Green

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...

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!

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

December: the nice light kind...



and January: not so light.

Nigella or Kalonji

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

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

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

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

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.