The Family Patch

Out in the Garden

Oh my... hasn't it been wonderful to have a little bit of sunshine the odd few days over the past week or two? I was beginning to think that we'd never see the end of Winter!

I never realised how much the weather affected my mood until we had such a long, drawn-out Winter and I felt the desperate need for a bit of Spring air. And now it is here, my mood has lifted magnificently.

The combination of a bit of warmth and Real Nappy Week has reminded me of the good things in life, the reason I want to look after our beautiful earth, and has inspired me to get out in the garden and plant, plant, plant.

We have a tiny garden, and today we are having a new fence put up at the back. The soil is very heavy clay and a nightmare to work. But when the sun shines it is a little sun-trap and I want us to make the most of it.

Little Man has thoroughly enjoyed spending time outdoors, and I hope to make the garden somewhere we can spend a fair bit of time. I took a million photos and am going to do a big photo dump today, because the photos just make me so happy. I've fallen off the bandwagon with Mamtography (I take the photos but rarely find time to post them regularly) so hopefully this will make up for the lack of photos lately.

Enjoy!

 

 

The Garden: Summer 2012

TJ and I haven't had much experience with gardening.

Our first year together we lived in a flat with no garden. Our second year we lived in a lovely village but due to our commuting times we had hardly any chance to make the most of it. Our third year was taken up with a relocation and preparation for our wedding. Our fourth year was blighted by my pregnancy and Hyperemesis. So this year we've really gone all out to try and make our garden feel like "ours". 

We planted roses...

so full of promise.

We added lavender... lots of it!

My dad gave us lots of bits from his garden, most of which I cannot name...

but it all really helps brighten up the garden.

If we've done so well this year, despite all the funny weather and our lack of experience, then I cannot wait to see how much more we might get from the garden in future years. Isn't it exciting!

Our bountiful harvest!

Hi there! 

I've been meaning to post an update on the garden for some time now, but never seem to remember to take the camera into the garden with me (and actually I now need to remember to put it straight back in my hospital bag!!) But today I remembered and so I can finally share some of the wonderful things that have grown in our little patch this year.

Our tomatoes are perhaps the most bountiful crop this year. Grown from seed (by my dad) and then left to grow in old plastic boxes filled with compost outside our back door, they have just flourished.

And they are all as sweet and juicy as can be. I often just pick one and eat it before getting anywhere close to using it in an actual recipe... yum!

Then there are the courgettes... we've had the glut already but a few remain on the plants

And our runner beans are still going strong, with plenty of flowers to turn into beans yet!

Our beetroot are small, but still an achievement...

But nothing compared to the growth of our rhubarb this year (planted only last autumn!)

We don't have a very large garden...

And the tomatoes are grown in old plastic boxes...

But we go get a lovely harvest!

And we have even made chutney... yum. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the veggies we've managed to grow. We are still very new to this whole gardening business, but it is going well. I'll show you the flowers we've been growing next week!

Plants in Need

Say hello to my latest garden additions, starting with this dwarf pink!

I found it at our local DIY store in the clearance section, feeling mightily sorry for itself and begging to be rescued. And it wasn't alone... look what else I found!

I completely forget what this one is called, but it doesn't matter as I love it just the same.

I also love the clearance section of these places because not only do I grab a bargain (the entire lot - 6 plants in all - cost me no more than £8) but I also get to give something a chance at life that would just die away otherwise. Since they came home with me they have been outside enjoying a spot of sunshine mixed with a lot of rain and they are ready to be planted into the ground now.

Buying from the clearance section is always a gamble... some things just won't survive or flourish to their maximum. But, I have found that plants are much hardier than we often give them credit for, and I expect several of these buys will grow quite spectacularly over the coming years.

This little conifer, for example, is supposed to be able to grow to a height of about 10m or 30ft. Now, I'm not going to let it do that as our garden is nowhere near big enough to sustain that! But I will be hoping it has a chance to grow a little bit bigger once it is given the space. 

I'm not so sure these dwarf french beans have much of a chance, but I'm all for giving them a go. I'll keep you updated on their progress, so send some positive thinking their way, won't you?

Have a lovely day and don't forget to check out the clearance section at your own local DIY or garden centre to see what bargains you can find and what plants you can rescue!

 

Getting to grips with the garden

Morning all!

Haven't we been having some glorious weather lately? I love sunny days with blue skies, although I have to say that I have been rather pleased to see some welcome rain for our parched garden of late too. And let's not even begin to mention how much hotter the weather feels when lugging around a bump that seems to grow daily... I have spent far more time sitting around trying to cool off than enjoying the sun when it has been visiting. But I still love seeing it make an appearance every now and again.

A sunny day means I can get out in the garden and take some photos that really show off what we have been up to (or rather what Tim and my parents have been up to... my role in it all has generally been to sit on a chair and order everyone else about). But, after all their hard work, we are finally getting to grips with what works and what doesn't in our little garden and are beginning to enjoy it as it is already and plan for next year's growth too.

Here are the lettuces that have been providing a huge amount of amusement for my family. My dad, who has been a keen gardener for many, many years now, mixed up his seeds and thought he had sown some Asters, so was rather surprised to find lettuces growing instead. Some people have ornamental cabbages in their borders, but my family have chosen to have ornamental lettuces this year!

And here are the beginnings of our runner beans. My dad has provided us with runner bean plants for 3 years now and Tim and I are becoming dab hands at growing them. We've had varying success with other veggies thanks to slugs and snails and finding the best spot for planting and growing, but the beans always seem to grow no matter what. 

We are gradually getting better at growing other vegetables, although we have had to rely heavily on the products of my dad's potting of seeds, because many of the seeds we tried planting simply didn't grow. We think this is because we are trying to grow them on windowsill propogators and the way our house lies means that they either get too little sun or too much and just dry out. But we'll get there, and until we do we'll enjoy those few plants that we do manage to grow from seed, like this courgette plant that is already flowering (and, to our pride, doing so earlier than the ones my dad brought us!)

Of course, if it weren't for my dad's helpful hints and tips as well as his provision of many different plants for our garden, we'd be taken a lot longer to figure it all out. It is under his guidance that we chose where to plant our veggies, and also his suggestion that saw us digging up half of the lawn which was mostly moss and turning it into a lovely new flowerbed. And it is his provision of bedding plants that has helped to get the flower bed going...

It looks a bit bare right now, but it's started! We have sunflowers and sweet peas near the fence, with marigolds, petunias and some other flower I forget the name of. Added to those which you see here are some summer bulbs and a "shake and rake" seed mix which we hope might add to it as time goes on. We've also relocated our heathers here and are already thinking about which kind of perennials we'd like to add as time goes on.

In future years I hope to add a clematis and maybe a climbing rose to grow along the fence, as we had these in our previous house but as they had been neglected for several years I spent most of my time trying to tame them and gradually teach them to grow more steadily across the fence. I'm hoping that if I can get some started myself I can enjoy nurturing them over the years to cover the fence beautifully. 

But that's for the future, for now we are working with what we have, and what we have in abundance right now are Granny's Bonnets...

They have finished flowering and I wish I had thought to take a photo a week or two ago as we have the most glorious combination of colours in our garden. They were here when we came and so I am simply letting them go to seed this year in the hope that they will spread even further across the garden adding more and more colour for next year.

We also have several areas with this pink flower in and one small area with the yellow in. I love them both, but especially the yellow (I forget what it is called, but do know my parents have a red version in their garden and I may have to find out if there is any way of getting some red for my garden too!) I am not entirely sure how to get more of this in the garden and although I dislike the fact it is all tangled up with the pink flowers, I am loathe to do anything to it and lose it. I think that's my next question for my local gardening expert AKA my dad!

Which reminds me that I went off on a tangent and forgot to mention all of the plants my dad brought us, including several different varieties of mint to replace ours which unfortunately died during our relocation last year. We now have garden mint, spearmint, chocolate mint and one or two others that I forget. I love picking mint to put with potatoes and peas, and I shall have to look at other recipes I can use our wealth of mint in now we have lots to play with.

And we mustn't forget the tomatoes as we have more than a dozen of those dotted around the garden now too. This must be our favourite addition to the garden as Tim and I adore tomatoes and eat them regularly in salads or just on their own for a quick snack. I cannot wait to see how many we manage to produce this year and what the different varieties turn out like. Ours are all outdoor growing varieties as we do not have a greenhouse, however I still feel vaguely confident with them as I have been trusted to look after my dad's tomatoes in previous years when I have been at home and my parents have been on holiday. I know to keep them well watered, as well as to wash my hands after touching them before touching my nose, lest I want to start sneezing uncontrollably!

Of course, I have spoken a lot about my dad in this post because he is the main gardener of the family, but my mum has been just as helpful in getting the garden growing and can be found picking out weeds, deadheading the flowers, or simply lending a hand wherever she is needed. And she is the one who must be thanked for planting these wall hangers which were slightly too high for me to reach comfortably with my dodgy back and hips right now. We bought the planters from our local Aldi to hang from some hooks that were already on the kitchen wall when we moved here, and I am so glad we did because they already make the place look happy and more colourful and they aren't even in full bloom yet. 

So there you have it... lots going on in our garden, mostly done by someone other than me this year, but I had to share it anyway because it is bringing me so much pleasure right now. I'll keep you updated as things grow and our plans for the garden grow with them. Now, please excuse me while I go and have another look at the garden to see what has changed overnight!

Plans for the Garden

Our garden isn't very large, but it does have a nice variety of space for planting, grass for relaxing on, and paved areas to walk across. But we still haven't quite got it to how we envision it being in the future.

For instance, there is one patch of grass that just is not looking healthy at all. It is mostly moss and weeds and our plan is to rake it all up and turn it into an extended flower bed.

See the patch of mosst grass behind the two blue boxes? Well that is going to become our new flowerbed. Ideally we would have used that space for our veg plot instead of having to take up some of the healthier grass on the other side of the garden. But this side doesn't get as much sun as the other and we felt the veggies would be much happier and healthier in the sun!

So that bit that is in the shade in this photo actually gets huge amounts of sun later in the day (I took this photo rather early on Saturday morning before the sun had really started beaming down). That will be our little vegetable patch. And the grass next to it wil remain for laying on in the summer months.

We also have a new table and chairs set (please excuse the jaunty angle of the parasol... we ate our evening meal in the garden Friday night and the sun was still pounding down on us and that was Tim's best effort to provide us with the most amount of shade at that time!)

We already have a little bit of rhubarb growing (although something is having a munch at the leaves). This was a wedding present and was planted last October, so it is lovely to see it growing so well.

And my dad brought us some runner beans and sunflowers he had planted. The beans just ned to grow a litle more before being planted in he garden and we hope to eventually add tomatoes, onions, carrots, courgettes, and whatever else we can get our hands on this year. 

But veggies aren't our only thought. We do need to get planting some summer bulbs and seeds in and around the few flowers that are already present in the garden, like these Grannies Bonnets. And, of course, our new flowerbed will take some filling too! We recently bought a "shake and rake" seed mix from our local supermarket and are planning on getting those out as soon as possible. Because now the Spring flowers are starting to die off, our garden is looking just a tad bare again. 

I'll keep you updated as and when the garden changes through the year, so do keep popping back, won't you?

Spring has Sprung!

We planted tons of Spring bulbs back in the autumn, hoping that they would indeed spring out of the ground during this month. And look... we have purple and yellow crocuses...

 

...bright yellow daffodils...

...and a fairy surrounded by loveliness!

Our snowdrops and tulips haven't really done much, but that may be the soil. We are still getting to know the soil here and what works well and what doesn't, and I am already planning the plants we can add for the summer, autumn, winter and next spring!

But for now, I am going to sit in this sunny corner by the flowers and crochet to my hearts content. I have a lot of projects to plan and finish now that the morning sickness is finally starting to abate, so I can see many afternoons spent sitting here, especially if I can find a comfier chair to sit in!

I hope Spring has well and truly sprung wherever you are too!

Spring is Coming...

We planted these bulbs (along with many others) last autumn, and were surprised when the shoots started coming up long before Christmas. We really hoped that they would survive the frosts and snow, and it seems as if they have.

This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, and already the shoots have tripled in number and I cannot wait to see the spring blooms start to appear, from snowdrops and bluebells, to daffodils and tulips. Our little garden is going to be awash with colour, and will be a true inspiration for us both. After all, if they could survive the harsh winter to become beautiful and bright, then so can we!

I hope to share many more photos and tales from the garden over the coming year, as we get to grips with the type of soil we have (very clay-like) and what will grow well in it. I also hope we manage to avoid having so many red ants on the lawn too, because it would be a wonderful thing to sit on the grass in the sun and read a good book or simply be.

Spring truly is on its way, and with it the promise of so many wonderful things... don't you just love this time of year?

No garden too small

This is the view I have of our little garden from just outside the kitchen door. Isn't it lovely? 

I was very lucky to grow up in a home where the garden was large and well-loved. I ate homegrown vegetables and watched as my parents turned it into the garden of their dreams. I never really understood the interest in garden centres and weeding the garden until we moved to our first flat and we had no garden to escape to. Let's just say that the gardening bug well and truly bit me in our last house and I plan on making the most of this little garden of ours...

It started with potted herbs from our last home - rosemary and thyme. We then added the sage and chives from the local B&Q clearance section...

It continued with some runner beans that my dad planted for us - look at them grow!

We also have courgettes (zucchini) that my dad grew from seed and I am looking forward to eating the lovely things once they're grown... that's if the slugs don't get there first!

My darling dad also grew us some tomatoes that will survive outside - aren't we lucky?

We added some beetroot plugs we got from the clearance section as well - I do love a good clearance section, don't you?

They are currently growing in the boxes we used in our last garden, but next year we plan on expanding the border between the fence and lawn so that we can plant proper rows of veg in the garden. Talking about the lawn - it needs a bit of weeding and TLC too!

We're also looking forward to trying some of the pears that are growing on the branch hanging over our fence from next door's garden. There is building work going on next door at the moment, so I don't know who to ask if they mind us having a few, but seeing as though there is an absolute abundance of pears on both side of the fence I'm sure it won't be to big a deal.

And talking about trees... does anyone know what kind of tree this is (on the left... the Buddleia on the right kind of planted itself and I haven't decided what to do with it yet). The tree on the left was found in the front of our house, having seeded itself in the border. As we used to live opposite an old church I can only assume that something blew over from there. It has grown so big in the year since I pulled it up and potted it and I am still not 100% sure what kind of tree it is... our tree book suggests something like a sycamore or maple family but further than that we are stumped.

Not that we need to know to appreciate it.  A little bit of unknown magic is a lovely thing in a garden, just like this little fairy who was a gift from my parents in our last home. She came with us and now sits by the Feverfew, watching all that goes on and protecting our little visitors...

...the birds! I mentioned to my parents that I had seen a couple of sparrows in the garden and so they bought us this bird feeding station as a house-warming gift. It took a few days for the birds to find it, but yesterday they were well and truly loving it. We had a sparrow, a chaffinch (I think, I need a bird book to be sure) and a wood pigeon all enjoying the combination of treats. You should have seen the wood pigeon trying to land on it!! 

Yes, our little garden is flourishing already and we have only been here a couple of weeks. I do hope that it will become a real haven for us and maybe, just maybe, we'll inspire you to try and make the most of even the smallest part of your own garden because there really is "no garden too small".