Our first harvests

  Some beautifully sweet strawberries and some crunchy red radishes!
 

   

 

Party in the garden

Never mind a long Jubilee weekend, it was a long rainy weekend!  There have been street parties and garden parties and big lunches in celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubillee though most of them all a bit soggy. A four-day weekend has also meant some extra time in CGC - well, when it hasn't been raining.

Tomato plants are all out in their final positions in the greenhouse, and this year we've also planted some tomato plants outside in the vegetable patch. Not sure how well they will do in comparison to those protected in the greenhouse but we'll see.

We've also planted radishes, beetroots, onions, spring onions and garlic as well as some chillies. We decided not to go for the sweetcorn this year seeing as they take so much space and are quite prone to bugs. As we have our new little helper in the garden, we can't use the same slug pellets as before so we've been trying to go for more natural pesticides though they aren't as effective - though better for the garden, not really better for the vegetable patch in the short term.

Our baby beetroot leaves have already almost all been chewed back down to the ground by slugs. Many of the marigold leaves which we planted in rows on either side of the vegetable patch have also been chewed by slugs and snails. The radish leaves are faring well up until now but is it just a question of time before they fall prey to the killer slugs?

I tried a garlic solution, which I read about on the Garderner's World website, which consisted of one crushed garlic bulb boiled in a litre of water for five minutes and then strained. A teaspoon of the garlic mixture is then added to a litre of fresh water which is used to water the garden and supposed to help deter slugs and snails. Hasn't really worked well up until now. Perhaps, there has been too much rain and the solution hasn't had a chance to take effect...

Looking at the rain falling outside, I'm thinking how much the slugs and snails are partying this Jubillee weekend and how much they are revelling in all of this soggy weather and reaping chaos and destruction in their slimy trails!

Hard at work

   

   

   

   

A new helper in the garden

  

  

  

  

Rainy days

"More and more I am coming to the conclusion that rain is a far more important consideration to a gardener than sun, and that one of the lesser advantages that a gardener gains in life is his thorough enjoyment of a rainy day." Margaret Waterfield

Though a bit of sun would be nice...

Spring planning

The clocks move forward this weekend which means one less hour in bed but it also means spring is here and it's time to get planting! The long dark gloomy months of winter are over, the garden has had its rest, the blog has had a bit of a snooze and now it's time to get digging, sowing, watering, planting and writing!

So a few of the old favourites are back -

Tomatoes (cherry and plum)
Chillies (we need to make lots and lots of chilli jam! And need to track down that magic recipe from a good friend)
Onions (not spring onions the other variety - normal onions. Nothing wrong with spring onions though)
Garlic (let's hope they grow this year)
Beetroot (an old favourite)
Radishes (something new!)
And sweetcorn (very adventurous!)

Need to think of something to plant near the trellis by the greenhouse. Last year we planted mangetout which worked well. The year before the runner beans looked very proud in that spot. This year I'm thinking perhaps cucumber or broad beans... or perhaps the cherry tomatoes might enjoy it there? We left them in pots on the deck last year but they were difficult to handle and keep stable and upright so hoisting them onto the trellis might be a good idea..

The caterpillars are already out and about. Over the weekend I discovered that our lovely ground cover plant, the periwinkle has been chewed mercilessly by some big fat green caterpillars. The periwinkle was doing so beautifully and had even flowered in January, probably due to the mild winter, and then suddenly it was viciously savaged by a few caterpillars. Might be time for the potent garlic and chilli spray again!

Happy new year!

Another year. They keep whizzing around faster and faster these years. They seemed to go much slower when I was younger. Anyway, the mild winter in the UK continues, the banana trees are still not wrapped up and the garden still looks reasonably green. I wonder if we'll get any snow this winter? At the moment it doesn't look likely...

We've just come back from a lovely holiday in Dorset and looking through our holiday snaps, I thought I'd cheat a little and upload some photos of flowers, insects and animals that we've spotted in other gardens and in the countryside over the past year, not in Cowick Garden. Here are a few...