Gardening, April 2015.

Our new garden is gorgeous, and it needs a lot of love to become even more gorgeous!

I cleared up the little raised patio bit.  I chop a branch off the straggly holly every now and then when the mood takes me!

I started digging away some of the grass/weeds on the raised bed on the left, this is after one day,

And this is after a week.  I REALLY want to get this all dug, but I hurt my back doing it on the first day, so I'm only doing a little bit at a time now.  I've hit a really stoney and buttercup-py patch at the moment so it's taking ages to dig. 

I planted my first plants!  Some polyanthus that used to live on my balcony, and on the far right is a tiny Hebe that apparently changes colour to pink in the winter, that I picked up for 50p (reduced from £8!) in Wilkinsons.  The sedum and that lovely fern-y looking weed were already there, just hidden by the long grass.

Joe cut the grass on the left hand side too, which makes it look a lot better.

I am quite smug about the fact that the soil is looovely!  Not quite so smug about the buttercups though.

I've borrowed some space in Mum's greenhouse to start some seedlings off.  I've got sweetcorn, courgette, kale, a chilli pepper called 'little elf' and some fancy sweet peas that change from pink to blue.  I have lots of seeds to start off outside too. 

These are the seeds I've got growing, or have waiting for some garden space, so far this year,

Beetroot - detroit 2

Broad Bean - bunyards exhibition

Chard - bright lights

Chilli Pepper - little elf

Courgette - royal flush

Kale - dwarf green curled

Lettuce - iceburg 2, salad bowl mixed

Onion - (bunching) iahikura

Spinach - apollo 1

Spinach Beet - perpetual spinach

Sweetcorn - minipop F1

I want to plant a couple of apple trees, but I want unusual varieties and especially one with pink flesh.  Let me know if you have any apple tree recommendations!

And for flowers I've got Livingstone Daisy (sparkles mix), Marigold (French petite mixed), Nasturtium (tutti fruity mix) and sweet peas (turquoise lagoon and royal mixed).

I've got some packets of wildflower seeds that I want to plant too.  There's an article on gardening for wildlife in the May issue of Vegan Life magazine, which I've been reading with interest. 

You can subscribe to Vegan Life on paper or digitally.  There's also a handy app for digital subscriptions. 

What's going on in your garden this month?  Do you garden for wildlife?

Disclosure - I have been provided with a free digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for reviewing this publication.  I have my own little page in the bloggers section on their lovely website.  All opinions are, of course, my own.