Tag Archives: blackcurrants
Finally, a dry weekend for gardening!
Hurrah, after weeks of seemingly endless rain Saturday dawned bright, if a little breezy so it was straight out into the garden to get some much-needed jobs done.

There was a lot of weeding, there was also a lot of grass that was well overdue a good haircut. We got to try out the new GTech Cordless strimmer that we’d been sent too (review to follow).

I cleared out a couple of the raised beds and planted lambs lettuce, spinach, mizuna, mustard, rocket, broccoli romanesco and pak choi. I also sowed a couple fo different carrot varietals and some dwarf and climbing beans – it may be a little late but then everything is this year anyway – we’ll soon see!
I trimmed the cherry arch – it was wild! I’ve also been digging up all the bulbs from various pots around the garden – then re-planting them using a multi-layering ‘packing them in’ system in just a few pots and then we’ll need to get some annuals to plant on top instead of having empty looking pots for a large part of the year – see, I’m learning :o)

I was sent a rather lovely wrought iron obelisk so planted that in one of my new bulb containers with sweet peas – can’t wait to see how that turns out.
I also planted up a self-watering hanging basket that had been sent to me by Stewart Garden to review with a lovely Heliotrope and white surfinia. The massive blue Delphinium that I bought at the Newhall Walled Garden open day found it’s way into the front garden – it’ll flower any day now.
I also ended up doing an emergency wasp nest removal after S noticed wasps flying in and out of a garden cupboard. I was a little surprised when I opened the door and a whole cloud of them flew out – don’t think I’ve ever run so fast! I guess with all the rain we hadn’t been outside to notice them before now.

I started to chicken proof the bed we recently planted up with Periwinkles, Heuchera and Hellebores but I ran out of bamboo canes so that’s now a work in progress until more arrive.

The front garden also saw some love and I put up a trellis and planted a couple of rose bushes that were wedding presents last year. I also planted an Osmanthus, a red Acer and a bunch of different lavender plants.

S finally got round to trimming the hedge all the way along the back garden and we took a trip to the recycling depot with a load of old flower pots a bbq and a chimenea. All in all things are looking ever so much tidier now. There’s still a mountain of stuff to do but we’re getting there.

Wherefore art thou Summer

What a miserable few weeks of rain we’ve had – the grass is going wild and I still haven’t had chance to try out the cordless strimmer that the lovely folks at GTech sent me a couple of weeks ago to review.

My soggy garden inspections are showing that it’s going to be a bad year for crops this year – we haven’t seen so much as a blossom on any of our apple trees, we have 2 gooseberries between our two bushes and no blueberries at all.

On the plus side, our blackcurrants and rhubarb are both doing very well and it looks like we’ll be able to start harvesting some of early variety potatoes soon. The newly planted herb garden is doing well and we also have tomatoes growing nicely in the conservatory, despite everything being a lot later this year after the extended Winter.

The chickens have managed to dig up most of the plants in our recently planted bed – periwinkles, tiarella, heucheras and helibores have all been tossed asunder by the naughty little beasts. We’re going to have to replant what we can salvage and then cane-off the bed until they’ve established themselves.

Praying for some nicer weather this week as the to-do list is growing longer daily. I’ve been sent a self-watering hanging basket by Stewarts so I’m keen to see how that works and finally get to test the strimmer.

I’m also quite excited to have been invited to RHS Tatton Park by Stiehl on the 16th and it looks like we’ll be in for a treat. Can’t wait to see the show gardens there.