The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

we planted up SB’s flower garden. SB and BB bailed out of digging fairly quickly- the soil was too hard! Its funny that the archaeological dig hole gets bigger and bigger. [both found dinosaur bones and flints today - cavemen. hmmmmm]. Anyway, i dug loads of holes [while they dug for treasure], and SB then planted up beautifully, and watered in. She also sowed up some more of her veg patch - a row of carrots and some onion sets.Chris came back from the supermarket and made us berry smoothies and muffins for a snack - yummy, and dug a patch of the veg bed over. They all then played wild things, and i planted out the peas. I’ve been impressed with the germination rate in the propagator its near 100% of everything so far. I think that’s ‘cos we had the temp up a bit to start with all the harder to germinate seeds, and have now reduced it. The temp control I think has made all the difference. Even the florence fennel has all germinated.

Yesterday was a fairly relaxed day. We spent lots of it in the garden, looking at the seeds sprouting, the flowers, and organising SB’s flower and veg beds by the playhouse. Hide and seek and lots of swinging! We need more of Merry’s cardboard boxes for the veg patch! I did some weeding though.
We also sowed some more seeds - our cucurbits [butternut squash, another squash, pumpkin and courgette], finished the packet of mangetout and also the fennel [which might not germinate as such an old packet! All the last lot of peas sown have germinated, and the spring onions. The broad beans are outside in open greenhouse to acclimatise before being planted.

Today, we have sowed the sweetcorn - including some bicolour from kirsty and some self supporting peas. i need to pot up the toms - anyone needing toms passing this way…

chris has done a grand job on sorting out this years propagatory - time to sow some seeds! bit late with peppers already - oops.

One of my targets is to get out and do more regular bits in the garden to keep up with things. So we did spend about 1 1/2 hours outside, the girls mostly played in and out of the playhouse etc. I was weeding the strawberry patch, BB helped out a bit

Chris and I did a bit of garden tidying up to do, but it seems a bit like the forth bridge at the moment. Need to get an industrial quantity of the permeable garden weed mesh stuff.

Always makes a difference! my dad gave the topiary a number 1. if we ever move, think i wouldn’t buy a house with topiary, as unless you are really keen or have a gardener, it is just too much work teetering on a ladder! Chris helped with that.

I hoed and weeded, and elder daughter watered. Mum weeded and watered as well. The fruit bed is looking quite respectable. the brassicas and onions in it are doing well, the srawberries are coming along nicely. rather typically my dear husband trod on some newly planted brassicas as he didn’t expect them there - what is worng with eyes? Its bad enough having an 18 monther doing that!

we went and bought a trachelspernum asiaticum to grow ovver the arch by the door [south facing and sheltered]. I think the jasminoides have better flowers, but a x3 price tag.

the veg bed is OK - not as good as i would have liked. aphids and blackfly and all that type of horror seem to be reaching epidemic proportions. we never had to pinch the top off broad beans in leeds, but we do here!

A question - i would like to rmove some of the ivy on the house wall. is there a special way of doing this to not destroy the brickwork?

photos to follow, as finally taken a few more.

Have been doing both really. the thoughts of being made redundant seem to have frozen me in many ways at the moment, so thought a bit of gardening therapy might be in order.

So, whilst i drink my medicinal glass of red wine, I’ll blog.

My elder girl and I planted out the remaining brassicas and florence fennel - at 5 she is getting the hang of planting out, though I usually say a brief prayer to Demeter that the plants aren’t too gentle minded. We also planted out 2 extremely tall sunflowers.

We took this opportunity to do a fair bit of weeding and hoeing - another prayer to Demeter that the onions will have some roots left!

finally we came in and gave all the aubergines and most of the peppers their last potting on. No prayers needed here as she is most skillful. they both have flowers, so will hopefully fruit at sometime. chris can do the final tomatoes.
Our cucurbits still all have male fowers only - sigh. Hopefully they will catch up soon. Some peas have germinated in the trench of doom - so will hopefully do better than their dessicated predecessors, and we may have a late pea harvest after all. The broad beans continue to be harvestable.
When we’ve weeded the other onion/garlic bed enough so they are visible, I am hoping that the garlic will nearly be ready to harvest.

This weekend we will try and do some more weeding etc. If time, I will look at packets to see if anything apart from salads worth sowing at this time - ? leeks??

well, the peas did bite the dust while we were away - pretty much all of them - sigh! Weeds rampant [hmm, could be a heraldic badge for us] anyway, a stab at weeding and tidying up a bit. the apple trees are also all totally infested with a number of different aphid varieties - hosed them all off. They each have a couple of fruitlets. Also, the minarettes have had a good soaking, as this years trees and been a bit dry. One strawberry plant has died, the rest going strong and fruitlets appearing.

We are harvesting broadbeans and some wok brok at the mo [though not much of that] and made my husband laugh with my excitement at one asparagus pea! I am amazed at how well the lettuces are doing, as in leeds the slugs decimated them overnight.

It seems to me that our biggest problem here is weeds. They really are hugely rampant. you hoe and every millimeter sprouts again. instantly. never seen anything quite like it. not helped by us being frantic rather than leisurely gardeners.

I think over the winter we may bed down as it were, with manure and cardboard on top, only removing to plant. If we have the finances, i will plant through that gardening brown paper and mulch with whatever on top, to try and minimize things. if not, will just go for spaced row planting, as opposed to my equidistant, as will be FAR easier to hoe!

why is it that weeds grow so well and so fast???

well, yes, I know, its cos they are best adapted to our particular soil and microclimate, whereas our crops aren’t, and need some care and attention. And yes, i know that nettles are techniaclly edible, but TBH, I think I’ll wait until I have a food crisis to eat them, and instead use them to make feeds for the plants.

chris has done sterling work, and re-cleared half the veg patch [photos tomorrow] aidded by the fact that alot of it was under cardboard for most of this year, so nothing had too good a toehold. even so, it was a hard and long task - he deserves a beer!

into part of this I have nearly finished planting out the sweetcorn. All the pumpkins are out, most of the festival squash are out. Remeber the billion butternut squashes my daughter sowed? well they got left out at our party when I gave over half away, and ibetween floods and cold, are all dead - sigh! however, a few seem to have sprung up with the peppers, so i will tease some of those out and see if they catch up nicely. just the courgettes then. oh, these are being planted 3-sisters style - though will have to quickly sow some french beans to go with them
Well, all the peas and beans tomorrow and potatoes! Then, we will be planted out, and just the sowing of lots more peas and beans [particularly beans], whatever we have time for a second of and salad crops to do. Oh and the potting up.

Oh why oh why did I let us get so far behind???

All the plantings could do with a drench of foliar feed, but its dark now, so will do that first thing.

Where is that work life balance when you need it?

The weeds have romped away, and today we have both made huge inroads in them.

The strawberry plants all got planted asap! and the brassicas are all in - however, haven’t made any later sowings. [well, wehn you’re not getting your planting done, you do have t break until thats sorted!]

plan tomorrow to finally put potatoes in [arrgh, yes I know!] and also the sweetcorn and squashes, beans and peas that are all leggy, and hope they do OK. well, the sweetcorn and squash should be fine.

toms, peppers and aubergines all need to go into final pots.

when this is done, will finally sow some of the ’sequential sowings’ that I’m not too late for.

So far, harvested asparagus [yum!] and radishes. The broad beans are tall and handsome, with lovely flowers, but nary a pod ready yet.