8 Denby Lane
Heaton Chapel
empty house (2009) ◊ moving in (2009) ◊ winter (2009) ◊ furnished (2010) ◊ gardening (2010) ◊ decorating (2010) ◊ decorating (2010 to 2014) ◊ gardening (2011 & 2012) ◊ landscaping (2012 & 2013) ◊ gardening (2013 & 2014)
Gardening (2013)
A new year (it's late February) always means a sorry start to the vegetable patch. It looks worse for wear after what was actually quite a mild winter. Some sorry-looking leeks are the only clear remnants. I have a lot of work to do.
The garden is also looking bear, although the lawn is green enough, and now featuring the semi-permanent slide and trampoline.
With it approaching spring, the daffodils start to make their presence felt.
With the outhouse door fixed, there was again no electricity supply to the greenhouse and thus I had to try alternative means. With the utility room deemed a little bit too dark (and out of the way), I secured myself some window sill space. I think these are lettuce seedlings.
Two or three weeks later and I had added French dwarf beans (on the left) and peas (on the right) to the fray, the former being a vegetable that I hadn't previously tried. They are certainly quick to germinate and grow as seedlings.
At the same time, the lettuce had gone from strength to strength, looking overgrown. Unfortunately, I never really used it enough and it died off.
In early April, the dwarf beans had become giant beanstalks, somewhat at odds with the small area of compost in which they were planted. I think I need to plant these out soon! To the left, the next bunch of seedlings (looking like tomato and basil) are coming through nicely.
Ah yes, I had a little accident, possibly towards the end of last summer, or early this year. I sat one of the director chairs and, because it has a little give, it pressed against the greenhouse window and it snapped in two. Oops.
Early May and the French dwarf beans are the most prominent and well-grown. In the background, you can see the newest feature, a double plug socket shielded by a plastic cover, a key part in my plan to ramp up my greenhouse's productivity. The local electricity supply, wired through from the back of the outhouse by Kevin's electrician friend (I think), would enable the propagators to be permanently heated.
Here is the central feature of our tree, a sort of plum tree (it's not actually a plum tree, but a similar variant).
At the back right of the garden, an impressive bush of pink flowers resides.
Daisy and I went to B&Q and picked up some flowers for the hanging baskets - firstly these pink ones (no idea of the name of them, sorry) in a basket at the back...
...and these cascading purple flowers (again, I don't know the same) in the basket by the front door.
The pink flowers which couldn't fit in the hanging basket were put into pots, near the prevalent forget-me-nots, which feature in many places around our garden.
A couple of weeks after the previous greenhouse shot and things are developing nicely. On the ground, there are many French dwarf beans growing nicely.
On the table, I am getting the pea plants ready for planting out into the vegetable patch. Not so much of anything else, but the peas and beans were the ones growing rapidly in germination so it makes sense that they are ahead at this stage.
The vegetable patch is looking in a better state that three months earlier (as one would hope). I have removed the white wardrobe doors because they were getting a bit dirty and damp, and then they bowed when rested against the fence. They would get slippy and restricted space anyway, so probably better without them.
On the nearside, the strawberries are patchy - they've been in for at least four years now, which is longer then they are typically best before, I believe. The white plastic markers signify where I have planted some potato sets, a combination of King Edward and Maris Piper. Then, in the background, you can see raspberry canes, which are gradually encroaching on the centre of the patch. They are starting to subsume the perennial garlic plants.
Round the back of the greenhouse is somewhat the forgotten land. I don't tend to it as much as the rest, so it accumulates weeds and lazily managed raspberries. I justify leaving the raspberries well alone as an experiment in seeing exactly what happens, which is basically that they spread in a haphazard manner.
Between the greenhouse and the outhouse, the blueberries continue strongly and, next to them, we have some greenhouse bean overspill.
Having been nurtured in the greenhouse, by early June the peas have now been planted out in three rows, caned up as they are not strong enough to support themselves, despite their thin green tendrils trying to grab hold of everything.
Slowly but surely, the white flowers give way to pea pods.
Whilst in the greenhouse, the French dwarf beans begin to flower
This is what the greenhouse looks like now - it's busy with greenery and thus difficult to tell what is in there, but basically lots of bean plants. On the left, there some large Cos lettuce plants.
Some close up blueberry action, as they flower.
Some freshly culled Cos lettuce. It didn't grow back that well. Just 'cos.
That's all for now.
We bring you more in the way of growage to fulfil all your "learn about someone else's fairly uneventful plant growing experience" requirements. Well, not all. But certainly most. Anyway, more and more pea pods are appearing on the pea plants. That's what they do, I know, but it's still good to see after months of investment.
This is what the French dwarf beans look like, although they're not at full size yet. I didn't really do them justice as they never really seemed to be obviously ripe and Daisy didn't seem that keen when I cooked them for her. I would be tempted not to try them the next year but for the fact that they germinate so amazingly quickly (something which is always rewarding to see).
But Daisy does like peas, and is regularly scavenging for a harvest. This is mid-June, the day after the longest day of the year, and she is eagerly tucking into some freshly picked peas.
This is a fairly typical mid-morning snack of fresh peas. It makes it all worthwhile and it's great that she's eating so healthily.
We also managed to get another crop of rhubarb (perhaps the second of three obtained during the year).
With little or no room in the greenhouse, it was time to vanquish the tomatoes to the great outdoors, rooted in growbags (with the bottoms cut out of the pots). They would have to brave the changeable climate, but at least they would get some free waterings.
You can see just how full the greenhouse is getting, as the smaller tomato plants have now shot up in the long days of sunshine.
The French dwarf bean plants, however, have probably reached their maximum height (hence the "dwarf" reference, which I deliberately chose as I didn't want to have to maintain tall bean plants).
The vegetable patch is looking very full now, as the potato plants do their thing.
We also have some blackcurrant bushes (y'know, just in case we didn't need more fruit or vegetable plants). As you can see, they are starting to ripen. They are a bit bitter but, naturally, Daisy likes to graze on them, especially if she has picked them herself.
This is one of three or four such bushes that we have.
Early July and we have some raspberries appearing. Quick before the birds get them! Actually, we normally have a grace period until the birds notice, but when they do it's an utter clearout.
And suddenly we're in August, as some tomatoes begin to ripen finally.
In dry spells, Daisy helps out with the watering. This is from mid-August.
Daisy was keen for further harvesting, so we dug up some potatoes.
This is what we cleared away, and you can see what we yielded at the bottom in the pink Tupperware container.
The next weekend, Daisy was keen to harvest more potatoes, so we cleared this entire section out...
...getting an impressive crop in the meantime. No huge potatoes, but certainly plenty of decent size. We would leave the remaining potatoes to continue growing since they undoubtedly had some life left in them.
By the end of August, there was a lot of flower growth in the garden. The lawn-based entertainment had extended to include the sandpit.
Strangely, one of the blueberry plants went red, whilst the other remained green. (The red-leaved one hasn't fruited this year (in 2014) - I wonder if that is connected.)
Having transferred most of the tomato plants outside, whichever plants are left get to do their bit of growing, although given how late it is, they are unlikely to fruit much. I did put together some reasonably elaborate frames for the cucumber plants. It might have been this year or the year before when, based on the fact that I had quite a few cucumber plants, that I could get about 50 harvested. It never turned out quite that way, though.
We continue to harvest potatoes - this was dig number three.
And we got quite a selection of tomatoes, with a couple of cucumbers and a nice green pepper pictured. This is from the end of September. It was impossible to tell just how many cherry tomatoes we got because Daisy would often harvest them direct to her mouth (which is part of the fun!). I would guess something close to 100 or so.
Early October and time for one last potato dig, which Daisy eagerly collects in her pink wheelbarrow, giving me a slightly shifty look as she does so.
And then summer was over, sniff. The strawberries looked immensely sad in the mild winter (December).
I had neglected to clear away the plants in the greenhouse - this is what that looks like.
Kevin had trimmed down all the rose bushes - it was like it had all been a dream.
It's certainly a different look in December compared to mid-summer.
And that's all from 2013.
We start in February, with Daisy planting some pink flowers we bought from B&Q into a pink pot also purchased there. She uses her own little green trowel for this purpose.
We picked up some tomato seeds, which Daisy pockets ready for action.
"Daddy, I'm just consulting the instructions on planting and germination for these seeds." We plant different fruit and vegetable seeds in rows, Daisy having her own propagation tray for these purposes.
At the front, I noticed the demise of one of the small trees - into the recycling bin it went.
A couple of weeks after planting our seeds (and we had added a couple more trays in the meantime), and we start to see some seedling action. This is the start of March.
My black pen wasn't working so well, so it's not easy to tell what these are, but I am guessing that the ones at the back are chillies or peppers, then working forwards, basil, then possibly carrots and finally tomatoes.
The vegetable patch looks sad and bare at the start of the year. We'll have to fix that - Daisy is helping by digging with her big spade.
A week later and I've started to move the seedlings into their own pots, but still kept warm by the heated propagator.
By the beginning of April, things are starting to move on nicely.
Here is a closer look at the tomatoes.
The pea plants, sown just two weeks before, have shown impressive growth.
In fact, there is another batch of pea plants, sown the week before, which I have transferred to pots.
And then, one week later, they are all in pots. I have 29 pea plants in my nursery, growing in readiness to being planted out in the vegetable patch.
Another week later (it's mid-April now) and this is what the veg patch looks like. I have just planted out the potatoes on the right hand side, where there are some sticks stuck into the ground.
There's some promising growth in the greenhouse, mainly from the tomatoes and parsley.
The rhubarb plant has shown impressive growth too, being pretty much ready for a harvest.
A week later (Easter Monday), and I have now planted some onions in the patch on the left, and a tiny group of spring onions at the bottom. The potatoes are just beginning to peek through on the right but you can't really see from here, and the raspberry canes in the background start to bush out.
This is the state of play in the greenhouse now. I have had to start caning up the peas (on the floor at the back) as they are now struggling to support themselves. Bless.
In order to speed up (or avoid hindering) the growth of the tomato plants, I have transferred them to fairly large pots. Go tomatoes go!
I did indeed harvest the rhubarb, which was roasted with some sugar in the oven.
Just under two weeks later and the tomato plants have leapt up. In early May, they are already half the size of the table. This is good progress (for me, anyway).
Since the parsley that I have grown doesn't really amount to that much in the grand scheme of things, I decide to use up the rest of the parsley in one big pot. It's a bit of an experiment (they are a bit tightly packed really), so let's see how they go. This is probably Daisy's second favourite bit about gardening (the first being the harvesting, straight to mouth).
A shot of the garden, primarily to get a view of what it looks like with the tree cover at the back. Unfortunately, some of this is likely to be disappearing as they are building houses behind us.
The potatoes are starting to poke through nicely.
I have also transferred the carrots to the vegetable patch, as greenhouse space is at a premium and the carrots are fairly comfortable outside.
Mid-May now and the raspberries are beginning to take over. A project for the autumn is probably to replant them by the fence with a proper wire system running across for them to cling on to. They have swamped the garlic which keeps reappearing (and then I forget about until the next year).
The parsley in pots has really leapt up. Other plants (including peppers, chillies, cucumbers and beans) haven't shown amazing growth.
The peas, however, are doing well. It's more or less time to plant them outdoors to give me some more room.
The tomatoes are bunching out more than growing upwards at the moment. I should move them to growbags soon.
Hurrah, some parsley germination! Not looking rampant quite yet but watch this space...
A week later, I do indeed plant out the peas, in four rows of about seven plants each, with each set of two rows grouped together to enable them to cling on to each other should they wish to.
It's also time to do the hanging baskets, which we had avoided up to this point. Some flowers from B&Q were planted and watered well by a summery and jolly Daisy.
More soon.