This Is Hardcore

What an industrious weekend. I can't believe how lovely the weather was yesterday, as I sit looking out at the grey skies and drizzle.

I started after my chiropractor appointment on Friday evening. I thought if I just got stuck in, that I wouldn't feel the pain in my arm. I cut the grass at the back of my garden for the first time this year. Its a very large space on a couple of levels. It really doesn't know what it wants to do and I don't know what to do with it either. It faces south so gets lots of sun and would be ideal for some kind of sun terrace. I need some inspiration before I decide.

On Saturday I planted my Charlotte potatoes. My Pink Fir Apple potatoes haven't chitted enough, so I am going to keep them back another week. I sowed some Basil, Tomatoes. Chillies (free with Gardeners World magazine) and Butternut Squash seeds.

The biggest job of the weekend was the hard landscaping. I had a garden path, which dipped in the middle, so that had to come up. We hired a jack hammer to get the concrete path up and to remove a wall. We had hoped that the concrete path we had removed, could be used for the hardcore for the path but it was too chunky, so we had to pay a visit to B & Q and buy 20 bags of sub base, which was so heavy to push in the trolley, it took the two of us to push with all our might. We also hired a whacker plate to tamp everything down, ready for a dressing of gravel. There was also a wobbly arch across the path, which we pulled down, which has really opened up the garden.

We are going to have to get a skip to remove the rubble which is left but I have lots of other jobs in the pipeline, like to remove the grass which the hardcore is sitting on to make way for some plants and also the front garden needs a makeover so I'll hang on until I am ready to do those jobs and hopefully by then my arm will be of better use to me.

Warm Enough For Sweet Peas

With the sun warming the back of my neck, I planted two of my favourite flowers. Sweet Peas and Dahlias.

You cannot beat the sweet scent of Sweet Peas and I have planted two metal wigwams with a mixture of colours. The Dahlia tubers are buried in the ground now that the chance of a hard frost is over. I have chosen really dark purple varieties for cutting and putting in vases indoors. The buds don't open in water, so you need to wait until they are open on the stem before cutting

The garlic is doing well and the onions are starting to grow.

I am desperate to put my potatoes in but they are not chitting well. I have moved them from the summer house and indoors where it is warmer, so hopefully that might spur them on, so that I can plant them this weekend.

My rasperberry canes are putting on leaf which is very exciting. I wanted to edge the border to stop the grass encroaching and to make it look attractive. I love the look of the French poterge. I think the look of a mixture of vegtable and flowers is very romantic and why not make the vegetable garden pretty as well?

I have lots of bricks dotted about the garden, so we made a brick edging for the raspberry bed which looks lovely and we are recycling materials found in the garden, which is good for the environment too.

Out of Action

This is my second consecutive weekend without any gardening. I am visiting the Chiropractor at the moment and have been told to rest my arm and back. There are plenty of jobs to be getting on with in the garden and if it wasn't for the rain today, I might have been naughty and just done them, although my boyfriend has been keeping an eye on me, making sure I don't use my arm and shouting at me when I do.

So I decided instead to visit a garden centre. Two in fact. I had received a leaflet from our local Wyevale, in which I spotted a compost bin. We have a garden waste bin from the council but as I have so many vegetable peelings, which you can't put in the council compost bin, I thought I would get one. We then went to Stewarts garden centre. I purchased some tomato plants, Tumbler and Tumbling Joe, to put in two lovely wire wall baskets, my sister-in-law Mary gave me. I also purchased Gardeners World magazine, which contained 4 packets of free seeds, tomatoes, chillies, lettuce and basil. I use all of these in abundance, so I need to get cracking and plant them up, one handed!