A fortnight in my garden - 27.07.15-09.08.15

As usual, more time than intended has elapsed since I last posted. Eventually, I will get better at this (I hope). My goal is to post 'A week in my garden' each weekend, even if I don't manage to write anything else (though fingers crossed I will manage more than that). Due to me not posting last weekend, this week I'm cheating and the round-up covers a whole fortnight!

The first week I was out in the garden quite a lot; before work, after work, at the weekend.

I pruned the cordyline (almost to within an inch of its life). I finally found out where all the snails hang out: in and under the cordyline. I bet they're not going to like it quite so much now that it's lighter and airier!

Cordyline pre pruning

Cordyline post pruning

It looked a bit weird for a while as I was so used to it draping over the wall, but now I definitely think it's a bit improvement. It means it's not encroaching on the rhubarb quite so much!

We also started chopping down the tree thing behind our compost bin. You can kind of see it behind the compost bin in the photo below.

Mostly the picture is of a bare flower bed. But maybe you can see the tree a bit.

By the end of the weekend, I had this much foliage from the tree to get rid of:

Six charity bags full of tree. Very charitable to the garden waste section of the tip!

The rhododendrons were also deadheaded, so they now look nice and tidy. I also cut back the clematis where it was strangling the beautiful acer, and started pulling out some of the herb bennet lurking in various places around the garden. Unfortunately, the more I pulled out, the more I found hiding under other plants! My husband also helped with chopping down the tree-behind-the-compost-bin. Aside from that I did lots of the usual weeding, trying to keep on top of weeds in the veg bed, herb garden and (former) fir tree areas.

This week I haven't done as much gardening, in part due to me having to be at work early all week, and in part because our garden bin was full (and the garage was getting full of the charity bags!). We did manage to do more work on the tree-behind-the-compost-bin, to the extent that it's now pretty small, and you can see the pretty bush (laurel or something similar?).

The remainder of the tree-behind-the-compost-bin. Plus the pretty plant behind.

I also continued to weed out the herb bennet - I think I've got most of it, but I'm guessing there'll be plenty still going to come through. I just need to keep on top of it, which hopefully won't be too difficult now I know where it likes to be!

We also have some horsetail, which is notoriously hard to get rid of. I pulled out what I could, but really I think it was probably a mistake as the roots have broken, so it won't actually get rid of it. I should have read this first - when it starts growing again, I'll cover it in Roundup Gel. I get through a fair amount of Roundup, as I use it on dandelions and dock leaves - weeds which are quite hard to get out, as they have tough, long roots. I like it because I can kill them off without worrying about killing anything else off.  It's especially good for dandelions in lawns (although I do usually end up killing off a little grass, but not much). It takes a while to work, but it does get the weeds gone.

My parents visited this weekend, so my gardening has been limited to a small amount of weeding (plus a trip to the tip in my parents' big car to get rid of the charity bags of garden waste!). The weather has been pretty warm and sunny though, so we have at least spent quite a lot of time in the garden enjoying it. Which is good, because it's also meant I've had a much needed rest (boo early starts for work and restless nights). The parents did bring us a few plants though; a couple of begonias and a stripy tomato plant. Our tomato plants have some baby tomatoes as well - hopefully they will ripen and we will manage to eat them before the birds do!

I think the weather is turning a bit, but whilst it's still warm I'm writing this from outside. I'm hoping that it stays reasonably dry in the evenings this week, as I have a garden to-do list (as always) and a busy weekend next weekend, which won't leave much time for gardening.

Have a wonderful week!

Weekly round-up - 7th June

This week I haven’t managed to spend much time in the garden - I was away for a couple of days for work, yesterday I was busy (also it was incredibly windy) and this morning I was really unwell. That said, I have managed to do a few bits and pieces, and I felt better enough this afternoon to get out (and the sunshine was, and still is, beautiful).

Boat/herb area:

I have tidied this up further. After lifting the paving slabs last weekend, I moved the remaining ones out of the bed this week, and dug over the soil that had been underneath them a little. 

Herb garden/fir tree areas. Look at the beautiful rhododendrons!

As you can see, it still needs a lot of work and much more digging over, but it’s a step forward. I’ve also moved some of the bulbs around the back of the bed. I think I’m going to try to put them all around the edges of the bed. The plan for the herbs is to grow them in pots, then sink the pots into the soil. I’ll use a few of the smaller spare paving slabs for some stepping stones. Of course, these plans may change completely if my husband plans his crazy golf course properly. I also did a bit of weeding in this area and pulled out more grass and the purple flowered geranium type weed that spreads a lot. Whilst doing this, I removed quite a lot of gravel from the flower bed as well. It’s the bane of my life, but I’m trying to look on the positive side - at least we can use it to put in the foundations for the next raised bed.

After Saturday’s wind, the poor sweet pea wigwam was leaning somewhat and not quite as upright as it should have been. The sweet peas were looking a little sorry for themselves, and needed a bit of rescuing. I tried to work out how on earth I could untwist the bamboo canes from the position they’d ended up in, but it was completely futile - I’ve no idea how they got into such a contorted way. This afternoon I cut away all of the twine holding up the sweet peas, and just pulled all of the canes out and started the wigwam again. I pushed them deeper into the ground this time, in the hope of them being more stable, and have placed them slightly closer to the plants - they were slightly far away before. I’ve retied the plants to the canes, and added some additional sticks for extra support. Hopefully they’ll now weather any further crazy winds.

Newly re-erected wigwam.

Sweet pea tied to the cane - fingers crossed it stays supported.

Fir tree area:

I did quite a bit of weeding in this area this week. When getting on with this, I started digging out the monster plant. I was wearing wellies and couldn’t get as much force on the spade as I’d have liked, so next time I’m going out with sturdy trainers on. I also removed some big stones and yet more paving slabs that were under the biggest fir tree. Luckily these were a lot smaller and more liftable than the ones in the boat area, which were huge and tested my strength somewhat. My husband chopped down some more of the tree trunks this morning, so the area is looking even clearer - you can now fully see the beautiful, flowering rhododendrons in the area just behind (you can see this in the first photo best). 

Slowly the trunks are disappearing. Next stage might be an axe. Or maybe a professional tree remover.

Back right area:

I haven’t really written about this area yet - a post about this area is coming soon. At the moment I’m doing very little with it, other than trying to keep on top of the weeds. I’m reluctant to use a weedkilling spray, as I want to be able to plant there if I feel the desire to. It’s therefore just a lot of hard work and squatting! It’s a lot better than last year though, so I at least feel like I’ve achieved something, but there’s still a lot to get out. Some of them I’m not really sure how to get out, so will need to enlist my mother-in-law’s help next time she’s visiting.

Greenhouse:

I’ve planted out the tomato plants that a friend gave me, as they were getting a bit too frustrated in the greenhouse. They were in small plastic cups, and tomatoes need a lot of nutrients so I think they were ready for a bigger area from which to get their plant food. I wasn’t really sure where to put them to have optimal sun and shelter from the wind. Our newly built raised bed would have been perfect, but it’s not ready yet - it needs to be lined then filled with soil. I eventually settled on just next to the sweet peas, as there’s a little wall that provides a little shelter (I hope it will in any case) and they will get plenty of sun. I mixed a lot of sharp sand and compost into the soil and dug it over thoroughly, then put the tomato plants in. I’ve added some canes to help support them. Fingers crossed they take okay there.

I will be overjoyed if these babies actually produce something edible.

Lovely green plastic 'cane' supporting one of the tomato plants.

Along with all of the above, I’ve done some general tidying. Yesterday I loaded all of the chopped down fir tree into the car and drove off to the local tip, where we have a garden waste area. Chopping the branches up beforehand definitely helped, as I was able to get it all in the car in one go. It was bad timing, as the car went in for its service on Friday and the garage gave it a clean and hoover, and of course once a lot of tree had been loaded in and out, there were bits of greenery and wood everywhere. Still, another hoover and it looks nice and clean again! I also chopped up some eucalyptus wood which had been lying around since last summer and put it all in the garden bin, so if nothing else, the garden looks a bit tidier now. Or at least it did until my husband attached the tree trunks with a saw this morning - I’m not complaining though!