Monday 27 April 2015

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. 


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.

10 comments:

  1. I remember when I moved to Shropshire, more years ago than I care to admit to, the first plant I got was a polyanthus, and it's descendants came with me with every move. I planted it in a corner and it spurred me on to clear the next patch - just like you.
    Take it easy, no point in injuring yourself.
    Your conservatory will double up as a great greenhouse !

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    1. I love polyanthus :)

      I have great plans for propagation in the conservatory too!

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  2. I imagine it's so nice to have a garden! My friend is having an open one next to our apartment building. I'm not really contributing to it, I just admire :). Looking forward to see how will evolve yours!

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    1. I can't wait to have the garden sorted and lovely, I've lived in a flat with a balcony for the last 3 years and I've really missed having a garden :D

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  3. It's really really gorgeous! :) Best wishes for the new house! Finally, I am happy to see the new arrangement in your new home. There are many jobs to do, it is true, but it will be nice to do they carefully so to achieve anything you desire! So take it really slowly because it's worth. And I'm sure your garden will become a wonderful oasis! ;) xxx

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    1. Thank you so much Danda :) There are lots and lots of jobs to get done, but we're trying to do them well, so it'll probably take us a couple of years to get everything sorted. You're right though, it'll be worth it in the end! :) x

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  4. You have such a cute garden! I've been debating raising up some beds, especially in my veg patch but i'll see how things work out this year and go from there. I've got lots of veg planted and some more to pop in, starting to harden off my sunflowers and i'll get those planted hopefully by the end of this week. I've sown about 10 packets of wild flowers around my garden the other week so hopefully something will come of them all!

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    1. Sounds like there's lots of exciting things happening in your garden!

      It's nice to have that raised bed, I hope it'll save me from having to crawl about on the ground gardening!

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  5. Your garden looks like its coming along really well! We started making a raised bed veg patch the other year but never finished it, it's still a pile of soil and mess! We've got some strawberry plants from last year that seem to be growing quite well though :-) xx

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    1. Thank you, I can't wait to actually get started planting things. I have strawberries to put in too! :)

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