It's been very quiet around the garden recently!

Mainly because of the pouring rain and the fact that with my hips I haven't been up to making the treacherous trek across the muddy lawn to get anywhere!

I'm hoping that tomorrow sometime the stronger half will be able to use some paving stones we have to make a path up the garden to the greenhouse. Which will be great as it means I'll be able to go out in all weathers and not have to worry about serious injury on the way!

Apart from that not much is happening at all, the garlic has started sprouting, the potatoes are ready to be planted (though need to make room for about 3 bin sacks) and the weather seems stable enough to start sowing everything else!

It's hard though knowing when to plant as I still don't have a date on which I'll have somewhere to put all these seedlings! I am hoping that by the time the baby is here (around 7 weeks now) I will have at least one bed ready to plant into and the children will have their square garden area.

A nice day at last!

So we're about to go out and attempt some gardening. The children are already outside getting covered in mud so it'll be baths all round later :o)

Brambles/ivy here we come...muhahahahah!

Update - argh! The ivy seems to be backing down but the brambles are a bit too much for me I'm afraid :o( Got to remember that little and often will get me there eventually!

My lawn plan!

After walking around the garden and thinking what a muddy patch my lawn is I've decided to get rid of most of it! I have talked to the children about it as I think lawns are mainly for children to run around on and they agree with me!

So I'm shrinking the lawn to a small patch which hopefully will be easier to keep green and the rest is either being barked or made into flower beds. The trampoline will be put in a permanent place with half of it buried in the ground (the ground we dig out will be used in our raised beds) and a fence put around with climbers growing up. Under the swing area will be bark and next to that will be a den for the children. A path will go through the garden to the back area and I'm thinking of putting arches over some of it for added interest.

Hopefully it'll look a lot better and in the winter I can more easily fence the lawn off from the dog so I don't end up with holes and muddy patches!

I don't like weekdays!

Mainly because I don't have my handyman around to help and I know if I do too much and injure myself I'll get shouted at. It's all mainly clearing the areas I want to use and planning what's going where.

Tempted now with square foot gardening if I can fit more into a small space. A trip to the library might be in order to see if they have any books on it. I can't even do any sowing which is my favourite bit as I'm not sure if the weather will change suddenly.

Might go and buy some gardening gloves today. I don't mind not using them when I'm planting but pulling up weeds without them is icky, especially if I touch a slug which will send me screaming down to the other end of the garden!

Also as a side thought if I have loads of frogs in the garden, why do I still manage to have loads of snails and slugs??? I have a feeling it's because of all the ivy on the wall which is being destroyed as we go...but it's still puzzling! Thought that frogs were supposed to love slugs and snails!

Weeds!

I hate them, hate them, hate them, hate them ad infinitum!

I hate the brambles which seem to smother everything, the huge clumps of grass which make the garden look like a field, the creeping buttercup which also treats the garden like a field, the stinking onions which don't want to leave and 101 other varieties of blimin weeds!

All seems like far too much to do out the back only in a small patch :o( Feeling very disheartened at the moment which isn't good. After 3 years I just wish it was sorted!

We have a bonfire going though and I've told the other half to burn anything in that area of the garden apart from the lemon and olive tree. Really wish I knew some people who were eager to destroy down the the bear earth!

Seeds we have...seeds we need!

This is my list so far of the seeds we have and when they need to be sown:

Salad:

Salad leaf rocket – sow March to September
Salad leaves Sorrel Blood Veined – sow March to May
Salad leaves Niche Mixed – sow March to September
Lettuce ultimate mixed – sow March to August
Lettuce mixed salad leaves – sow indoors March to April, outdoors April to July
Lettuce All The Year Round (2 packets) – sow spring to mid summer
Lettuce Arctic King – sow September to early October
Tomato Shirley – sow indoors January to May

Alium:

Garlic Arno – sow spring onwards
Organic Onion Hystar F1 Hybrid – sow March to April
Leek Autumn Giant 2 Argenta – sow early spring


Root vegetable:

Raab Cima di Rapa – sow March to August
Carrot Parmex – sow March to June
Carrot Mini Finger (no packet)


Herb:

Oregano True Greek – sow Jaunary to June


Capsicum:

Pepper Cayenne – sow March to April
Pepper Tropical Heat – sow March to early April

Legume:

Pea Maincrop Onward – sow March to May


Flowers:

Sunflowers (no packet)
Violet Teesdale – sow February to June
Poppy Blue – sow February to June or September to October
Annuals Dwarf Mixed – sow March to June
Poppy (2 packets) – sow March to June or August to October
Mimulus Calypso Magic – sow late-winter to mid-summer
Cornflower Mixed – sow April to May
Sweet Pea Memories – sow March to April
Sweet Pea Geoff Amos – sow March to April



I have more packets dotted around the house so will be adding more as I find them UPDATE found lots more now added! This means I need to get:

Peas
Cucumber
Pumpkins
Strawberries
Courgettes
Peppers

I think! Hopefully I'll get a sense of perspective this year and not grow too much :o)

Today's jobs!

For the benefit of my other half who wants to know what we're aiming to do today and assures me that writing it in blog form will give him more enthusiasm than just telling him! So today my plan is thus:

1) try to flatten the rubble which will make the new patio so I can walk across it safely without the worry of hurting myself.

2) work out where the pond is going to go so we can start on that (as I can't make my second veg bed until the old pond (full of frog spawn) is moved).

3) Get rid of the carpet, junk, ivy etc in the old greenhouse so I can see the state of the soil and decide whether to raise the level a bit...this will be a veg bed and it's getting fairly close to the time when I want to plant my aliums.

I think that's it! Only have an afternoon to do a lot of it in so don't want to try to do too much and then get despondent when it doesn't go well.