Grand stretch in the evenings!

The weather yesterday was glorious - rushed home from work and straight out to the garden after dinner. So much to catch up on after the cold weather we have had over the past couple of months. Big difference yesterday in the weather compared with the gale force winds the night before and of course today has changed back into heavy showers, so doubt I will get out again this evening.

Finally we got around to putting up some posts and wires for my fruit bushes. I am growing redcurrant, blackcurrant and raspberries and I have a gooseberry bush and a blueberry bush as well. Some of them were trailing along the ground which made them easy prey for slugs etc ( and also our lawnmower!). Also we had no defined edge for the border against the lawn, so this was needed to be put in. Above is the view along the side of the back garden.

This is the section behind the garage. I moved a few raspberry plant suckers (daughters) during the winter to this spot along with a blackcurrant bush cutting and so far they have all taken - can see new growth on them all. At the top left is my gooseberry bush which I hope to pick from this year as it was planted approx 18 months ago. 

Good link if you are thinking of transplanting your own raspberry suckers - 

How to Dig and Plant Raspberry Runners

This is the other side of the back of the site - the raspberry bushes have gotten very tall in places ( some same height as me 5ft 6"!!). There are still a few suckers I will have to dig out - more presents for friends! 

First posts and wire up - I am using the same wire they use here for electric fences - so it should be both very strong and durable. Also we got the edging in the whole way around.

I tied up some of the branches to wire to prevent them trailing along the ground. Also, should make picking from those branches a lot easier at harvest time.

We still need to put down some compost to help feed the bushes and clear the last weeds from around the plants and then we are going to put bark down to help control the weeds and moisture.

My garlic plants are coming along nicely. Onions planted to the front haven't started yet - but only down two weeks. I had a lot of trouble with birds and cats pulling up my garlic bulbs - had to cover the bed in a net until recently. Thankfully it doesn't seem to have bothered the garlic too much - great tough plant!

My broccoli is growing well in its mini cloche. I have some Pak Choi seeds planted or which a few have started to germinate under the cloche. 

I just love the colour the purple sprouting broccoli is giving to the garden at the moment - as well as the delicious veg for my dinner! 

In this photo, you can see the stump of the floret I cut two weeks ago and the new florets that grew around it once the space was released by the cutting. 

The rewards - a full bowl of broccoli! Great to have and to share!

I love self-seeding plants (and I don't mean the thistle in the above photo!) - above I have some violas that have self seeded in the bed just inside the gate. I usually buy some winter hardy viola annual plants in mid-autumn and I find that they usually survive the winter to produce a brilliant showing in spring/early-summer far exceeding the showing you get from ones brought in spring time. Also, they love to self-seed - which makes my job all the easier :-)

Now all I need is the weather to improve so I can get back in the garden!! 

Orange bed

This is the 5th and final raised bed which we have this year. I had originally decided to have peas and possibly beans in, however I changed my mind as I reckoned as the bed is already nearly 2ft high that this would be too high for easy cultivation of the peas and beans.

This bed has now been removed from the rotation policy. Currently growing some lettuce, rocket and I have about 20 strawberry plants growing there also. When the weather warms up, I plan to plant a couple of bush tomato plants and hope grow some basil outdoors under a small cloche.

Again here I am planting the lettuce a few weeks apart for a continuous supply.

These are the bush tomatoes that I have growing on a south facing window sill. Some I am going to plant into pots for my small greenhouse and some are going to go directly out into the orange bed ( hedging my bets by having some in the greenhouse). All trial and error at this stage. As the weather is continuing to be very cold at night, it will be at least another couple of weeks before I can risk putting these out.

I also have strawberry's growing in a pot called a strawberry pot - for the past few years, I have been growing summer bedding in this pot, but this year I decided to put it to the use it was made for. Looking forward to eating them - loads of flowers so far! Nothing more delicious that strawberries straight from the plant. I put some water retaining gel into the compost when planting this up to help the plants survive small amounts of drought as terracotta pots can dry out very fast in the sun(as they allow vapour out the container sides and bottom). Glazed or plastic pots won't dry out as fast - interesting article here about the Terracotta v Plastic pot debate.
Choosing a Clay or a Plastic Pot