All hands on deck

Mum and dad came round today and we spent a productive day in the garden. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Gardening shoes were on and gloves were at the ready.

Mum weeded the fruit border and some of the patio whilst me and dad sorted out the vegetable plot. All the manky cabbages have now gone and the area has been dug over and he even managed to remove the tree stump giving me more growing space. I removed the French dwarf beans and weeded the top end of the vegetable plot. All the outdoor tomatoes have been picked and the plants are now in the compost bin. The garden looks a lot tidier and is ready for it's winter dressing.

As a thank you, we had home made soup for lunch and they went home with some courgettes and some runner beans for their help. Mum went home looking rather tired and in much need for a soak in the bath!

The greenhouse needs sorting next so I will hopefully make a start on that tomorrow.

Well that is it for another day, until next time x

Weeds away

It has been a beautiful day here in Suffolk, the sun has been shining and a warm gentle breeze, a perfect combination for gardening.

Well I decided I would tackle the monstrosity known as the front garden today. The weeds have had far too long to survive and it was time to turf them out, or should I say heave! My neighbour kindly came out to inform me that the dandelions were weeds, just in case I didn't know. I think that was a large hint that the weeding should of been done weeks ago!

I tackled both of the flower beds which I can now say are practically weed free. There may be one or two still lurking in the central flower bed underneath the large dahlias. However there were rather a lot of busy bees and bugs so I did not want to venture there, in case anything came after me and any passer by would think I was a raving nut case as I leap around the garden squealing and screaming.

I had some deep rooted weeds running along the edge of the drive, I don't really like using chemicals so I thought I would try using neat white vinegar as this is supposed to act as a great weed killer, so we shall soon see if this does indeed work!

I took off all the dead heads from the plants, it looks much better and too be honest it looks a bit bare now, hopefully they will soon perk up and produce a few more before the end of summer (I know we haven't had one yet!)

The girls are being very vocal today, they are waiting to come out and have already knocked over the feeder yet again! It's is quite funny they were all clucking and racing about when the feeder went over and they all stop and look at each other in astonishment, as if to say 'who done that' and then they all start again and it sounds as if they are saying ohhhhhhh dear. Did you know that chickens can talk...

I have picked all the large tomatoes and laid them out on the table in full sun, hopefully they will turn if not it's green tomato chutney! I still have about twelve jars of courgette chutney which I made last year, guess what your all getting for Christmas folks!

Well the dogs are huffing and puffing waiting to go for a walk and the girls are making a right racket as they want to come out. Until next time x

courgette-chutney

A very windy day!

It has been rather windy here today but thankfully the rain has held off until now. It has come over very dark and it looks as if the heavens are about to open anytime soon.

I have spent about three blissful hours pottering about in the garden and greenhouse. First job was to sort out the central flowerbed in the front garden the seeds that I had sown had grown quite well along with an abundance of weeds! It was quite easy now to see which ones were the weeds. The dahlias are in the center and have grown really well. The seeds had bunched together so I thinned some out and moved then about a bit. I am really looking forward to when it all comes into flower.

The central flowerbed

I also weeded the main flowerbed luckily there wasn't many weeds growing in there. My lilies have grown well or should I say had those slimy pesky snails have been at them. One had come into flower even though half of them have been munched! The other is full of buds and does not appear to have been attacked like the other one.

One of the non-munched flowers!

The plastic greenhouse had blown over yet again. and I don't think it will see another year. I put some small holes in and have tied it to the decking. I put in a couple of growbags on each of the top shelves and thought it would be perfect for growing the last two of either pumpkin or squash in as I had no where else to plant these and after so much effort getting things to germinate this year I really did not want to throw them away. 

What will it be?

I dug over the area where I will be planting out the beans, which are still waiting in the greenhouse. I thought that if I planted them out today with this wind I am bound to lose them, but at least the ground is all ready and hopefully the weather is supposed to improve early next week and I shall plant them out then. I picked some more of the broad beans to have with lunch tomorrow and hopefully in a few more weeks some of the peas will be ready for picking too. The next lot of potatoes are flowering so it won't be long for them either.

I had a look round the greenhouse and I had several trays with just soil as nothing had germinated and what had appears to have been chomped by them damn snails. I emptied these out and today I sowed the last few Brussel sprout seeds and some more cabbages, Primo and Savoy. Whether they will grow we shall have to wait and see.

I'm not sure what is up with the girls but we have only been getting one egg a day for the past three days. This is very unusual. I have had to buy some eggs for the first time in months. They have been having their garden time and as usual making a right mess! My Tayberry bush is but a stump and the Blueberry bush is half the size it was. The only bonus is that this area remains weed free!

Looks like the girls have been here!

Well that is it from me for another day. I hope you all have a great weekend but before I go I would like to welcome and thank my new followers, and any new viewers. Until next time x

Chickens let loose!

What a fantastic weekend weather wise it has been! Most of the weekend has been spent in the garden so the girls have been let out quite a lot. The patio is almost weed free too, which is most pleasing as it is a job I detest and often takes me hours to do.

I have finally managed to get the front garden sorted, I weeded both the flower beds. It was a bit tricky doing the central one as I had sown seeds and I was a bit unsure of what were weeds and what were seedlings. I have pulled out most of the weeds and left what I hope are the seedlings! As I had sown different varieties  in different sections I left what appeared to be the same specimens in and took out anything in each section that looked different. We shall soon see once they get a bit bigger and I shall then take a photo for you to see.

The front flowerbed had hundreds of Cosmos seedlings I removed all but four, which I have left to grow. I also planted out two Dahlia tubers from which I had grown from seed last year. I planted out some Foxglove, Canterbury Bells, Malopes and Sweet Williams. Hopefully in a month or so there will be a beautiful floral display.

I have had a bit of a tidy up and sort out in the back garden and placing out the grow-bags ready for the courgettes to be planted into. The stalks on the garlic is now starting to yellow and it will soon be ready to harvest. I'm looking forward to seeing how well this has grown as last year it did not do very well. I will hopefully get about twenty or so decent sized bulbs. Another month and it will be time to lift the over wintering onions ready to dry out. They look quite a bumper sized crop too with big thick stalks.

All the strawberry plants are in flower so we may get a crop from these after all. The potatoes are growing really well as are the broad beans which have thick pods now developing, however my broad bean plants are no where near the size of my neighbors. The peas have doubled in size since I planted them out and have not been munched by the snails, but I found a couple of snails nestled in the cabbages again which the girls enjoyed tossing around on the patio to break the shells then eating.

I emptied an old used grow-bag into the run earlier the girls had a great time scratching through and feasting on the bugs. They had a dust bath in my fruit border and have made a bit of a mess so I will have to go round with the broom to tidy it all up again. I gave everything a good soaking yesterday and as we are on a hosepipe ban I had to do it all with the watering can. It took me almost two hours to do. Tonight I have only got the greenhouse, the hanging baskets and the front garden to do, hopefully it will not take as long as yesterday!

It will not be long before I will be using my trug to collect my harvest, I better get it out and give it a bit of a clean as it has been sitting in the summerhouse for almost a year. To see a great collection of garden trugs visit:  http://www.squidoo.com/sharing-the-good-life-the-humble-garden-trug

And finally.....We are having a Bar-Be-Q with the new gas Bar-Be-Q that Jay spent the morning putting together, which actually went together rather well considering Jay usually has bits left over! I hope you have all had a great weekend x

Spring sprung a leak, what is summer going to do?

Well today started off very nice however it has now turned rather dull and looks as if a storm is on the way. After the awful spring and the very wet weather I am beginning to wonder what sort of summer we are going to get, if any! Will all this hard work of germinating seeds and getting veg beds ready all have been in vain or will it be bumper crops? As usual we will have to wait and see what mother nature throws at us and try and do the best we can.

I had a busy couple hours in the garden earlier. I filled up the potato bags, now all I have to do is water, feed and wait. It's surprising how much soil those bags need. I do recycle most of the soil by either adding it to the raised beds or vegetable plot and the rest I pile up at the end of the garden an use it to refill the holes the chickens dig or reuse it by adding some new compost and feed to it and use it for pot and container growing.

I weeded the the veg plot, and there were lots and lots of weeds, I now have an aching back! The girls had a feast when I gave them a pile of weeds to rummage through. Their coop is next to the veg plot and they all stand on the ladder watching and clucking at me through the trellis as they know what is coming to them once I have done, they are funny little things.

We had two eggs today and I also filled in the two holes they had been busy digging. I let them out for a wonder and they are getting more inquisitive and are venturing further. Clyde decided to come out and have a sniff around them which sent them all in a flap, he then mooched off indoors again, happy that he had caused mayhem!

Jobs for tomorrow include potting up the herbs, sowing seeds and sorting out the compost bins if the weather stays fine.

And finally.....I'd like to say a big welcome to my new follower and to all my new viewers I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I do writing it. I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend and that the sun shines for you all x

Frozen fingers and toes!

I spent almost two hours in the garden and had to come back inside as I could no longer feel my fingers and toes. It was sunny however it was bitterly cold. I managed to weed the flowerbeds in the front, I had a large bucket full of weeds which the girls dived on with relish! The flowerbed right at the front was full of seeds which fell of the flowers that I planted last year. I have left these in and once they have grown some more I shall remove some to allow room for them to grow. I have only weeded the central flowerbed as I'm not sure what to plant there yet.

The girls are presently throwing the last few remaining weeds around the run. Octavia has dug yet another hole under the coop. I know it was her as she was filthy! We had three eggs today, so poached eggs or omelettes for breakfast tomorrow!

The  Onward peas that were sowed a few weeks ago are now emerging, there are also two tomato plants and another courgette now breaking through the soil, things are starting to grow! The second lot of potatoes are now breaking through the surface so I covered them with soil to protect them against any frost.

In celebration of National Gardening week I published a webpage about creating a cut flower garden. I adore having flowers in the home, but buying these can be quite expensive, by growing my own I not only have a lovely flower garden but I am able to bring the garden indoors to enjoy too.

By choosing the right plants you could have cut flowers from March through to November. Also  why not try planting some foliage plants to give your bouquet a professional appearance.  Want to have a go at creating your own cut flower garden then why not pay a visit to Create a simple cut flower garden

And finally.....I would like to welcome all my new viewers and thank you for visiting and hope you all will continue to visit and that you enjoy reading  my ramblings as much as I do writing them x