Penellype's 2016 Garden Diary

[Penellype]

Lots of sowing and planting today.

Sowed 10 pots of pea Terrain, 6 pots of runner bean Stardust, 1 each of melon Alvaro and Magenta and 2 more courgette Green Bush because most of the ones I sowed earlier haven't germinated.

Having done all that and used up all my space, 10 osteospermums that I had ordered a while ago arrived in the post, needing immediate attention. I potted these up into 3 inch pots and dug out my old small propagator which has a reasonably high top. The plants will have to live on the path during the day and on the draining board on cold nights. I can always tell when things are getting desperate when I have to use the draining board as a plant shelf!

[Penellype]

A walk round the garden on a beautiful sunny evening...

Part 1

From the corner between house and garage



The flowers and ferns are starting to grow

The pond



Even after all that rain earlier in the spring, the pond is now empty. The liner has a hole in it.

The strawberries (Elsanta)



Today, at last, a flower without a black middle has opened. My euonymus hedge is growing nicely.

The archway



3 types of clematis. The purple Alpina is flowering at the top, the others are Miss Bateman (large white flowers) on the left and Nelly Moser (large striped pink flowers) on the right. Acer Palmatum Dissectum has pride of place in the middle.

The growhouse



Full to bursting with potatoes and the very early carrots which might be nearly ready to eat.

[Penellype]

Part 2

The gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes in their net cage



Flowers (only a few) on both now.

The blueberry bushes in full flower



Onions and Meteor peas



Spinach - more than I can eat!



And later... All wrapped up for bedtime

[Penellype]

Another lovely sunny day, and nice to have some company while rearranging the potato buckets. Not hard to see where the sunniest spot in the garden is...



The neighbour's cat obviously likes the Strulch mulch.

[Penellype]

Quite a busy weekend.

At my friend's:
Lots of weeding.
Dug up the parsnips which were starting to bolt.
Moved 2 of the buckets of Charlotte potatoes out of the greenhouse to make room for other things and covered them with fleece.
Took the biggest cucumber and 3 of the peppers to the greenhouse on Sunday as they were desperate to be potted on.
Planted the cucumber (Cucino) into an 11 litre pot and started training it up its mesh support.
Planted the peppers (snackbite red, orange and yellow) into a chiligrow planter.

At home:
Spent a good deal of time finding plastic covers, fleece and clothes pegs and protecting potatoes, strawberries and apple blossom from frost in the evenings, then dismantling it all again in the mornings.
Moved the Charlotte potatoes from the growhouses to their permanent home on the raised beds. Moved the Lady C from under the cloche near the hotbin to the taller growhouses as they were getting too big.
Moved the Sarpo Mira from the raised beds to the cloche near the hotbin as they are only just appearing above the compost.
Potted up the last of the pepper seedlings into a 2 litre pot.
Went to the garden centre for more compost and came back with 6 trays of bedding plants. Rearranged the growhouses yet again to accommodate them.
Noticed some of the stored onions were sprouting so chopped them up for the freezer.
Froze a load of spinach.
Ate my first golf ball sized turnip (Atlantic) and harvested pak choi from the chiligrow that was big enough to make into a stir fry for the first time ever. Also in a race against time with the broccoli, leeks and overwintered carrots all of which are starting to bolt after the warm weather.

[Containergardener]

Everything is blooming there, such a busy bee too...even the Moggie

[Penellype]

Forgot to add to at home:
Mowed the lawns and cut the edges.

[Penellype]

Quite a busy week and yet another major rearrangement. Things are slowly settling down into their summer positions now.

Bought bedding plants on Monday and have been hardening them off so today I decided to plant them out as the forecast is for reasonably mild nights. Peas and strawberries were squatting on the flowerbed, but I decided to leave the peas where they are as the bed is not symmetrical anyway. Once they have finished I will replace them with some fuchsia berry plants. The strawberries are a different matter as they need to go in the fruit cage. Made up a slightly bigger shelf and put this over the salads in the fruit cage:



The evicted carrots (nearly finished) are under the net bottom right. Also in the photo are some alpines I bought yesterday which are going along the house side of the drive once the gravel I have ordered has arrived. That should finish clearing up the mess the builders made.

Planted up the flowerbed with calendula, antirrhinums, livingstone daisies and lobelia and mulched it all with Strulch:



Pleased with that, as long as it can survive the ravages of weather and cat.

2 problems lurking, one of my own making and one I have no control over.

The next door neighbour wants to replace the guttering on her garage roof, which is frankly completely broken. Unfortunately it runs along the back of my raised beds, which are full of buckets of potatoes and fruit bushes:



She was asking about the people I used for the repointing. I know they are very busy, so hopefully by the time they arrive some of the potatoes will have been harvested!

The other problem I have qualifies for numpty of the year award. These are my peas, which I am growing in double rows. At the far end are 2 rows of Hurst Greenshaft, and at this end are the earlier Douce Provence. Spot the stupid mistake...



I have planted this dwarf variety on the wrong side of the 3ft high mesh and when I add the final section for the Terrain peas which are currently just germinating, I am going to have the devil of a job harvesting these! I have no idea what I was thinking of when I planted them. The Hurst Greensahaft are much taller so I should be able to reach most of the peas from one side or the other.

[craftymarie]

Your garden looks amazing, Penellype. Hopefully the potatoes will be harvested long before the guttering gets sorted. Your issue with the dwarf peas makes me realise that I need to check potential heights of things before they go into final positions. I really don't know how you keep up with it all.

[Penellype]

Thanks craftymarie. I think it helps that I have been in this house for nearly 20 years, so I know the garden and its problems very well. I've also mulched and weeded repeatedly so maintenance is easy as there are not that many annual weed seeds and it is almost clear of perennial weeds, the main problem being dandelions, which of course float in from the roadsides and other gardens.

I'm also lucky that I work from home which means that I can nip out for the odd 10 minutes here and there without neglecting my job, and I can do the planning and so on while waiting for replies to emails etc.

[Penellype]

Not a great deal of time this weekend, with poor weather on Saturday and a family outing on Sunday.

At my friend's:
Brought a few tomato plants and some cabbages from home.
Planted out the cabbages, some lettuces and beetroot.
Put the buckets of Charlotte and Desiree potatoes outside.
Removed sideshoots from tomatoes.

At home:
Sowed French beans and a couple more courgettes from a new packet as I am somewhat concerned that the older seeds are not germinating.
Potted up the 2 calabrese plants into buckets and put them in the carrot cage. The turnips have moved under their own net so they are easier to harvest.

The gravel for my drive arrived today so I spent the morning spreading a ton of the stuff, then planting the alpines along the edge of the drive.

Also made some leek and spinach soup and harvested my first ripe tomato (Balconi Red).

[Penellype]

Tuesday:
Decided it was time for one of my periodic merry go round sessions. The salads in the chiligrow, which I had put underneath the strawberry shelf, are starting to bolt and therefore getting too tall. (This is part of the plan as I will soon need the chiligrow for beans). The chiligrow therefore moved in front of the carrot cage and the next lot of salads in a smaller pot went under the strawberry shelf with the old and weary looking half pint peas, which are still producing the occasional pod.

The potato (Lady C) bucket that was still in the growhouse is also getting too tall so that was moved to outside the back door. I felt a bit sorry for it, as this is a wind tunnel and it was quite breezy yesterday, but I did need the space in the growhouse to harden off some geraniums I bought for the fence pots.

One of the broccoli plants growing in the veg garden had finished so the broccoli in the bucket near the white currant bush was moved here. It was being swamped by the rather vigorous growth on the currant.

Planted out the remainder of the bedding plants (lobelia and antirrhinums) and some of the begonias I bought by mail order into the front garden. The begonias are not happy at all and some have died, so I didn't see any point in trying to keep them warm. This made room in the growhouse for the runner beans.

Sorted out the tomato plants and took most of the ones I will be growing at my friend's to her greenhouse along with some of the runner beans and a courgette plant that was getting rather big.

Mowed the lawns.

Today:
The very chilly weather is supposedly over, at least for now, so the geraniums have been put in their pot holders on the fence. They can easily be put back indoors if it turns cold again.

Potted up the runner beans into an 11 litre square pot (3 plants) with the intention of putting this near the archway when hardened off - they are currently back in the growhouse.

Finished off the sowings for May - 6 french beans (Purple Teepee) for the chiligrow, 3 brokali, 6 broccoli (I expect some to die, as they usually do) and 10 pots of peas (Hurst Greenshaft). The peas are to replace the Terrain that I sowed earlier in the month which have germinated really badly (less than 50%, new seed) both here and at my friend's. As these were specifically grown to avoid mildew (supposedly resistant) and this is a much bigger issue at my friend's house, I decided to take the Terrain to my friend's to make up the numbers and grow reliable old Hurst at home. This also gives me a slight breather regarding the problem with having planted the Douce Provence the wrong side of the netting as mentioned in an earlier post.

Having sown 6 courgette seeds from an old packet and had only one germinate, I sowed 2 new ones on Saturday as mentioned in the last post. Guess what? 2 more of the original packet (one of them sown on 29th April!) have germinated. I KNEW this would happen. If I had left it I would probably have been left with only 1 plant - I'm sure the damn things can read my mind!

[vixylix]

Always the way P... they do it on purpose!

[Penellype]

Now this is getting beyond a joke. Having spent a large chunk of last night sorting out the final draft of where I was going to put all of the summer veg and altering quite a bit of it to accommodate an extra courgette plant, ANOTHER of the ones sown on 29th April has germinated over night.

I'm beginning to feel a Victor Meldrew moment coming on!

[Penellype]

Not a bad weekend with plenty of decent weather.

At my friend's:
Took some more tomato plants and french beans to the greenhouse.
Harvested the 2nd bucket of Lady C potatoes planted in January. 0.85kg (about 1.9lb) in this bucket, with fewer very little ones. I replanted the haulms in the bucket and put them back in the greenhouse. The plants I did this to earlier appear to be still growing and I am hopeful of a 2nd crop.
Put up the support frame for the runner beans.
Planted out the celeriac.
Took the tomato growhouse covers off in the greenhouse as it was very hot in there and nights are no longer forecast to be cold. Put up some shading on the sunny side.
Took the cloche cover off the hotbed as the lettuces appeared to be getting a bit hot. Put it on the veg garden and planted out the courgette in it.
General weeding, removing sideshoots from tomatoes etc.
Ate my first strawberries (Marshmello) from the plants in the greenhouse.
The cucumber (Cucino) in the greenhouse looks happy enough and has loads of flowers and a fruit about an inch long.

At home:
The end of May is always one of the most awkward times. The summer crops are getting too big for indoors and some of the winter ones have not yet quite finished. There is also the looming threat of cabbage white caterpillars on any brassicas that are not netted. I often find myself moving things about almost every day at this time of year.
Had a move around in the growhouse, which now contains the runner beans, the first of the green courgettes to germinate which is now quite big, several tomato plants and the french beans that were growing indoors which have finished their first flush of beans but will almost certainly produce more.
The runner beans have been potted up into an 11 litre pot and will be put next to the archway when hardened off. Whether an 11 litre pot is big enough for 3 bean plants I have no idea, but I am about to find out!
The indoor sown carrots which have been in the growhouse and are now about ready to eat were moved under the strawberry shelf in the fruit cage, which needed covering with insect mesh to prevent carrot fly.
Removed the overwintered chinese celery which had bolted and was covered with aphids.
Ate the spring cabbages (Spring Hero) - I grew 4 of these in a 30 litre bucket and ate one of them earlier as spring greens. 2 were only very small but the other had a heart the size of my fist which is a nice size for me.
Froze plenty of spinach - the red vein is now starting to bolt and the Amazon doesn't look that far behind it. This has been fantastic - I sow the seed quite thickly and don't bother thinning it, and it produces a carpet of tightly packed leaves. Attempts to grow spinach at the "correct" spacing have never given me enough for a serving at any given time.
Weeded the onions and decided to mulch them, partly because I hate weeding onions and partly to try to stop the cat from using them as a toilet.
Shuffled round a few more buckets of broccoli, leeks and potatoes to make room for 2 full cloches near the hotbin. These will protect the outdoor tomatoes until they get too tall, at least that's the current plan.