Friday, 2 June 2017

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017.

The other morning the postman said to me 'your garden's gone woosh hasn't it?!'.  And 'woosh' is exactly the right way to describe the garden this month, it's been the perfect combination of roasting hot and big rainy that promotes lots of leafy wooshyness. 

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Unfortunately the weeds have gone woosh as well as the plants I want, but you can't have everything!  The slugs ate all my seedlings when we went on holiday, and there's a blackbird nesting in my wigela so I can't get over there to prune and weed under it.  I'm quite happy to have a nester though, it shows the garden's attractive to wildlife which means I'm doing something right!

I've planted 3 new tiny trees this month!  In the side garden I've planted a rowan and a hazel.  There's a little oak tree too that I intend to grow in a pot (I'll increase the size of the pot as it grows, but there'll have to be some pruning too!).  I also bought a little dog rose to grow up the fence and (hopefully) hide the view of the neighbours heads bobbing up and down their driveway.  I bought all the saplings online from the Woodland Trust.

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

I wonder how many trees I can fit into my little garden.  I think I have 7 in the back garden and there's 4 in the front garden, and I have plans for loads more fruit trees.

My little apple trees have some apples on them!  Quite a lot have dropped off (June drop?), but I'm hoping for at least one home grown apple this year.

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Here's the side garden, the raspberries are looking goood.

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

I have chives all over the garden and the bees are going mad for them.

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

The raised beds in the front garden are doing really well.  There's some slug damage on some plants, but I've got yellow and purple mange tout (the purple are self sown from last years plants), broad beans, minipops sweetcorn, borlotti beans, strawberries, nasturtiums, pattypans and some leeks in there.  It needs a bit of a weed!

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

The ground elder in the front garden definitely needs weeding!  Joe's dug loads out and we've covered the bare ground with cardboard, but there's still more to do (before those flowers set seed!).

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

My back garden raised bed is really giving me the happys.  The first photo is from 4 weeks ago, the next one is from now, so you can see how much it's grown in a month!

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Woosh! 

I'm really pleased with the lettuces - I have never been able to grow salad and I currently have loads of the stuff.  I'm creating my own polyculture salad seed mixes to sow (and keeping track of them in my little gardening journal).  I just mix a few varieties of seeds that I think will complement each other and sprinkle them where I want them to grow.  I've been sprinkling quite liberally then eating the thinnings! 

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

I'll leave you with this beautiful rose, which smells lovely and has loads of flowers (because I didn't prune it last year and now it's about 8 foot tall!) and this lovely nigella flower cos it's pretty too!

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

Diary of a suburban edible garden, May 2017. By UK suburban permaculture garden blogger secondhandsusie.blogspot.com #gardenblog #ukgardenblogger #permaculture #permacultureuk #organicgarden #ediblegarden

PS.  I still haven't finished painting the fence! I did one more panel but it keeps raining!

How's your garden this month? 





6 comments:

  1. It's certainly looking lush! I may have to steal your approach to trees; we also have a tiny garden with no trees at the moment, but I really want to get some in there.

    I think apples will naturally thin themselves out a bit, and it certainly looks like you'll get some fruit this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you :) I hope you can fit some trees in somewhere, they're so lovely!

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  2. Whoosh is a great description! Your garden looks so exciting and bursting with life!
    I've only been away for four days and some evil critter has demolished two of my courgettes - onwards and upwards! xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was probably a slug, I haven't had a courgette in 2 years because slugs have eaten them all. Every single one. xxx

      Delete
  3. Wow. It's all growing so fast all of a sudden. I love the little oak tree. Mine isn't quite that big yet. X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I cheated with my oak tree though, I didn't grow it myself! Yours is really cute though! x

      Delete

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