Just remembered ...

One other thing I meant to add to previous post, we originally had 3 tubs of lettuces, but the 2 which had an italian type of lettuce we threw away cos it tasted rank, like grass (even the pigs wouldnt eat it).
Just thought i'd mention it.
:-P

Invaders!!!!

1
Potatoes, Carrots, 5 small pepper plants & tub of lettuces.

Rhubarb plant & furry buds just appearing on pumpkin plants.

Runner beans

Large juicy cabbages

Our 1st green pepper (teeny weeny)

Cucumbers new home!!

We have some invaders in the garden, namely black fly!!! They seem to be making their home on everything - carrots, spuds, runner beans, cucumbers and even the pumpkins!! Now some sites suggest pesticides, soapy water and other 'sprays' but some also suggest leaving nature to take it's course and leave them to the ladybirds. Now we do have ladybirds in the garden and I shall be taking the girls for a long walk along the canal to 're-home' (i.e. kidnap) a few more, but we also have ants which eat the ladybirds to protect the black fly!! Apparently the black fly produce a sweet sap which the ants love to eat and so they will 'kill' any predators of the black fly to protect their sweet juices!!

So, as the plants they are on are all quite well established, we've decided to let nature take it's course and hope the ladybirds win through and conquer the enemy!!

Apart from the black fly, things are ticking along rather nicely. We have our 1st green pepper growing and I've been told to give the plant liquid tomato feed as soon as the peppers appear so I will be out buying some at the weekend.

We've also had about half a dozen strawberries from one of our 'Alice' strawberry plants - very nice they were too, and there are more growing at the moment.

Some of the cabbages are now big enough to eat so we had some at the weekend and the guinea pigs have been getting their fair share too!!

The runner beans have loads of flowers on, so we should start seeing some beans soon. We've got them in 2 tubs and although they've both been grown and treated the same way, one tub is much more lush than the other i.e. one has more, darker leaves and the other has fewer much paler leaves, not sure why there should be a difference between them, hopefully it wont affect how many beans each lot produces.

The potato plants are monsters now, they definitely needed more room, can't believe how much they've come up - just hope the spuds growing the ground are as good. And also the carrots have shot up recently, we can see a few tops of the carrots starting to poke through the soil - have managed to resist the temptation to pull any up yet though.

The rhubarb plant which was near to death that we got from a boot fair a few weeks back has totally taken off - from having 3 stalks (one badly damaged) when we bought it, it now has about 12 and still more leaves poking through the soil.

As we ran out of room in the garden, I thought the cucumbers would be OK being grown in a trough, but they've not been doing so well the past few days, the leaves are turning yellow etc so I've now removed them from the trough, pulled up some of the smaller onion plants near to the fence and I've put them in there. I need to get some plastic netting for them to grow up and hopefully they'll be much happier and will give us lots of lovely cucumbers.

The pumpkins have got lovely fluffy buds coming on them, so hopefully we should have a good crop there by the end of October (Milly will be disappointed if we don't as they are 'her' plants, bless).

The only other thing we are still keeping an eye on are the small pepper plants which we grew from seed and seem to be taking forever to grow - might end up losing patience with them and chuck them on the compost heap, lol. Will definitely be buying just the pepper plants next year, wont bother with the seeds.

So that's how the garden is at the moment. Looking back on previous posts and photos I cant believe, in only a couple of months, how much things have come up - I'm really proud of how we've done so far and when we go out in the garden in the evening and water everything it gives us an enormous sense of achievement that everything growing out there is due to our hard work!!! :o)

Loadsaphotos!!

Aerial view of the garden!

Strawberries in bags!

Home-made strawberry hanging bag!

Runner beans!

Bootfair Rhubarb!

6 pumpkin plants

Carrots

Lettuces

Spuds

Cabbages

Onions!

Lettuces to be re-planted

Our 1st fruit!!

Pepper plant & 2 'Alice' Strawberry plants

5 cucumber plants

We've had loads of things coming up in the past few weeks. The bit of sunshine we've had recently has done wonders to accelerate the growing of our veggies - and there's nothing like watering them after a scorching hot day, you can almost hear them gulping up the water!!

Had a near disaster with one of the troughs of lettuces - somehow forgot to water them on Sunday evening and by Monday morning they had totally wilted, but after a quick thorough water they perked up, so all is well.

We've transplanted the strawberries into bags which are now hanging on the fence - hopefully the bees will get to work and we'll have some flowers coming through soon.

The next job is to move the lettuces out of the troughs into 2 large flexi-tubs in the garden - unfortunately have no more room in the actual ground, unless we dig up the lawn. Maybe next year, eh kids?

xxx

Crops galore!

Spent a few hours out in the garden this afternoon re-planting plants from the tubs into the ground!!
So we now have in the ground in the garden: onions (white & red), cabbages, potatoes, carrots, more cabbages and at the end, 6 large pumpkin plants!!
Got to buy a couple of large tubs for the lettuces and i've re-potted the cucumber plants into a trough (if they get too big for it, Graham is going to make a large planter to go by the wall).
Am also going out this week to buy a hanging bag for the strawberry plants to go in.
xxx

Beans re-homing!!

Had a lovely couple of hours out in the garden this afternoon. Graham did some much needed weeding and I re-planted the runner beans into their new home - 2 lovely big bright tubs, where I am sure they will be very happy.



Each tub has 5 canes so they've got plenty of climbing room and will hopefully give us plenty of big beans!!



We actually ended up with more bean plants than I originally thought we had because although some of the seeds looked as though they hadn't germinated, i'd obviously put the seeds too deep in the soil in the trays because their leaves were hidden under the soil. So I gently coaxed them out and i've planted them with the big strong plants - hopefully they'll do just as well.



The slugs had already had a good munch on the bean seedings while they were in the green house (a couple had absolutely no leaves, just the stalks!!) so i've copied a tip I heard on the TV the other week and put a ring of vaseline around the top of each pot - aparently it makes it harder for slugs and snails to grip and climb up the pot. I've also put some slug pellets in the pots as a second line of defence!!



Saw some lovely 'climbing' green net in Homebase at the weekend (nice and thick with big holes) - just right for when my cucumbers take off. I'm going to grow them out of large troughs up the netting against the wall where we get lots of sun for half the day - am hoping to get a good crop because our guinea pigs (all 6 of them) absolutely love them, especially when it's hot.



Next job on the list is to plant the cabbages and lettuces that we've grow in the troughs, but I dont think that will be for a few weeks yet cos they are still quite small - want to give them a fighting chance of surviving before we put them in the ground.



Got a small problem with the Honeysuckle plants I planted last week, one of the plant's leaves are covered in black patches. Not sure what's caused it but it's weird it's not on both plants - will have to do some searching on the web.



Am glad Lynn has got some crops growing - i've someone to talk to about this gardening business who is properly interested and not just humouring me, lol!!!



:-D

To catch a criminal!!!

Lots of pics at the top of this post!! The 1st is of a crime committed in the relative 'safety' of the greenhouse!!! I noticed Saturday morning my lovely pepper plant and also one of my 'Alice' strawberry plants had been munched on over night and after a thorough search of the surrounding area I found the culprit - this little tiny slug!!! Needless to say, plenty of slug pellets have now gone down around the perimeter in the hope of of keeping out any other 'copy cat' criminals!!

Pic 3 is of my carrot seeds, coming up nicely but to delicate to be transplanted anywhere at the moment.

Pic 4 is of my lettuces (at the rear) which have now been re-planted into a couple of troughs to give them room to spread and grow before they go into the ground. In the front of the tray on the right you can just make out my cucumber plants starting to come through - unfortunately the pepper seeds on the left haven't made an appearance as of yet.

Pic 5 is of my runner beans that I grew in tissue paper/jam jar indoors that have now been put into pots.

And finally Pic 6 is my cabbages which have also been re-planted into troughs until they are big enough to go into the ground.

I also have a tray of runner beans coming up nicely, so lots of veggies to go into the gaden which does present us with a small problem - we dont think we're going to have enough room!! So it looks like the lawn in the front of the shed may have to be dug up to make room for the runner beans - but needs must when growing veggies!!

I have one tray in the greenhouse which is still bare of any seedlings and that is the one with pumpkin seeds in (Milly's idea). I'm hoping that maybe they are waiting for the really warm summer weather before they make an appearance (would make sense as they are usually harvested early winter). Will keep you posted on that one!!

I have another few additions to my garden - GNOMES!! Nuff said! ;-)

Grow, grow grow!!

OK, lots happening in the garden at the moment (as you'd expect in spring).

Carrots, lettuce, cabbage, one cucumber, one runner bean and 2 onions have started to sprout out from the soil, yay! I had also planted some runner beans in a few jars indoors (as we used to do at school in the old days) and they have come up fantastically well (wish i'd done them all the same way). I have planted the 5 of them into pots and a couple already have leaves.

I went to Aldi yesterday and I bought 2 Honeysuckle plants. My mum had a lovely one in the garden when we were kids and I remember the gorgeous smell when it was in flower. I've planted them at the side of the new fence, hoping it will spread up and along the fence eventually so we get an extra bit of privacy from next door (will give us an excuse to put some trellis along the top of the fence at a later date).

Anyway, back to the veggies. The plants growing in the seed trays still look too delicate to put into the ground at the moment, so we're going to the 99p shop tomorrow to get some large troughs to put them in before finally putting them in the ground.

The cabbages that i thought wouldn't grow have started to get established and i've noticed new leaves on them which is brilliant and i've also noticed new growth on the one pepper plant and the strawberry plants I got from the garden centre.

Graham has suggested we plant the stone from a mango I bought yesterday - i'll give it a go, you never know!!! Lol.

xxx

Everything's coming up cabbages!!!

LETTUCES!!! & CABBAGES!!!

Well, I was very excited to go out Friday morning and discover my cabbage seeds had started popping through and then this morning my lettuces popped up too!! Yay!!

Over the weekend gave the rest of the garden a good dig and planted my spuds. Noticed the cabbage plants I put straight into the ground have been nibbled by something - got plenty of slug/snail pellets around them so it cant be them, obviously some other nasty beasty.

When we put the runner beans in the trays we had a few left over which we decided to grow in doors in the old school way i.e. in a jar with wet tissue paper, and they've started sprouting so will try and get them into pots over the next few days.

xxx

Some pics!

This is a piccy of my new greenhouse (small) and in it are my trays of planted seeds - just waitng patiently for them to start peeping through the soil (sooo exciting). Since this pic was taken i have also planted some strawberry plants and one pepper plant in some toughs that are now stood in the bottom.

OK, now I know this pic looks the same as the other garden shots, but believe me, it is totally different!! It is different because although you cant see them, underneith the soil are lots of red and white onion bulbs waiting to grow and burst out of the ground in a few months!! And since this pic was taken I have planted some cabbage plants - not sure how they will do though cos they were being sold cheap as they were starting to go yellow, but even if they grow a bit they will be fine for the piggies!!!

Not got much else to do outside at the moment except keep it watered and weeded and wait for my seeds to start growing. Shouldn't take too long - I hope!

xxxx

We got busy!!!

Had a busy, busy day out in the garden today and am thoroughly cream-crackered!!!

We (me and G that is) dug 2 bags of compost into the garden, got out the last of the dead roots and small weeds and watered like crazy.

Then later we planted the red and white onions and put the seed potatoes in a tray to start 'chitting' (sprouting) and once they have some nice big sprouts on them we can put them too into the ground.

We put the cutivator together and with my 3 little helpers we put some seeds in some trays (lettuce, carrots, peppers and cucumbers) and we put them in it. We wanted to also plant some pumpkin seeds but needed bigger sized trays so went to B&Q and bought some this afternoon - will do them in the morning.

We also took a load of rubbish to the dump, so the garden is looking generally tidyer.

Also at B&Q we bought some more strawberry plants, some cabbage plants (and seeds), 2 troughs and another large bag of compost.

Will hopefully get out in the garden tomorrow to plant the rest of the seeds in the trays and put some plants in my troughs.

Photos to follow tomorrow!!!

Am getting so excited about the prospect of having our own salad and veggies!!!

Digging done!

Got out in the garden for a bit this afternoon with my 'helpers' and managed to clear the rest of my patch!!

Sooo, next job is this weekend to get some compost dug in, then keep it cleared of weeds/plant material over the following week and also to give it a good water so it's nice and moist for when I start planting!

We are also going to rid the garden of rubbish, get the spare hutch collected by our friends and then we'll have room to put the cultavator up and get some seeds potted into the trays this weekend.

I watched 'edible garden' on BBC2 last night (couldnt stand the presenter woman 'Alys' - wanna-be hippy stuck in the 1960's even though she was born well after that era), BUT I did pick up a few tips. One which I will be following is a plastic netting contraption she made to keep cucumbers off the floor (stops them rotting) and another tip she came up with is to only grow and plant what you need i.e. no point in planting 40 lettuces that are all going to be ready to eat at the same time (which is logical but I hadn't thought of it, lol).

She was also of the mind that you dont have to be a complete expert to grow veg, take a chance with things and just see what happens. If some things dont grow, try another type or just forget about it altogether and grow something else.

Also, popped into Aldi this morning and their Sunday 'specials' this week are all gardening bits!! Yay!!

Not bored of this project yet!

Lazy day!

Not actually been out in the garden today cos a) got a cold and woke up tired and achy and b) bloomin cold outside, so instead went shopping for stuff!

Got some seeds: carrots, 2 types of lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins (Milly's idea) and runner beans. Also bought white and red onion sets and some seed potatos (maris piper).

Also bought some potting compost, some seed trays, gloves, trowel/hand fork set, slug pellets and then had a massive stroke of luck when I visited the olds on the way home - they have a brand new, in the box, 3 shelf cultivator/greenhouse type structure with plastic cover which they have given me!! (photos to follow in a few days).

So the next plan is to hopefully get back outside and finish the digging and then start sifting through the earth to remove the really big stones and any lingering roots/weeds and make enough room to put up my greenhouse.

Then if I get enough time I might get round to potting some seeds.

At the weekend i'm going to get Graham (muscles) to get some big bags of compost to dig into the soil and give it a good watering (if we dont hava any rain that is), so that next week once i'm happy with the state of the soil and am sure there's nothing else to rake out of it, I will get round to planting my spuds and onions!! Yay!

(BTW, I know i'm probably using all the wrong gardening terminology, but I am excited and I dont care)

Nuff said x

Can you dig it?

OK, day 1, back breaking digging for 1 1/2 hours to clear all the weeds/roots/rubbish out of the strip of ground i'm going to use for my veggie patch.

Managed to do about 2/3rds before I physically couldn't do anymore, will try and get out there again today to clear the other third.

Am going to give it about a week, clearing bits every day until I actually put anything in the ground. I think I probably need to 'dig-in' a bag or two of fertiliser into the ground as nothing but weeds have been grown there since we moved into the house, 14 years ago!!

Mum has offered me a brand new cold-frame to use to start off some seedlings, so because I am impatient but cant actually put anything in the ground yet, I am going to drag the girls off to the DIY store today to get some seeds, trays, compost, slug pellets and anything else I think we might need.

I think the plot will have to have a small fence put around it or I can see the girls trampling all over it with their wellies or even worse, sootering/biking through it when they're out the back playing. I'm already waiting for the cat to start using the freshly dug earth as a toilet - not sure what I can do to keep her off (in a humane way).

Have spoken to the girls to see what they think we should grow and Milly decided 'chocolate' was a good crop!! Lol!!

But I have decided (even though it sounds a bit adventurous for a first timer) to try the following:

Potatos, Runner Beans, Onions, Carrots, Peppers, Lettuce, Cucumbers and i might get a large tub to grow some strawberries in too.

So for today, that's all.