Parks And Countryside Nursery

The weekend before last saw the local Parks and Countryside Nursery at Redhall in Leeds stage an open day. This nursery produces over three million plants each year for use in parks, roundabouts, school grounds, and city centre flowerbeds. There were lots of displays and activities which demonstrated the work conducted by the service, and also birds of prey from Lotherton Hall, donkeys from Temple Newsam and reptiles from Tropical World, just some of the city's parks. It was really interesting to have a look round, but we didn't come away empty handed. The nursery sells off it's surplus plants and is now open seven days a week between February and October. I bought some very healthy looking parsley and thyme plants, just 50p for four, and though we don't eat very much salad, I couldn't resist these lovely looking Lollo Rosso lettuces at the same price. As well as veg plants and herbs, there were also lots of bedding plants as well as perennials and even trees for sale. We'll definitely visit again.

I'm really disappointed by the amount of blossom this year, I don't think it's going to be a very good fruit year for me. After flowering early last year, the cherries spoilt and I didn't harvest one, so I was hoping that this year would be different. Unfortunately, there wasn't much blossom at all, so I'm not holding out much hope now. There's flowers on only one of my three blueberry plants, the other two don't look as though they're going to do anything at all. My two apple trees and plum tree have produced one flower between them, though I only bought them last year so I don't mind that too much as I didn't expect anything from them this year anyway. I've seen plenty of blossom on other people's trees so I think it's just mine which are under performing, I'll wait and see what happens.

All the potatoes are now planted up in to their containers and look to be growing well. I've got a total of twenty pots, all at various stages of growth, so they should keep me well supplied.

Outgrowing Their Pots

I finally managed to get the onions and shallots planted at the allotment yesterday. As you can see from the photo, they were in desperate need of transplanting, in fact, some of the shallots are already starting to divide. I also planted out the onions - Bedfordshire Champion which I've grown from seed. It's a bit of an experiment to see how they do compared to the sets, so I've only transplanted fifteen. They look very weedy in comparison to the sets, but we'll see how they do. I also sowed my parsnip seed and planted the potatoes - Desiree. I wasn't going to bother growing potatoes at the allotment as I've got many containers of them growing in the garden, but I'm seeing how this variety does in the ground.

I've had mixed success with germination of my seeds this year, some things have shot up within a couple of days of being sown, whereas others just haven't germinated at all. I sowed another batch of seeds yesterday so we'll see how they do. Most of the seeds are new so I can't put it down to using old seed. Perhaps I'll use the excuse I often use these days and blame the weather.

It's the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this week and it's celebrating it's centenary. I'm not lucky enough to have tickets to go, but I'll be glued to the tv watching. I've heard many people who have been to the show say that it's so crowded that you can't get very good views of the gardens, so perhaps the best place to see it is from the comfort of the sofa.

Apple Blossom

Last year, I bought two dwarf apple trees, a red one - Gloster and a green one - Golden Delicious. This blossom has appeared on the Gloster, though it looks to be one of a kind, there doesn't appear to be any more blossom to come, nor is there any on the Golden Delicious. I wasn't expecting any fruit this year as they're only young trees, but it's nice to have a glimpse, no matter how sparse, of the blossom I'm to expect in future years. Isn't it pretty?

Blogs are great for picking up on ideas or for sharing information. After visiting Jo's A Whole Plot of Love blog and reading about how she was growing her loganberry up a metal arch, I hit on the idea that an arch could be just the thing for the tayberry which I bought last year to grow up. I've been putting off planting it out at the plot until some sort of structure could be made to support it, but I think this will save us a load of work. I managed to pick up a metal arch for £7.00 when we visited Wilkinsons at the weekend. I'd popped in as Anna from Green Tapestry had alerted me to the fact that they had a sale on in the bulb and grow your own section. I love a bargain, and managed to pick up a couple of dahlias - Duet and Seattle, and a crinum - Powellii. Everything was reduced to just 75p, so there were definitely bargains to be had. Thank you to Jo and Anna for the inspiration and information.

I had problems with my squash plants last year, they either didn't want to germinate or didn't want to produce any fruit. I got a couple of patty pans off the Sunburst plants, and discovered we really liked them, so we decided we'd grow them, as well as a couple of other varieties, again this year. Unfortunately, not one seed has germinated. It was seed I had left over from last year, but it's still within it's use by date. I shall sow some more this weekend and see what happens, I really do hope I manage to grow them as they were on my list to grow this year as soon as I tasted them. Fingers crossed.

Blog Of The Month - May

This year, I'm dedicating a post each month to Blog Of The Month. This is where I feature a blog I'm enjoying reading. Some blogs will be new to me, others may be blogs I've been reading for a while. I hope that by doing this, I can introduce some of my readers to other, interesting blogs, though I know that some of you will already read the blogs I feature.

May's Blog Of The Month is Dig The Outside. This is another blog which hails from Yorkshire, Anna doesn't live very far from me, in fact, she's just over the other side of Leeds.

The blog was born in the latter months of last year, when Anna's first post gave us some background on her life up to then, where her passion for gardening came from, and what her aspirations for the future are.

As well as regular updates on her own allotment, Anna enjoys 'snooping around' her parent's allotment in Lancashire, which she regularly features on her blog. She also takes us on outings. There was a recent bloggers meet at Great Dixter which she attended and followed up with a wonderful post. Having never been to Great Dixter myself, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all about it, and hearing Anna's enthusiasm for the place shining through.

Adam, Anna's husband, also features on the blog. It seems he can turn a piece of wood in to almost anything, and actually built Anna's greenhouse from scratch.

Anna is a passionate gardener, and this shines through in every post she writes. If you haven't yet discovered Dig The Outside, do pop along and have a read for yourself, and don't forget to tell Anna that I sent you.

New Strawberry Plants

My strawberry bed didn't fare very well over winter and I lost many of the plants. I'd created a new bed last year, but the plants never really took off, I suppose because of all the wet weather we had. I decided to cut my losses and start from scratch again this year. I'd seen some nice looking plants at Poppleton Garden Centre, but when I came across some plants in Wilkos which were very reasonable, I decided to go with those. I've gone for three varieties, Honeoye, an early season variety which I've grown before and which I've been happy with, Cambridge Favourite, a mid season variety and Symphony, a late variety. They were £1 each or two for £1.50. I've started off with twenty plants, but I'll increase my stock from runners later on in the season. I'm not expecting much of a harvest this year, but if I can get them established, they should do well next year. There's already a few flowers on them, as you can see.

I sowed my sweet peas - New Horizons Mix at the beginning of March and they've made nice sturdy plants. I was going to grow them at the allotment, but a climbing rose which I was bought for Mother's Day and which I planted in the garden hasn't grown, so it's been pulled out and the sweet peas have gone in there. The rose will be taken back to where it was bought from. I was bought a second rose for Mother's Day, and that looks to be growing ok, it's got some leaves, so I suppose that's a good sign that it's taken.

The seeds which I sowed last weekend have started to germinate. The more tender ones are on a windowsill indoors, whereas the more hardy things are out in the greenhouse fending for themselves. I haven't managed to get any more jobs ticked off my list yet, so I'm hoping to get a few things done over the weekend. Fingers crossed that the weather stays fine.

Flowering

I sowed my broad beans back in autumn and overwintered them in the cold greenhouse. They were sturdy plants at the start of the year, and in a normal year, would have been planted out much earlier than they actually were, but because of the cold start to 2013, they were held back in their pots much longer than I liked. This encouraged them to grow rather leggy and they weren't the best specimens when they were eventually transferred to the plot at the beginning of April. Nevertheless, they seem to have rallied, they look much stronger than they did when planted out, and they're now flowering. It won't be long until I'm prising each bean from it's velvety bed.

It's been a busy bank holiday weekend here. Although there's plenty of jobs to be getting on with, both in the garden and at the allotment, we also like to have days out, and there's other jobs around the house to do too, so it's always a juggle to get the balance right. We did have some days out, but we also managed to get both the back and the front gardens tidied up, and the grass also got another cut, it's second of the year. It's grown so quickly since it was last mowed. The fruit bushes have finally been transferred to the plot. A bed was prepared and a blackcurrant bush, gooseberry bush and two rhubarb crowns now reside in it. I also got lots of sowing and potting on done. The five pepper plants are now in their final pots and look to be producing their first flowers. I've only grown one or two pepper plants at once before so I'm hoping for a better harvest than usual from them. I had a mammoth sowing session, two kinds of climbing French beans - Cobra and Blue Lake, dwarf French bean - Safari, runner bean - St George, mangetout, Golden Sweet, broccoli - Rudolph, swede - Brora, three varieties of squash - (summer) Sunburst, (winter) Crown Prince and Queensland Blue, two varieties of courgette - One Ball and Mikinos, sweet corn - Early Extra Sweet, five varieties of sunflower - Tall Single, Irish Eyes, Autumn Beauty, Paquito and Teddy Bear, and morning glory - Heavenly Blue. I also resowed my three varieties of cucumber - Crystal Lemon, Fanfare and Mini Munch, as the ones which germinated previously had grown rather leggy, and Fanfare didn't germinate at all, so I hope this batch do better. More containers were planted up with potatoes, there's now thirteen pots at various stages of growth and more yet to plant up.

I've got a list of jobs which should be done very soon. The tomato plants are growing nicely and should be potted on in to their final positions within the next couple of weeks. The Desiree potatoes which I bought to try at the allotment still need to be planted. The bed is all prepared so it's just a case of getting them in to the ground. A trench has been dug and filled with compost ready for the parsnips to be sown, so that's something else which I'll hopefully get round to this week. It's such a busy time of year, but with weather like we've had over the weekend, jobs seem to get done so much quicker. I hope you've all had a productive weekend too.

A Fruitful Year

The blossom on my cherry tree is just starting to open. I'm hoping that I manage a better year than I did last year, I didn't get one cherry. The tree's five years old now, so it should really be giving me a decent crop. Last year, I added to my fruit trees and bushes with two apple trees - Gloster and Golden Delicious, a plum tree - Czar, a gooseberry - Uva-Crispa Pax and a tayberry. It will be nice to harvest my own fruit as well as my own veggies.

I've got a bird feeder which attaches to my window with suction pads. It's not a favourite of the birds, but I do occasionally have a taker. This morning, a coal tit was eating from it, other times I've had great tits, blue tits and robins. It's a great photo opportunity when the birds are literally right there on the other side of the glass, but I daren't reach for my camera for fear of frightening them off. I must think of a way round it.

The May Day bank holiday weekend is approaching, and as I've got lots of jobs which need doing, I'm hoping that the gorgeous weather we've got today continues. The sun is shining, the breeze has dropped so it's really quite warm, and the birds are chirruping away. There's sowing, pricking out and potting on to do, so even if the weather isn't so good, there's plenty of things I can be getting on with. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

My Little Pond

The Marsh Marigold - Caltha Palustris is flowering it's socks off at the moment. It's such a bright, cheerful plant, and so easy to grow. I've had it in the pond for four years now and it's really grown. My Wildlife Pond post is one of the first posts I did on the blog back in April 2009, and it shows how tiny the plant was when I bought it. It also shows how tiny my pond is, 84cm X 64cm. Two of the plants I originally planted are still living, the Marsh Marigold and the Mini Bulrush - Typha Minima. This produced seed heads for the first time last year, but they were worth waiting for. You can see them on my On A Positive Note post. I've also got an Iris in the pond, but that's never flowered yet, though I still live in hope. It's amazing how a small amount of water can bring wildlife in to the garden. I get frogs, though no frogspawn yet I'm sad to say, and all manner of insects. I also keep bits of log around the pond for the beetles and other creepy crawlies to enjoy. As you can see, the pond needs a bit of a tidy up really, but that's Hubby's job.

The potatoes which I planted up in to containers really early have, at last, poked their noses above the soil. They were planted during the really cold spell and kept swathed in fleece in the greenhouse. I'd hoped that getting them in early would give me an early harvest, but as they didn't seem to want to grow, I thought they'd rotted. They obviously just wanted to stay in the warmth, and who can blame them? I was a little premature in getting them in some soil.

The grass has had it's first mow of the year, and is already growing at a rate of knots again. I have to call it grass, not lawn. It's a bit of a state really as part of it is shaded by the trampoline, and this bit is covered in dandelions, which is ok really as it's something to feed the rabbits. Other parts are full of other weeds, and the whole thing holds water really badly so it turns in to a mud bath in winter. We move the rabbit hutches down on to the patio in winter so we can avoid treading on the grass too much, though the hutches have been moved back on to the grass now, a sure sign that the weather is improving.

Blog Of The Month - April

As my regular readers already know, this year, I've decided to dedicate one post each month to a Blog Of The Month post where I feature a blog I'm enjoying reading. Some blogs will be new to me, others may be blogs I've been reading for a while. I hope that by doing this, I can introduce some of my readers to other, interesting blogs, though I know that some of you will already read the blogs I feature.

I've chosen A Rich Tapestry as the blog of the month for April. Linda and her husband live in Yorkshire, the county they moved to when they retired, where they have a garden and an allotment. Linda's husband is the veggie grower whereas Linda chooses and looks after the flowering plants. As well as their English garden, they also have a garden in Italy, as part of their time is spent there.

Linda has a keen interest in photography and enjoys taking photos of the many places she visits. Just recently, she went back to her home county of Berkshire and introduced us to Caversham Court, a public garden on the north bank of the River Thames. As well as trips to gardens, Linda enjoys spending time walking in the countryside where she always finds lots of interesting things to show us.

Since retiring, Linda has been working on her family tree, and has a line going back to the 1600's. She has some wonderful treasures which have been passed down through the family to her.

So you see, this blog really does have something for everyone. I intend to read through from the very beginning when I find a bit more time. Do pop over and visit Linda for yourself, I'm sure you'll enjoy the posts, and don't forget to tell her that I sent you.

Rhubarb Rhubarb

At the back end of last year, I bought a rhubarb crown - Stockbridge Arrow. Our local nursery was closing down so I got it for half price. I decided that I'd keep it in it's pot and overwinter it in the greenhouse before planting it out at the allotment. I don't have any rhubarb at the allotment, but I'd had a crown in a container which did nothing at all last year so I thought it was dead. During one of my garden clean ups in autumn, I tipped it out of it's container in to an old compost bag which had been filled with spent compost ready to take to the compost bin at the allotment. It was put out of sight in the garden and forgotten about. When tidying the garden last week, I noticed some leaves popping out of the top of the compost bag and on investigating, I discovered that the rhubarb was trying to grow. I'm all for giving second chances, so the crown has been potted up until I can get it in to the ground. You can see how spindly it is compared to the crown I bought last autumn, but it might get stronger with a mulch of organic matter and a bit of tlc, time will tell. I'm hoping to get both crowns, along with my gooseberry bush and blackcurrant bush put in to the prepared bed at the allotment some time this week.

I'm hoping to get some new strawberry plants in the next week or two as many of my existing plants didn't make it through winter. Actually, they were quite weak specimens when I planted them out and never really got established. Strawberries are one of my favourite things to grow at the allotment, so I don't want to be without. I shall get a couple of varieties which ripen at different times to extend the cropping season.

Most of the seeds I sowed have germinated now, I really need to get some more things on the go. I love this time of year when everything's so busy and the garden is springing back to life. The daffodils are all blooming now, they're putting on quite a show, and some of the tulips are waiting to open. Perennials can be seen pushing their way through the soil in the border, in fact, some are quite a mass of foliage. Buds are appearing on the trees, though the lilac is late this year, it's usually covered in flowers at this time of year. I'm hoping that I have a good cherry harvest this year, though there's no blossom on the tree yet. I think everything is a few weeks behind at the moment, but hopefully, they'll all catch up.

Arabis For April

This year, I'm taking the late Geoff Hamilton's advice and visiting a nursery each month with a view to buying a plant which is in flower for my garden. Doing this should ensure that I have something blooming in my garden every month of the year.

I visited a garden centre last Saturday and was impressed by all the Arabis which was blooming. This is a plant I've never grown before, and I'm wondering now why I've previously overlooked it. There was a lovely white variety, but the one a chose won because of it's name, Spring Charm. I just love it, because it is charming. It's scented too, another thing in it's favour.

This is one for the front of the border where it will, hopefully, trail over the edge of the wall. There's lots of buds on the plant, so plenty of flowers yet to come, it should go on blooming for a while yet.

A Desirable Residence

I love to provide lots of habitats for wildlife in my garden, so I couldn't resist this Insect House which I saw in Morrisons. It was only £3, much cheaper than something similar would be in a garden centre. I'd seen a blog post about this very thing a little while ago, but I can't remember now which blog it was on. Morrisons is great for picking up bargains for the garden, I also came home with some pansies which I'll plant up in my hanging baskets. They were £2 for a pack of six quite large, healthy plants, but they were on a buy one get one free offer, so I ended up with twelve plants for £2. They sell a good range of plants and even have very reasonable fruit bushes too. It was a weekend of bargains as I also bought some Puschkinia Libanotica which were reduced by 75% from the garden centre, and also some bright red Geranium plug plants which were half price. I shall grow these on and they'll look lovely in my tall blue pots at each side of the door.

It's been a mainly dry weekend, so we've managed to get more digging done at the allotment, and also some seed sowing done at home. I forgot to mention that the broad beans were planted out a couple of weeks ago. I'd kept them in pots much longer than I would have liked due to the prolonged cold spell, and they were really beginning to suffer. I don't know if they'll give a worthwhile harvest now but I'm not losing anything by trying. They've rallied round a bit since being planted out, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The tomatoes were potted on yesterday, I chose the best of the seedlings and I've ended up with thirteen plants. Now that a little bit of warmer weather has arrived, I thought it was time to get some more seeds going. I sowed three varieties of cucumber, Fanfare, Mini Munch and Crystal Lemon, and a whole host of brassicas, kale - Dwarf Green Curled, cabbage - Advantage, broccoli - Autumn Spear, broccoli (purple sprouting) - Claret, Swiss chard - Bright Lights, kale - Cavolo de Nero and kohl rabi - Purple Delicacy. I even managed to get some flowers sown, they're usually put to the back of the pile in favour of edibles, but not this year. I sowed heliotrope - Dwarf Marine, dahlia - Mignon Mixed, cosmos - Purity, stock - Ten Week Mixed and the pot marigold seeds kindly sent to me by Flighty from Flighty's Plot - Flighty's Favourites. The potatoes I planted in containers a few weeks ago aren't showing any signs of growth and I'm wondering if they've rotted away in the cold, even though they were swathed in fleece. I only planted a couple of tubers so I won't have lost much if that's what's happened but I planted up some more containers yesterday which should get going soon now that the weather's warmed up a little. It's great to finally get going with everything at last.

Lemony May Chang

It was Tanya's second blogoversary over at her Lovely Greens blog, and as a thank you to her readers, she had a giveaway along with allowing her top four visitors to choose either a jar of lip balm or a bar of soap from her Lovely Greens shop.

Tanya makes and sells bath and beauty products with natural wholesome ingredients which are grown and sourced locally where possible. I was lucky enough to try one of the lip balms last year, and I have to say that it's really lovely, non greasy and soothing. I'm still using it, so it lasts ages too. I was lucky enough to be one of the four top visitors again this year, and this time I thought I would try one of the soaps which Tanya sells, I was spoilt for choice as there's so many lovely fragrances. I decided to go with the Lemony May Chang soap as I love all things lemony and can't get enough of the scent. I wasn't disappointed, it smells delicious.

I haven't tried the soap yet, I can't bring myself to slip the band off and actually use it, I'm enjoying just seeing it in the bathroom and taking in it's scent, it looks so luxurious, but I shall treat myself at the weekend when I have a relaxing bubble bath.

Tanya avoids ingredients which are known to be tested on animals and all her products are vegetarian or vegan.

Why not pop over to the Lovely Greens shop and have a look at the lovely products for sale. There's also bath melts and fizzies and lots of lovely gift sets which anyone would be thrilled to receive. If you find something which takes your fancy, and I'm sure you will, you can get 10% off the value of your order by quoting the voucher code BLOGOVERSARY. The code is valid until the end of April 2013.

Thank you, Tanya, I'm already loving the soap without even using it, so I can't wait to give it a try.

Giveaway Winner

Many thanks to everyone who left their congratulations on my Four Year Anniversary post, and also to everyone who entered my giveaway for the set of Val Bourne's Ten Minute Gardener's Growing Diaries. I picked a name out at random and the winner of the giveaway is Flowerlady. Congratulations. Would you please email me your address and I'll get the prize in the post as soon as possible.

Thank you to everyone who took part, and thanks, once again, for continuing to read my blog, for all the comments you leave and for your continued support, it's all very much appreciated.

Following On

Following on from the crocus, which are still blooming beautifully, are these Iris Reticulata. I'm not sure of the variety, but I think it's Gordon. These are supposed to be an early flowering bulb, so it shows just how far behind we are as they've only just started flowering now. These are another pretty flower, one which I haven't grown before, though I do love Irises so I'm sure they'll be another regular now.

The tomato seeds which I sowed last Monday have already started to germinate, they're so much quicker when they're put in a heated propagator. The only variety I'm waiting on are Tangella, but there's plenty of time yet. At the beginning of March, I sowed some peas - Early Onward, leek - Autumn Giant 2 Argenta and sweet pea - New Horizons Mix. They were left in the cold greenhouse and I didn't hold out much hope for them with the cold temperatures we experienced throughout March, but they've all started to germinate. It just shows what happens when we're blessed with a little warmer weather.

Hubby spent an hour at the allotment yesterday doing a bit of digging, and he's hoping to get down there again later on today. It's made such a change this weekend having a bit of sunshine, let's hope that the weather is on the turn now and we're in for some warmer temperatures.

Don't forget that today is the last day to enter my Four Year Anniversary Giveaway if you haven't already done so. You've got until midnight to leave a comment on the appropriate post, and I shall be picking a winner at random during the coming week.