Spring planting has begun

The weather yesterday, Thursday was glorious, t'shirt weather and rather than sit in the kitchen and wire up the beads that I should have done I couldn't resist the pull of the garden.

 

Gordy, our little cat with special needs, also seemed to feel the pull of the sunshine, he hasn't been outside in a while as the wind and rain scares him and he just sits and shakes, but there was no stopping him yesterday, so out we went.  It soon became clear that having Gordy outside and doing anything wasn't going to happen as he was feeling very adventurous and Defi (my youngest Golden) kept showing Gordy how to go through the hedge and look into the field beyond - we are getting sheep in the field and my son was putting up the electric boundary fence (he works for the farm) the other day so the dogs know what is coming.  Unfortunately we have stock fencing on the other side of the hedge which does keep the dogs in but Gordy can fit through the gaps and being brain damaged and not able to look after himself something had to be done for safe garden play. 

 

Gordy's harness and lead were put on but the lead isn't very long and I wanted to dig the veggie plot over and plant the summer potatoes, that wasn't going to happen if I had to hold the lead, so I rooted around in the cupboard and found the long training lead that I used when Iz was a puppy...a very naughty and not easy to train puppy!....this extra length gave Gordy lots of 'free' play whilst still being safe and not in danger of running off and getting into trouble.  He didn't seem to mind, he had relative freedom and could sniff in the flower beds, chase flies and watch bumble bees come and go as well as come into the veggie plot with me if he wanted or lie in the sun with Defi.

 

Problem sorted.  Digging began.

 

 

Gordy resting in the long grass, we desperately need the mower fixed!

 

 

Last Autumn I cut back the enormous Buddleia bush and took a few cuttings, I just stuck them in the old veg beds and left them too it, they rooted and so yesterday when I cleared the old beds I potted them up, I think I will leave them a bit longer before I decide where to plant them.  The joy of a big garden is being able to have big shrubs.

 

 

The new vegetable plot, which is the old chicken coop, its all still fenced in so the dogs cant dig anything up.  I had to re-dig it over and do a lot of pulling up big weeds, back breaking work but worth it.

 

 

The planting has begun.  Just the potatoes are in at this point.  My studio over looks the veg plot, I used to love looking out and seeing the chooks running around, they were free ranging but their food and water was in the coop so they used to pop back and I could watch them.

 

 

I dug over the old veg beds and harvested the last of last years crop, some carrots and technically leeks but they are small so great spring onions.

 

 The old veg beds before I started digging, they are all clear now and waiting for flowers.  I am turning these into raised flower beds and have a lovely selection of bright colourful seeds to throw into them and make them a ladybug, butterfly and bumble bee attraction.

 

 

I rather like this photo of the potato rows looks like a line of small graves, a bit macabre but after the loss of the chooks due to foxy loxy and badger its rather apt!

 

 

Its misty here this morning and I really do have to finish wiring up the beads, I started last night but was too tired to finish, so I joined a very sleep Gordy, Iz and Defi and had an early night.

 



 

My little veggie plot

When I am not in the studio, which is quite rare I love to potter in the garden.  A few years ago my hubby and son built me three raised planters at the back of the garden next to the studio, I merrily planted my veggies and had a few disasters along the way, then last year I just didn't bother at all the weather was so horrid and wet but I missed my pottering, so this year I decided to do it again.

 

I don't spend a lot of money, I am a real cheap skate, I brought all my seeds from Aldi's this year for a total of £2, I got lettuce, broccoli, leek, onion, cabbage, carrot, chilli's and tomatoes, oh and cucumbers but I never do well with those.

 

My first veggie bed has my strawberries and rhubarb in.  The strawberries have got huge this year.  Around the garden I have those little wild strawberries, they are really nice to nibble on when I come back from the daily dog walk.  Defi and I wander around the garden tasting them, which nearly cost me my huge strawberries and in fact the first biggest one of the year as Defi watched me check it for readiness which it was only a day away from, and snaffled it!  I turned to see my lovely strawberry disappear from the plant and the juice dribble down his chin, the golden swine!

 

 

 

Inbetween the strawberries and the rhubarb - which is brilliant for wine making, but don't use on its own it has to be mixed with other fruits to blend it - I have garlic.  I have no idea how they got to this bed I sowed them in the other bed the other year, they moved!  But, they grow happily amongst the strawberries and so far no taste has been tainted, but the slugs and snails have kept away from the berries so maybe the garlic wards them off?

 



You can see the garlic now ready for lifting, tomorrows job, on the right.

 

 

My other two beds have the other veggies.  I am not a tidy gardener, I used to be, but I developed OCD years ago and battled against it, now I love the fact I don't need to put everything in its place and am rewarded by bees and birds, ladybugs and beetles, they might not be the most productive in the garden but I like them and they inspire my beads.



 

You can see my old chair in the corner, it's next to my little shed for my gardening tools and potting table, which is under a big tree just in front of my compost heap, I like to sit here and watch my garden grow!



 

 

These lettuces are Little Gem and are sweet and delicious, they are in a pot as they are the ones I separated earlier this year to grow larger.  I hate thinning my crops it feels so wasteful but I did today so hopefully more big Little Gems will be soon.

 

 

I have to plant my toms and cucumbers from the pots they are in at the moment, we are probably 3-4 weeks behind the South of the UK in gardening, but we usually have those weeks back at the end of the season.

 

 

Laney x