Friday 17 June 2016

Make Your Own Plant Labels

I've been having trouble finding satisfactory plant labels. Wooden ice cream sticks work well but I don't eat enough ice cream and they are too narrow. I've bought plastic ones but find the marker can wash off. And they are not very attractive either.

A simple, free and surprisingly beautiful solution is to use smooth beach stones and permanent marker. It was a wonderful excuse to take a late evening walk on the beach this week. We had an awesome thunder shower that day, with a lot of lightening and flash flooding, but by the time I got to the beach the sky had cleared into a swirling mass of bright blue and white with a rainbow. It was incredibly peaceful. Give me that over sizzling on hot sand under a high sun any day.



Here are some of my stones:








Wherever you are, I hope you're near a nice beach so you can make your own.

Sunday 12 June 2016

My Garden: 11th June 2016

June is a wonderful time in the garden. By this time we've gotten ample sunshine and rainfall to really get things started. Some long awaited crops, like broad beans, are ready for eating, everything else is making good progress and there is still time to sow seeds.




My over-riding plan for this year was to promote polyculture in the garden by growing vegetables, flowers and herbs alongside each other. I found it surprisingly difficult to get it started, trying to think outside the box when I was planting, but as the beds have filled up, I am getting more adventurous and creative with plant placement. And I have noticed the results massively. My broad bean crop is healthy and bountiful, and I like to think that the bright colourful pansies surrounding them have helped attract pollinating insects to the beans. I've been growing broad beans for a few years and this is my best year yet.







In my main veg bed (first photo) I have garlic, beetroot, parsnips, lupines, thyme, broad and borlotti beans, pansies, coriander, dill, radish, nasturtiums, Gypsophilia elegans (Baby's Breath) and spinach. I've noticed a massive lack of pest activity (namely slugs) and I believe this is because of the mix of plants camouflaging each other. Certainly my lupines in other areas of the garden are being well damaged by slugs, whereas the flower stalks in the vegetable bed are pristine.


The variegated leaves of the nasturtium reveal the first flower of the season. I've been nibbling on the leaves and they have a massive peppery kick. They are nestled among garlic and spinach which has gone to seed in the heat. The low lying, creeping leaves of the nasturtium is a nice balance to the tall spikes of the garlic:



Radishes grow in a line and you can see thyme to the left:




Peas are just starting the flower. You can really see the importance of a trellis - the bottom of the plants are quite chewed by slugs but the tops are out of their reach:




On the patio at the back of the house (south facing) I have my courgettes and tomatoes in pots. The biggest courgette in the foreground is in a 20 litre pot and the effect is incredible. I am planning to move some tomatoes into similar sized pots and the others into a bed. I've never grown tomatoes in a bed before and I'm looking forward to seeing what difference it will make:



That's all the highlights at the moment. I could show you photos of my giant comfrey plant covered in bees or the potatoes beginning to flower but I think I've taken enough photographs for one post. Till next time...

Saturday 4 June 2016

My Garden: 4th June 2016

The weather is scorching and life is good. We are so spending most of our free time in the garden. The sunshine makes everything so much easier.

Our next main crop is broad beans. We've eaten some young pods steamed and they were delicious but I prefer to let the beans mature. They're not quite ready but I couldn't wait so I picked the fattest ones today.



Last year most of the pods were half empty so I was delighted to find that every pod was full of beans. I think this means pollination was successful. They are still on the small side but that's nothing that time won't fix. Yum yum.




In the flower kingdom, my beloved lupines are being ravished by slugs but thankfully flower spikes are pushing through.





Isn't this cute? I bought the ornament for the fish tank but it was too large:



Keeping thirsty plants like courgettes and tomatoes happy, when they are in containers, can be difficult. I'm planning to move some of them into beds but for the ones that do stay in pots, I've made a simple self watering system using an empty bottle:





I bored holes in the cap of the bottle and cut the base off. By keeping it topped up with water, it will keep the soil moist by gradually leaching in. It's a great reminder to add water when you see the empty bottle, rather than having to check the soil.


Problems in the garden include bolting spinach but that's the price for sunny weather and bad germination with my carrots and leeks.


That's all for now folks.