I planted some more peas on Monday as none of the others i planted appeared to have come up. Then i noticed at least 3 as i was raking over the ground [sigh]. Still, i have done it properly this time and planted them in a trough. Last time i used the dibber and think i ended up sowing them too deep.

I have also planted my first row of French Beans, under the mini polytunnel, in case we have a late frost.

Feel like i am so behind already. Would have been nice to get out today, as it's fine, but dd is unwell and fast asleep at the mo.

Garlic is doing nicely 

Planted my peas at the weekend. I'm sure it is earlier than I normally plant them but then it is unusual for me to be ahead of schedule so I could be wrong! Anyway, i have planted one row and will plant another one later on. Can't remember the variety but its not one i have grown before.

The onions have come up and so have the lettuces though they look to have been nibbled a bit :o( Oh, and the tadpoles have hatched!

Well, the frogspawn is in the pond so it must be time to start blogging again.

Went to the garden centre to stock up on a few seeds i was missing and ended up buying one of those mini greenhouses. I *should* have had a proper greenhouse by now but what with the house alterations and one thing and another it had been postponed yet again. Anyway i'm pleased with my mini one and it is surprising how much stuff you can get in it!

Spent Saturday doing all the tidying we should have done back end of last year and mick cut the lawns. We look almost respectable now ;o)

In the veg garden...


Vegetable Plot


Sunday, i planted the onion sets that we got several weeks ago. These are in the bottom end of bed 2. The top end of bed 2 has the garlic that mick planted a while ago. I also managed to squeeze a row each of Salad Onions (White Lisbon), Cos Lettuce (Remus RZ) and Mixed Salad leaves into this bed - oh and some Nasteriums to (hopefully) stop the blackfly attacking my veg (worked last year, so fingers crossed).

We prepared Bed 1 for the peas and beans by puting the canes and netting up. I have also got a small poly tunnel here as i am hoping to plant some early beans. I'm doing French beans (Neckar Queen) as in previous years as they are lovely. Can't decide if to bother with runners. I have loads of seed saved from last year but we didn't like them as much as the French Beans so they just ended up in the freezer. Fair enough you might say but we didn't really enjoy them as they were rather stringy - partly because they hadn't been picked soon enough i think.


Beds 1 and 2

I dunno, when i *do* finally get around to doing some gardening i forget to blog it!!!

I did manage to get my French beans in (finally) i planted the same last year (Neckar Queen knows whether it will work or not! and also some something Borlotta, i'v chucked the packet now but it is basically a borlotti type bean that you can either grow and eat as a French bean or dry the beans and use as borlotti. Don't know if they will do any good as they really should have been in about a month ago but we'll see.

I also planted (late) some cucumber and a butternut squash, both of which have germinated but are a long way behind the courgettes which i have already started harvesting

what the courgettes looked like a couple of weeks ago!

The sweetcorn and runners are also coming along nicely and the garlic is almost ready for harvesting

runners and sweetcorn a couple of weeks ago!

This was the first raspberry to ripen..

but we have had quite a few since this was taken

I tidied up the herb beds yesterday. Dug up all last years parsley as it had all gone to seed and discovered, once i'd got rid of the weeds, that some of this years parsley and coriander *had* germinated after all! i also found that i had a dill plant that must have self seeded last year, which was a nice surprise.

I shall try and post some updated photos tomorrow.

Bit of a sad note to finish on but since i last posted we have found two dead frogs in our pond, that makes three in total this year!!! We think it is likely that it is due to this virus as one of the frogs has sores on its legs and looked emaciated the other had haemmoraged(sp?)by the look of it :o( Really hope we don't lose any more.

Well i have been doing bits in the garden but have been so tired that i haven't achieved half of what i should have by this time.

I have planted sweetcorn and runner beans. This year i planted them together, the idea being that the sweetcorn will provide support for the beans. We'll see if it works.

I planted three types of courgettes, same as last year as that is what i had, Tando di Nizza (round variety, heavy cropping), Gold Rush (yellow variety) and Defender (standard green). I thinned out the extras yesterday and discovered a couple of hours later that one had been pulled up, grrr. Have replanted it but don't know if it will survive.

DP has been digging in some manure for me this afternoon, so as to improve the soil structure. I haven't gotten around to planting my French beans yet. It is a bit late now but i will plant them this week and hope for the best.

The parsley (italian giant) i planted has come up in patches but i see no sign of the coriander or the russian tarragon, which is annoying.

We have loads of apples on one of the apple trees (and none on the other). The most we have had in previous years has been a grand total of three, so i'm really pleased! I just hope they survive as the tree has been attacked very badly by aphids. I have been away the past week and so wasn't ables to tackle the problem in time. Have had to resort to spraying with soapy water as there were far too many to hand pick.


Another froggie. He doesn't look it here but he is only about 1.5cms long! V cute.

Time for an update i think.

I have actually been quite busy in the garden the past few weeks but keep forgetting to blog so here goes....

We have tidied up the front garden and it now looks quite respectable. Some of the larkspur i sowed last year has come up and i sowed some more. I transplanted the lavender seedlings i rescued from between the paviong slabs last summer to the front also.

In the back garden we have sowed calendula, clarkia, cornflowers and nastertiums(sp?). I have planted a few allium bulbs that i should have done ages ago, most were rotten but a couple seem to be coming up.

I have tidied the herb garden and sowed more flat leaf parsley, some coriander and some tarragon. Whether or not they germinate remains to be seen but dd seems to be doing her best to prevent it buy trampling over them and digging them up!


The newly tidied (though you wouldn't know it) herb garden

We haven't sowed any veg yet but have been preparing the beds as best we can (considering they are falling apart). Have just been digging out the worst of the weeds, digging *in* the rest and applying manure.

The tadpoles are now about an inch long and the water in the pond is a lot less green than it was, think the tadpoles have helped a lot by eating lots of the algae.

Oh and we are getting a greenhouse but will probably wait until later in the year, so very excited about that.