A tour around our plot - in pictures.

When we were at the plot yesterday I took a few photos that I thought I'd share. Some show how dry the soil still is.

Plans change don't they?

Back in January I posted on several plans for garden projects so I thought I’d update on our progress or lack of it!

Halfway through 2011 and so far we have almost completed one of the projects which was to plant up a small bed at the front of the house with perennials  - the plants that I bought for the front garden bed have now been planted up - the last batch planted just yesterday morning. I say almost completed as I want to plant some spring bulbs in between the perennials to provide some early colour and I can’t really do that just yet. The gaps are where I’m also going to add a few of the aquilegias that I have grown from seed and these aren't really ready for planting out just yet. It even rained all afternoon to settle the plants in which was a long awaited bonus. For more about the rain click here.

I don’t expect that it will look much this year but maybe next. A couple of brave hardy geraniums are producing a few flowers as is a very premature Michaelmas daisy. Some of the poor plants that have been planted a while had to cope with the period of very windy weather and have been a bit battered but they seem to have survived. It's surprising how stony the ground looks - the stones seem to have come from nowhere.

Another plan was to tidy up the area by our cold frame using the paving slabs which would be replaced on our patio. A temporary solution was called for as the patio hasn’t yet been tackled so for now Martyn has created a bark chipped area. Once the area was tidied up (I know it may not look tidy yet but you should have seen how it looked to start with) and bark chippings laid we were surprised at how much room there seems to be in what is just a bit of space tucked behind our greenhouse so we now need to think of how to make best use of what is a sheltered sun trap. The ivy which is creating a fedge is coming through the fence from next door and will be trimmed back hard. The birds love the berries it produces and it also provided ideal shelter and nesting which is why it hasn’t been cut back just yet.

Another plan was to create some sort of focal point in a shady area under our crab apple tree. We were thinking of placing some sort of statue there and planting around the base with shade loving plants.

I searched and searched for a suitable statue but nothing took my fancy. Then we saw a bird bath that we liked which we thought would fit the bill (no pun intended). I know we already have a couple of bird baths but I’m sure the birds will enjoy another. Before we bought the bird bath we decided to cut back some of the bamboo and a very large fatsia and in so doing got a bit carried away so now this has become a project to replant the whole area. What was intended to have been a small project has become a major one which involves trying to cut out some of the branches of the crab apple tree! I quite like the idea of planting a small acer here as we have quite fancied having one for ages but need one that doesn’t need a very light position - any variety suggestions?

At the moment the area looks like this - but as they say with any project things often have to get worse before they get better.

As for our other intended projects - well these seem to have been scaled up too and more have been added to the list after some losses due to last year’s awful winter.

I  planted out the dark leaved dahlias bought earlier but not where I had intended to plant them - they were destined for a bed in which we have (or should I say had) a group of banana plants. As all that seems to have survived over winter is one small shoot this bed has been earmarked for a major renovation so the dahlias have been added to our perennial bed. I can always move them later if they don’t fit in.

Allotment update:

We did manage to plant a few more things on the plot too last week but as I don’t want to duplicate what Martyn has already written on his blog then you can read about that here.

RSPB - Make Nature Count

We took part in the RSPB annual nature survey and for the first time ever the birds were co-operative and didn’t go into hiding so we had a good mix of species with only one or two regulars missing. We even had a couple of new faces.

Mr and Mrs Bullfinch

The garden is also full of baby birds but the ones that the RSPB asked people to look out for seem to have grown up even though we have had baby blackbirds and robins earlier in the year we had none to count last week. The challenge was to count the sparrows - how on earth do you accurately count a flock of sparrows? In the end we had to make a guesstimate.

You may not believe it but …

Looking at the contents of our plant waiting room (cold frame) at the moment you could be forgiven for thinking that we haven't made any effort to plant out anything yet. It’s still looks crammed full with plants but what you have to realise is that these are different plants to the ones in the last photo.

We seem to be missing any rain that comes towards us from any direction - we’ve had some slight dribbly stuff but nothing to change the fact that our soil is bone dry but the wind at least has granted us a bit of a respite so we decided to get planting.

The planting method that we are employing at the moment is to dig a hole as quickly as possible with the trowel - quickly because the hole fills up almost as quickly as we can dig it, then to pop in the plant and fill the planting hole with water. Then the hole is refilled with soil and the plant firmed by which stage the water has been absorbed enough to prevent my gloves becoming a soggy mess. Hopefully this way the plants have access to moisture at root level and not being on the surface the moisture shouldn’t evaporate as quickly.

So what have we managed to plant? First was a selection of cabbages and sprouts. As these like to be in firm ground I made sure I firmed them in really well. These were also covered with insect mesh netting to hopefully foil the wood pigeons that sit on the telegraph wires waiting for us to leave so they can swoop down and devastate any choice greens. Being insect mesh this also doubles as protection against the cabbage white butterflies which will try to invade anything left by the wood pigeons. Unfortunately it doesn’t keep off the clouds of whitefly that no doubt will soon descend.

While I was busily dealing with the brassicas, Martyn planted the first of our courgettes. He did do lots of other things too like tilling the bed where the dahlias were to be planted.

Once the bed was prepared the 30 dahlias that we grew from seed this year were planted alongside the dahlias that had survived the winter. Originally we thought that we had lost all last year’s tubers. Last year we planted one tuber of each of our dahlia varieties in the ground and we piled all the duplicate tubers on top of them and covered with a pile of straw and black polythene. We weren't too bothered about the duplicates as we wanted to plant some different colours. When we first uncovered the pile we thought as Martyn reported in his blog that all the tubers had rotted but we later discovered that most of the ones that were planted are producing shoots.

Another lot of broad beans have been planted out. These are the third lot - all the other broad beans are flowering and I planted surrounded by the beautiful scent of those planted earlier - no wonder the bees love them. Don’t you think that the flowers look a bit like bumble bees? The crimson flowered ones have also attracted the attention of some of our plot neighbours.

After erecting the great wall (well bamboo thingy) of Green Lane I planted dozens of sweet peas. I didn’t intend to have dozens - it just turned out that way. I usually buy a couple of packets but this year decided to also try a  short growing variety. As these were unavailable the seed company substituted some tall ones and we found another packet in a magazine. Then my plot neighbour ran out of room and gave me her leftovers too. If they all grow we will have a beautiful wall of colour - must keep them watered.

While I dealt with the sweet peas Martyn planted our first lot of runner beans and lots of lettuce.

Back in the garden I planted out the penstemon collection that had grown on in the greenhouse so the bed at the front of the house, although not fully planted yet, is filling up nicely.

Martyn has also planted up some tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and melon in some air pots that we are trying for the first time. We are going to risk some tomatoes outside in the garden and hope we don’t have a blight problem there.

Just a quick update on the new fruit

The nectarine fruitlets are hanging on and growing and the Issai kiwi seems to have set fruit. More on this later.

And another bit of news

We spotted a new bird to our garden this week - a male bullfinch - we have seen it twice - once when we were outside without a camera to hand and then yesterday when we were looking out of the house window. We had a camera this time but the bird wasn't very accommodating and hid behind a branch so the camera focussed on the branch - click here for one shot we managed. Hope if he becomes a regular visitor he doesn't cause trouble by pecking off our fruit and flower buds. Forgot to mention it's RSPB Nature Count week.