Barefoot Gardening

In honour of National Naked Gardening day, I took my gardening shoes off and stood on the wet grass. Thats about as far as my naked gardening goes. We are over looked on one side of the garden, so I don't want to frighten the neighbours plus can you imagine if you are not concentrating when you are trimming the bushes, ooh it doesn't bear thinking about!

On Saturday I went to Haskins garden centre to meet my sister and neice for tea and cake and also a look around at the plants.

My sister Sarah and her daughter Hannah had to go straight after the tea, so I had a leisurely wander around the garden centre, looking at all the paraphanalia, that has nothing to do with gardening (what's that all about?) and also the books and plants. I bought some slug pellets which are certified for organic use (recommended by Monty) and some twine. Not very exciting but neccessary. I am not ready for plants yet but nothing beats nosing about the blooms.

I have also been busy in my vegetable garden. I have planted a row of Pink Fir Apple potatoes. Unfortunately just one row because I just don't have the room. I made a wig wam for my climbing french beans. I planted four beans per stake, with the intention of removing the weaker two seedlings per stake.

I sowed sweetcorn in blocks, a variety called Supersweet, which helps pollination and in between the sweetcorn I sowed carrots. This variety is called Fly Away and is supposed to be resistant against the dreaded carrot root fly. Lastly I sowed some lettuce, which is cut and come again. I have just sowed one row and will sow the lettuce in succession, throughout the summer.

As with all vegetables but especially sweetcorn, once vegetables are picked, they loose their sugars very quickly, so you are best to pick and take them straight to the pot. What better excuse do you need to grow your own!

My last vegetable task was planting up my tomatoes in the half baskets. I added some water retaining granules to the compost, which reduces watering by four times.

After all this work, I got out my wicker chair from the summerhouse and sat down with my camera. Instead for walking around the garden with my camera, I took photographs from where I sat. Its amazing what you can see, if you just concentrate on a restricted area.