Serendipity

Weekend update

Well it finally stopped raining and we had a chance to go out into the garden, harvest the peas and beans and cut back the ever encroaching convulus. 

Beansnpeasharvest

The lettuces were starting to get water logged so I did a big harvest, and handed them out.  Next door came over to cut back his trees which were overhanging the fence so we gave him a big colander full and then the tenants came home so we gave them a bagful each, which hasn't really made a dent in the grown ones.   I planted lollo rosso in the small bed and filled in where I'd taken stuff out.  The greenhouse is still full -- I have another thirty or so little gem, fifteen Mikola and about twenty mixed lettuce ready to go out in about a week--aaargh. 

Lollo rossa seedlings

And we have potatoes!!!!.  You are supposed to wait three weeks after they flower before harvesting, so that puts it at the end of July before we can eat them.

Potatoes in flower

Birthday presents

Mina has been taking a class in French polishing.  I am now the happy beneficiary of a bedside table and chair.
The chair, we picked up at a car boot sale as just the frame and then Mina polished and reupholstered it.

The table used to belong to my grandmother who used it as a potting table. Mina took all the edging veneer off, stripped it down and then layered shellac and oil, polished, sanded and then did it again.  We had to wait three weeks before we could put the glass on top, to let it settle and harden. 

Table

And we have fruit

Raspberries

The first ripe raspberries, two dwarf tomatoes and a blackberry.  The tomatoes, courgettes and cucumbers have set, the next batch of lettuce is ready to go in and the parsley has doubled in size. We have ribs marinating, the house has been cleaned, we have nowhere to be this weekend.  All this and it's not due to rain until Sunday evening.  Life is good. 

July Poppy

A random poppy just came up in the front garden.  No idea where it came from, but I'm going to wait for it to set seed and hope that next year it comes up.

Poppy

End of June Update

It's been raining.  a lot.  Monsoon stylee.  so not a lot of work has been happening, but the garden itself has been responding to all that free water with little happy noises and mucho growth.  We got out to do a little weeding and clear up on Thursday, which is when I took these photos.
The flower border is now packed with plants fighting for space--the glads and dahlias have started budding, the nemesia is about to come into flower and the escholzia are making a lot of bees very happy.  All of the campanula i grew from seed last year are ready to kick off and the antirrhinums which self seeded across the bed are nearly all in flower now.  I finally got all the canes in and strings ready for tying in, so all I have to do now is wait for growth.

The flame bed has settled in nicely, with the anenomes flowering continuously, the lilies are up as are the dahlias.  we mulched really well here and haven't needed to weed much which is nice:)

Flamepano

The herbs and gro bags are also trucking along nicely.  The tomatoes have set, as have the gherkin and cucumber.  I'm not sure what is going to happen with the melon and watermelon, but they were an experiment to see if we could grow them outside in this country anyway.  The dill has gone insane, the parsley is ecstatic, the tarragon went a little limp and the sage is happy.  For some reason I couldn't get the basil to germinate, so we've got a pot nursing on the window sill and we shall see.

Lastly, the vegetables.  I do not know the meaning of the word moderation.  We have three trays of lettuce growing on in the greenhouse and a bunch of cos and endive in the nursery bed and all the other lettuce in the main bed.  I gave a bunch of seedlings away and we've been giving lettuces to anyone who comes near us.  The next bunch of lettuce seeds I plant are going to be much more restricted in quantity.  Still it's a learning process for this city girl, i should get it right by the end of the season.

Vegbed

Going clockwise around the edge from the bottom left hand are the potatoes, sweetcorn, dwarf beans, mange tout, broad beans, the flower bed and in the centre are the lettuces.  About forty little gems at the top, then lollo rosso butterhead mikola and more lollo.  The cos are in the other bed by the raspberries, which are also ready to kick in.
I just want it to stop raining so I can go out and sit under the pergola, look at it and feel smug.

Birthday rose

Today is Mina's Birthday and with perfect timing, the rose she was given for her 70th by Richard and Violanda has started flowering.

Roses

We've had our traditional breakfast of blueberry muffins, champagne and juice and are waiting for a friend to visit for dinner. 
And it's drizzling lightly so I don't have to water :)

First Berry!

The Raspberries have been growing apace, flowering freely and have just started to produce berries.The blackberries have also started flowering and hum with the sound of happy bees collecting pollen.

I have managed to create a fairly bee friendly garden this year.  I don't know if there are different types of bee, but there seem to have been lots of different ones flying around.  Big bumbles, small orangey striped ones and regular sized honey bees.

Beesinescholzia

We thinned out the seedling lettuce into larger pots and planted out the sweetcorn.

That's pretty much all there is to do at the moment.  Weeding, clearing away bits of plastic and sweeping up is all that is left to do for a while. 
And eating lettuce :)

Food!

Today we managed to harvest mangetout/sugarsnap peas :).  They tasted amazing, it was difficult to not just eat them straight from the colander. They are still flowering, so we'll probably get another couple of meals out of them.

Mangetout

The broad beans have set on the lower levels, but are still flowering like mad further up, which is making the bees really happy. 

We planted out some more lettuce, Lollo rosso, Mikola , mixed lettuce and yet more Little Gem, and are halfway through potting on the next batch of lettuce seedlings.

Salad1

The weather is due to remain fine until the weekend, so we stand a chance of getting the weeds burnt and maybe even getting the table out!

June

The last post was about a week ago and there hasn't been much of an update since because it's been raining.
Not in itself a bad thing, but it backed us up a bit as we wanted to get the garden cleared of all the bits that accumulated during the building work and weed.  So it rained, and then rained a bit more and all that lovely rain fed the weeds which sprouted everywhere so we've been weeding.
The front garden is now mostly gravel again as opposed to mainly grass --it needs some more work but we broke the back of it and are now waiting for the nigella to finish flowering before taking it out and weedkilling.

The acanthus, rose and rosemary are all thriving

 We also cut the vine right back to allow the grapes to ripen a bit, so hopefully this year we will be able to eat our own grapes.  We're going to go on an expedition to Sharpham Vineyard  and see if we can get any growing tips.

As previously mentioned, it rained.  This made the potatoes very happy and I had to earth them up some more.  At the moment they seem to be all foliage, which can't be good.

Potatoes

All we have to do now is eradicate the convulvulus and then we can sit back and enjoy.

Potatoes

Well, all the rain has been good for something, the potatoes have sprouted through what I thought was quite a heavy covering of soil, so I spent yesterday putting more of the red clay soil on top and then bagging up what was left for later applications.  Today was more weeding and some vegetable planting--the mixed lettuces are in, as are some more little gems.  There would have been more grown ones but Glingle decided that now would be a good time to become a herbivore and started eating them --  I turned round and there she was face down in the greenery munching away.  I thought she'd got over the need to eat young plants, the first year we moved here I had all the seedlings germinating in one of the upstairs bedrooms and she got in and decimated them.  Interestingly enough, she showed no sign of interest in the mixed lettuce or the Mikola, just the little gem.  cats are weird.
No photos today, the light was bad, I'll try to take some tomorrow