I like to keep a record of what I do in the garden . I find it helpful to look back on , remind myself of the successes and the failures .
I wasn't going to grow onions this year , preferring to grow leeks and the leeks are still being brought on up in the shed . But then I found some at a sensible price and couldn't resist . I started them off in modules and yesterday planted them all out .
I also planted out my Spring Onions which I had sown in little clumps of six or seven or so .
I sowed a whole packet of carrot and parsnip seeds and watered everything .
This end of the bed is covered over with the cardboard that I took off the African Keyhole bed . This will just keep the weeds from getting away until I plant it up with the next thing , probably Courgettes or Squash of some kind .
Next I had to sort out the bed behind , get it covered over until I'm ready to plant .
No matter what I plan to do , there is always something that has to be done first ! Always !!
So first I had to dig out two large clumps of Asparagus ....which my husband has declared that they are his .
Gawd ! Years ago I had made a bed here just for the Asparagus . You have to leave it for a year or so before harvesting it , to let it , you know like ....... GROW ! A bit like Rhubarb , you mustn't harvest it all or it will die .
Yep he just would not leave it alone and slowly it began to fizzle away . Except for these two clumps .
So I dug 'em up and have replanted them in with the Rhubarb and the perennial kale . All the perennial things together !
Then I was free to cover this bed over with weed membrane held down with a panel of fence , to ensure it wont blow away in the next gale .
Not sure what will be going in this bed just yet . Maybe the Cavolo Nero Kale 🤔 hmmm .
In the background is the falling downy grape vine arch ,which I am hoping to shorten , fix and re-use and two broken chairs which need to go to the tip or be chopped up for fire wood .
I uncovered the other Agave and at last feel that I am on the way to restoring the garden after such a miserable rainy old Winter .
And as I look around to the right , I notice another little job of cutting back the bush behind the garden seat . It will have to be done very carefully now and make sure there is no one nesting in there first .
And to the far right ...sigh ..is the bonfire heap , which has been too wet to burn for two years now !
I want to plant out the remaining three of my Ginkgo biloba saplings in this area . Hopefully we can get it burnt and cleared this week sometime .
The Ginkgo bilobas are already putting out their new leaves , I may have to settle for repotting them again this year and plant them out next Winter .
The one I did manage to plant out is doing well and the rabbits seem to be leaving it alone too .
The buddleia is making it's way up through the weeds ..which are Nettles , pretty Pink Campion shortly to be joined with the bindweed ....which I will need to do something about .
I'm cross about finding a broken branch on the beautiful Black leaved Elderberry sapling . I can't wait to see this in flower. It has gorgeous sprays of pink flowers .
The newly planted Griselinia bushes are doing well and will eventually make a nice thick hedge .
I am going to make a pathway through my mini woodland so I can get in to cut this hedge from time to time and keep it bushy from the base up . The old bushes that were here when we first came to live here , were almost twenty feet high and getting leggy at the base and the wind was blasting through from the North and the East .The old bushes were cut drastically down last year , but are beginning to bush out again from the bottom .It will eventually become a nice thick hedge and my mini forest will be a great sanctuary for wildlife .
The hedge along our meadow however is only planted with native species .
Up in the shed , the lettuces are coming along nicely .
Leeks need to get fatter !
Kale needs thinning out ....but I love it and can't get enough of it !
In between garden operations I have been going in for cups of tea and doing family history on the computer and discovering some amazing things , which have quite blown me away , such as one Great Great Grandfather who I found died in Afghanistan ! Still doing research in this but it seems he died fighting at the Battle of Maiwand 1880 He was Royal Horse Guards Artillery .... I had never heard of this and reading about it has just taken my breath away .....and his son also it turns out was a soldier based out in India and his wife worked as a house-keeper for the Dickens family in Landport !
Then I jumped up onto the bank and dug a big hole . Dragged the now massive Banana Musa Ensete over from the woodshed ( all the while thinking about my ancestor riding with six horses and pulling Artillery guns )
It looks terrible , but will soon pick up and put out it's lovely new red leaves .
Today's mission is to prick out and pot on all these Butternut Squash babies !
Been sorting out some new watercolour paints , this is the Rosa Gallery Botanical set plus a couple of other pans and tubes that I selected separately .
I love painting flowers (and mouse pictures 🐭) but I might try my hand at landscapes .
I still need to finish off my embroidery , but my hands are feeling sore from gardening and it catches on the silk thread . I need to have a really good hand pampering session !
Right I'm off to sort out those Butternut Squash babies and water the things I planted out yesterday .
Sorry this has been a long waffling one ! Cheerio fer now ! x
