seem to be having huge growth burst 2 days on, there are still a few that need spliting, but the one's attached were still too small for that operation,..so beetroot i think is going good.

what else, parsnips are just coming up, the peppers (all kinds) took a real battering from the ants, so i have about 7 left from i think about 15 plants of them. like i said (bloody gits).

So other than the veg that i'm trying grow, the flowers are having no trouble,...it seems to be plant me, water and watch me go...and thats exactly what they are doing, i'm looking forward to them flowering, that should make the garden look really nice, the photos of now until some months on will show that difference.

The herb garden: No problems here all...here's the list:

Wild mint from a cutting from snowdonia, grows every year without fail, i think i have had this about 6 years now...just best mint ever.

Chives, again about 6years aold, grows every year without fail. the rest are all 3 year old, rosemary, oregano, sage, basil, garlic which if you just replant one of your home grown one's again, just grows again..cushd'y....parsely (curly leaf), thyme...the best thing about the herbs is just popping into the garden and whacking em in with your cooking...un-beatable!

So i think thats enough of this blog for today, the odd thing about gardening is that i find i hve to check em on a daily basis, almost like lookin after you own child..odd eh?...but then would you let your child go thirsty...enough said...Good work Mr B & co...looking really good, al;l those bad backs will soon pay off, and Simon, i'm just jealous you have all that sun...git....lol...thats it for know......GMEL

The weekend project

Ok, so seeing how i have some temporary homes for my plants at the mo, i need a cunning plan on how to keep everything of the ground with some sort of order involved and with any luck no cost...this is 'The weekend project' what i need is a raised bed on legs.....easy stuff eh Mr B....lol....on top of this little project according to the book of knowledge i have split out all the beetroot plants too, sounds dangerous to me as they seem quite happy all bunch together, however if i don't do it then they will all die too, this gardening lark demands alot of your time! thats for sure, there always seems to be something to do

Ants! red ones

So, coming home today to do my daily check on whats happening, to find some munching seems to have been occuring on most of the young seedlings and a few other smaller seedlings, bearing mind this has happend once already, about a month ago, so now the only action is to have everything of the ground! apart from things that are already potted, hanging or the peas or beetroot which are in the ground already and seem to be fine, although the pea's had been nibbled on but i'm armed with spray now. As for the ants, well there just a real pain in the arse!. So i have moved 3 bags to a plastic table with a very temporary poly sheet over them as there still quite delicate to strong wind and the rest of what was left from the feast to another table with my golfing umbrella covering them from possilble heavy rain, ofcourse when its sunny i'll lift it off and once there big enough they will then get a nice new big pot to live in. I've stuck some photo's to show the evidence of this, although i have not worked out how to grid the photos instead of a vertical line as of yet and niether have i solved the problem of why the photos always go to the top of the post, however 1 day in only ........i'm sure i'll work it out! poxy thing this is today, can't get any photo's up at the mo so this will have to follow

1st Post

Blogs,.. hmmm? Seeing how I'm new to writing blogs, the 1st thing i thought about was what i should write and how i should write it depending on who could or would read it (other than Mr B & co) at which point after giving it a minute or 2 in deep thought, 'sod it' seemed to be a good answer to that question. (nice)!

So the blog, well clearly as per the name and pictures to follow, it's a journey through two gardens actually over the course of this year, mine and Mr B's allotment patch. The idea is to see how each other gets on and hopefully and watch the progress and try and get past the many difficult problems of growing veg unless your a pro! and there are vast amounts of problems with vast amounts of solutions and old wives tales to aid, so-on an so-fourth.

So here's whats happened to date: Moved into a new house in December with a garden that had not really been used, so alittle bit of a blank canvas if you like, however seeing how i moved only from next door i already know from that garden that the ground is not that good, so container growing is a good choice. As you will see from the photos, i have made 2 little plots with some good soil improver and alittle muck for pea's & Beetroot (photo's to follow) the rest really for the time being is either pots/hanging or grow bags. Besides the growing of the veg there are also some flowers that i have planted just to help the garden a) look nicer, b) give of a little scent here and there c) alittle more privacy down one side (climber thats is).

The list of veg to be hopefully grown so far, which has extended since i last saw you Mr B by the way:

Onions red/white, shallots, peas, beetroot, parsnips, dwarf french beans, tomotoes, garlic, savoy cabbage, leeks, strawberrys, peppers, sweet peppers, hot peppers and an orange tree!

I think thats all of it. Some of them are at a good seedling stage, some are up and running, so to summarize, it's kinda pots all over the place any where i can, a home made poly tunnel and things growing all over the place.

I forgot to mention about my herb garden, raised of the ground, but this is a well established herb garden that grows every year without fail, i'll run through that on another post. Clearly whilst writing blogs you can waffle on for ages....interesting. so here's some photos as the garden is to date: