Slugs & Snails are evil

My garden is very sad at the moment.  Before I went on holiday I had nurtured and planted out 16 sturdy mange tout & pea plants and an entire bed of mixed salad plants, all sorts of lovely little green things thriving in my garden.

Then it rained for a solid week while I was on holiday and when I came back nearly everything had been eaten... my entire bed of salad has vanished, all my lovely little rows of baby plants have disappeared without a trace.  My mange tout & peas are just little tiny stems with no leaves at all, withered and dying.

The only explanation I can find is that the slugs and snails had a feast at my expense.  I'm feeling a bit disheartened at the moment because I've lost a couple of months worth of growing in the space of a week :(

I have ordered some Nemaslug from Amazon which promises to provide thousands of little slug eating insects which will clear my beds out for me and stop my next batch of seedlings being eaten.  Once they've had a chance to do their work I will have to set to work replanting.  It's late enough in the year now that I can just sow directly into the beds so hopefully in a few weeks I will have green things again.

Not all is lost though - I had some tomatoes, peppers and aubergines inside and Rob took wonderful care of those in my absence so they are doing just fine.  I also have some leeks which I started later which are still tiny so in a little while they can go out and fill some of my gaps.  My broad beans have been nibbled but I think they'll pull through and nearly all my fruit is fine - the only victim was the rhubarb but it was looking a bit pathetic anyway this year (I think it needs more space!).  On a happy note my potatoes are finally showing their first leaves so I guess they escaped unscathed.

Not the best start to the year though.

Freecycle = Win!

A little while ago I was looking for an old sewing machine and asked after a few on Freecycle without any success so chalked it up as a nice idea and resorted to ebay; I decided to give it another try again this year and thought I'd keep an eye out for any garden bits to green-ify my patios and amazingly after signing back up yesterday I now have a big pile of pots in my garden that a kind Freecycler 'offered' for re-homing!  I plan to plant salad leaves and veggies in the larger ones and use the smaller ones for flowers to brighten the place up, attract the good insects and distract the bad ones!

I resolved to be good and give back as soon as I could and as luck would have it someone 'wanted' some reference books I have and is popping over tonight to collect them!

A beautiful weekend

The weather was so nice yesterday I couldn't bear to stay inside so I must have spent about 5 hours out in the garden, mostly just tidying and sorting... amazing how much time it can take to straighten everything out but I wasn't in any hurry!

I sorted through all my pots of strawberries an amalgamated all the less-full ones into the new strawberry bed at the bottom of the garden; some of the runners I'd potted on hadn't survived the winter frosts so it made sense to free up the pots for other crops this year.  The bed looks a bit patchy at the moment but I'm expecting it to fill out as the younger plants (left) grow more leaves for the new season and catch up with the older ones on the right.

The mange-tout have gone into their planters at the bottom of the garden and I've strung the first strings for them to cling onto - I've staggered my planting slightly this year so there are another 6 plants just coming through from seed indoors which will fill up the gap on the left.

The broad beans are taking advantage of one of my new planters- last year they had the red/orange bags above but didn't really thrive so I'm hoping they'll prefer the slightly more open spacing of the planter.  On the left in the black pot is my new Gooseberry bush which I found at a garden centre near Rob's parents for just a fiver - looking forward to some Gooseberry Crumble.

And I've planted out the first of my lettuces.  I've shielded the baby lettuces with "cloches" to protect them from inclement weather, snails and the neighbourhood cats.

My little Rhubarb is having a rather slow start this year but I'm hoping it will pull through, when it dies down again I think I will try re-potting it (and possibly dividing it depending on size) so that it can have some nice fresh compost for next year.

My Blueberries & Morello Cherry are both coming back beautifully this year so I'm hoping for nice harvests from both.

I also tidied the shed (much more room in there now) and finally, after 3 years put the corner seat back together so we can actually sit on it.

To wrap off a gorgeous day in the garden we fired up the barbecue and lit the garden with candle lanterns for a lovely evening meal.

Brilliant Birthdays - Part 5

We went back to Rob's this weekend to celebrate Mother's Day and I hadn't really twigged that I hadn't seen Angela & Peter & Chris since my birthday so I got a really nice surprise when I was showered with gifts!

Chris gave me this brilliant insulated mug - it's ceramic with a silicone lid so it will keep my tea hot while I'm out in the garden (which will come in very handy 'cos I always forget it and end up drinking it cold at the moment)

Angela & Peter gave me an amazing selection of gardening goodies all packaged up a lovely canvas gardening caddy - our shed developed a leaky roof over the winter, and I'm loath to keep anything that could be damaged by damp in there, so this is going to save me a lot of awkward ferrying trips out to the garden, not to mention keeping my bits and pieces far more organised.

In addition to the caddy itself I got a set of Burgon & Ball hand-tools which have lovely contoured wooden handles; now that I have some larger planters I think these will come in very handy... at this time of year the soil is still very cold so my hands will appreciate passing the digging onto some proper tools!  To keep my fingers safe while I'm gardening I have some nice thin gardening gloves and then for when I get back inside I can wash the dirt off with some olive oil soap, scrub the dirt from under my nails with a handy brush and and revitalise tired hands with soothing lotions.

Finally, we have twine-in-a-tin with a built in cutting blade and anti-tangle design which should keep it safe from a certain pussy cat, a tin mug which should resist even my most clumsy attempts to drop it, a wonderfully scented "Garden Hideaway" Yankee candle and a set of 6 magnetic bookmarks with garden-themed designs!

I can't quite believe I've got up to 5 posts just about birthday presents... I feel very spoilt! I think the most amazing thing about this year's birthday pressies though is that everyone has bought me garden-themed gifts and no one has bought the same thing!

Brilliant Birthdays - Part 4

When I went home to visit for my birthday meal with Nicky Mum & Dad sent me home with some pressies to keep for my birthday.  The incredibly strange shaped "do not break it" parcel revealed my very own a rain gauge so I can tell if I need to haul buckets of water around the garden of whether it's okay to sit back and have a cuppa!

Continuing the garden theme I also got some garden scissors with really big handles so I can use them without having to take my gloves off (and they're really nice and sharp so they cut just above anything!)

Garden Planning

This year I have the following to plant out:

Requiring deep pots:

• Mange-tout (these will go in one of the four large pots and will grow up strings to a central pole) These went into the round bags the broad beans had last year
• Carrot (these have their own building-bag planter)
• Peas  (these will go in the round bags the broad beans had last year) These are getting the green bags and sharing with the potatoes
• Broad Bean (these will get the green bags the Mange-tout had last year) Changed my mind and gave these guys the willow planter so they had better air flow between plants
• Runner Beans (these will get one of the willow planters) might put some of these in with the carrots?
• French Beans (these will get the runner bean planter from last year)

Needing their own space:

• Tomatoes (these will get one of the willow planters)
• Courgette (these will start indoors and then take over from the peas/beans)
• Spaghetti Squash (will also take over from peas/beans)

Living indoors:

• Chilli 
• Aubergine 
• Peppers

These guys would all like a greenhouse to live in, as I don't have one they will inhabit the massive windowsill in my study.

Filling in the gaps:

• Beetroot 
• Cabbage
• Lettuce
• Radishes 
• Tatsoi 
• Pakchoi
• Basil 
• Broccolli 
• Spring Onions 
• Spinach 

These will live in the second raised bed at the bottom of the garden, which I have gridded out for square-foot gardening, and in any empty pots etc, they will also fill in around any slow growing plants so as to maximise garden productivity.  This is definitely something I didn't do well last year - I grew one thing in each place and when it was done the beds stood empty; I want to try and make better use of my space this year and keep the garden full of plants all year.

Flowers

• Aquilegia - will grow in smaller pots for decoration
• Marigold - will grow with the tomatoes
• Nasturtium - will grow in smaller pots for nibbling in salads etc
• Morning Glory - will grow around the runner beans and climbers
• Wild flowers - will grow in smaller pots to encourage bees, butterflies and other garden lovelies

Fruits (already in the garden)

• Raspberries (these will be moving into one of the willow planters)
• Strawberries (sparser pots will be moving into the raised bed at the bottom of the garden)
• Rhubarb (this has it's own grow-bag)
• Morello Cherry (this has one of the four large pots)

Year 3

March is that wonderful time of year when I begin to get out in the garden again and start plotting a years plantings. We made a trip to the garden centre today to pick up some essentials - nothing major, just some more seed compost, some (well rotted and garden ready) manure to freshen up the beds and some tomato seeds which I realised I somehow entirely forgot to buy before.

I've started out my first little seedlings over the last week and now my windowsill has a small collection of seed trays and mini-pots on it with Broad Beans, Mange Tout, Tatsoi, Pak Choi, Peppers & Aubergines germinating on it. I tried to be much more restrained with my plantings than last year (when I planted everything... oops) so we'll see how it goes.

I also spent a few hours in the garden today tidying everything up from it's overwintering. I dug some manure into my beds at the bottom of the garden, skipping the carrot bed as they dislike it, and planted out my first sowing of some of the hardier seeds - spinach, beetroot, radishes, carrots and spring onions have all be planted, again in small quantities!

Brilliant Birthdays - Part Three

Last Saturday Nicky and I had a joint birthday celebration at mum & dads with our respective other halfs and Liz and Nick, and enough Chinese take-out to feed an army.  It was a brilliant evening and Nick gave me a wonderful selection of seeds to plant out in my garden, with a hand-made storage box to keep the spares in, and a selection of useful extras to help me plant and tend them.

It even has little dividers to keep everything organised	The seeds from inside the box
Garden Goodies

Not only that but they also gave me a rather nice cheque to complete my seed selection with and buy some of the bulkier seeds such as peas and beans.  Rather fortunately we were planning to visit RHS Wisley on Sunday to see the butterflies so I stopped off in the shop on the way home and put that money to good use

My additional seed purchases

The butterflies were nice too!

Brilliant Birthdays - Part Two

Carrying on the birthday goodness, Nicky bought me a subscription to Kitchen Garden magazine.  I don't read many magazines but last year mum bought me a subscription to Good Food and I discovered that when the mag is about things I'm interested in (as opposed to celeb gossip etc) I actually quite enjoy reading them.  The first issue was consumed over a cup of tea and was excellent so I'm looking forward to reading the rest and getting some useful tips for my gardening (and some lovely free seeds to plant too :D)

Brilliant Birthdays - Part One

Now that the weather's cheering up again I'm starting to plan what I want to do in the garden this year and this has coincided rather neatly with my birthday! I asked mum & dad for a wormery and, despite thinking I'm a little mad, they bought me this little beauty - a Worm City Wormery

Which came with lots of useful accessories - a book on worm composting, a PH monitor, worm food and a quick-start guide and two more expansion trays (which sit between the tap and the roof and are rotated as the worms process the food waste into compost).  Also included was a sturdy kitchen caddy (which I forgot to photograph) to store food waste in before giving it to the worms.

And most importantly of all, lots of big, fat, wriggly worms!

First impressions are that it's smaller than I expected... but not small - the shot above shows one of the three trays after I emptied and entire bucket of coir into it (plus some worms!) so it holds a surprising amount of stuff.  At the moment it's in the kitchen so that the worms don't get too cold but eventually it will go outside.  I'm keeping them in for now mainly so that they'll get settled and start eating quicker - they slow down in the cold and I want them to get munching and breeding so that I'll have lots and lots of worms to make me compost for the summer.  I was slightly worried they might try to get out but so far not one seems to have made a bid for freedom so it looks like I won't have to rescue too many worms from the kitchen floor!