I've decided that there's gardening weather and there's enjoying the garden weather. We've had a good mix of both this month, grey days where you can dig loads without getting too sweaty, and lovely warm days where no digging is allowed, only sitting in the sun with a cold drink will do.
Despite neglecting the garden to stress about our wedding, and if you ignore the weedy patches at the back, the garden is looking quite pretty this month.
My main project has been digging the weeds (so many weeds) from the back part of the garden. The nettles have grown so fast, they're as tall as me!
Here's a before photo, and one of where I'm up to now. I'm digging the weeds and an inch or two of soil up with it to try to remove as much of the roots as I can. I did the same to the front half of this garden bed last year, it was time consuming but there are hardly any perennial weeds left, so definitely worth it.
Mum gave me some of the compost from her compost heap, so I've been sprinkling that all around the garden.
I've planted out some tomatoes (San Marzano and Mortgage Lifter) into the Belfast sink, my peppers have had a slow start but they're doing ok, and my first row of organic rainbow carrots have gone into the front garden raised bed. I've planted out purple peas by my wigwam, and a row of beetroot (there was some lettuce too but that's been nibbled!). Everything seems a bit slow in the garden at the moment, is it the same for you?
The side garden has pretty much recovered from being stomped on while having new fence now. I've replanted all of the herbs and added a couple of apple trees I picked up on sale (they cost £2.50 and £3.50 each). One is a 'Discovery' apple and the other is a family apple tree, it has 'Golden Delicious' and 'Champion' apples on the same tree. Witchcraft I say!
I also bought loads of clematis (bargain £1.77 from Morrisons) to climb up the new fence. We didn't know the neighbours had arranged curvy fences, we don't like them and they don't give enough privacy so I'm trying to solve the problem with trees and climbers!
Speaking of clematis, this one was in a pot in the garden when we moved in. I planted it up the fence last year but it didn't flower. This year I put a greenhouse in front of it, which apparently it loves because it's flowering away and looking so beautiful!
Last May I was digging up the first half of the weeds, the garden looked so different then!
How are your gardens this month?
I'm trying to spend 20 minutes a day in the garden, and I'm posting about it on Instagram.
