Back Garden Allotmenteer

May 18th

2011-06-20T19:26:00.003+01:00

What Not to Do, No.238:

- leave things un-picked, so they go over, and you have to pull them up. As with my leeks here. Actually I think we did eat another one or two after this point, but then they put up flower spikes and turned woody. Note to self: bit dim to grow stuff and then leave it in the ground. They got all through that winter, too.

Three types of lettuce, all of which seem pretty snail-resistant, at least going out as plantlets. Lollo Rosso, Red Oak Leaf, and, um, I forget what the green one is. It's nice and crisp, though. I think the oak leaf will be a regular - pest resistant, very attractive, and substantial leaves with a crunchy rib. I'm going off Lollo a bit; it does tend towards limp.

Some alpine strawberries and a jazzy (dead) beetle.

I love my purple geraniums and their feathery leaves. They even flourish in a shady border; bless them.

What Not to Do - No.237 (May 5th)

2011-06-20T19:02:00.005+01:00

- grow sunflowers from seed indoors, when they have sown themselves in the beds so generously from last year, and seem to thrive *much* better that way. Compare the long weedy individual that I grew in the lean-to, with the beefy youngsters (shorter, but much stouter) that reared themselves outdoors.

My Bijou Giant Mange Tout, getting a much better start than the Golden Sweet did, although they still struggled in the subsequent dry weeks:

Most excitingly, my blueberries have flowered and set! I bought two plants at the end of last year, knocked down to about a quid each in the local Focus store (now defunct - shame, as it was good for knock-down bargains).

Prettily-coloured pansies: mauve on the back, orange and yellow on the front. Here they're at the feet of a blueberry plant.

A hoverfly, sunbathing. Looking back as I write, in damp-mid-June, I'm nostalgic for those sunbathing days already. I hope May and April didn't constitute the entire summer.

What Not to Do - No.236 (May 1st)

2011-06-20T18:29:00.007+01:00

- put your peas (Mangetout Golden Sweet, in this case) out on the beds in their tray, ready to plant them up, and then forget about them for a few days in the warm sunshine. Result - rather yellow, barely-surviving pea plants. Oops.

The very beginning of May, this was. I was in two minds - junk them, or plant them out anyway and see how they do. I did the latter, and now, having seen how they did, I think the former would have been wiser. (I did however then plant some more, direct into the soil, amongst the feeble ones, so all is not lost.)

It didn't help though, that the weather was then warm and dry for weeks, and although I watered, it probably wasn't enough for them to catch up after that bad start. Though, I think they were probably too far gone, anyway...

Here they are, hopefully planted out. To add to their troubles - this bed really needs improving. The two beds nearest the cherry tree are rather dusty; I must add some 'organic matter'. The strawberry plants don't seem to find it a challenge, though.

Don't worry - I did add some string for them to climb up. They are now producing the odd pea, though the plants haven't climbed very high - nothing compared to the luxuriant wigwam they achieved last year.

Meanwhile, out in the garden itself...

2011-04-03T21:32:00.005+01:00

Hello, Salad Burnet. Hello, Lemon Balm.

And hello Lovage! Thanks to some root-plantlets from my friends Beth and Chin, and some over-wintered seedlings that I'd forgotten I had, I'm going to have a LOT of Lovage this year, by the looks of it.

Dicentra Spectabilis, 'Bleeding Heart': every garden should have it! It waves delicately in the wind, hence being slightly out of focus. :)

Cherry tree blossom:

The grape vine bursting out:

Chard, which valiantly made it through the winter, wilting and then re-growing at each frost. I really should have fleeced it - my problem is that, wonderfully hardy as it is, and so easy to grow, and so pest resistant and so forth - I actually don't like it very much. I like earthy (e.g., celeriac) but chard, I find TOO earthy. Perhaps I should try to stick to the white variety, which is supposed to be the sweetest, rather than this one, which is Bright Lights.

Chicory. This came about by chance, really. All my lettuces had bolted last July/August, and when I went (unusually, but as a treat) to the garden centre, they had no lettuce plants. I thought I'd give chicory a try, as a green.

Well, dammit - here's another one which is spectacularly hardy and pest-resistant (these plants made it through all the winter weather, uncovered) but which I don't actually like. It's too bitter for salad, and cooking it doesn't help. Perhaps it will heart up and form endives, which Duck likes - but I'm not sure what that involves... Brutal as it seems, I guess I'll pull them up!

Ahhh. Forget-me-not.

Lots of ladybirds around; in fact, I have to be careful where I step or sit. I hope it's a good omen, and doesn't mean that they'll soon be followed by record numbers of aphids.

Black peppermint, delicous...

... and equally delicious fuzzy Apple Mint. Really not long till I get a glass of fresh mint tea, at this rate.

I think these are 'Thalia' narcisuss; maybe it's the shady position, but they always seem to hang their heads like this:

... which is why I don't feel at all bad about cutting them to bring indoors:

This corner is where the shed is going. The shed that's been in sections in our sitting room, for X months. It will be SO much more useful when we actually assemble it. The pallets are for making the base on which it will sit.

Seedlings

2011-04-03T17:23:00.005+01:00

Seedlings are springing up very happily, and this year, they have more space to spread out in, as I got this plastic greenhouse/shelving thingo to put outdoors:

At the moment it's mild enough that I've started leaving the flap open at night, though any risk of frost, and I'll be zipping it up overnight again. Seems to be working very well and, SO FAR, no snails have climbed up into it.

In the blue bucket in the foreground - some komatsuna which survived very well over winter, and which I'll be growing again next winter, under a cloche, just to be a bit kinder. It's a slightly spicy green, great for adding to a salad or sandwich; and not as hot as rocket. We had some heavy snow and some hard, long frosts, so it's pretty hardy stuff.

Beetroot 'Cylindra':

'Feltham First' Peas:

'Goldensweet Mangetout' Peas:

'Winter Marvel Lettuce:'

Calendula Officinalis:

Spinach 'Matador' (back left), 'Little Gem' Lettuce (right), Sweet Peas (left), Cima di Rapa/ Rapini (front):

Those black plastic trays are testament to how much Tesco Free Range Chicken we get through. I make holes in one tray, with a bradawl, and then place it inside an unpunctured one, which serves as the drip tray. Works a treat. Of course, they are thoroughly washed first...

You can also see my two labelling methods: plastic milk bottles cut into strips, marked with marker pen; and foil-lined drink cartons, likewise cut into strips, and marked with biro. The former type doesn't work too well out in the garden, as the marker pen soon fades (which is why I lost track of my tomato varieties last year). The latter type works more through the imprinting than the ink (see the Calendula label) so can't be washed off, but the labels lose their rigidity once damp, so you can't prang them straight into the soil.

One of my resolutions this year is MORE LABELLING; especially of collected seed. I'm trying to decide whether or not to plant some unidentified brassica (?) seed, or not. Might be Pak Choi. Might be something else. It's probably edible, however.

Produce

2010-09-27T12:14:00.006+01:00

I've been very lax about the blog I'm afraid, but that isn't because nothing was happening in the garden. In fact, we've had plentiful tomatoes, courgettes, beetroot and beetroot greens, runner and climbing beans, and raspberries, all summer long. The glaring gap has been lettuce, as they all bolted in July. Next year, I must plan for that!

A typical haul lately:

The tomatoes are three varieties; Gardener's Delight, Latah, and Purple Cherokee, which are the large ones. I think they all did better outdoors than in (I tried both), but had a tendency to split in heavy rain - I might have to make plastic shelters for them next year to keep them from getting so soggy.

Beetroot 'Cylindra', which I allowed to get quite large. Very tasty, and soft even at this size.

Hyssop - makes a delicious tea, and very good for any type of cough.

Scarlet Emperor runner beans, which have been prolific - my only trouble was picking them before they got too large and tough. They seem quite good at hiding in the foliage, in spite of their size! The round courgette is 'Tondo', but I only got one or two per plant so I don't think I'll bother next year. Quite a few courgettes yellowed at the tips, not sure what to do about that.

June, before and after

2010-07-24T10:19:00.011+01:00

Here are some comparison pics, taken respectively on May 31st and then June 16th, when I came back from two weeks holiday. My kind neighbour had taken on the watering duties for me.

Mangetout peas - Golden Sweet on the left and Bijou on the right - with runner beans, calendula, and sunflowers. In the growbags, are New Zealand spinach, and courgettes (out of view).

Lettuces: I missed their prime, they were already starting to consider bolting when we got back. They're Webb's Wonder; very tasty, and heart up beautifully, but unfortunately appealing to the slugs and snails - unlike the Lollo, which they don't touch.

Purple Cherokee tomatoes:

Flower bed - Aquilegia and geraniums. These aquilegia are long-flowering; they've been in bloom since early May at least. I thought they'd be finished when I got back from holiday, but they're still flowering now, more than a month later!

Calendula - which turns out to be giant calendula, the tallest of them reaching above my waist-height. Although very colourful, they're taking up rather too much space; also, they have no calendula scent. Next year I plan to grow Calendula Officinalis, so I can collect the petals for herby purposes. These ones are very attractive to flea beetle, quite usefully, acting as traps; I've tapped out the beetles into a bucket of soapy water. Nothing else seems to have suffered from them, so perhaps the calendula lured them, though there were no holes in the flowers or leaves.

Some more general pics from June 16th:

Bijou mangetout; they get even bigger than that. Very tasty, sliced and stir-fried.

Lychnis Coronaria, 'rose campion' - grown from seeds that I sneakily purloined from the garden of my old doctor's surgery. I need to give less space to flowers next year, but these have given a great splash of colour all summer.

The roses:

Needing a haircut:

Green

2010-05-02T12:09:00.006+01:00

Looking more like a garden now, albeit a scruffy one.

I've planted out peas (Mange Tout Golden Sweet and Bijou, which are in spite of the name, giant mange tout) and Feltham First. I thought they might appreciate a bit of protection for a while so they have fleece wind barriers.

The beds are looking much fuller this year. I'm quite proud of the wallflower - I got a tray of neglected plants for 50p from a garden centre, and they've flourished! I gave some to my aunt too, so that 50p went quite a long way.

I never did get round to moving the rhubarb in the winter, but will do so at the end of the year. It's a daft place for it.

And yes, the grass really *does* need mowing. I will, I will.

Blossom snow; once again we had some fierce wind while the cherry tree was coming to the end of its blossom, which soon knocked it all to the ground, but I can see I have a good crop of cherries starting already. The Tuscan Kale, I'm letting go to seed, though I'm not sure if it will come true or not?

The grapevine springing back into life:

Alpine strawberry flowers

Forget-me-not - I don't think I had this last year, it must have seeded itself.

Anemone

Some of last year's leaf beet has sprung back, which is just as well, as I can't seem to get any to germinate so far this year.

My very first gooseberry! I can see that something is at the leaves already, so I'd better keep an eye on it. I planted gooseberry, raspberry, and blackcurrant bushes last year, of which the raspberry was the only one to produce; hopefully I'll get something from all of them this year. The raspberry has also spread quite nicely.

Starting to grow...

2010-03-22T16:23:00.006Z

Some of my seeds sprouting merrily in the lean-to:

Calendula

Goldensweet Mange Tout

Lettuce (Webbs)

Flowers opening all of a sudden, just this past week:

Viola

Miniature Daffs

Some sort of violet that grows rampant in this garden, anyone know the name?

Primrose

And this year's first posy from my garden.

Finally, spring!

2010-03-06T00:43:00.004Z

A hellebore, the first thing to flower other than primroses.

Ha ha, pigeons! Try eating my purple-sprouting broccoli now! I disgracefully left these unprotected all winter and the pigeons took a great fancy to them. What with that and the weather, they're in a bit of a sorry state. I have belatedly netted them...

Likewise the fleece has come too late for winter protection, I was very remiss, but is there now to provide a bit of catch-up protection, and shelter from the pesky pigeons.

The grapevine, pruned. Not that I really know what I'm doing, but it's supposed to fruit on year-old wood, I think, so I left plenty of branches from last year. Not too many, I hope? Many thanks to the Lone Hunter - the landlord next door, who provided such an unsociably high fence, for me to fasten the vine against. His poor tenants won't get much light in their garden, but I think my grapevine will be very happy.

Snow

2010-03-06T00:37:00.003Z

December: the nice light kind...

and January: not so light.

Nigella or Kalonji

2009-10-03T13:39:00.004+01:00

I scattered some 'kalonji' seed from the Asian supermarket - this is nigella, used in cooking for the spicy taste of the seeds. (Great with chicken, potatoes, onions).

I think the flowers are proportionately smaller than the usual garden kind, but they are nevertheless very pretty, come in several colours, and provide lovely feathery foliage.

August

2009-10-03T12:14:00.008+01:00

Early August, and back from 3 weeks' holiday; we hear that it rained for almost the entire time. The garden certainly looked very lush, although the French beans had succumbed to blackfly, the courgettes weren't doing much at all, and the lettuces I planted had completely disappeared to the snails and slugs. The brassicas were all looking lacy, but not stripped to the ribs as I had feared.

The unfriendly neighbour built not so much a fence as a compound, while we were away - 'for privacy', he said. Not a problem - he's to our north.

The grapevine had grown enormously, I had no idea it would get this big! Only supported by a few bamboo canes, it had collapsed onto the lawn so I propped it up as best I could. Over winter, I'll be building proper supports for it, and learning how to prune it so that it will be better-behaved, and maybe more productive, next year. It did produce bunches of tiny grapes but they were lost in amongst all those leaves.

The 'Pastiche' sunflowers, going strong; try staring into this one, it makes a strange optical effect.

The sad state of the French beans:

Success with the Goldfield beans! Lying on a black beret - big and also tasty. I'll grow these again next year. Anno Giallo also did reasonably well, and Cherokee Trail of Tears. The Purple Teepee, Modus, and Minidor were all stunted and unsuccessful - I don't think I added enough matter to the soil, and the blackfly also affected them badly.

Mid July

2009-10-02T22:52:00.004+01:00

Just before leaving the garden for a 3 week trip to the USA - it was looking fairly neat, by my standards.

Purple-sprouting broccoli (and some broccoli raab and cabbages) which I had to leave defenceless against the cabbage-white butterflies:

Some beans, beetroot, lollo rosso lettuce, courgettes:

'Pastiche' sunflowers:

Beetroot, mispoona, leaf beet, turnip greens, and broccoli raab:

June bugs

2009-10-02T21:02:00.003+01:00

A few creepy crawlies from mid-summer.

I had noticed, for several months, a strange scratching noise, near the old trellis along the wall - but hadn't worked out what it was. Till one evening I investigated more closely and found out what's behind it - wasps gathering wood paste:

A damsel-fly that I trapped under a wine glass in the lean-to, before I released it back into the garden:

And finally, I think these are Cabbage White caterpillars. Feeding on nasturtium leaves, then imprisoned in a plastic jar before meeting their fate in a jar of cider. Sorry chaps, but there were sooooo many of you this year - all my brassicas are looking rather lacy...

End of June

2009-10-02T20:42:00.007+01:00

Oops, I am getting behind with this! OK, here are a few shots from the very end of June; sweetpeas and French marigolds giving lots of colour. In that respect, the marigolds have been fantastic value - still blooming energetically at time of writing (early October) and evidently they do feed the bees, at least the tinier ones, since they have produced masses of seed. Unless they are self-pollinating? I've never seen a bee on them, so I presume the nectar is incaccessible to larger insects.

Mid June

2009-08-16T13:02:00.006+01:00

Finally, an update...

'Moonlight' nasturtiums and some pinks. No idea what variety the pinks are, I got a tray of mixed dianthus end-of-season stragglers from Homebase, which made it through the winter in their polystyrene tray - tough little buggers!

The Goldensweet Mangetout in full spate. I'll grow these again next year; bar the odd pea moth here and there, they seemed pest-proof. I also want to try the giant green mangetout, likewise from realseeds.co.uk. Splashes of orange are the French Marigolds - I got a tray of them from Tesco. They have been great value, flowering away since I got them, adding a lovely colour to the garden which has really gone well with the sweet peas, pinks, nasturtiums etc.

Turnip greens (mid-left), leaf beet, and beetroot (front). Some various cabbages and sprouting broccoli in the middle, some kale and leaf beet to the back:

The teepee of nasturtiums looked lovely for a while - but once it started to yellow and suffer from blackfly, not so pretty, so I pulled it up.

Two purple cranesbill geraniums, one that I cadged from my Mum, the other from my aunt's friend Ruth.

Cherries from the cherry tree. I found that if I picked them just before they turned fully red, then I could beat the birds and wasps, who have to wait till they're soft. Then I ripened them off on the windowsill; I got about 6 or 7 kilos! Nice and sweet, too.

More flying things

2009-05-30T00:58:00.004+01:00

Another damsel fly; a shield bug; and, back to the actual gardening - my Golden Sweet mange tout producing nicely. Plus a pimpernel? I may be getting rather side-tracked into the micro-wildlife, but it's not all benign - I did get a couple of vicious little ant stings today. The ants think my beans are their aphid farm.

Critters

2009-05-26T20:51:00.006+01:00

Variously: (possibly) a Queen Tree Bumblebee, an anonymous bee, a shiny green fly, a damsel fly of some sort, a Cinnabar moth, and a million baby spiders, hanging off the washing line.

The advantage when critters are emerging, is that they're a bit dazed and confused - the damsel fly and the moth were probably waiting for their wings to dry and their heads to clear. :)
The damsel fly was very aware of me, and kept shuffling behind the stem to try to hide - but it made no attempt to fly. The moth may have been asleep for all I know, it didn't move at all.

Overview, May 22nd

2009-05-23T16:52:00.005+01:00

If you're thinking 'that base won't hold up that rotary drier!', you're right - it's too small, I'll have to think of something else or get a bigger one. :)

Things are looking more attractive now that all the polythene, bubble wrap, and plastic milk bottles are gone. Even the netting has been put away, which I hope won't prove too foolish. The white chairs do stand out as an eyesore, I may improvise some sort of cover for them.

The new bed is planted with Modus and Minidor bush French beans, a couple of stray Masterpiece Longpod broad beans, rocket, and Beetroot Chioggia. The new bamboo tripod has the rather ill-treated Feltham First peas planted at its foot - they waited a bit too long to go out, I'll see how they do.

I found a handsome ladybird doing her stuff. Ych, look at the state of my nails - that's gardening for you.

Flowers and beans, May 22nd

2009-05-23T16:38:00.005+01:00

The scrambling rose bush turns out to have lovely soft-pink flowers with a delicate spicy tea-rose scent. The mange-tout Golden Sweet peas are flowering, and oddly, have two colours - pink, and blue. The Masterpiece Longpod broad beans are making pods, can't wait for some of those to mature.
The white dianthus is one of various patterns and colours that I got in a mixed pack, from white, white & magenta, mottled pink, to hot hot dark pinky-red. Perhaps I should make an entry just for the pinks.

Bed number Four, May 12th

2009-05-23T01:49:00.004+01:00

... if you don't count the flower bed. This one for French beans. Those black bags on the left are full of couch grass clumps - there are another five or six bags around the garden. I'm going to add some yarrow (supposed to be a magically good compost activator) and some water, then seal them up and pile them in the corner for a year or two. Unless someone has tried this, and thinks it's a waste of time? I'm already regretting trying the couch-in-bin-of-water technique - I now have a very stinky bin of goop that I'm not quite sure how to handle.

Early May

2009-05-23T01:20:00.004+01:00

Not much room for manoeuvre in the lean-to. I didn't realise quite how bad the fungus-gnat problem was, unfortunately - so a lot of my small seedlings perished. Most of the larger stuff did OK though.

Happy chaos - all the greens growing away, though I did put far too much in the beds. Once matured, plants didn't have space and after the stage shown here, things started to grow too tall and bolt. I'm learning lots of lessons for next year. Still, if the nursery had sent me plug plants, like they were supposed to, instead of vastly more numerous seedlings, quantities would have been about right. I just wasn't disciplined enough to jettison half of the seedlings...

My Masterpiece Longpod flowers, very impressive! And my miniature strawberries, which got busy as soon as I planted them out.

April 15th & 29th

2009-05-22T01:25:00.004+01:00

Showing slight differences, mainly my impressive flush of dandelion flowers (see bottom left, 2nd pic). You can also see a couple of Lidl aquisitions - a lovely jazzy windmill, to scare the pigeons, and a lurid yellow hose, sadly with no cable reel, I wonder if I can improvise something? I didn't get a picture of the cherry tree in fullest blossom - it was very windy, and the blossom only lasted a few days at its peak.

It's funny to look back at how slowly things were still developing then - it's all go now, pictures soon!

Beans and Peas

2009-04-11T20:02:00.003+01:00

Another few feet of couch grass dug up, and now my broad beans (Aguadulce Supersimonia and Masterpiece Long Pod) and mange-tout peas (Golden Sweet) have a bed. In these pics, only the peas and the Aguadulce have been put in yet. The peas have rocket for company. Meanwhile, the flower bed has been planted with geraniums, strawberrys, alliums, dianthus, Anemone de Caen, and chionodoxa.

I don't have a great shot of my robin yet, but here he is anyway. (Note to American readers - yes, that's what we call a robin.) I was worried he and his wife might want to nest in the hedge, which still needs more clipping (I saw him feeding her worms, quite aggressively, one day); but they must have nested nearby to the north, as that's the direction he flies off in once he has filled his beak with grubs. He's a very talkative robin - whistles and mutters quietly the whole time.

Early April, a flower bed

2009-04-11T19:49:00.006+01:00

My newest salad bed was getting a bit wind-lashed, so has a not-very-pretty, but quite effective, wind barrier of bubble wrap. I decided the next bed would be for flowers, as I had some impatient plantlets getting a bit bored of their pots. There turned out to be paving slabs under the turf here, which will come in handy elsewhere.

The cherry tree is in blossom, the daffodils are looking lovely, the primroses are still going strong, and we'll be having rhubarb crumble pretty soon.

Bed Three, Late March

2009-03-28T22:28:00.003Z

Blooop! Another bed! This one was much, much easier to dig, as the front part of lawn is patchy lawn grass, not couch grass. The edging is made from the remains of the pallet I used for the second bed.
Yet more greens planted out, including spinach - and there are still more waiting indoors. Meanwhile, I need to start on another bed in the couch grass, as my peas and beans are coming on in their pots, and will need to go out before too long.

Bed Two, Mid-March

2009-03-28T21:42:00.002Z

In the first weeks of March, the first plot was completed, and planted up with mixed greens (red mustard, pak choi, mizuna, turnip greens, broccoli raab), and half of it covered with plastic. (Cloche wire donated by a friend, plastic cadged from the bin at Topps Tiles.) The plastic makes a big difference - the mustard greens are growing beautifully.

By the 3rd week, I'd dug the second bed (much more quickly than the first), constructed the frame from found timber (sides taken from a skip, ends from a pallet); planted up with more greens (all these being from the plug plants I've been over-wintering in the lean-to); and covered the second bed with netting. There are pigeons nearby, and I'm just waiting for their little brains to compute that I have a garden full of tasty brassicas... So far, even the snails don't seem to have noticed.

The milk bottles on the canes aren't very pretty; I'm looking for a more aesthetic solution. The grape hyacinths are in flower, and the bees love them - Hairy Footed Flower Bees, and Bumble Bees; I'll try to get a picture.

Meanwhile, in the lean-to

2009-03-28T21:35:00.004Z

My purple sprouting broccoli was the first to germinate; and my mixed oriental salad greens (which started out as mail order plug plants/seedlings) are growing lushly. (Photos early March).

First bed: March 16th

2009-03-28T21:26:00.003Z

I didn't actually dig it in a day - I think it took me best part of a week. On the concrete middle area, you can see just some of the couch grass roots, and stones, that came out of the soil. One of the bins is full of couch grass roots, the other is half-full of soil, just to get it out of the way. Lovely, black, clay-loam soil, and full of worms! Yum!

February 16th 2009

2009-03-28T21:17:00.005Z

During the depths of winter, I did get the Russian Vine well cut back; this picture shows what it does to a wooden trellis. I really should kill it, shouldn't I? Another thing I was able to do was to get some fruit bushes in; here they are in their starting position (yes, I know they're too close together). They're being replanted as I find time to dig and clear holes for them. From the left: loganberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant x 2.

Frosty morning; December 12th, 2008

2009-03-26T00:03:00.000Z

The Russian Vine now mostly pruned, and its branches lying in a heap on the lawn. Some were burned in a quite spectacular little bonfire. By the wall, my poor ill-treated cuttings - I'm amazed how many survived the winter - almost all of them - given that they spent most of it like that, uncovered.

The fate of the Russian Vine is uncertain; the new neighbours don't mind if it goes, so I might jump over the fence and chop it down on their side, and then glyphosate it when it grows back - probably several times before it gets the hint. On the other hand, it still has the run of the middle section of fence, and maybe some hedge is better than no hedge?

View from Above

2009-03-25T23:46:00.000Z

Looking from the bathroom window. Beyond the end wall you'll see we have a rather unattractive industrial area, and a nasty-looking security fence between us and it; must grow some climbers up that.

The Virgin Garden: November 6th, 2008

2009-03-25T21:34:00.001Z

Here is the back garden as it was in November, when we arrived. The front half of the lawn is your ordinary actual lawn-grass; back half is the more problematic couch grass. The garden is on the western side of the house, so, looking out at it, we face west; looking back at the house from the garden, we're facing east. The great big overgrown Russian Vine along the fence is therefore in the prime south-facing position, which has helped it grow to super monster proportions. Also along that same side, is a concrete path, almost the length of the garden - which will have to come up at some point, as that's the absolute best place for sunny beds! The path should be on the other side, in the shadow of the wall and conifer hedge. There is also a concrete area in the middle of the garden, which I'll leave, and likewise a small paved area in front of the lean-to.

The large blue thing is an abandoned paddling pool, and the large white thing, an abandoned fridge - one of five appliances that were littered about the place, to our annoyance; one in the back garden, one in the front garden, and three in the lean-to. We had all these things taken away to the dump.