Blasted blight

So, here they are, the tomatoes Luke has raised from seed, grown in the conservatory and planted out in rich, dark compost. The tomatoes he has fed with tomato feed, watered to stop their skins cracking and checked over nightly. The tomatoes that have succumbed to blight! The pulled up plants can't even be used as compost in case the blight spores infect the compost so have had to be thrown out in the green bin.
There's now room for salad leaves and cress but will the hens eat those?

Luke has saved a few tomatoes and is keeping a close eye on them. We are hoping that by sitting in the sun   and warmth of the greenhouse they will ripen up and be salvaged for a few glorious Greek salads of mozzarella, basil and tomatoes.

A big raspberry

 I have been laughing today at the chickens, leaping up to secure a fat red berry from the raspberry canes. I thought it would be good for them to get a bit of exercise. As long as they don't land on anything to cut or bruise their feet and cause bumble foot they will be fine and of course around the raspberries we have the old bark chippings that the hens had in their run before I cleared it out for fresh chippings. This habit of recycling is paramount to gardeners (although I can hardly call myself a gardener, just a  plant lover) and with the addition of well rotted chicken manure is perfect for the raspberries.
The chickens had made quick meals of the lower raspberries but now some of those ruby jewels are as high as my waist which means they are all for us! But you know me and those darn chickens. I just can't say no to them. Here Buckster gets one of her Five a Day!

A ready made Spring garden, just add water and wait!

This is how the border had looked before I decided to divide it up and space it out. I did it so early purely because I didn't want to get cold outside in a month's time but of course if means I miss out on enjoying the border as it was. Me and my impatience. I'll probably find my giant (and expensive) allium  bulbs will either shoot too early and get frost damage or else be eaten by slugs in the damp ground. And it will all be my fault!

I do love these funny pineapple lilies. I have four but only two have come to anything much this year, standing like bookends either side of the conservatory windows. With the heuchera infront of it, picking up the purple on those tiny flowers in the main body of the plant it really does sing for it's supper.

 On the other side of the garden, in the seriously in need to attention monochrome border, my Japanese anemond lights up the patch. It's so utterly white and almost glows in the dark.

 I love this hollyhock. It is such a lovely lemon colour and such a fat pom pom of a flower, there really is a plant for everyone out there, Luke's is Salvia Patens Blue which I have managed to buy two of at 75% of it's usual price but that's because there are only three gentian flower buds on each large plant. But, God-willing, there is always next year. 

Time to take a break.

I've done nothing today and how nice that's been.

What's in the greenhouse?

Tomatoes, aubergines, more tomatoes and a visitor.

Well, so much for my hammock dreams.

I was all up for doing nothing today int he garden but listen to my audio book whilst swinging in the hammock. Now would you believe it, it's raining! Ah well, it's "good for the garden".

I.O.U.

some photographs..., I've taken quite a few but leave them all for the technical whiz in the family to sort them out for me so till then here's just a couple. This is how my last surviving courgette was 'caged', to stop the hedgehog (if indeed he visits us still) getting the slug pellets that are strewn around it to deter, or let's be honest, kill the slugs. I just have to hope they don't slope off and die away from it in full view of the hedgehog. What a dilemma! I have to say though that the courgette is now twice this size and threatening to break out of it's temporary home and will soon be big enough to take care of itself.

The seeds of this giant sunflower are oh, so tightly packed in such a perfect combination - it's like commuters in the rush hour on the underground, butted up to total strangers.

A bank holiday

Oh, the thrill of it – three whole days to garden! But oh, the pain of it; my poor back has been complaining like mad! What have I been doing? I've been painting the fence (yes really, that thing never ends, does it?), Sawing and pruning the tree between our garden and Jack's. Digging out the whole pastel border, planting... too early... allium bulbs and tulips, eating raspberries (well, there has to be some gain from it all), repositioning the broccoli before giving into sprinkling the slug pellets around them, although I have protected the possible hedgehog by edging the whole lot with a barricade. (I awoke with a start on Friday night, realising that I had not protected my expensive plugs of broccoli and ended up going out in to the garden in my dressing gown at 1.59am to shine a light at the tender plants and pick up the slugs that were making their slimy way to get their late night snack. “I don't think so”, I muttered as I grabbed each one and flung it over the fence.)

I digress, what else have I been doing? I've been chuckling at the hens eating cold fried rice whilst making this sweet sound of absolute delight. It's sort of like a conversation with a mouthful of bubble-gum. I know I haven't explained it well at all but it's delightful and made me laugh out loud. We've also finally put supports up the wall to grow the wisteria up and around the French windows and I've cut back the dead flowers on many a plant along with tidying up the roses.

I have picked sweet Trail of Tear beans from our wigwam of green, I've clipped back the herbs to keep them shaped, I've tried a few leaves of the salad I planted a few weeks ago, I've scooped up cat poo, I've filled and refilled the bird feeders with peanuts. I've hacked at some overgrown brambles at the back of our garden before giving up to drink tea instead, infinitely wiser choice. I've made garlic bread with our own freshly dug up garlic and a lemon from the lemon tree. Home made chips from our potatoes to accompany our fresh cucumber and roasted aubergine from the greenhouse and I've also plaited the garlic and onions to dry.

Yet it's just a drop in the ocean of all that needs doing and now Luke tells me his long green tomatoes have succumbed to the dreaded blight. He's despondent about growing tomatoes having lost them for the second year running. It was a humble tomato plant that got Luke into gardening and now he' s losing his green fingers Hopefully, the success of those purple egg plants will keep his pecker up! And if all that wasn't enough, in my filthy trousers and dirt encrusted top I can always be used as a scarecrow!

Gardening blues – and greens.

I was home alone today as Luke was working. So, I could have been lonely and fed up but I had my friend the garden centre close by so all was well. When I say “my friend” that couldn't really be further from the truth as the blooming place has cost me money! Only last weekend I started buying my Spring bulbs. Now, you know how you have that one thing that you are mean about? For me it's tin foil, I don't like using a lot of tin foil (or aluminium foil as it's known in America) though I'm fine with cling film . My Mum is mean when using lemons but will use great lengths of tin foil without a moment's hesitation. It doesn't make any sense but we all seem to have our irrational ideas about odd little things. I have this big hang up with Spring bulbs.

At the end of every winter when the garden has seemingly lain dormant and all the Autumnal flowers have died back; after long hard months of endless grey and cold and bareness in the garden I am aching for some small sign of hope that the sun is on it's way and that the garden will reawaken; bursting with foamy sprays of colour and form. So this is how it works; each Spring I berate myself for not buying more bulbs because the garden is so empty and flat. I want petals to shout at me to look at them, I want pinks and greens and whites and blacks to grab my attention as I scan the beds for signs of life. I want a show! That's fine, you say, what's stopping you, it's perfectly possible. And this is the rub; I'm too mean! Too mean to spend a vast amount of money on some bulbs that I will not witness push through the earth for another five or six months. It's ridiculous because next Spring I shall be in the same situation; desperate for those little colourful faces to nod at me from the bare expanse of semi frozen earth. However, when it comes to spending a lot of money on enough bulbs I baulk at the idea. Right now, with only a month or two of warmth left I should be buying my warm boots ready for the winter, I shouldn't be spending the money on little biddy bulbs which have nothing to offer in terms of protection against the elements.

Two years ago I thought I had cracked it. I decided that I'd had enough of being disappointed with a few measly crocus and tulips and I did splash out on about sixty bulbs, even last year I did spend a fair amount (I remember being pleased with how many I'd planted before the winter arrived and amazed at myself that my knees had held up for the long period of time I was on them). But however many I buy it's never really enough. It used to be the thing to bury tulip bulbs in the Autumn but tests seem to show that it's best to leave them till later (November time) to prevent the risk of tulip fire, a fungal disease. I don't want to be out in freezing weather though, trying to hack away at frosty unforgiving earth and tulips really need deep planting if you aren't going to lift them every year. I really like tulips in pots - they are so versatile, you can group them together, move them to different parts of the garden and play around with colour combinations with the pot and the plants.

A purist probably hates them (and I've probably said this in an earlier blog) but I love parrot tulips. They are so full of themselves with their crinkled petals and gnarled edges.

I spent last evening choosing more bulbs online for myself after nearly fifty quid's spend this morning but when I looked at the checkout price I'd gone up to £78 so I've stopped that little venture.Time to stop spending and start dividing what I've got.