My Garden: 20th May 2015

My pet rabbit is still wild in the garden until we finish making her run. 

She is decimating everything, even the plants she doesn't eat - she likes to lie across my lavender. My vegetable garden is so sparse compared to recent years. The only upside is that it is changing my focus from the usual vegetables to other plants such as fruit trees and container grown flowers and veg.

Aren't these lupin seedlings so pretty?

Here is the only Scented Nightstick that survived but I have some planted in a border, although I'm not sure of they are coming up.
I really hope they do because they are just outside the backdoor and I am really looking forward to sitting outside after the sun goes down and enjoying that gorgeous smell they release at night.

Pods are emerging on my lonely broad bean plant. I had very poor germination rates this year but my seeds are a few years old:

I planted a Conference pear tree in November to act as pollinator to my Williams tree that I planted (I think) four years ago. It has done it's job because judging from these swollen flowers we might have our first pears this year!


This is the Conference:

And the Williams:

My comfrey has started flowering and this will bring many bees to the garden:

Back On Two Wheels (with a companion)

Until my pregnancy, I had been driving motorbikes for five years. I started off on a Suzuki Marauder 125:

After six months I upgraded to a 2000 Honda Rebel 250, which I drove to France alone thus spending one of the best weeks of my life. I loved this bike so much.

But I was doing to much road for a 250 engine and with a trip from Ireland - UK - France - Belgium- Holland planned, I had to size up. So I sold the Rebel and welcomed a 1992 Suzuki Katana 400 into my life. Big, beefy and beautiful.

I still have the Katana but I haven't been back on the her since bambino came along. It needs a good overhaul after being parked up for two years and I just don't want the responsibility, or cost, of it right now. But I was yearning for a bit of a thrill so when I saw a cheap second hand bicycle for sale locally I went for it.

It's a Triumph, from the 70s I believe.

I've worn him strapped to my back and now strapped to the back of my bicycle!

Today was our maiden voyage - to the library, playground and back home! Carrigaline is well equipped with cycle paths so I worked out the safest route with the least severe incline. We had a blast and I'm fitter than I thought. I really didn't think I'd make the hill back but just as my stamina was running out, we had reached level ground again. I can't wait to get back out!

My Garden: 14th April 2015

If you look at the back of your seed packets you'll find that March planting is suggested for most spring sown vegetables. Except for a few hardy plants (peas and beans) and those who have to get a headstart indoors (tomatoes and peppers), I've given up on March planting. I now prefer to wait until April, when it has warmed up, and put my seedlings outdoors. I find it a delicate operation keeping young seedlings adequately watered without drowning or droughting (did I make that word up?) them, and having them outdoors is a much more natural environment that, unless the weather is extreme, has a good balance of rain and sun. Of course you must keep an eye on the weather because frost can still strike, and put the seedlings under cover on a particularly cold night.

Some lonely looking coriander and dill seedlings:



I've used the shelves from a redundant cheap greenhouse as support for my broad beans but burying them in the ground. You can see my brussels sprouts in the background:



Here are some plants, two of which I raised from my own seed saved from last years crop. A few days later they were eaten by my pet rabbit! I covered them with net and they are sprouting again.

My lavender is beginning to form flowers. I bought it as a plant from a garden centre last summer so this year will be a real test of the quality of the blooms. I've given it some comfrey feed. Lavender loves full sun and this plant gets the morning sun, up until around 2pm so I hope it is enough. I must look into dividing the plant so I can relocate some of it to the opposite wall, which gets the afternoon sun. It will be interesting to see the difference. Listening to an episode of Gardener's Question Time (BBC 4 Radio) I hear one of the panel members suggesting that I snip off the early flower buds as it will lead to twice as many blooms.

Below are a selection of cuttings given to me by my kind auntie. There are a selection of heathers with, what I think is, Elaeagnus Gilt Edge is in the back. I am keeping them watered in the greenhouse until I decide what to do with them.

My comfrey plant which dies back to nothing every winter has bounded back. I must start pulling leaves off and making some homemade fertiliser. I will also add some to the compost bin as it speeds up the decomposition process. 

These are two pear trees. The one in the foreground is a Williams which I planted as a year old tree about three or four years ago. It needed a pollinator and I didn't get around to getting it a mate until last winter, namely the Conference in the back ground. The older tree has gotten unkempt so I must prune it. I've been reading up on summer and winter pruning. I think I will do nothing until next winter, incase I affect my chances of getting any fruit this year. I have really ignored the possibilities of growing fruit in my garden and it is time to set that right.

A few pak choi seedlings:

My father has kindly built me this clever bench using only few pieces of wood. It is supposed to be for my plant pots but it may become a reading seat as it is positioned perfectly to receive that rich evening sunshine:

Purple sprouting broccoli is still going strong. I have started blanching and freezing it into bags as the temperatures are rising and it will go to seed soon:

And thus concludes the highlights of my garden as it stands!