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!

Spring Is Here!!

Just as the clocks go forward, Spring has arrived. Well it might disappear again but Sundays weather was beautiful. There was a warmth to the sun and the weed seedlings are appearing, so that is a sure sign that things are warming up in the garden.

Sunday was a day of maintance. Cutting the grass for the first time this year and sweeping up leaves dropped by the silver birch. Once everything was tidy, I was able to see the bare bones of the garden and make plans. As this is my first year in this garden, I want to see what plants are already in the garden and to see how the sun makes its way across my garden, during the spring and summer months, so my plans are only in my head for now. I have a sunken patch about 4ft x 4ft, in which I thought would be lovely to have a fire pit, with cushions around the edge, for those balmy summer evenings drinking wine. Lets hope for better weather this summer!

Easter Gardening

Easter has been a bit chilly this year. So I have divided my time between catching up on watching gardening programmes I had recorded and planting up my raspberries, strawberries and onions.

I spent Easter Sunday eating chocolate and watching Matt James in about six episodes of his programme The City Gardener. He is a truly inspirational garden designer. I wish he could come and help me with my odd garden. I also watched Gardeners' World, which is back on our screens, to my delight. I have watched that programme for years and it's always been my favourite. I love it when the theme music comes on and I know that for the next half an hour I will be in heaven. When my children were little, they knew not to disturb me on a Friday night at 8 o'clock. My favourite presenter on the show, has to be Geoff Hamilton. I loved his 'make do and mend' philosophy, he really inspired me to garden and I was terribly sad when he died. Then came along Alan Titchmarsh. He was much too flowery in his description of things for my taste. Geoff was down to earth, whereas Alan tried to ponce things up and always went for the expensive option, totally opposite to Geoff. So when Alan left, I was delighted to see the new team, headed up by Monty Don, with Joe Swift and the lovely Carol Klein.

So I have now planted up my strawberry planter with a variety called Marshmellow and my raspberry canes are now in proper. I didn't have enough room for all the canes, so four have gone into terracota pots. The variety is Joan J an autumn variety. And lastely my red onions have been planted next to the garlic. I have chosen the variety Red Baron.

Next weekend the clocks go forward. My favourite day of the year! So more light to garden in and with the ground starting to warm up, it's going to be a busy time in the garden.

These were not from my garden but a bunch from my son.

Gardening In The Rain

My raspberry canes and strawberry plants arrived last week and have been sitting in a bucket waiting for me to plant them. So Sunday morning I was out in the rain digging a border for my raspberries. It was really miserable and very quiet in the garden with everyone in bed. If only it had been a sunny morning I could have enjoyed the tranquillity, instead of getting drenched. My only comfort, was the thought of yummy fresh raspberries - delish!

I needed to get some compost, so I have just heeled them in for now.

I only have two beds for my vegetables so I was a bit worried about using the space for the strawberries until I discovered in the garden centre this patio strawberry planter. www.haxnicks.co.uk They come in a pack of two and are ideal if space is at a premium. They also make planters for potatoes and vegetables too, so there is no excuse for not having a go at growing your own. I will be planting my strawberries and raspberries up at Easter and giving the garden a general tidy. Lets hope for good weather.

More Photographs From Cornwall

I have now edited some more photographs from my trip to Trebah and Heligan.

When I first started taking photographs, I would develop and print my own black and white film. The whole process, although very enjoyable, would take hours to print the perfect print, with a range of tones from the purest black to the purest white. Now with digital cameras and Photoshop, the process has been speeded up somewhat. It now takes minutes, to do what it used to take hours to do. I feel quite a fraud.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, never cropped his photographs. With exception of the photograph of the man jumping across a puddle. He photographed this through railings and so had to crop the image to get rid of unwanted distractions. I think in these times of digital photography, we rely too much on manipulating the photograph after the event instead of looking at the whole image in the viewfinder before shooting.