The Flower Garden

Wouldn't be complete without some of the flower garden, as we found it on our return, too would it? Yes, the blueberries are in pots in the flower garden - production encroaches everywhere doesn't it!

See today's other post, below, for the veggie plot ....

Back home from North Wales and Wirral

If you had rain this week you might have wondered why there were no Soggy Blogs! Well we enjoyed a couple of nights in the camper-van in North Wales at Beddgelert (beautiful) and visited Nana Soggy too.

So here are a few pictures of the garden and plot as we found them when we got home yesterday. Thanks to the rain and our lovely neighbour who always looks after our greenhouses everything was doing fine, we enjoyed some of our strawberries with our evening meal - very healthy - apart from Mrs Soggy's delicious home made ice cream!

The young lettuce plants look as though they are enjoying their shady spot.

New month - what to do now

The - "what to do in your garden now" column on the right has been updated with what we'll be up to in June, it's not just a busy time, but a fruitful one too, with crops you are already enjoying or just about to.

Not just the Soggies planting

We went and enjoyed a picnic with our daugher and her partner in the Isle of Purbeck yesterday with lovely views over Corfe Castle before going to see their allotment. This is their first year of growing and they are doing brilliantly, you can see how much from the pictures here.

Note the fennel - why can't I grow it like that?!

Transplanting

Only a few days ago it seemed to be all about the cold, now the sun is really sending out some heat, but then summer solstice is not that far off (be warned - it's easy to get sunburn working out in the garden). So yesterday doing some transplanting required lots of water.

When the weather is hot and dry (yes, for any visitors dipping into this blog from outside the UK, we really can get some hot sunny summer weather!)  I dig out a trowelful of earth to receive the plant and fill it with water and let that soak in before planting, then after the plant is in its new home and all earthed up and the others are done I give everything a good soaking. Hopefully this means that the disturbed roots (which happens even when you do try to keep the rootball undisturbed) have plenty of freely available moisture to draw on as they try to become re-established. Then it's just a matter of keeping an eye on them for a few days watering as necessary.

Yesterday included transplanting lettuces and they really can look pathetic after they've been moved. I was underplanting  them (where they'll get some shade) amongst some calabrese (Pacifica - see information here) which look as though they are about to produce some heads.

The other transplants were a few cabbage Greyhound , cabbage Tundra (more of those to go in later as they are for winter use really), cabbage Ruby Ball and finally just a couple of each: kale, Black Tuscany and kale Dwarf Green Curled - just to see what they are like.

You can see the transplantings below and also a picture of the strawberries filling out (no red ones yet - unlike our daughter who has already eaten some from her allotment!)

Multi-storey garden?

It's round about now that I start to become a threat to Mrs Soggy's relaxed cottage garden as I look for ways to conjure up some more space for cultivation. It happens every year as I have stuff in pots and trays awaiting space to go out. I have managed to sneak in a comfrey bed and one year there were Romanescu cauliflower, fittingly I thought, in a flower bed. 

Yesterday evening I was potting on some courgettes, they have a while to wait, as they will follow on from early potatoes, which are all growing happily but none ready to dig yet. Whilst sorting the pots out I thought how much easier car parks have it, stacking storey upon storey, but then cars don't need the light do they?

By the way if you don't grow comfrey, you should (well I would say that as a Garden Organic, formerly Henry Doubleday Research Association member). It's great for making liquid feeds, or easier still, regularly cutting and placing into your compost, it really gets the compost going. Have a look here and here for some history.

The Flower Garden

Mrs Soggy was lamenting the total neglect by this blog of her efforts, just the other side of the path, which give us such a lovely cottage garden to relax in when the work is done. So, with humble apologies, here are a some pictures.

Pests and Diseases 2

Funny how life can throw up it's little ironies. Yesterday I posted some links to hopefully useful websites and made an off-hand comment about NHS Direct (no offence intended) - so today I have my own pest striking - a migraine. That'll teach me. 

It has given me the excuse to nibble some feverfew from the garden, but I haven't been much use for anything else today.

Pests and diseases

No, nothing to rival NHS Direct, but this is the time of year when all that enthusiasm and encouragement we feel from seeing abundant new growth can be dented by seeing problems appear on a lovely new plants, or even our gnarled old favourites which have fruited happily for years.

I have been looking at a few websites which help to identify problems, here is a selection.

Here is one from the BBC which asks you a series of questions

An illustrated identification chart from theseedsite (scroll down for pests around plant)

Help and advice from the Royal Horticultural Society

Garden friends and foes - lots of pictures of creatures you share the garden with.

GardenOrganic also provides lots of information, even more for members.

If you have any more information or suggestions, please leave a comment.

Poetry week

When I'm in the garden I either listen to the birds (and the aircraft from not-too-far-away Yeovilton) or the radio, where on the BBC it is the Poetry Season, with the bye-line "Let poetry into your life."

There is something poetic about gardening, not that it is all a host of golden daffodils, more that it includes so much of life, literally of course with the life cycle of the plants we encourage and those we don't but also in mood and pace, from the calm moments of reflection sat upon our favourite spot, to achingly hard work of preparation and transformation. So I thought I'd give a poem a go.

Let not the rain be the damping of my parade

Rather welcome the fresh cleansing it has made

In falling earthwards, upon weed and crop alike

Welcome every drop, essential carriers of life.