At last, a picture !

Taken of the front bed, a lemony conifer and some shrubs ! The shrubs to the right were already planted, but lemony and the one to it's immediate right were put in yesterday.

LC is confined within a bottomless pot so hopefully will restrict it's growth.

At least we had some sun ! Hoorah !!!

I can see clearly now the rain has gone

but for how long ?

Will have a little walk around the estate later and see what's drowning and what's not.

Had to move some black buckets into the g/h as the rain just wasn't draining anywhere.

Got two Ben Hope blackcurrant twigs to plant today. A friend won a voucher in a Ribena compy earlier in the year and gave me her prize winning ticket. I'd forgotten all about my free bush until a twig dropped through the letterbox last weekend, and then another one when i got home from work last night.

Mr Robin has learned how to hang on to the feeders at last. He only ever hopped about the floor picking up the sparras left overs, but now he's found the knack of hopping from the ballustrade onto a feeder. Clever chap.

Was advised by work yesterday that the results of the interview won't be out till this week due to "delays". It was no less than expected (given that i know what the delays are) but slightly disappointing nevertheless.

Tuesday night saw me racing off to the quacks with a manky foot that was swelling up to the point that my slightly loose shoe was straining under the pressure. Doctor took one look, recoiled in horror and said "best you get up A&E, it looks like an abscess". So off I toddled to the hospital was back home within 2 hours. It wasn't an absess of course, just a really nasty blister, but ended up on antibiotics with a very sore foot. At least the swelling is down now. The surgery nurse couldn't fit me in until Monday so I did a DIY dressing change last night. I was quite pleased with my handiwork if i do say so myself. Rather a professional job and just a bit of stinging. So a big thanks to the staff at the Southern General ! Box of chocs coming your way.

Moral of the story, always dry between your toes but DON'T scratch that itch !

Christmas shopping today, so wish me luck !

And yet another day of rain

Me and the OH are sitting here talking about the weather. :-O

How ridiculous the weather we are having at the moment is. It hasn't stopped since we left for London. It's just shockly bad. Now the window frames in the office and bathroom are leaking, and i've given up worrying what's going on outside ages ago. You get through one day unscathed, only to find the next one is worse. lmao

Ah dearie dearie, you gotta laugh ain't ya ? :-)

Watch the birdie !

Weather same as a couple of hours ago. Sitting here watching the birdies take off from the feeders, getting blown sideways a couple of foot before being blown back again towards the fat balls.

Bless their feathered feet.

Lost and found and found again !

I had a good search of the garden for the aluminium strut to no avail and I was hoping it hadn't pierced someone's beloved cat or child !

So I put my mind to other things and potted up the hollyhocks, and alstroemeria, watered everything in the greenhouses, forked one of the borders and was on my way back indoors when I spied a bit of a glint off something tucked under the step from the veggie plot to the deck ! One aluminium strut ! Hoorah !!!!! So fixed the coldrame and put it's lid back on but looking out there this morning I wonder if I should have bothered. It's looking ghastly and is predicting heavy rain and 20 mph winds today.

To make matters worse, I don't think I closed the g/h vent last night. So fingers crossed it's still attached. I can see the big g/h heater from where I sit and the flames seem consistant and still there which would indicate no gale force winds blowing around inside the g/h. So let's join hands and all hope together eh ?

OH and me both had to visit the post office yesterday, arms full of ebay goodies to send off and after that we were going to B&Q to get paraffin and spray paint to stencil the bins (two weeks ago our nice new green bin was inadvertently knicked by them wot is next door and we got a crappy beaten up one with a bashed lid in it's place so when we got our new one back I thought it was time to ID the bins - sad eh ?).

Anyway, parrafin in the local store was £5.99 for 4 litres, and in B&Q £4.99. Opposite the post office was yet another hardware store (they keep jumping out at me now) so I popped in there and found it for £4.50 for 4 litres! Bargain and saved us a trip to B&Q to boot. Also got the spray acrylic paint in there too. I love local shops.

I thought I'd better get the OH insured in the jalopy as I didn't fancy driving all the way to London over Christmas, so he had his first trip behind a wheel for about 6 months and didn't kill anything or anyone. A good sign!

As today is so rubbish, I'm going to write some chrissy cards and do other indoor things that are sitting on the "must do" pile. Why does that pile never get any smaller ?? Anyone know ?

No pics of the garden taken recently unless you want to see more rain so I might treat you softie southerners to some of that later, just to remind you what it's like. :-)

Well blow me down with a strong wind !

And who hasn't had them this week eh ?

It's been another manic week so let's cut to the chase:

Plastic greenhouse fixed Friday morning before we flew to London, the OH got out of his pit just as the last screw was going in. It was so much easier in the daylight :-)

London was just superb. Had a fantastic weekend with my dear dear penshuner pal for her 60th birthday. Met up with some old football mates, and met some new ones. We had a riot.

Got back on Monday and the MIL warned me to prepare for the worst in the garden. They'd had shocking weather all weekend, so when I looked out and only found the cold frame damaged, I was made up ! I seem to have lost one of the bits of the cold frame lid frame, but haven't managed to look for it in daylight so I'm hoping it will be tucked behind a pot somewhere !

Work has been totally chaotic again but managed to squeeze in the promotion interview on Wednesday. Now I've either missed the point completely and totally bolloxed it, or I've done quite well and I almost enjoyed the experience lol. Don't think I'll have to wait very long for the results, as I think they're quite keen to get these jobs filled, so hopefully by next weekend, I'll know. To top it off, I have been temporarily promoted in my own department today as my boss is having to go and help out in another department for a while until two jobs are filled there ! You can tell we're organised can't you !

In the greenhouses I can see some peas have germinated and my poor wee lettuces were dying for a drink. I don't know how many have suffered, some were looking pretty droopy.

A couple of bear's breeches are germinating in the bedroom and the hollyhocks have to be potted up at the weekend.

The broad beans seems to have survived the gales despite losing their lid, but a few of them have been chomped a bit by A.N.Other slug ....... desperate measures are going to be taken tomorrow !

Right, off to lie down in a darkened room and read a magazine.

Hope all your roofs have stayed on, and that you battened down the hatches.

I think it will get worse before it gets better !!!

Disaster averted

Feeder found splat in the middle of the onion bed. Seeds all over the place so no doubt the onions and garlic will be sharing with some new neighbours soon !

Strategic pots saved the day and no further damage done to the g/h.

There's a clear blue sky so out I go with screwdriver and spanner in hand to make some repairs. At least it wasn't the glass g/h that took the hit.

One of my feeders is missing !

I use the bird feeders as a bit of a guide as to how hard the wind is blowing. This morning, even in the pitch black, I can see that one of them is missing in action. :-0 Guess it was blowy out there last night !

Just waiting for dawn to break before heading out to try and tackle the g/h.

If I'm not back in a few hours, send out the search parties. :-)

You know what they say, if it don't kill you, it'll make you stronger ...

What a week ! Last weekend was spent digging a hole in the freezing cold and wet, and Christmas shopping when the sun was shining bright ! Go figure !

My good friend has said that I've been uncharacteristically quiet on the boards this week. 10 hour working days has pretty much seen to that. Out of a team of 7, I've had one yet to start, two on annual leave, one (the boss) off sick and one seconded to another department. This has left me and my gem of a colleague carrying the whole department. Things have just been manic, and all I've done when I've got home at night is crashed in front of the tv too knackered to even think.

Good news about my recent promotion application though when I got an invite for an interview for next Thursday. Within 24 hrs that got changed to Wednesday (showing how flexible and accommodating I can be!). Tomorrow we fly to London about 4pm for our dear friend's birthday party on Saturday, returning on Monday evening. So that means, I had tonight to prepare my spare set of examples to be used at the interview, with some of Tuesday if I'm lucky.

So with lashing rain and gale force winds, I get home about 6 tonight, straight out to the greenhouses, only to find that one of the plastic sheets has blown out of the front of the small one. GERRRRRRATE ! Half hour spent getting soaking wet, before we both decide to call it a day (or night), prop the sheet up against the gap with a couple of rather large pots and to try again in the morning keeping fingers crossed that no other damage occurs overnight.

I had planned to pop to the post office in the morning to post some ebay stuff I had sold, fill the car up with petrol and buy some more paraffin for the g/h heaters. Guess what I'll be doing now ?

I think I passed hysteria about 4 hours ago, so now I've calmly cobbled together 5 out of the 6 work examples, packed, sent my apologies to the ebay guys for the delay in posting and finally got round to writing some blog.

Now the good stuff.

My calendula seedlings have exploded. They're pretty damn huge and doing well in the heated g/h. Same with the alstroemeria seedlings. Just hope I can keep the g/h warm enough when the big freeze hits. I think I've even got a pea poking it's wee head through. The solent wight garlic is doing well, but the runty elephant has yet to show. The onions and purple garlic are poking through the straw mulch nicely.

Everything has got well watered today and after the week of strong winds, we probably needed it.

So supreme being, what I need tonight is for the wind and rain to stop and the sun to be shining brightly about 8am so that I can get out and fix the g/h before running around like a lunatic getting everything else done before take off.

I'm looking forward to some enjoyable mayhem over the weekend meeting up with some very good friends, rush over to see the family on Sunday/Monday before flying back Monday pm. So, if I'm still alive, I'll see you all next week ... even stronger !

You know I said I hit my finger with a hammer ?

Bloody great bruise running from the tip of my middle right finger to the second knuckle !

It's skipped the slightly pink stage and gone straight for the dark brown !

Fuzzem fuzzem.

Today I have ...............

Smacked my finger with a hammer ! It's stinging. :-(

Remember the ex-patio wall that the workies so kindly dumped in the side flower bed belonging to her upstairs ? Well I thought I'd move it. So I've been bashing around with a hammer and chisel trying to prize the mortar from the bricks. I misjudged it a couple of times and took a direct hit once. Still, the upside is that the wall is now in moveable pieces and is laid up the side of the house waiting for somesome to come and steal it. Any volunteers ?

So I took advantage of the situation and dug over the bed ready for whatever I feel the need to sow in it next season. As it technically doesn't belong to me, I don't feel inclined to improve it very much, so I've just given it a good old turnover and will leave good old mother nature to do the rest for me.

Have no idea what the bush is in the middle of it, but neighbour has two of them, so I gave them both a good haircut, as I did last year, and it didn't seem to hurt them then, just kept them under control. This has pretty much filled up the 4th compost bin. This is also the bed that was overrun with orange alstroemeria and quite a few roots got raised to the surface, so I've taken two and planted them up in pots, stuck a poly bag over them and will wait to see if anything happens.

This is the result of the digging. For solid clay, I was surprised to find that it was quite diggable, apart from close to the bush which was solid with roots. So a good workout by Mr Frost and another turnover and rake next year should be good for some annuals.

While I was out there, I put an overcoat over two of the more waterlogged fruit trees to stop them getting too sodden and also got rid of the early psb so now the far bed is empty and ready for the peas and beans.

The aquadulce broad beans are doing well in the cold frame. One has been nibbled already so I've surrounded them with the contents of my hairbrush !

Then the rain started so I've finished for the day now. I've had quite a profitable morning, and now have to do this damn application form for work (unless I can find something else to amuse me). :-)

Oh......... just remembered yesterday ......... spent most of the day digging out two seriously dead looking shrubs from the communual border (well another bit of her garden). They might have looked dead on top but once again the root system took a fair bit of hacking at before they came out. That bit of the border (just this side of the bath), is heavily waterlogged so I've covered it all in polythene in an attempt to dry it out a bit before excavating the whole lot and putting in a drainage layer. I found a pipe (gasp, thank goodness I didn't put the spade through it) and quickly covered it up again. When I've got a bit more energy, I'll remove as much sodden soil as I can, investigate the pipe a bit further and if it looks "live" will use some of the broken guttering to try and protect it from enthusiastic gardeners i.e. me ! I'm thinking "broad beans" for that particular bit of the plot.

Right, back to the form!

Poo!

I know I should have let it rot, but I didn't. I will go back and get more to fill No. 4 bin and let that do it's work for next year.

Lovely boy up at the stables let me have 7 big bags for 50p a bag, and straw bales at £2.50. I haven't quite worked out the logistics of cramming a bale into the back of a fiesta, but if you can fit four elephants in a mini, i'm sure i can manage.

There was something strangely sensuous about donning a pair of wellies and waterproof jacket, and shovelling shit.









In an inspired moment I removed the rosemary bush out of harms way to a pot and am disposing of the EPSB at the weekend. It really has come to nought, very disappointing. Won't bother again.

And the Solent Wight is peeping through.


Still figuring out how non-members can post comments. Everything seems to be set up OK. So I'll have a search through the FAQs a little later. I also seem to spend more time sorting out the pics layout than actually typing the post. Ah well, no doubt I'll get the hang of it, a bit like the gardening !

Just watching Mr Robin chasing Mr Dunnock. Like there's not enough food for everyone !

Laters peeps.

Best laid plans go awry

Day off today, to get the fresh poo and lay it on the border. Have you seen the weather ??? Nasty and awful, so I guess I'll be spending some quality time in the shed sowing some things and having yet another tidy up. Someone has just suggested a day of daytime tele. God forbid !

Still we had a lovely rainbow long enough for me to get the camera out, closely followed by the next pic !

Waterproofs and wellies for me today !

Look who I found hiding amongst the Little Gems !

I pulled everything out of g/h No. 2 to put up the bubble wrap, and I found our little friend here snuggled up at the back of one of the Little Gem trays. She looked very dozy and not very wide awake, so I think I've woken her from her winter slumbers. I hope that she managed to get back to sleep after I replaced everything, although I really don't think it was the best place for her to be! I hope she survives the fumes. :-O


Apologies to those having trouble posting comments on the blog. Blogger have recently invited me to change over to their new version and I think some of the settings have got lost somewhere, so I shall have a wee play and see if I can't get your names back. Anonymous or not, I really enjoy reading your comments, so please feel free to post them and stick your name at the end ! It's got something to do with having a Gmail address. I shall investigate !

The weather was much better yesterday and even the OH came out to play and put a protective stain coating on the shed. There's me lugging bricks about and he reckoned he was doing the hard work. lol. I have now learned to ignore all the huffing, sighing, puffing and swearing that happens whenever he's asked to do anything ! I figure it's his little way !

Harvested a load of cayenne peppers yesterday which are now strung up like red and green fairy lights over the fire. Couldn't put them in the kitchen as it gets too damp in there, so will see how successful they are in the lounge. As I've got a brand new packet of Cayenne (thanks Lish) for next year, I've not bothered saving any seed and have consigned a couple of the plants to the compost bin. I've still got a few Numex Twilight bushes to harvest (literally hunnerds of fruit) and already have the freezer full of Cayennes, so there won't be a hungry gap next year and then I can start from scratch rather than trying to keep any alive over the winter.


I remembered at last to get the camera out, so now you can see the famous retaining wall. Everything to the left of the wall is the neighbour's but you can see that the carrot bath has jumped across and that's a spare black darlek of mine tucked away up the end. Actually all the rubbish you can see is mine but I'm gradually tidying it up for her upstairs and plan on having a border full of pretty delights next year. I replaced the washing pole that was dug up during lleylandi No. 1 excavation, in the hope that she won't mind me using it next summer!

The lawn is in need of serious tlc, but then it always was !! I will have to try and read up on how to make it green and lush for little'un to play on. I was hoping that I could find truck loads of free poo just to dump on the border. The far end still needs considerable weeding and digging over though.

Here are the rasps and goosgogs in the infamous black buckets and if you look carefully you can see more BB in the cold frame which are housing the broad beans. These things are worth their weight in erm ........ black plastic !!!

And finally (for this morning), the inside of g/h No. 2! Remember right at the beginning Lish, when you told me to put an ickle one inside the big one ? Jolly good idea !!! It means I can leave the back vent open for fumes but the mini one provides enough shelter for things not to freeze. You can see the Little Gems and on the left is an unnamed chilli/pepper that is still growing it's fruit madly ! All the pots tucked away on the bottom shelf are the lilies and on the top shelf is a tray of calendula and other things that I hope will survive. The hanging basket is the mother Prince of Denmark fuschia. The babies are in the other g/h.

So my luvvies, work calls and the garden is put to bed for another week. I had intended on doing so much more this weekend, sowing some peas for one thing, but I appear to have lost the packet roflmao. No doubt they will turn up eventually. The newly tidied shed, has returned to looking more like a bombsite but I have reclaimed the rear and side of the shed.

Not a bad weekend all in all.

A woman's work is never done

Especially in the garden !

Yesterday was the foulest of foul days, which really made me crabbit. I sit there all week planning on what I'm going to dig, plant, move, tidy etd and when Saturday comes, it just pours !

Despite strong winds and the arrival of the promised hail, I managed to:

• start a compost bin for her upstairs and tidied up her path (she'll thank me forever I'm sure)
• found some paraffin (never believe a B&Q sales person that says they don't stock it - they do !)
• bought a new mini paraffin heater for No. 2 g/h and from those instructions worked out how to use No. 1 as well (where DID those instructions go ?)
  
• planted the three Lidl raspberry canes
• found a source of horse poo at a local stables but at £2.50-£3 a bag they can swing for it
• couldn't find the local mounted police branch stables .... I'll ask at work on Monday
  
• pruned my standard fuschia in a pot as it kept falling over in the wind
• repaired the cold frame as one of the lids had come apart in the wind (same wind, bloody nuisance)
  

It's much calmer and drier this morning so I'll be planting out Lish's Runty Elephant garlic, checking that everything under the fleece in the g/h hasn't been fumed to death by the heaters, and doing some more digging/weeding of the main border. And I want to sow some peas. I'm probably too late, but I've got plenty, so am going to give it a go anyway.

Now the front guttering has been repaired, I can sort out the front border a bit as well without fear of everything swimming in a lake of rain. The garlic seems to be coming up, but some of the bulbs seem to be coming to the top of the bed ! Perhaps they're bidding for an escape. I think I'll throw some more compost over them. The garlic and strawberry beds seem to be sinking ! I guess the layer of leaves is rotting down nicely.

Unless the fumes have got to them, the honeysuckle cuttings seem to have taken, as I can see new growth from some of the buds, the Little Gems are coming along but some seem leaves seems to be suffering at the edges from something or other. I'll have a closer inspection today. A couple of hollihocks have germinated but nothing from the Bear's Breeches yet which could be a bit problematic as they both share the same tray in the propogator.

I could see one broad bean poking it's head through a bucket and have stuck all 5 buckets in the cold frame for no other reason than to get them out of the way.

I'm using the bean/pea bed for mixing atm. Throw on a bag of multi-purpose, some bagged manure, sand, and grit and mix it all up with some clay and hey presto, I get some nice workable freeflowing, water and nutrient retaining soil for the pots. That's the theory at least !

And I'm going to pay a visit to bessie mate round the corner's place with a couple of black bags to nick his leaves. All this will take me until dark, so I'd better get a move on............... hopefully be back later with some pics.

Black buckets and fruit bushes

Do you think they would work ?

I've been sitting here humming and hawing about where to put the 3 raspberry canes and 2 gooseberry bushes and have figured out that I just don't have enough space "in the ground". Rather than waste my delicious bushes, I think I'll just black bucket them for now and move them to the lottie when the time comes (no response to my email to the lottie secretary - not a good sign).

Gave the neighbours border a bit of a dig last weekend, but it really needs improving 100%. I've put a couple of ads up on the various recycle sites that we now have in Glasgow in the hope that some kind soul can point me in the direction of a WRM supplier. I'll get the OH with his big digging feet out there at the weekend (weather permitting) to give everything another turn over. I think we're more or less hardcore free up at the deck end of the border now, but I'm hesitant to put the fruit bushes in there just incase the wean falls into them. I can hardly steal their garden and then plant kiddie traps can I now ? :-P

I hadn't been to the dump in a while, so three trips on Sunday morning, got rid of all the home made pallet retaining walls (too wet for a bonfire), the root of the second lleylandi which lovely Mr Deck man had considerately chainsawed into four pieces. I wish he'd had a go at root No. 1 as it's a heavy old thing and will need the two of us to carry it to the car. Cleared out behind the shed of various bits of MDF wardrobe no longer required, and started making a brick path around the compost bins so I don't sink into the mud !

So neighbours lawn looks less like a building site and more like a square patch of green now.

Mr Robin is still the first person to arrive every morning. I'm sure he gets up earlier than I do and often seeing him hoppng about in the dark, bless him. Infact I can hear him now, but he hasn't come to say hi yet.

Opened the two "full" compost heaps at the weekend to give them a bit of a stir and found they'd sunk to about 3/4 full. I take it that's a good sign. :-) Once again, dependant on the weather, I might give them all a bit of a turnout at the weekend and load them all back up again to get the heat going again. Trouble is, it's a bit squeezed behind the shed and it's a bit of a battle to get the bins off and out of the way. I could seriously do with some compost though, and I'm far too impatient to let it all rot down, so I might just shovel it into the bean/pea bed and let it finish it's work there.

Kindly girl in the office is bringing me the leaves from her garden. I like to think I'm doing her a favour by takening them lol. I have plenty out in the street, but don't know if I can be bothered sorting leaves from rubbish.

Another grey and wet day, but I suppose it's time to put on the cheery face and head off to the office.

Ciao for now.

Another piece in the jigsaw

That's the retaining wall built a la stylee of the deck. Mud everywhere of course and no chance to tidy thing up until the weekend. But it's exactly what I wanted. My deck man is one of great vision as it was definitely the back of a fag packet design.

He also replaced the piece of broken guttering having tipped half a tonne of sludge all over him, his mate did the rendering round the patio doors, and he fixed the toilet seat.

What more could you ask from a deck man ! If anyone wants any windows replaced or deck type things built in the Glasgow area, let me know. I'd have no hesitation recommending my bunch.

I had a day out to Stranraer yesterday with the work. Someone was smiling on me as the weather was absolutely perfect. Bright sunshine all the way there and back. Such gorgeous scenery and I'll definitely drag the OH there for a day trip one day next summer and I'll take my camera as there's precious few decent pics on the net.



Back to the office today, so I'd better get a move on.

Cheery bye.

Too scared to look outside !

It was raining cats and dogs last night, with really strong winds and I think they're promising frost sometime this week as well. I'd better look at the weather sites and get out an extra layer of fleece, for me as well as the babies.

As I'm peering out of the window, both g/h are still there, and the new fruit trees look vertical. I'm most worried about the gaping holes that are still around the patio doors, you just can't get a renderer these days .... all promises and no show ! I'm thinking of blocking up the holes with scrunched carrier bags.

No doubt the front bed will be a small lake and my shrublets (as yet of no name) will be floating off down the road as the gutter has yet to be fixed.

They're saying the hosepipe ban will stay in place over the winter darn sarf ?? Well if someone wants to make the short journey north, we've got plenty to go around. Doesn't it make you wonder who the master planner is ? Got to be a bloke. :-P

Can't resist a bargain !

There I was, minding my own business, when someone mentioned that Lidl had fruit trees in at £3.99. One tree I was going to get, just the one. So I unded up with 1 Granny Smith's, 1 Cox's Orange Pippin, 1 Bramley and 1 Cherry Stella, oh and 3 raspberry canes, and 2 gooseberry bushes. :-O

So all weekend, I've been digging and mixing thick clay with all sorts of improvers to plant up the trees and create a bed for my honeysuckle.

Coerced the OH to lay the slab pathway in g/h No. 1 and while I had all the staging out, I draped a layer of scrunched fleece over a length of washing line all down the north side to try and offer a bit of protection against the frst as I just know I'm not going to get any electric heating in there, and I've still to go and find any parrafin for the heater. I was waiting until another two for one bargain came up on an ebay greenhouse site for some bubblewrap, but if I can get away with just having one roll, all the better.

No change in the chillis and pepper, albeit there are more chillies ripening and the peppers are getting fractionally bigger. The radishes have come up, so keeping an eye on them.

Some of the fuschia cuttings seem to have taken, and most of the senecio greyii. The alstroemerias are coming along nicely, and one of the lavender cuttings is growing too big for it's propogator, I'll leave it in there until the rest catch up a bit.

A tray full of calendula officinalis has germinated nicely. Now to see if they can keep going. Out of a tray of Potentilla 'Monarchs Velvet'(Cinquefoil), I've only got two left, but they are struggling along steadily and am looking forward to seeing if they last the winter too.

The solent wight and purple wight garlic went in at last. The solent in it's own bed, the purple had to share with the onions. Still got the elephant to think about.

Man was supposed to come and do wall yesterday, but due to a pretty nasty day and him having a bit of a hard Friday night, we postponed it. Hope it's this week, cos i need to get to the long bed that runs down the centre of the two gardens, and no point doing that til he's built his wall.

The deck is just fabby, but I'm having to watch bird poo off constantly, but it's so easy with the hose. We laid another two paving slabs at the bottom of the steps to the vegetable plot, in the hope that they might stop some of the mud being trodden all across the deck.

I came over all pooped though this afternoon. No-one told my body clock that it should have given me an extra hour in bed this morning. OOh, I can feel a relapse coming on, back to the sofa I go.

42 days is all it took

Hi there people, sorry for the break in transmission. I blame the onset of autumn.

8 September was when I had my deck brainwave. Yesterday it was built ! The money arrived on Tuesday, big congrats to the Nationwide, lovely people. So I rang Mr Window man who duly rang his decking mate and they came to measure/discuss on Thursday night. Yesterday morning I got an early call saying because the weather was likely to be rubbish over the weekend could I leave the keys out for them to start yesterday. By the time I got back from work last night, this is what I walked out onto. I was totally overawed. It's just as wonderful as I wanted, even more impressive than I could ever have thought. No apologies to the pureists, I'm in love. As I walked out onto it, I actually laughed out loud. It was HUGE! I'm thrilled with the ballustrade, all I said to the chap was "keep it simple", and he's achieved that but with strength, and robustness (?). They didn't start until gone 9am yesterday and phoned me at 3.20pm to say they were knocking off for the day, but would be back to finish up today. I can almost forgive them trampling on some of the onions, which I'm sure will recover.

We sat out there till well after dark, just giggling. I don't want to over cram it, so will have to carefully consider how many pots I'm going to have dotted around and how I'm going to stop the chimnea throwing sparks all over it. But it does make me feel as if I'm on holiday.

Now back to the growing thingies ....... I found a ladybird in g/h No. 2 ! Obviously feeding up for winter on the Little Gem greenflies. I moved the ladybird house into the g/h and left her sitting under the fleece to munch away before she retired. She was the first one I'd seen all season, obviously the thought of a big gorge was too much for her to ignore.

The calendula officianalis for overwintering have germinated and I've slung in another trough of radishes. As a result of the deck, next door has acquired a nice size bed (which I will maintain obviously), and that will become home to the honeysuckle and some other nice smelly things so that when I walk up the steps I'll get a lovely fragrant waft.

Here are the peppers and chillis .....





Cayenne
Numex Twilight
Unknown
Yellow Pepper !
(Still getting to grips with pic layout and labelling, sorry)








































Despite it being very damp, I've got the doors wide open and am listening to the birdies waking up. I shall now go and stand on my balcony with my cuppa and soak them up before the day really starts.

More pics to follow ..... obviously. :-)

I hate winter

There's still so much to do outside, but too dark in the mornings to do anything useful before work apart from open the greenhouses. Evenings aren't much better, as we seem to have had "things on" after work most of this week which meant allotmenteering has taken a back seat.

Things to report:

Onion sets are poking through. Need to raise the fleece a tad, or to create two separate fleece tunnels to give both varieties their own space.

Planting the garlic and elephant garlic. That can wait a bit though. The bed is ready just got to get out the ruler and see how much space I have/n't got !

Leeks still in pots. The big ones look a bit damp on the outside, but once you peel off a couple of layers, they look just fine. The small ones really don't seem to be getting any bigger. I guess they could double as spring onions !

Chillis still going mad in the g/h. Cayennes are ripening nicely now, so every couple of days, I pick a few more and sling them in the freezer. I had thought about doing some in oil as well. Chilli oil - yum. Numex Twilight are struggling on. Plenty of fruit struggling to ripen and still plenty of flowers, but must admit to being a bit handy with the scissors and chopping most of them off in an effort to get the fruit to a usable state.

Peppers still seem to be growing although there's no way they're going to get huge. I'll have to take a pic one of these fine days before they all drop off.

Got two trays of fuchsia cuttings on the go, one tray of my Prince of Denmark and the others lifted from grandad's garden last week to keep undercover over the winter for him (and obviously to nick a few for myself). A chappy in work is going to be showing fuschias next year so he can have a few of both as well. Any idea of the name of grandad's one ??

My home saved sweetpeas have done buggar all, but a pot of Floral Tribute Mixed are reaching for the sky in g/h No. 2. I guess I should pinch them out before they get too much taller !

Senecio greyii cuttings (ooooh get you with your botanical names) are still alive ! Some are in the g/h, some are inside. I'll see which do better. If everything goes to plan and I get to keep some of upstairs flower beds to play with next year, I was thinking of doing the whole of their front border with this stuff. I nicked the original cutting from work and it has grown pretty well over the summer. It looks pretty impressive and requires no maintenance, so even upstairs can manage that !

Little Gem lettuces beginning to actually look like lettuces now. Had to pick off loads of greenfly the other night though. I've still got them in the plastic water cups that they were sown in. If I put them in the ground the slugs will get them.

Transplanted my rosemary bush from a pot to a border last week. It looks as though it's enjoying the freedom.

Still working out where to put some early peas and broadies ! Have I mentioned that I only have a two year crop rotation atm ? Legumes and onions.

Roll on that lottie !

Back to work

The evil day finally came and back to the office I went . HI HO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not too bad a day all in all, but I'd rather have been in the garden, pouring rain n aw !

Since putting the gravel down in the g/h the wee sparras have been hopping in and out playing with the stones. Turns out they may well be searching for the salts ! Wonder if they like it on their chips with vinegar ! So I've put another tray of water down for them nearer the door just incase they get thirsty.

The front border/bank is gradually filling up with spring bulbs - daffs, narcissi, chionodoxa, snowdrops, bluebells and I've put in some evening primrose that weren't getting anywhere in their pot. Maybe with the chance to spread their roots a bit, I'll actually get some blooms next year. I've covered each area with bark to mark out what's still vacant. Mum's given me some "almost" Canterbury Bells "but not quite". Mum's technical terms are just so funny. It will be a matter of sow them, see what comes up, and THEN put a name to them. She also gave me some holihocks and I think once the guttering is fixed, I'll put them in the bed underneath the main bedroom window. They will get only get early morning sun there (sun ? what's that?) so I'll check before I plant whether they will need it a bit hotter.

Lish is giving me her elephant garlic "runt" so see if i can coax a trunk out of it!

That's what I love about this gardening malarky, it's all swap, pass on and share. Just the way the world should go round.

Rurry cold out there this morning

The candle in the pot is working nicely in g/h No. 1. Forgot to write down the temp but think it was about 11o.

Lots of composting to be done today, the aubs are just taking up space and are not "happening".

Got to dig in the mustard to release the garlic bed and have loads more bulbs to plant.

Think I'll just have another cuppa and fag and wait for the mist to clear first.

Losing the plot

Well not so much "losing" it as things are beginning to wind up now .... in some cases anyway.

I've still got the odd Gartenperle hanging from the basket, and am down to about half a dozen Totems. I've managed to collect at least 10 different varieties of toms for next year ... many thanks to all my benefactors. You know who you are, Lish, Superprout, Mum, MrsNesbitt.

The onion sets arrived from Dobies yesterday (Swift - early, Radar - late), so had a very pleasurable few hours measuring and marking out the plot, and then just arranging them into a neat grid before throwing a fleece on top of them. The sparrows obviously thought it was Christmas and spent a good hour trying to get them back out again, so now I have a (not so) intricate framework of sticks, string and cds to keep the little blighters off. It has worked so far.

The chillis just keep producing and ripening and the Musselburgh leeks, which we had for tea, are doing well. The mini leeks, in the same pot, not doing very well at all, but those in their own pot look good - just smaller.

The strawberry bed is finished but need to ask SS about mulching it. Should I or shouldn't I ? SS is queen of mulch, so she's the person to ask.

My one and only aubergine dropped off this morning. Guess it's just too damn cold for them now and when I get back from town today, they will be going in the bin. My yellow pepper is doing great though. Not huge but definitely looks like a pepper. I wonder if it will ever get to be a Yellow Pepper like it says on the label. The other plants are definitely producing fruit, but whether or not the sun will be around to do it's job for much longer is anyone's guess.

My honeysuckle has finally produced another two blooms ! Hoorah !! Trouble is the plant is bald until you get to the top of the arch, so the effect is lost lmao. I really have got to brush up on my pests and diseases because I'd really like it to do a bit better next year.

Through a couple of very nice people on A4A, I have finally identified which is which out of the blackcurrant and redcurrant bushes and I think I'm getting to grips with how to prune them next year. Being first year plants, I'm leaving well alone at the moment.

My second blueberry bush has just been delivered, so after going into town today, it will be a trip to B&Q to get soil for it.

What I am really pleased about atm is my Alstroemeria ligtu have actually germinated finally ! The instructions seemed quite complicated, in the warm/in the fridge etc etc. I sowed them on 18 July and now they look like this. I just hope they're big enough to withstand the winter. I may have to give them an extra fleece overcoat to keep them warm. I have another Alstroemeria in a pot in the garden which I think is pretty dainty, but the ones I really love are the bright scarlets and oranges. Next door has a lovely orange one which crept over our side of the fence. I may just dig a few up and move them to my front border. Enmasse they look wonderful. Am off in search for some scarlet ones.

Last but not least, for now, I gave my Prince of Denmark fuschias in the hanging basket a good haircut last week and took some cuttings which are happily rooting away in the g/h, but then I spotted all this happening today. Don't they know it's WINTER !

I suppose it does get pretty cold in Denmark.

Darn Sarf

Well MY pilot had the right idea, the silly sod that overrun the runway that closed Luton on Wednesday obviously didn't !

RW was great, he looked a bit tired though. I wouldn't say Milton Keynes Bowl is my favourite venue, and is a nightmare to navigate in and out of. Lost mobile/found mobile. Missed train/got taxi. The weather was really kind to us and it was a lovely day. Word of warning though, if you're short, sit up on the banks even if they do look a million miles away.

Spent a lovely couple of hours with Mum, Dad and Nan on Wednesday having missed the M25 turn off and ending up at Wembley ! We must have blinked and shot passed it.

Essential must haves when travelling. A good book ! Because of the "crash" I ended up staying another night with my daughter and spent all day at the airport on Thursday sitting in the carpark in glorious sun reading. Finally got home Thursday evening totally shattered and quite emotional. I shall write to easyJet about my stress.

A bit blowy out there

and I'm flying south in a couple of hours. Don't like the look of it at all !

Let's hope the rain doesn't follow us, much as I want to see Mr Williams, I don't fancy standing out in the middle of MK Bowl in lashing rain.

On the upside, everything looks as if it's held in place and everything outside is getting a good watering. No obvious storm damage that I can see (but then it is still dark lol).

Will just keep my fingers crossed that the pilot knows what he's doing. :-)

Work is for horses

but playing in the garden all day is great fun!

Up at the crack of dawn and an early visit to B&Q to get improving stuff for the onion bed. Couple of hours digging that in and raked over a couple of bags of manure to form a perfect square of virgin soil. Didn't help of course when I cut the hedge and the leaves went everywhere lol.

Washed down the two mini g/h with a dose of Jeyes, moved ickle mini into ickle grand g/h to provide extra insulation for the overwintering babies. Staging arrived for No. 1 g/h so erected that and repositioned all the peppers and smaller chillis. Looks fab and there's so much extra space now that things are off the floor.

Moved the bird table and now the little darlings are chucking seed all over the patio, but they're so close you could touch them, and they don't seem to mind me pointing a camera at them. Not that I got one pic today worth printing, but not to worry.

I think I have a visitor in the cupboard under the stairs where the birdseed is kept though as I found lots of shredded black plassie bag mixed in with the seed. Something tells me Mr Mouse is up to his old tricks again. Ah well as long as I don't see him (or grab him when I put the jar in to get the seed out) I don't much mind ........... today anyway. I'll save that clearing out adventure for when the OH is otherwise unoccupied and he can tackle the beast lol.

Spoke to a lovely woman for funding for the deck. Which floor are you on ? Ah yes, the ground floor, would be a bit silly wanting a deck if you were higher up eh ? Cooked tea (that's a first) for when the OH walked through the door.

Now off to pack and get seeds ready for mum and photos printed for nan who I'll be seeing on my lightning visit down south to see Robbie W with my kid. Not seen any of them since March ! That's a whole half year ago :-O. Doesn't time fly when you've got a shovel in your hand.

Cheerie bye.

Right, now where are the onions ?

Yesterday was another day of digging, moving, composting, tidying, and washing.

The two lavender bushes, and honeysuckle, the final remaining residents of the ex wildlife flower garden were rehoused. The lavenders have gone in the front border which I can now dig down to a reasonable depth, and the honeysuckle to a pot until I can work out where I want it. I took a few cuttings of one of the lavenders and put them in the cold frame so see how they get on.


So with the aid of my big strong man, we created the edges of the onion bed from left over patio door accessories kindly donated by Mr Window man. OK, white is hardly attractive in a garden, but free is free and it won't rot !

The new corner was squared off and dug up, but that has made the bed really heavy soil again so I can see another trip to B&Q today to get some improver/manure and then it will just be a matter of waiting for the onion sets and garlic to drop through the letterbox. My garlic came to not a lot this year (planted late on a whim), so this year they're going to get a good long time sitting in the cold.

Mr Robin has disappeared for the last couple of mornings, but I've been invaded by tits on the feeders today. As much as I love my sparras, I do enjoy it when the tits return (blue and coal this morning) and yesterday a pigeon got a rare treat when I dropped one of the seed feeders ! I never put loose seed out anymore because we get flocks of pigeons pooping everywhere, so this was his one chance in a million to scrabble amongst the bark for his breakfast. Something weird is happening with the sparras today tough, whereas they usually sit in the hedge before flying onto the feeders, this morning they're sitting on the overhead cables, taking a leaf out of the tit's book maybe ? I've not seen the mog yet today, but they're obviously wary about something.

Some of the strawberry plants went into their new bed but there are still some fruiting in the other pot, so I'm going to leave it until they've finished before completing the job. The the two beds of mustard are coming along nicely and really do create a solid ground cover keeping out the weeds. The early PSB is still struggling along but not really producing very much. It's been nibbled to shred by some varmint, but I'm just going to leave it be atm, it's bed is already earmarked for the broadies next season so it won't hurt to leave it and see how far it progresses.

My slight sniffle is turning into a full blown cold now (grrrrrrrrr), am almost totally deaf in one ear which keeps ringing and popping alternatively. And I'm due to fly on Tuesday morning, so I'm less than chuffed with that.

I made a start on the small g/h. I had half the base as bark,
and half gravel (as I'd run out of gravel when I was laying it) so removed all the bark in preparation for my big bag of gravel coming on Thursday. I'll give the whole innerds a good old splash about with Jeyes fluid before putting up the bubble wrap and that will be one cosy room done for the chillis which are still ripening, slowly but surely. I'll definitely over winter at least a couple to get an early start next year to tide me through until all my new ones are ready .......... and I've got loads of new ones to try thanks to my very kinds mates on A4A. I have still to complete the Gardeners World survey for the Numex Twilight as I still haven't harvested any yet, but I've got until mid-October I think so just hope my babies hurry up and ripen before the closing date.

Totems are still producing nicely. Going to have to eat some today though as the fridge is getting full to bursting. Aubs are producing flowers like mad now, but sadly I still think it's too late to get a crop. I'll not give up on them just yet as I really can't face washing out any more pots! I have spied one wee green pepper forming in the big g/h though and am looking forward to seeing how big that gets. I wasn't religious enough in recording the sowing and labelling of the peppers but I'll start everything off in March next year and do the job properly next time.

Now I've got to attack a mountain of paperwork before allowing myself to go and play. I don't know where it all comes from, I think it must self propogate !!!

Oh yes, and the mighty Lions lost again yesterday. Now there's a shock !

There's only so much you can write about digging

But I do find it strangely therapeutic ! The onion bed needed finishing, but as it was raining quite heavily for most of yesterday, nothing much got done outside. I guess we can look forward to more of the same over the next few months.

Got loads of seeds in the post from some friends I've not yet met, so have a wonderful selection of toms and peppers for next year. I was even sent a little Boule de Turquie intact as the sender hadn't had time to dry the seeds. A most attractive seed holder !

I've ordered a tonne of gravel to be delivered next week while I'm on my hollibobs, so at least one of the greenhouses will have their base finished by Thursday. I've got two lots of staging coming for the big g/h too, so that's another part of the jigsaw complete.

AND most excitingly, Mr Window man phoned with a quote for the decking, which wasn't too far off what I'd budgetted for, so am going to phone the nice mortgage people and get to see them next week too. This really has been an exciting year, a million miles away from last years gloomy one.

But the biggest news of the week is that we got tickets to see The Killers in November! They were our fave band of last year, and tickets are already on ebay for ridiculous amounts. So the OH got a big pat on the back for that one.

One last day at work today, which will be manic, and then a lovely long 11 day break which sees a quick visit to London on Tuesday (for Robbie W.) and then Wednesday to visit the rellies before flying back up the road to potter in the garden. Idyllic.

Ain't life grand ?

Things that go bump in the night

The upstairs wean managed to wake me up at about 5am this morning obviously needing to climb in beside her mum. grrrrrrrr :-)

It's been very damp and humid the last few days. My sage was suffering from just beginning to appear mouldy spots, so I removed the affected leaves and left it outside. Will see if that clears it up.

Aubs have plenty of flowers now but not setting fruit as far as i can see. Perhaps I should give up on them this year after all. OK maybe in another week.

The peppers are just starting to set fruit but lord knows if they'll reach any edible size. Totems still producing some fine specimens. I've taken to having tomatoes and phili on toast for my breakfast at work. Nice. The remaining Gartenperles have started going mouldy on the occasional fruit so I'm having a double daily inspection. I suspect they will end up in the bin at the weekend. It's not as if I haven't got enough to last us a while.

All the courgettes have been discarded to the bins now. I had a final cutting of two, but nothing else what happening, so I've been busy disinfecting pots and chocks ready for .... well, anything ! The green manure mustard is growing away nicely. The yellow lilies are finally going over, although there are still a few as yet unopened blooms. And the bulbs are still not in the front border. Best laid plans eh ?

Where did the sun go ?

Still under the duvet I suspect. Soooooo dark this morning, just to add to the impending gloom of the getting closer every day winter. Don't like it one little bit.

I had a good old clear out of the country garden bed yesterday. I was surprised how easy everything came out. Very shallow roots. I was having to skirt around the Cosmos cos I really would like to see it bloom before it gets consigned to the bin (which are filling up quickly again).

The country garden is currently a quarter circle bed outside no. 1 g/h. This will shortly be squared off and edged (with stuff the very nice window man left behind) so I can sling the onions in there in nice pretty regular rows. I've got to find new homes for the two lavender bushes and honeysuckle which are currently lurking in the corner, get a couple of bags of poo and give it all a good old dig.

I've managed to avoid weeds this year, primarily cos all the growing medium was imported, but I can already see strange and wonderful unidentified seedlings going to be popping their heads through next year. My Setton onions were grown in the bath this season and did reasonably well I thought. I have a small bunch hanging in the shed which will see us through another month anyway. My selection for next year is Swift and Autumn Champion from Dobies.

I must get round to cutting that part of the hedge though so I don't have to stamp on it after the sets and have gone in. That privet gets everywhere doesn't it ?

Pulled another bunch of Autumn King carrots last night and once again, was happy with what I found. My main crop are in the half whisky barrel tub which has got to be moved to accommodate the onions so I'm pulling stuff as fast as I can to make it easier on the back when the time comes.

The Early Nantes were sown in the bath, my attempts at deterring the evil fly and keeping them raised above the flying line really does seem to have worked. Not one carrot has been ruined. Could have been beginner's luck of course.

I will not buy I will not buy I will not buy

...... the entire catalogue! Thompson & Morgon's 2007 cat dropped through the door today. I can just browse though ... can't I ?

The Grand Opening

Ta daaaaaaa! You have all just been cordially invited to the opening of the patio doors. They're in ! It was a glorious day yesterday, bright sunshine throughout, which was just as well as there was a huge hole in the living room for the majority of the day.

I was under strict instructions not to tidy up last night as the dust would stick to the silicone like a magnet .... so I didn't ! So double cleaning today as everything was covered with a fine layer of brick dust (including the leeks and everything else within a 20 yard radius). I gave the outside a good hose down last night but everything else will be cleaned today (it's gonna be a long one).

I'm thrilled with my doors, or should I say door. It would appear that only the right one opens. :-O Perhaps I should have been more specific lmao. (oops strike that, the OH has just showed me how to open the other door roflmao). Ah well I'm dead chuffed anyway, and the drop isn't too severe so I managed to climb out and back again to take the photo without breaking my neck ! I think we're going off on a pallet hunt today to make temporary steps. We've got a tile warehouse just round the corner, that has so far been very generous as we've got all the wood from them for the raised beds and retaining wall separating us from next door. Just hope they fit into the new car which is a bit smaller than the old one. Will just have to get smaller pallets!

No. 2 workie also builds decking, so measurements have been taken and a quote requested.

Yesterday also saw the front (rock hard) border being dug over and is now plantable so I cleaned off my bulbs and semi-sorted them into obvious daffodils and ...... the rest. The rest being crocus, chionodoxa, bluebells, snowdrops and muscari. I think I can ID the crocus but everything else will just be mixed up. They will all be planted today and then cover the whole bed with a mulch of rustic red softwood chips.

I managed to sort out the cold frame on Friday, so that's now been moved and is hinged at the front. I doubt if it's in it's final resting place yet, but for the moment it can soak up whatever rays of sunshine we do get quite happily.

I also realised yesterday that I'd been relying far too much on the rain for my watering and the outdoor toms, and mariettas were suffering. So while I was washing off the dust I gave everything a good old soak.

We had a good old sing song last night watching the last night of the Proms. We do like to wave a UJ in this house. Rule Britannia !

I fancy a deck !

Tomorrow the patio doors go in. I can't wait. Obviously the wrong time of year but then my timing has never been great. I've cleared the patio of all moveable plants and will be taking down the curtain rails and stuff tonight.

One minor problem will be having to throw a rope ladder out the doors every time I want to get in and out. The original plan was to build some concrete steps, but tonight I have had a brainwave. (They come naturally to me when I'm sitting with a can of lager). I fancy a deck !
At the moment I've got a split level patio, with the higher side outside the office window, the lower side outside the soon to be magnificant patio doors. No excuses for not calling them "french windows". At the risk of alienating the europhiles amongst us, I don't want anything gaulish in my garden thanks very much.

Now the patio is sinking in the southern corner (where the chimnea is) due to a now demolished lleylandi. The surrounding low brick wall has cracked and although not dangerous, is unsightly. The slabs really need to be raised, levelled and replaced. So rather than do all that, the grand master plan is to have a deck running the whole width of the flat, high enough that I won't need any steps built, and will form a fairly large area that I just just open the doors and step out onto to sup my morning cuppa (or evening gin) and over look my veggie plot from a slightly higher elevation than just now. Queen of all she surveys if you like. There can be some cute decking steps both up onto the deck from where you're standing in the first picture, and down to the veggies where the pallet is in the second with a nice ballustrade all round the edge.

What do you think guys ?

He's back !

Earlier in the year I had no less that three robins in the garden. Two of them seemed very friendly but usually beat the other one into submission. They were quite a common sight, but since the babies left the nest (hidden somewhere well away from me), all three disappeared for the summer. I guess this is normal for robins.

This morning, one is back ! I'm so pleased cos I missed his cheeky wee face. He didn't seem interested in any of the edibles but I've been loath to put out any loose seed as the pigeons just invade en masse. I'll try and hide some just for him.

Robin's rock !

Oh what a beautiful morning .... tra la la

Not a cloud to be seen but found this thing hanging over the opposite chimney. Rubbish zoom, but lovely moon.

You just can't buy common sense

As some of you are aware, I moved into this ground floor flat a year ago last week. It's a semi-detached, four in a block affair but given that we've got a 12' privet hedge separating us from the "joined" neighbours, we actually chat more with the two families on the other side.

The flat above us had been empty for quite a while according to the chap we bought from, apparantly the owner was not at all well, and infact never recovered. RIP never met upstairs neighbour. The flats (of which there are many in the area - ex council) are notorious for travelling sound. Our bessie mates who handily live two minutes around the corner, already had false ceilings when they bought theirs, to muffle the noise from above, so we enjoyed our peace .... while it lasted. I even thought I'd do them a favour by cutting their hedges and mowing the lawns and even digging a couple of their flower beds, just to attract some potential buyers (nothing to do of course with the fact that I'd run out of space in my own garden and needed somewhere for my beetroot and climbing beans) :-P.

The estate agents dealing with the property came and went, signs went up and came down but still no sign of neighbours, until about a month ago. I heard clumping and banging one evening and went to investigate and found the previous owners son having a clear out as the new owners were getting their keys that weekend. Filled with fear and trepidation we peeked out from behind the blinds occasionally to see if we could spot our new neighbours.

Turns out it's a young lass with an 18 month old nipper, minus other half as I think he got cold feet! As you can imagine, a flat left empty for over a year wasn't going to be in the best of states and there have been armies of various workies ripping stuff out, reinstalling, gradually piling up a tonne of rubbish in the front garden (her side). This wasn't a problem, until this morning when I discovered the fruits of their labours all chucked into one of the brand new wheelie bins.
Various lengths of nail ridden skirting and other assorted lumps of wood all squeezed in to the bin which had joined the rest of her rubbish. Who in their right mind ever thought that the bin men were going to remove this stuff was beyond me and ruining a brand new bin to boot. Worse to come when I got home tonight to find that the major heap of trash gone but leaving rubbish all over our gardens, next doors AND the whole street. It looked as if the whole dustbin lorry had just upended spreading crap everywhere. Broken glass all over the shared path and various bits of rubber strip scattered all over. Me not happy. We also live by a school and the amount of sweetie and crisp wrappers being chucked in/under my hedge has noticeably increased since school started again. So instead of spending my first hour at home tending to all my babies, I ended up sweeping. Oh and they never did clear the bin which is still sitting there full of (useless) wood. Now there's a shock.

Glad to have got off my chest. I can sleep peacefully now.

Night night.

Gartenperle overload

Would you adam and eve it. There I was thinking that I was all organised and had recorded all my sowing times in my very nice Jack Vettriano desk diary, and can I find when I sowed the Gartenperles ?? Can I heck as like. So based on the fact that I sowed my Totems on 30 April, I'll go with that for the cherries too.

To begin with the GPs were slow to take off. Reaching for the sky with not a bit of "Ideal for Hanging Baskets" in sight. This was also mentioned on A4A and others seemed to be suffering the same fate ..... till the fruit started appearing and then it was a matter of tying up stems with various bits of old string and cord to almost every available hole in g/h No. 2.

I have seven. Four in the g/h in a ring culture type idea. Black Morrison bucket (8 for 99p when you can find them) filled with jolly old multi-purpose compost, sat in a blue Morrison crate (5 for a quid) base filled with various mixtures basically involving multi-purpose and John Innes something or other. Not very scientific I'm afraid. One went in a hanging basket along with my old favourites Naughty Marietta marigolds and the other two in a huge-ish pot with the same multi-purpose mix and NMms.

All have done exceedingly well (just like Mr Kipling cherries) ! Now we're not the biggest cherry tomato eaters in the world. There's just the two of us and before I started growing them, I don't think I'd ever bought a cherry tom in my life. I was attracted by the packet PR blurb "Ideal for growing in baskets, containers and window boxes, where you will be rewarded with bumper crops of delicious fruits in summer. Easy to grow, naturally trailing, needs no stopping or sideshooting". There were various words that attracted me. "Easy" being one and "bumper crops" being two others.

Messrs Thompson & Morgan did not lie. Tonight I had another picking and came back in the house with about three big bowls full, and there's already two large plastic bags full of the things in the freezer ! If I had a glut, this was it. Managed to palm off a colander full onto the M-i-L tonight .. I think she was pleased/impressed. We've been chucking handfuls of the little darlings into almost anything that demanded a tomato. Chilli, spag bol, etc skins and all. Probably sacrilege but hey ho, we were never going to eat that many raw !

The pic is of my very first tom picked. It ripened at least a week or so before any others and tasted lovely. I made a huge fuss of him and took loads of pics before popping him in my mouth and killing him. lmao. There was no way I was sharing my first born.

I've made an attempt to save some seed and also have a few left over in the packet, but I'll not grow so many next year, you can have just too many cherries.

Tonight's Excursion

Was to shift some muck about. One of the courgettes was totally past it, so out he came - into the bin with you and be gone ! The carrot bath (which worked very well for keeping out the evil fly) has been sitting behind g/h No. 1 half empty (where the carrots were) and the other half still housing some of my anti fly companion Naughty Marietta marigolds. So I replaced the courgette with four NMs and dug a load more of their compost onto the raised bed nearest the shed. That bed is nearly full now, so just slung on some mustard seed for a bit of green manuring. Must get the OH to nail the top bed frame onto the sunk one before it skews off.

Everything is just a case of moving things about and consolidating atm.

It was a good job that I did open the g/hs this morning as the day turned out quite pleasant and temps were still reading 100o inside both. Clear sky tonight though so I expect it will be a bit nippy.

I'm considering which bases to lay once the majority of the growing is done and am trying my hardest to coerce big strong men into laying them for me. Slabs or gravel, or both or concrete. Decisions decisions. Wish I was a bit more clued up on the diy-ing side of things. I'm not sure how many 2'x2' slabs I could transport from front to back when delivered though. Dependency has its price.

I noticed some of the late sown Autumn Kings poking out of a pot today and picked the first crop (5 !!!) of climbing beans. I reckon next March is going to be manic.

Played with the cold frame a bit (still haven't worked out exactly how to use one). I mean what is the difference between a cold frame and a mini g/h ? I want to put it on the boundary to next doors plot (oop sorry, back garden) next year, but the slope would face in the wrong direction, so I'm trying to take the thing apart and have the hinge on the lower edge so that I can get into it from the tall side (confused ? stick with it ...). I think it's going to need a bit of brute force, so ended up putting it back where it was with the lids off. Ah well there's always tomorrow.

The next morning

Everything is still as wet as wet, but I can actually see sky above the clouds. Still relatively breezy so my major decision of the next half hour will be a) do I open the greenhouses b) or not !

I've still got 5 Black Beauty aubergines that are needing a good kick in the pants if they're to get anywhere before the big chill takes over and the useful daylight disappears. They were an afterthought this year but are doing so well now that if I don't get at least one, I shall be a little unhappy with myself.

Some unknown peppers have just started to bloom now as well (note to self: label properly next year). I'm wondering just how pricey it would be to stick a growing lamp in with them. Would probably have half the local constabulary down on me like a tonne of bricks and all looking for interesting varieties of 'erbs.

The Totem tom plants are ripening off nicely. Like I said this was my first year and I only sowed two varieties of toms, the Totems and hanging Gartenperles. Three of the first, about seven of the cherries. Nice fruit, shame about the plants ! I shall be more adventurous next season.

There's some salad leaves busy growing in g/h No. 1 just now. Red & Green salad bowl mixed, Delicato and a couple of trays worth of Little Gems. It will be a learning curve to see how far they get before they decide they've had enough.

Out on the patio there's a couple of pots of newly sown Autumn King carrots, all my fruit bushes (blackcurrant, redcurrant, blueberry), once again all first year plants and consequently not a berry to be seen on any of them. The strawberry plants seem to be flowering harder now than when they should have been and the strawb runners seem to have settled nicely. I'm filling up a deep raised bed with good things and shite to have a dedicated bed next year rather than the one pot I've crammed this years plants in. I think the OH would be more interested in what I'm doing if he thought he could get more than one strawb at each picking.

Nearly killed my grown from a cutting in a previous garden standard fuschia earlier on in the season by overwatering with inadequate draining holes. But it has definitely revived since being given some air to breath around its roots, but sadly all it's energies were taken up regrowing lots of green rather than any blooms. Still, next year it should be a lovely show.

No sign of my birdies this morning. I wonder if they're still in bed ? Saw a bit of a kerfuffle in the hedge yesterday morning only to see moggie sauntering out with it's breakfast firmly clasped in it's jaws. I was sad and realised the batteries must need changing in the scarer device. I hope my little feathered friends haven't been scared off.

Much as I'd like to sit here all day and tell you about all the happenings from the beginning of the season, the big hand says "get to work".

Ciao for now.

Having Fun !

I've deleted and recreated a handful of versions of this blog today, but by george, I think I'm getting the hang of it ..... and so to bed (Slumberland not raised) :-)

Day 1 - and what a day !

You know when September has arrived. The flip-flops and shorts get packed away, and out come the jeans and boots.

Miserable weather all day today, non-stop drizzle and rain and gusty winds played havoc with my late yellow lilies which have been blooming like mad since the weekend. One bright spot in the gloom.

It's almost dark outside now, when not long ago I'd still be playing out on the plot.

Still, not a bad day to start a blog.

Winter drawers on !