Spring 2010

Spring has finally arrived and the garden is waking up - the trees are coming into bud and the comfrey, lemon balm and chives are starting to re-appear. There's some welcome splashes of colour as the primroses, crocuses, snow drops, daffodils and camellias are in bloom. Made the most of a beautiful sunny day to dig up weeds and spread layers of horse manure and compost over the beds. We sowed a mixture of Phacelia, Red Clover, Crimson Clover, Alfalfa, Lupins and Mustard flowering green manures around the tree bed - should be very colourful, good nitrogen fixers and attract the bees. We've planted some Solent Wight garlic cloves close to all the trees. It's suitable for spring planting and is said to be the best keeping variety with large, strong-flavoured cloves. We're going to try to perennialize by letting the plants grow large and harvesting the smaller roots. Very healthy to eat and also maintains the health of the plants it grows near to. We've lined the vegetable bed with a row of red and white onion sets and planted a thornless Buckingham tayberry (cross between a raspberry and a blackberry) to drape over the willow arbour. We've welcomed two new trees into the 'family' - another Cybelle Apple and a Delsanne Pear, both double U cordons.

The ginger is starting to shoot again. It had doubled in width over the last year so we split down the middle into two plants, harvesting some nice big pieces of ginger root in the process. We've moved the indoor plants back outside as it's quite mild at the moment but will have to move them back in if frosty nights are forecast. (March 10)

After last year's dramatic change, we're adopting a slower approach and plan to grow fewer types of annuals. We're propogating some leek, sweetcorn, courgette, brocolli, brussel sprout, tomato, nasturium and marigold seeds all of which did well last year but could probably do even better with more focussed attention. We've planted some Maris Peer (second early) and King Edward (main crop) potatoes in containers. One new vegetable we're keen to try is beet as it sounds very productive for small gardens and has such a long harvesting period, so we've sown some swiss chard and perpetual spinach.

Last year's tomato crop was a little disappointing, partly we think from giving the plants insufficient support and not getting the watering right so we've invested in some Earth boxes which incorporate a support frame, water reservoir and mulch cover. We've planted some grafted tomato plants: Bolzano, Flavance, Dolce Vita and Sportivo - all F1 hybrids grafted onto a rootstock. We've added some marigolds as companion planting.

We've used some left over bits of crazy paving to make a winding path of stepping stones through the tree bed, hopefully positioned so that we can reach everything from the path and minimise soil compaction.

We've taken up the remaining piece of lawn so have finally been able to re-home the lawn-mower. We've stacked the turf face down to form loam pile and covered over to exclude the light - should break down into a crumbly loam over the year. Originally we'd just planned to replace with a patch of Chamomile Trenague but once we'd cleared the ground another idea took shape. We decided to create a pebble spiral that winds round and under the climbing frame and will plant out with ground-cover herbs which can cope with being lightly stepped on. The boys still enjoy the swing but don't really use the climbing frame so we can use the sides to support climbers such as beans or peas.

We've planted out the spiral with a radiating tapestry of creeping thymes (Snowdrift, Red Thyme and Bressingham Pink), Double Chamomile and Corsican Mint and a hedge of alternating purple and white lavenders at the back, all of which should attract bees and butterflies. We've added some nasturiums and broad beans to climb up the frame.

June Update: the plants are spreading nicely and the beans and nasturiums are starting to climb up the sides. The bees are really drawn to it and the birds also seem to like hopping around and pecking. It has a lovely mixture of fragrances, the only downsides are that it needs a lot of weeding and when the boys go on the swing the pebbles tend to get kicked all over the place!

We've planted three Aronia Berry Viking (black chokeberry) near to the Walnut tree and three Honey Berry bushes to build up the shrub layer around the Apple trees. They are happy being in semi-shade and very rich in Vitamin C and anti-oxidants. The walnut is looking very happy and has almost doubled in size with the new growth this year.

We've replaced the willow in our little walls as we felt we could make a slightly better job of it now. I'm experimenting with a higher edging as our dog seems to think we've made the vegetable bed especially for him to sun bathe on and keeps squashing the seedlings. Hopefully this might deter him from the productive beds but I've decided that rather than adding a second vegetable bed we'll keep a wild patch in the centre of the garden so that he has somewhere cool to flop - a happy dog is an important part of the design!

We've been given a packet of 'edible floral feast' seeds by our friend Sarah so have sown a big drift in front of the pebble spiral. Very excited as our copy of Martin Crawford's magnificent 'Creating a Forest Garden' has just been delivered - we're going to be avidly reading it for tips. (April 10)

After only harvesting two cherries last year, we're excited to see the number of Stella sweet cherries forming.

Nothing on the Morello sour cherry yet but lots of pretty blossom.

Plenty of beautiful blossom on the Bramley apple too and the comfrey has shot up so fast that it's starting to dwarf the pear tree. We decided it was time to harvest the first batch of comfrey by cutting to about 2 inches high. We've added a layer of leaves to the composter as it makes a good activator. We also started brewing some comfrey tea by filling a bucket half full of comfrey leaves, weighing them they down with a brick and filling the bucket with water. We covered with a lid to keep the flies out and because it can get very smelly. It should be ready in about three weeks, we used the remainder of leaves as a mulch around the fruit trees and bushes.

I've just been to a plant sale in aid of the local hospice which was a perfect excuse to stock up on some unusual herbs for a good cause. I'd like to have a go at natural dyeing so was pleased to find some Woad (blue shades), and Dyers Chamomile (yellow shades) and St John's Wort (green, maroon, brown and yellow). I bought some delicious-sounding aromatic herbs which will attract beneficial insects: Blackcurrant, Tangerine, Pineapple and Clary Sage and Lavender, Apple and Pineapple Mint. Also some Dwarf Comfrey which has white flowers and is evergreen so excellent for low ground cover.

Happy days! Have caught sight of our first frog in the garden, it was a shame the camera battery was flat as he spent a long time posing by the pond but will hopefully spot him again soon. The vegetable seedlings have really benefitted from a couple of rainy days and are starting to grow more strongly. We're using copper rings and copper impregnated matting again to protect from slugs but are also trying the more low-cost idea of circling with copper coins which seems to be working so far.

(May 10)

We still had plenty of willow left so we went ahead with the second vegetable bed as our dog seems to prefer a shady spot at the side of the house. Some of the courgettes are looking a little yellow so we'll need to work on enriching the soil but it's good to have the extra growing space.

The potatoes are growing vigourously, the earlies are just starting to flower so it should be time to harvest them soon.

Summer 2010

The phacelia and clover have come into bloom and it's lovely to see the garden buzzing with bees again. The aromatic herbs and Zephrine Dhourin roses are all giving the garden a beautiful fragrance.

The onions seem to prefer their new spot and are growing amazingly well compared to last year - the bulbs are already quite large and seed heads are starting to form.

(June 10)

Lots of tomatoes coming, we're pleased with the framework as it's much easier to support the plants now - just as well as some of them are 6ft tall!.

Cherries are ripening so we'll have to net the trees before the birds beat us to them!

The mulberry (to the left) and the apricot (to the right) are starting to shoot up now after a slow start last year.

A month on it's interesting comparing the two vegetable beds:

We planted seedlings from the same batch but the plants in the new bed are much larger and a darker green which shows the benefits of giving the soil an extra feed. I've been told that I should have broken off the onion seed heads as allowing them to flower will make the bulbs woody, but they are so pretty and the bees love them so I'm happy to sacrifice some of the crop!

(July 10)

We're really happy with the size of the onions - twice as large as last year but the ones that we let flower were smaller and woodier.

Having had no success with them last year, it's great to get a small crop from the aubergine and squash plants.

(August 10)

Autumn 2010

There's plenty of colour and although most of the crops are coming to an end the apples, sweetcorn and chard are still going strong.

Some very industrious spiders are making picking the crops rather difficult by weaving their webs between the corn plants!

Winter 2010

Another very cold winter, we're still hoping to be able to pick the brussel sprouts for Christmas lunch - I think snow is meant to make them sweeter, isn't it?

Year 3 - 2011

Spring

The garden is continuing to grow well, it's starting to look more like a forest as the trees are more dense and it's quite a cool, moist environment. Unfortunately we've lost some of the more tender plants due to the prolonged cold including the tamarillo and ginger plants and the orange, nectarine and peach trees. Now that the main structure is in place and people are probably less interested in reading about it, we're planning to just give an update on any significant developments. A bit of excitement this morning as two blue-tits were checking out our hanging nesting box, so fingers crossed they'll decide to move in - I think they're my favourite garden bird as they're such characters!

We've invested in some more Earth boxes as they worked so well last year and have planted up with some grafted tomato plants and also some grafted cucumber and pepper plants. We haven't had much success with growing carrots or beetroot in the ground so we're trying them in containers this year, along with some baby aubergine plants.We've planted out our red and white onions, sweetcorn, courgette, celery, leeks and chard and squash plants accompanied by marigolds and nasturiums. We're trying to grow some melon plants in the cold-frame in the hope that some extra heat will help - last years' attempts grew to the size of large conkers! We're still propogating some celeriac and brocolli to plant out later and have sown some containers with salad and herb seeds.

Summer

We've been growing some watercress from seed in an old washing up bowl, placing it next to the waterbutt so we remember to keep it moist. Really pleased with the results so far!

The baby carrots and beetroot are growing well in their pots though we probably need to do some thinning out.

There's a nice crop of apples coming on the Bramley tree, the other apples and plum are doing well too but not many cherries this year.

The nasturiums are running riot in the vegetable beds.

We've reluctantly had to lose the willow arbour because the willow plants at the back had died and the walnut tree needed some extra space to grow. We've kept a row of the more vigorous willow plants to continue supporting the clematis that had been growing over the arbour.

We've been amazed at how enthusiastically the melon plant has grown, it's spread up the trellis and all over the veg bed!

Considering last year's melons resembled conkers, we're very pleased with the size too.

Our little plum tree has also exceeded expectations as we've just harvested 3kg of lovely big plums.

29/8/11