My first garden!

you scared me!!!

 

He's been busy today.. the people in white coats paid him a visit

I took them from my mum's house. She was putting them in the skip and I was like "aw hell naahh". I need to buy a few kilos of pebbles and that's going to be pretty pricey

Where've you been? I can't think properly without my spirit guide!

 

Still holding my breath!

Can't upload any pics at the moment due to a horrendous thunderstorm that's just chased me out of the garden. It's knocking off my internet connection so I'll be able to upload this post, but not upload images.

Got an update on the garden! I've taken a trip to B&Q again and got my ericaceous compost ready for the blueberry bushes to go in. I got some more clearance plants. One is a cosmos (a chocolate colour) and 3 other plants look similar to foxgloves and are bright red. I got a sponge and the lady tried to convince me to return a sponge that I bought for £1 and then buy a sponge worth 50p instead quote "because it will save me quite a bit". I was stood there thinking "at least £600 spent at B&Q recently and you're fussing over 50p?". I chuckled

I've also got a new fork. A border fork with a wooden handle this time. Shortly after getting home I started forking the borders and it looks much better. I then started digging out the last bit of the old lawn and the spade made it's final debut! It uncovered a 2ft diameter lump of concrete right where I wanted to plant stuff. I got it out, but the spade isn't looking too good now. It's moved over 50 tonnes of turf, rubble, soil and compost in the last few months so it's not done bad for a cheapo plastic spade. It's tricky to use now!

The lawns have been mowed (the clippings have been mixed in with all the leavy stuff in the compost heap) and I've completely cleared the patio so it doesn't look like a reclamation yard any more! I've basically ramped up all the soil around the edges of the garden. The fence posts had been concreted in at some point but the concrete bit stuck out at least a foot. It looked stupid! It's now got a nice slope around the outside of the garden.

I came outside the other day to find the plastic panel (window) of the coldframe pushed though and wondered what had happened. It turns out that the cats are too lazy and walk over it. Clearly one of them has fallen through. The sheet landed on my leeks and they had been left like that overnight. Today I put screws in around the edges so that the sheet HOPEFULLY wont fall through again. It looks a lot better! And even better... while I was sorting it out I realised that the spring onions, chives and fennel are all sprouting. The rocket shoots appeared overnight so I'm glad these are catching up. When I first put the herb tray in the coldframe I dropped it and the soil mixed up so I don't know what's growing in each cell but SOMETHING is growing

On a final note, Hope has been sorting out the bird bath. It now has pebbles in it and it looks really nice. She's done a good job

 

Glad it's not just me

 

Hello, I think I'm back now ( hopefully ). It weren't my fault, everytime I tried to do owt it cut me off

Glad you're making progress as there's not a lot of time left now for ya is there.

Can you give us a pic of the Cosmos, it could be one called Chocolate Cosmos ( has a delicious smell of chocolate ) which, if so is a tuber which you can dig up before it gets frosted and keep overwinter for next year. However, if it's a normal Cosmos it will be an annual.

The red foxglove like things sound like Penstemons, a hardy perennial.

 

Oooh there's nowt like a good hard sniff on a Sunday night

 

Nah you numpty, it's a smaller rounder flower and the leaves aren't quite as ferny.

I put the chocolate smell in ( admittedly in the wrong place ) as another Id tip :p

 

Galaxy

 

Glad to hear you're able to get online now! And no I've got less than 2 weeks apparently. I really should check to see when I'm going back to school I need this garden to be somewhere I can potter round and forget the stresses of being sworn at by students. Teaching Bradford children with no ambitions mathematics isn't an easy sell

Chocolate cosmos sounds correct, though I did not smell the flowers. I shall do that tomorrow. Just for you Ant Penstemons rings a bell too. We do keep the labels. I'm not sat in the garden next to them so I couldn't tell you

 

......Annnnnd breathe! Sorry about that, I didn't realise you were still hanging on waiting for a response.



Deep thought ^........ nope sorry, the moments past now. It must have been the bike distraction - which didn't happen but I'm still working on.

 

So I've gone blue in the face for nothing?

 

The cheapo Clematis has grown and wrapped around the bamboo canes in the planters and is about 5ft long now. One of them put out a single flower. Clearly a bit of TLC from B&Q would bring in a better profit. Ah well! I'm not complaining!



And as promised... a pic of the spade and the concrete boulder it unearthed


Not looking too good is it? And using it has become much more challenging!

An update on Ants plants... They've grown substantially in the raised bed and I've moved them into the garden.


Once the top level of the raised bed was cleared I scooted the broccolli over a bit. They've got 1 square foot each. Square foot gardening is quite a handy method! I've also moved the seedlings from the modular trays into this bed. I've got 11 leeks, several bunches of spring onions and rocket planted now. The carrots are growing well in the lower level.

A pic of the bird bath



The best thing about the bird bath is that the steel dish heats up in the sun like a frying pan on a hob. It gets HOT. With the water in, it stays tepid but the water heats up to a nice warm temperature. Not only will the birds appreciate not freezing their little feet off but the creeping jenny will also grow much faster. It's grown an inch in the last 3 days.

The other update is that I've planted some bulbs.



^^^ The most awkward selfie I've ever taken.

Laid out on the soil



From the front, going back, we've got Spring Dawn Daffodils (10 bulbs), Crocus Pickwick (75 bulbs), Crocus chrysanthus var. fuscotinctus (25 bulbs)


Starting at the "spade" and working around the border: Tulips Apeldorn (30 bulbs), Dutch Master daffodils (30 bulbs - BIG BULBS!!), Topolino daffodils (30 bulbs) and finally around the base of the rockery there's Crocus Vanguard (60 bulbs). You can also see that the potato bags have been fully earther up!

And no,
@Anthony Rogers I haven't planted the Fuchsia. The plant pot has been submerged into the soil because I found the Fuchsia at the opposite end of the garden after a windy day

And finally, I've bought the most important part of the garden!



On sale at IKEA for £40 each. Supposed to be £85 which is nice. Got a nice curved bottom for my nicely curved bottom so they're really comfy! We sat outside and ate dinner in the sun yesterday. BLISS!