Garden News

Pond clearing and the weather have conspired to keep me from doing a great deal in the garden recently. I am now picking courgettes and beans are appearing on the Kenyan bean plants in the troughs but the tomatoes are going to need an Indian Summer. I had to remove the foliage from the potato plants growing in sacks as the leaves were showing signs of disease. I have been waiting for the weather to improve before splitting the sacks open to see what we've got. Maybe if it stays dry today I'll get to do that this evening. I have a few more seed potatoes that I was planning to start in bags but I'm now in two minds whether to or not. I'll make up my mind when I've opened the three remaining bags.

This year I tried growing spinach in a pot. I had three pickings before the plants began to bolt during the hot spell in June (remember that?!). Not a big success but I think I will give it another go over the autumn. I am also growing carrots in pots for the first time. I am growing a carrot fly resistant variety and have planted chives in the centre of the pot as a companion so that their smell will confuse the flies noses. It will be interesting to see how the carrots turn out. The pots certainly look attractive anyway.

In the Garden #4

Well, when the weather permits I have spent at least 30 mins in the garden each day. It has been quite interesting psychologically! I have realised how normally when I work in the garden I am task orientated. I go to do a specific task and I allocate sufficient time to complete it and normally carry on until it is finished or rain or darkness stops play. On the days when I had a short amount of time to spend in the garden I found myself looking for jobs that fitted in the time available. Obviously that's not going to work out very often! I have found it quite difficult to start something that I won't be able to complete and then when I have started it's quite difficult to stop when the time is up! It's going to be interesting to work with this one.

A few years ago I planted a Wintersweet near the back door. I thought that it would be nice to have something fragrant in the garden in the winter. And so it is and I love the witch hazel like flowers. But it is a very vigorous plant. Every year I cut it back strongly but finally have to admit that it's just not in the right place and will have to go. So today I cut it down to the ground. It was growing between the patio and the back wall and there is no way that we will be able to dig it out. Plus there is a huge bole at the base with young stems already growing from it. So I have had to treat it with stump killer. Next year I will grow something trailing over it to hide the stump. As I was lopping the branches back my trousers occasionally brushed against the lemon verbena growing in a pot on the patio releasing a delicious lemon sherbet fragrance.

Garden Note #1

I remember reading an article, many years ago now, about an elderly lady who said that by spending 30 minutes in her garden every day she kept on top of things and her garden had never been a problem to her.

This seemed like a sensible way of going about things and every few years it comes to mind but it's never really taken root. I guess like all things you have to make the time to begin with. Once things get on top of you it's all to easy to think 'well just 30 minutes won't make much difference... there's not much point' and not bother to get started.

Over the next few weeks I am going to spend a little time working in the garden every day and see what a difference it makes. (Maybe I could try that with the housework as well - but not just yet!)

So what did I do today?

Well, the French beans that I sowed directly into the ground failed to materialise (old seeds) and only about 2/3rds of the Kenyan beans that I sowed in pots germinated. I decided to have one more try with the Kenyan beans. I cleared out the old 1/2 barrel, lifting the hyacinth bulbs to dry and store to replant later and replacing the top few inches of compost. I also emptied a squat pot in which I have been growing crocus for the last couple of years. I then sowed more beans in both of these - fingers crossed!

Years ago I grew poached egg plants (limnanthes) as companion plants. I remember being told that you would only ever need to buy one packet of seeds because they seed themselves readily. What they meant was 'you will never be rid of them'. They are attractive flowers and the bees love them but they don't last for long. They have died down now so I scooped up several bucket fulls of their remains and underneath the ground was carpeted with seeds...

I also rescued some primulas growing in a pot that were being suffocated by some beefy weeds. I took them out of the pot and replanted them.

Being in the town it is always a treat when nature pays a visit. Today there was a chaffinch singing beautifully from it's perch on the neighbours T.V. ariel.