A Garden Fit To Burst

We had anticipated that the greenhouse would be up by Sunday evening. The chaps who delivered it, assured us that it would only take a day to put up but things always take longer than you think and it didn't help that the instructions were just a collection of diagrams with numbers for the pieces. I was never any good at jigsaws, not that I did a lot, as I was busy planting out my peas and sweetpeas.

In my vegetable bed, I have allocated a slice to growing flowers. I have two small wigwams of sweetpeas, plus seedlings which have self seeded from last year. The purpose of growing the flowers amongst the veg are two fold. They will bring in beneficial insects plus they look pretty. I suppose if you were relying on your vegetables for sustenance, then growing flowers may seem a bit frivolous and maybe as I get more experienced at growing vegetables, then this practise may become a thing of the past but for now I just about have the space to indulge my passion for cut flowers.
My seedlings are doing well. My squashes and climbing beans are looking good but the sweetcorn, which has an important role to play in my three sisters planting scheme, aren't showing themselves yet. I have taken action today and popped them into my heated propagator, to chivvy them along a bit.

Much of the garden is ready to burst. I enjoy the anticipation, almost as much as the flowers themselves. My Allium Purple Sensation purchased on my visit to Sarah Ravens Perch Hill are ready to burst.

Allium Purple Sensation

And I have two enormous Angelica's with bulbous buds ready to explode.

Angelica

Once the greenhouse is finished, which really is only a matter of putting in a couple more pieces of glass, I can move my seedlings into their new home, and then I can tidy up the summer house and put up the bunting I bought to make it look pretty instead of practical.

So much to look forward to, it's not only the plants which are ready to burst!

NGS White Barn

This week I paid a visit to a wonderful garden near Ringwood in Hampshire called White Barn. It's owned by a lovely couple Marilyn and Barrie Knight. They extend a welcome to their visitors every Wednesday from 19 May to 28 July. Last year they had over 2000 visitors, raising an enormous sum of £3500 for the NGS and this year should be no different, with 6 coaches booked to visit already!
This 3/4 of an acre garden is definitely one for the plant lover. They have over 250 clematis with all the cottage favourites, in abundance. Although still quite early in the season (plus it's unseasonably cold) the garden was filled with wonderful spring flowers, tulips, rhododendrons, azaleas,  magnolias and fabulous tulips and a sweet scent filled the air as I walked around.

Many visitors to the garden come back for a second visit to catch different plants in flower. Every week there is something new in bloom, something us gardeners are always striving for. There are lots of paths to explore, with lovely vistas and sitting places and they haven't forgotten to include vegetables as well!

If you come to the South on holiday this summer, White Barn should be on your list of gardens to visit. I for one will be visiting it again, when the roses are in bloom and I can't wait.

A Staycation In The Garden

A well needed break from work this week, has enabled me to spend lots of time outside in the garden. It's not been as sunny as of late and the temperature has dropped but that hasn't mattered a jot to me. The feeling of fresh air on my face, the sound of birdsong in my ears and the smell of  lilac, wafting over the garden fence from next door, has certainly raised my spirits.

This week we have been preparing the space for the greenhouse. Well I say we but really it has been Andy doing all the hard graft, although I have helped move some slabs and plopped some cement down, sometimes more of a hindrance than a help really.
The slabs are down and tomorrow we had planned to assemble the greenhouse but a game of crazy golf at the weekend has changed things around. We need a retaining wall to go behind the greenhouse and as we couldn't decide what materials to use, we were going to build that after the greenhouse had gone up but whilst playing crazy golf with our besties, we admired on the 15th hole, a fabulous retaining wall made out of railway sleepers. After searching the Internet we found a local supplier of railway sleepers and after a swift phone call, money changed hands and the railway sleepers were delivered today.http://www.ridgefarm-sleepers.co.uk/

                                                                     Andy doing his Tommy Walsh impersonation

So tomorrow Andy, with my interference, will be building the retaining wall and the greenhouse will just have to wait a little longer but it will definitely be worth the wait!

Everyday I visit my newly painted summer house, to check on the brown soil in pots and give them a water but today I was very pleasantly surprised to see little seedlings. The squash are finally making an appearance.

                                                                                            Squash Seedling

The chilies are doing well

Tomatoes aren't doing too badly either

But my most successful vegetable to date definitely has to be my purple sprouting broccoli. It's now growing in abundance and tastes absolutely lovely. Today I blanched some and popped it in the freezer and we added some to our stir fry - yum! My best friend Linda bought me a book by the RHS called Allotment Handbook and in there it states that the broccoli needs to be in the ground 42 weeks, also if you sow it in succession, you can be harvesting broccoli for 10 months of the year, although I think I might get a bit bored  of it, if I ate it for that long. 

This week I visited my first NGS garden to photograph. The garden was a little slice of heaven. Photographs in my next post. Last day of my stay cation tomorrow -  lots to pack in, so fingers crossed for dry weather or it's cagoules at the ready.                                                                  

Sowing For Success

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

I have started to pick my purple sprouting broccoli and it's delicious. From the moment it's picked to the moment it's on my plate, is a matter of minutes and you can't get fresher than that!

I spent yesterday sowing seeds galore, with the sun shining down on my back, it felt wonderful.  I sowed sweetcorn, butternut squash, climbing green beans and climbing purple beans, in modules. I am going to grow these vegetables using the Three Sisters Method.  This method was used by Native Americans. The Iroquois women of the tribe were the gardeners. They planted these three crops together which grew in perfect harmony with each other. The corn was planted and the beans used the sweetcorn for support and also fixed nitrogen in the soil. The squash scrambled over the ground suppressing the weeds and retaining moisture. What a perfect relationship. (Source: taken from Carol Kleins Grow Your Own Veg). I haven't forgotten flowers, which are not only pretty to look at, in the garden and in the house but also they encourage beneficial insects into the garden to help with pollination and pests. I sowed five different varieties of sunflowers, calendula and mallope, again all in modules, which hopefully will give them a flying start. I did chance sowing some seeds straight into the ground. Some parsnips and a row of carrots which I will sow more of, over the next few months. As the parsnips take an age to show, I scattered some cornflower seeds in between the rows for a pretty summer display and some more cut flowers for the vase.

I am watching episodes of Carol Kleins Grow Your Own Veg, which has just been aired by the Good Food Channel. I have been gardening for over 20 years but I am still very new to vegetable growing and this series is so informative and enjoyable to watch. I have learnt so much plus the background music is supplied by two of my prog rock favourites, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Genesis (The Peter Gabriel years). If you missed her programme, then I can thoroughly recommend her book which accompanied the series and for authenticity, how about listening to some prog rock whilst reading it. I often listen to Plant Rock radio station, whilst gardening. The plants seem to enjoy it and if the neighbours children are out bouncing on their trampoline, it helps to drown out their squawking!

A weekend of two halves

I have had a weekend of two halves. Well all work and no play, makes Louise a dull girl!
Saturday I spent painting the summer house a lovely shade of Wild Thyme and today has been spent eating yummy Purbeck ice-cream, drinking cider and getting sand between my toes, properly for the first time this year.

                                                                                          Sandbanks Dorset

The lovely sunny weather we have had this week, has really got the garden springing into action. The colours of the plants and flowers, this time of year seem to be very vibrant. It might simply be the fact that they are the first flora to visually stimulate the senses after the drab darkness of winter has departed.

                                                                                      Muscari (Grape Hyacinth)

                                                                                                Euphorbia

We have had two episodes of the Edible Garden with Alys Fowler and I am loving it! The way the programme has been filmed including little animations, really makes the programme a treat to watch, as well as being informative and inspiring to those who are new to vegetable gardening. And I definitely  felt her pain, when she spoke about losing tomatoes to the dreaded blight. I am hoping that my little seedlings of blight resistant Legend will restore my faith in growing tomatoes again.
I feel we are on the verge of a growing revolution and I am very excited by it. It really gives you a sense of achievement, working with nature to produce some delicious vegetables and fruit for the kitchen table.

Yummy Broccoli on the way - at last!

It's amazing how different a bit of sunshine makes you feel. I spent Friday morning on Bournemouth beach, taking photographs for an invitation, to entice people down to Bournemouth, as if you need any encouragement, it really is a lovely place to live, especially when the sun shines!

                                                                                    Bournemouth Rocks!


Busy, busy, busy in the garden. Potting on the tomatoes, sowing more tomatoes, this time Legend, which claims to be blight resistant. Sowing lettuces in a trough. All cut and come again and positioned quite close to the kitchen, which will make it much easier for harvesting, rather than being at the end of the garden, as in previous years.
Andy has been doing manly tasks in the garden; welding his axe and chopping down a hedge to make way for the new greenhouse. The bottom of the garden looks like a bit of a bomb site at the moment but I guess you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Luckily my gravel garden, at the beginning of the garden is starting to burst into life. My favourite Geranium, Anne Folkard, has the most vivid acid green leaves and once it bursts into bloom, it stays all summer long, spreading about the border.

                                                                                    Geranium Anne Folkard

The buds of my Peony look so beautiful and strange, emerging out of the stones.

                                                                                                   Peony

Dobbies garden centre are following me on Twitter and I reciprocated which was very advantageous because they sent me a direct message to say if I have any garden questions to DM them. I have mentioned before that my purple sprouting broccoli has been puzzling me, as it hadn't flowered and I was starting to think that I had done something wrong and was just about to pull it up, when I thought I would ask Dobbies why it hadn't flowered yet. They messaged me back, assuring me to hold tight, as the broccoli takes a year to flower. Well I am so glad I took their advice, as lo and behold, my first flowers are beginning to appear.

Lots of yummy broccoli on the way. I love Dobbies, it's like having your own personal gardening guru at the end of your fingertips!

I received a lovely email this week from the NGS. I am very happy to say that I now officially represent the NGS as a garden photographer. The National Garden Scheme is such a wonderful organisation, with amazing amounts of money raised for charity that  I feel so proud to be associated with them. http://www.ngs.org.uk/ Follow the link to find gardens near you which are open for the NGS, or pick up a free brochure from your local library or garden centre which has details of gardens open in your county. It's a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Happy Easter

The weather has been so mixed this Easter break. Pouring rain on Friday and Saturday, so no gardening but thankfully sunshine on Sunday, so a whole day was spent outside. The main job of the day was clearing the fruit bed, in preparation of the greenhouse foundations. I have moved my strawberries and raspberries into another bed and as I have run out of room for my strawberries, I am going to buy another couple of bags designed for strawberries. Raspberries and strawberries are so prolific. I bought the plants a couple of years ago and they have multiplied beyond belief. I have raspberry suckers coming up all over the place!

Gardeners' World was an hour long this week. It was quite a treat having that extra half an hour. I enjoyed it with the obligatory glass of red. A nice full stop to the end of the week.
Lovely Alys Fowler, from GW, has her own program this week called The Edible Garden. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s1lc8 In this 6 part series, she will be growing fruit and veg in her back garden, to avoid buying from the shops. I am really looking forward to watching it. I like her style of gardening, her thriftiness (Geoff H would approve I'm sure) and as growing veg used to be the mans domain, it's nice to see a a strong (personality not brute force) and young, female, championing 'grow your own' - can't wait!