Above, is a little glimpse of how my tender little darlings are doing in the TLC of our Conservatory.....The Tommies are kind of sporting their second flower trusses now (2 each of Tigarella, Gardeners Delight, Red Cherry, Ferline) and then I've got another 8 Ferline (blight tolerant) coming on in the wings for a later crop too.
Actually, I thought I might start to root some of the what I call 'armpits' this year too? Namely, the bits you normally pinch out and throw away. I'll update you on my progress at a later date if all goes well, eh?!
And all of the various Pigletwillie Bean seedlings are ready for planting out over the next week or two under cloches (incidentally Piggie, I found the book you lost/forgot when you stayed over Easter, and will send it onto you this week darling.X)
The sweetcorn variety I've plumbed for this year is the same variety that I very very first grew, on the advice of someone called 'Johnboy', and it served me superbly well then, so I've chosen to grow it again now. I grew it in 'Rootrainer' modules until the roots were poking their sox off out of the bottom, and they got their freedom this very day into the earth, and I heard them go "Phew!" I used a long-handled bulb planting tool to take a core of soil out at 15" spacing, lobbed them in with a bit of cow manure, and, as you can see, a temporary cloche cover for the first week to help them settle in. The bamboo canes are only there to stop the cloches falling over/blowing away..
And here's the making of Wellie's very own ornamental Villandry-style Potager Garden....A kind of 'Pretty Productive' garden outside of my kitchen window, to make washing up in the kitchen sink a bit more pleasurable.....
I kind of started off with the Bird Bath, for completely obvious reasons (!) I've got two birdbaths in the garden, and this one is for drinking, the other one is for bathing, on account of the depth of water, and the birds aren't stupid.... they use both individually, for the right reasons, so I don't get too much water splashed all over my Bored Beans or Calabrese, but the lawn underneath the rusty-old-arbour where they have a 'splash-about' gets drenched, so that's going to be particularly good for watering the Sweet Peas and the Winter Squashes and Climbing Beans I've got planned for around there.
Here though, the triangular beds have just been planted with a variety of Brassicas, and the boundary to the garden sports Bored Beans, weeds (!) and for the moment, Blackcurrant & Gooseberries. My plan is to grow Butternut & Kuri Winter Squashes along the border this summer, and just 'see how it goes', because my instincts are telling me that the fruit bushes are wrong here, (don't ask me why, it's just a gut instinct) so I've not planned this well, and will be needing to change it next year maybe (see Wellie lick finger and stick it in the air?)
You see, if you didn't start off with a completely clean canvass, you wouldn't have so much choice, and so much room for error? BUT.... I tell you wot Children, each and every day/evening, I am having THE most inspirational thoughts and ideas when I walk round the garden, and if I can implement even a half of them, I'll be a happy bunny.
You see, what started out, for me, as a simple task of planting some new potatoes, turned into a:Well, what if I didn't dig down (because the soil's not been improved yet) and I just improve it 'on the way up' instead? So I put some well-rotted FYM on the soil-surface..... placed the chitted tubers that I'd been growing on in individual plantpots, which were now growing beautifully well, on top of the manure, earthed up a bit with soil, then lawn-mowings, a bit more manure, a bit more soil, another layer of lawn-mowings..... and suddenly.... Bob's Your Auntie!
How cool is that?!
Actually, what I haven't shown you at all yet, is the twenty or so 75l compost bags of new potatoes growing AROUND that raised bed. Never one to miss an opportunity, I wanted to be sure of some clean potatoes to enter into my local Village Show.
Competitive? ..... MOI ?!I've recently received The Show Schedule for this year's Show which outlines what classes, what recipes, what flower arrangements, what photographs, what's what and what's not.
I'm delighted to announce to you, that this years' schedule makes no reference to a Vicky Sponge Sandwich. I only mention this, because I got myself purposefully out of bed at an extraordinary hour the other morning to practice making one for my visiting friends that day. One of my friends cancelled an hour before (wise move Lorna darling), but you, my Gloria-friend, took it on the chin with a "oh no, it's lovely!" To be perfectly honest, which she'd never tell you, it resembled two frisbies with my 'Not By Royal Appointment' Cape Gooseberry & Passionfruit Jam in........ so maybe I could try the 'Jam Swiss Roll' (any red jam) or the Cheese Straws, or the Cheese & Onion Quiche out on you when you next come to visit! Bless you Angel, and hope the photographs were what you wanted.... X
So! Just where on earth is this year disappearing to folks? We're almost half way to Christmas already, and I've only just put my Courgette seeds in, how unfair is that?!
And that's kind of where I've been this last week or two, she said, making her apologies.......
It's all very well 'talking about it', but if you don't pull your finger out and actually do it, The Fairies aren't going to come and do it for you, and after that, it's too late.
Our garden is getting so very exciting now, and I hope yours' is too.
X
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