Aubergine flowers - 365

(July 6th)

Yardening - 365

THE yarden got a lot of attention over the weekend, more planting, this time of flowers. I also attempted, foolishly, to move my sweet pea plant which I grew from seed last summer. Unfortunately it took in one of my planters where I am growing sugar snap peas. I planted them together last year with the idea of lovely colourful popping up in and around the gorgeous green flowers of the sugar snap peas. Unfortunately only one took hold but was spread out over the trellis of the next planter box (am I losing you here).

I decided that I would try to move the sweet pea before all the peas came up (the ones I planted before Christmas are doing great, and I have staggered other planting to get a long summer of peas) but it wasn't happy and half of the plant was droopy by the next day. When I checked earlier it was mostly droopy. I knew it was a risk but still thought it was worth trying. Anyway I'll find something to replace it. Its just a pity as it was pretty big and went back and forth.

Among the other things I did was sort out my hanging basket. I was overrun with nastershums last year drowning the other flowers which I had to move never mind making a great feast for some small black pest so I have gone with other things this year, alyssum, petunias and a small white flower called snowflake. Anything left over from the planter trays I planted into pots. Hopefully I will have an explosion of lovely colours over the summer. (April 21st)

Yarden clean up - 365

WITH all the recent good weather and with lots of planting to do I got out into the yarden last Monday evening.



It's mad how much stuff gathers over the winter months and given that I have lots of little bulbs coming up here and there it was more than time that I made it presentable. So I emptied all the dead plants and sorted out all my pots and bits and pieces, brushed up, pulled off dead leaves, hung up my hanging basket of daffodils, tulips and grape hyacinths - not your normal hanging basket but it looks great.

The strawberry plants are coming back but I might add to them, as they are tiny, with more plants. I decided not to bother growing tomato plants from seed, so bought four lovely plants and hopefully this year I will get more than one tiny tomato. I have already planted some sugar snap peas again which were brilliant last year and will plant more. And I also intend to get runner beans, courgettes, salads and other things going.

Unfortunately I had to replace the plastic on my green house thanks to next door's cat who was lucky not to impail itself on the stakes inside pots in the greenhouse. So I have put stuff on the ledge on the yard wall in a probably vain attempt to stop it coming this way again.

I also noticed little white and green fly enjoying my spring flowers, wee buggers and hopefully not a sign of things to come, I was beseiged by all sorts last summer. I've been spraying them with soapy water but it doesn't seem to be bothering them in the slightest.

Once I manage to get rid of the rubbish bags, I'll take another pic to give you an idea of how it looks. I can't wait for warmer weather to get out there and chill.



(365 - March 16th)

Garden/Yard update

A COUPLE of weeks back we finally got rid of the excess stuff in our back yard including the concrete inside of a fireplace, various bags of green rubbish, other rubbish from moving and a large wooden coal scuttle, so I was at last able to stretch out the yard a bit and try to work out what should go where.

The before pics




The rubbish to be removed



The after pics









This is still a work in progress as I need to find somewhere to put a bin. The thought of leaving bin bags of our weekly rubbish out the back for the delight of the local feral cats is not something I relish or want to do over time. So I need to find a place for a bin, currently you couldn't swing one of those cats in the back never mind slot in a wheely bin, but I may think of some kind of solution.

On the growing side of things I am pretty happy, the rhubarb is doing well and though I should I don't use it as I love the massive prehistoric leaves. The strawberries are still coming along, though they seem to have waned on producing lots of fruit, still they look healthy and happy in their welly boot and hanging basket homes. My berry bushes are also happy but not producing anymore fruit. Again I am not too bothered, they have been moved about a bit so are probably just getting used to their new positions.



The sugarsnap peas have been so easy to grow, I mean incredibly easy. The seeds produced some 48 plants which I planted along with sweet pea flower. The idea being that they would grow around each other giving me lovely flowers with lovely vegetables. While the flowers are still growing there hasn't been any flowers yet, but we have enjoyed sugar snap peas with dinner a couple of times.



One thing I have learned with the peas is that they don't like a zig zag trellis to grow up along. One trough of the plants had a wire one and they have taken off madly, the other trough literally withered into itself in the short space of a week. Since then I have replaced the trellis and am hopeful that where there's green there's life. You can see the mad difference between the two, which were grown at the same time and have received the same light, love and water. Despite its sad and sorry appearance, this trough of peas is still producing flowers so there will be more sugar snap peas from the not-so-good batch.







The greenhouse is heaving with tomato plants which were held back for about two months when they remained in their sowing tray despite needing to be planted. But with all the stuff that needed shifting from the back yard I literally had nowhere to put them. So now they are potted and living in the greenhouse in the hope of tempting them quickly along the upwards and thriving path. Because they remained too long in the sowing tray, some have adopted strange kinks and twists, despite that they also look pretty healthy.

The runner beans and broad beans seem to be happy, I just need to watch that I haven't crowded them into a corner too much, but they are flowering, though no signs of any beans yet. I also planted kale at the start of the summer which is working away. Unfortunately I have one pot which would probably be eaten in one forkful, so last week I planted more. Trouble is I thought I had also planted salad leaves and so far all three pots planted look exactly the same. So they are either remarkably the same at an early stage or I have planted all kale or all salad leaves, time will tell and that is part of the fun.



Courgettes are also remarkably easy to grow and so beautiful. I literally popped a seed into a pot and that was it. The flowers are absolutely stunning and I think the courgettes might need to flower to keep growing. You can see one courgette which grew great guns and all of a sudden is withering. I should chop it off but I cannot bear too. However I will to give the other courgette growing behind that beautiful flower a better chance.







By far the most work I have had to do, with a lot of help from herself, is the watering. All those pots need regular watering. The hanging baskets in particular need a lot of attention and I must get better at pulling off the dead leaves and flowers, its just a never ending battle. The good thing about the pots is that because we are renting it means if something more permanent ever comes up, my pots can come with me. (And I am not talking about the social and affordable housing lottery, I got my 'you were unsuccessful, again, letter last week.)



Flower-wiseI went a bit nasturtium crazy and I don't think I will do that next year. They are lovely but are taking over everything. I was also kinda stupid and would see a blank patch in a pot and would push in a seed. They are taking over one of my window boxes that came from our former flat which has lavender and fuscia in it. It is growing crazily and I am thinking at some stage I might have to pull it out or cut it back to help the other plants. Currently though the window box looks fantastic. On top of all that black flies seem to find these plants irresistible and I have been spraying a lot of soapy water on them to try and shift them.

So far it has worked, but a massive swarm have taken over one bit of my hanging basket and that soapy solution wasn't working so I got a spray and hopefully it is shifting them. How on earth do these wee blighters, with no gardens around us, manage to find us.

I planted herbs as well, basil, parsley and chives. Other than the parsley, this was basically a fruitless expedition. There are about 10 chives growing, big wow and the basil plant while sturdy and healthy is rather pathetic with its two stems. Are they worth it? I don't think so. The basil and chive plants I bought from Lidl or Aldi (can't remember which) on the other hand are thriving, the chives in particular once re-potted have sprung into life, and are even flowering!




Neither of these survived, though I did manage one small pot of chives

Speaking of Aldi and Lidl I bought two excellent chairs from one or the other for €39.99 each. Not only are they very comfortable but they have about four different positions, including lying right back. They fold away quite flat and are just perfect for the yard. I had been looking for something that would work in the small space and nearly killed myself trying to get the two chairs home, actually strike that I nearly killed myself and others trying to get them out of the shop. It is times like that when I wish I had a car and another pair of hands, the state of me banging my way out of the store was something else.

And that reminds me of Friday's Habitat sale which I will probably post about as well, I know its late but hey the weekend was gorgeous and I was enjoying what I bought more than writing about it. One of the best purchases was a little bright blue steel table that folds away. That was a nightmare to get out of the shop, back to work and then home later. Now it sits beautifully in the back.



Anyway thats about it, I think. I would recommend everyone to try their hand/green fingers, even if all you have is a windowsill. You would be amazed at what you can do, as this cucumber plant will testify. If you want to see more I have a set on Flickr.

Coming along nicely

THINGS are ticking along really well in my little yard; all my seedlings are coming up so quickly and the changes from day to day is pretty amazing. I cannot wait until later in the summer when all my efforts literally come to fruition.

I planted out my sweetpea seedlings with my sugar snap pea seedings, there were 12 sweetpea plants and 48 sugar snap peas so I divided them eventually into two troughs, one of which has a grid to grow up and the other I need to get one for.


(peas to the far left) (sweetpeas)









And so far so good. Some of the sweetpeas particularly the ones without support have become collateral damage but I think they may still sprout. The non-supported planter seems to get a lot more sun than the other and is suffering from it so I might have to move it but at the moment there is no space until the

Hopefully in a couple of weeks all my little sugar snap babies will grow up and around the trellis with lovely sweetpea flowers growing around the peas. It is pretty amazing watching the how the peas' trendils have found the trellis and are now busy winding themselves around it.

The doggie is also enjoying all the smells around the back yard and when I was planting she sat there watching my every move. At one stage I caught rubbing her cheek along the delicate sweetpea shoots like a cat, she is mad.



Nanny was giving out that I had too many green things growing and not enough flowers so I made a hanging basket with all the other flowers I've been nurturing. Again the doggie became attached to the lining and I discovered it all over the place after she had a fight with it, it was rescued and put into a bag. I should have actually moved the bag for the second pic, but then again this series is more about documenting my wee yard's transformation than anything else. I want to look back at pics and think wow. So far it is really working.









As I mentioned earlier there has been some collateral damage, I also discovered it was better to grow the kale seeds directly into little pots where they can grow for longer rather than in seed trays and then into bigger pots. I have a couple of little pots that haven't survived, one or two which are hanging on by a thread, meanwhile others I planted directly into the same size pots weeks later are absolutely thriving and doing better than the others were at twice the time.

Overall though things are doing great but I need to get some shelving up to hold all my tomato plants, I plan to get some steel shelves up against the wall that is currently housing bin bags and put the tomato plants into growbags on the shelves. We'll see how it goes.

Finally my berries... One berry bush is thriving, the other was unfortunately not planted quickly enough and is just refusing to do anything and my strawberries, mmhhh, coming along nicely. So far it is hard to tell which will yield more strawberries, my cut-up welly boot or the hanging basket but both are covered in flowers with little strawberries coming up.


View large

After all that gardening ;) there isn't anything better than a snooze.

Garden update

WHEN I moved recently into our new house with a little back yard, I could not wait to get growing in the little back yard. And I've gone a bit mad but I am loving it. I have written about this already and figure this is a good a place as many to chart my progress or lack of here, you can read my first post from March 30th here.

The first thing I did, even before we moved in was plant bulbs in pots but I left them too long before transporting them outside and they began to grow. So I left them out the back in the new place over the winter and up they came again which has been a lovely surprise as I had completely forgotten what I planted. I have had beautiful blue flowers which I cannot remember at all what they are, the tulips are coming up now and I have really enjoyed the beautiful crepe-like flower, again no name there sorry.





Come spring I began sowing seeds in earnest and spending too much money in the local Woodies and so far I have planted tomatoes, carrots, sugar-snap peas, courgettes, kale, various salad leaves, spinach, strawberries and all from seed. I also bought a berry bush, mini crab-apple tree, rhubarb as well as a cucumber plant.

Most things came up pretty quickly between the heat of the house and the cracking little greenhouse everything except the tomatoes which have only in the last week put in an appearance. The following images were taken last weekend and things have even come on so much since then. I will include the before photographs just to give you an idea as well.

Tomatoes, carrots and sugar-snap peas...







Even since this was shot last week, all the tomatoes have come up now and everything is looking great. I have also planted some sweet pea flowers which I hope to guide up a trestle to grow with the sugar peas and the runnerbeans I'll be planting next month. The sweetpeas are doing brilliantly and are in serious need of being planted outside, unfortunately until I get the 'stuff' moved from the other corner, there is little I can do except hope they don't give up the growing ghost.






Meanwhile in the greenhouse...







Salad leaves, spinach and sunflowers.








Berry bush





Not everything has done well though, the pots below were doing great and then I went to the States and the Young Wan, who became a mini Dermot Gavin, I think beat these to death with the water spray. I do have other chives and coriander happily growing away in the greenhouse though.



More again soon, as I said things are coming along even more since I took these pictures last weekend, I'll update again later in the week. I am also documenting this on Flickr.