Spring

Yup, it's time for the annual round of commentators on the radio asking whether an early spring is evidence for global warming. Our daffodils are poking up, the roses are putting out shoots and the box shrub has all kinds of new leaves. Which is pretty exciting really. The garden chez Digger and Not Digger was a tangled weedy mess when we moved in. Most of the weed were dead it has to be admitted, but that was because the previous tenant's idea of gardening was to regularly obliterate everything with weedkiller.

In October we attacked it, and now we've replaced the dead weeds with clear soil. The hope is that with spring all the, current tiny, plants we put in will transform it into a sea of horticultural beauty. Or something like that. The not very impressive pictures by this text show our very own attempt at a premature spring. The roses are particularly exciting, I didn't put them in for a few weeks after they arrived so I was slightly concerned that they'd have difficulty getting going this year. But no, they're actually very keen to go. Within a few months we might have healthy Gertrude Jekyll roses beautifying our garden.

So time for a quick tour of the garden to be. First is the top of the patio, where, if we have a summer this year, we shall be eating many al fresco meals. There are 3 roses (Gertrude Jekyll) at the base of the long wall and a hydrangea ('Endless Summer', hydrangea macrophylla). In the corner we may line a half-barrel and put in a lily and solar powered bubbler, we'll see how much spare cash there is a couple of months!


Looking down the garden there are couple of lavender varieties on the corner (one French, one Hidcott) and a plant with a large red seed head whose names I've temporarily forgotten - I'll update this later! The fur tree is hideous, and blocks of lots of light to the end of the garden. It's far too large for the garden and if I was allowed I'd have chopped it down already. The rickity branches in the air are an experimental trelise which has surprisingly survived the winter so far. There's a Virginia ivy on it, some bulbs near the base and a load of periwinkles (Vinca Minor) on the narrow bed.



Finally, at the end of the garden, there's a herb bed to be on the right. On the bank at the bottom there's a whole variety of spring bulbs, so those will hopefully transform it into a sea of foliage and flowers soon. The tub contains a twisted hazel (Corylus avel. Contorta) which is probably the highlight of the garden. It doesn't look much now, especially not in a small photo, but it is lovely to look at and will hopefully be with us for years.


It's not the most impressive garden, but hopefully this summer it'll be a pleasant backdrop to warm evenings on the patio. Bring it on!

We're Back!

After an unexpectedly lengthy winter hibernation Luke Is Digging is back. Whilst it's felt quiet in the last few months, the sum total of events is quite large. Most importantly, the plot has grown. The 2 men who had the half-plot next to mine retired from crouch graph fighting and so it was offered to me. Being a foolish youth without a highly developed (enough) sense of fear at large patches of weed I leapt at it, and now have lots more room for vegetables.

There's also been a fruit explosion here. Stealing lovely jam from Grandparents isn't a complete preserve strategy, and I love English soft fruit, so I've been putting all in kinds of things. There are a few rhubarb plants - although I'm told they shouldn't be harvested in their first year. Maybe just one stalk. 2 black currant bushes are planted and 2 gooseberry bushes are ordered. There are some strawberries that I found amongst the chickweed of my extension that need to find a suitable home. Best of all though are the 24 (!?) raspberry canes now in 3 enticing rows. On reflection maybe 12 would have been more suitable, but raspberry jam is my favourite so I'm sure I'll cope. At worst I'm sure I can find people who'll take raspberry jam in exchange for other fruit/veg delights.

The autumn onions have grown, if sporadically. I should really have netted them until their roots could hold them firm against clouds of curious birds. I'm not really sure what to do with them now. There are about half as many as there should be, so it's using a lot of space for only a moderate amount of onion. At the risk of confusion I may plant the next batch of onions in the holes the birds have made, and trust that I can tell the difference. I have no idea if transplanting onions is possible or sensible. The garlic though is incredibly vigorous. Even the few that the birds moved have, with replanting, stormed ahead. They are now in proud dense rows. I'm looking forward greatly to braiding them.

Apologies for the lack of pictures, I'm at work at the moment and so don't have access to any shots of the extended plot. I'll be back soon though with a picture of this year's vastly overambitious allotment plan, and a list of the varieties I shall be trying. My tiny garden at home has started to show signs of life - a big improvement on the weed bed it was when we moved in - so some photographs of the flowering bulbs there might also be in order.

Bottle Shelves

Not strictly gardening, but as it's (partly) recyled, and I've neglected you recently, I thought I'd share a recent woodworking project with you.

After inheriting some lovely handtools and desiring some nice wooden furniture our house, I decided that the obvious solution was to make some myself. A while back She Who Does Not Dig had seen some shelves made of recycled bottles so as she was away for a few weeks recently I thought I’d make them for her. The design I saw had no joints at all, just held together by bottles and turnbuckles, so in an effort to make it more educational for myself I added in back supports held on by lap joints. As I hadn’t picked up a saw for anything much since high school this wasn’t as straighforward as it could have been!

After much effort – the last joint took a tenth of the time of the first but it’s going to be a lot of projects before I can chisel out a joint quickly and accurately – this is what I produced. It’s not much, but not too bad for a first effort I’d like to think. Absolutely loved the process of making it, so am currently plotting my next attempt.

Visitors

Firstly, apologies for the dearth of posts in the last month, partly it's been madly busy here but mostly I've just been negligent! The plot is progressing happily though, last weekend I put up a compost heap made from salvaged wood and the beans just keep coming. I understand what gardening books mean by 'glut' now!


Most excitingly though, today my Grandma visited my humble little plot, and didn't even tell me it was too weedy! Very proud.

I Made Veg!

The allotment worked. It made food! It's very exciting. Potatoes leaves were starting to look very unhappy, and a couple had flowered, so I chopped the tops off and couldn't resist digging a row. To my slight surprise, there in bottom of the trench were perfectly formed potatoes. So I ate them. She Who Does Not Dig is away at the moment, but shall be subjected to a very excited me pointing at potatoes with a massive grin when she returns.



The plots also on the verge of producing beans. A solitary bean was ready for eating a few days ago, and I gobbled it up, so I suspect that lots will be ready now. I had planned to go today and drop off the overflowing compost bin and harvest beans but I got very distracted by another project of mine, of which more in a future post...

But for now: yay for veg!

Birthday!

She Who Does Not Dig earnt several months worth of brownie points by making me an absolutely amazing birthday cake, decorated with all kinds of allotment related icing and marzipan figures. There are advantages to her being a primary school teacher's daughter!






Aren't they great. :-)

Between The Rain

In a brief interlude between deluges I managed to get a small amount of hoeing and photography in. Whether it's the rain or the slug, the carrots She Who Does Not Dig planted a few weeks show no sign of life. All there was in their rows was a small dock plant and various types of new grass. Hmmm. Whilst the rain seems to being carrots no favours, the weeds seem to be coping, they're as happy as ever. This isn't helped by both my neighbors largely abandoning their plots in the face of the 'summer' weather.



My plot is the strip of ever-so-slightly-fewer-weeds in the middle. Huge numbers of the plots are looking somewhat sorry for themselves, understandably the weather is proving rather dispiriting for many people. I need to sort out my paths, they're just growing faster than I trample them down by walking around, so I need to either cover them with something (more of the thousands of stones in my soil?) or else start to regularly cut it. Ugh.

There is positive life though, whilst many things are looking dubious the potatoes are just about to flower and now they've finally got going the sweetcorn is really going for it.

The best of the bunch though are the beans, they're covered in stunning red flowers. I hope you'll forgive me for including a couple of larger photos, they really are beautiful at the moment.