Time To Get Of My Laurels and Get Cracking.

I have finally started to plant out my brassicus plants yesterday. After building the last frame for netting I planted out my romenesco x 4, cabbages x 3, cauliflower x 3 in the smaller bed which will be interplanted with Chinese leaves plants when they are a little better and can handle a slug attack. In that bed I also planted a nasturtium, calendula, borage and a cornflower.

In the larger bed which already has my early pak choi and mizuna plants flourishing, I began to plant out the kale and early purple sprouting broccoli. I also planted out a nasturtium plant into that bed, when I was done the netting went over both beds to protect them against the cabbage white butterflies.

Yesterday I saw my first native ladybug for the season it was a 14 spot (I know it looks dead but it was only playing dead because I moved it out of the way of danger from my garden fork, it soon toddled off).

I also found when I was sieving the compost to add to the beds a very large wireworm which went to the birds.

Hee hee!! and check out this bumblebee who was enjoying the water aven flowers.

Today I woke up to a fairly wet landscape but the light rain stopped at about 08.00 leaving behind some sunshine and moderate winds.

I have decided as of today to forgo starting my sweet corn in pots and plan to sow them into the bed dedicated to them after they have chitted (I don't normally chit these seeds but thought it would work better if I put them into the soil once germination had started). So after soaking them for a few hours I then placed them onto some damp paper towel in a covered tray and left them in a warm place to begin germination. In the mean time I have prepared the bed they will be going into by mixing in some compost an BFB and covering with some plastic to keep the soil warm. As soon as the seeds begin to chit I will plant them out but will leave the plastic in place as a cloche till June month. Why have I decided to go down this way instead of the preferred method of 3" pot for three weeks then plant out first week of June, simple answer really: I'm tired of faffing with pots.

I would have like to have gotten some more done but life and the weekly washing got I the way ;) I hope to get a lot of jobs done tomorrow but more high winds are forecasted so I'll see if I could risk planting out the cold sensitive plants tomorrow.

A Simple Update

So Saturday after two days of rest from the garden chores I picked up where I left off and returned to the task of digging and preparing planting holes for the curcubits, etc. The ten remaining holes for the squashes and pumpkins took me all Saturday to do. Each pole represent a hole of which there is 14 in total.

Sunday morning saw me constructing a fenced barrier against fox cub damage to my vege plot see previous posting, the only thing is I did not have enough fencing to encompass the squash and pumpkin area, I hope the plants won't be to interfered with when I plant them out (so far they have left the cardboard alone). Later in the afternoon found me digging six more holes, this time two more for the tomatoes, three for courgettes and one for a patty pan summer squash.

The kid's spring flower pots and planters have been moved to a quiet area behind the greenhouse and their six old wellington boot planters which were sown with morning glories, sweet peas and nasturtiums have been put into their final place in front of the play house.

Monday I potted around planting out flowering plants into the flower bed. The garden looks filthy as we have been having some high winds which have dumped all the old dusty flowers and some young leaves of the surrounding oak trees into the garden, causing the place to look like it needs a good sweep.

Had hope to start planting out the squashes and tomatoes but with the high winds dropping the air temperature by a few degrees I though it would be wise to keep them in the greenhouse till the end of the week when the ground should be saturated by forcasted heavy showers and the winds should have also died down somewhat.

The thyme I under sowed the brassicus plants with have started to germinate.

Here are a couple pics taken on Monday:

Tuesday morning saw me at the museum with my youngest for story and craft activities but the afternoon found me cutting the lawn which was followed by its second dose of feed. I also got round to staking the taller plants in the flower and herb beds to prevent them from being flattened by any heavy rain that may fall.

Wednesday this morning showed evidence of rain fall during the early hours of the morning but it was not a lot. There has been a fine drizzle since 14.00 which i s getting heavy but very slowly. The garden could do with a good drink so hopefully the heavy showers do fall later this evening.

The turnips I was growing for winter harvesting will be ready way before then (the one in the photo is only the second biggest). I'll probably sow a fresh set to grow for those winter months.

About midday I happened to look out the window and was lucky to see my first sighting of swifts for the year :), there were about five of them but they didn't hang around and so I was not able to procure a video shot of them to show you.

I've been practicing with the camera in taking macro shots here a few taken today:

Foxes >:(

Now I really like wildlife and unlike some do not see their normal behaviours as sneaky, mischievous, conniving or maliciously wicked I any way, after all they are just trying to survive the best way they can.

BUT!!! why in my garden :(

A couple years ago when I began to really whip the garden into shape their was a fox family with cubs being raised who thought my new flower beds was their playground. I would put a plant in and they would try to tell me in not subtle terms to move it by digging it out again. So to give my plants the chance to establish themselves I bought some chicken wire and proceeded to fence my flower beds in. Though it was not pretty to look at (I was not going for the chicken coup look) it worked and stayed in place for a year coming down last summer, when there was no signs of fox cub activity to be seen early in the season. Which really allowed us to use the area to its full potential.

Well about ten days ago my neighbour asked me if I had had any damage in the garden because he not had experienced some damage but had seen the offenders all four of them!! (in 2007 we only had two cubs to contend with). Well the day after he let me know they were about I found evidence of their wandering in my garden, a couple of shallowly dug holes in my vege beds (the flower beds are pretty filled out now and as such has very little bare soil to interest them). that same night I spotted the runt of the litter running past outside the conservatory and very cute he was too.

Well as the days continued the damage grew, they seemed particularly take by netting (this is how they caused damage to my neighbours patch by rolling over the netting he was using to protect his onion sets from the birds and in doing so they flattened all of the new growth). I noticed they two nights in a row removed and peeled back the netting I was using to protect my mini meadow seedlings from cats using the area as a toilet and then they proceeded to rip a hole in the netting I had over one of the mini ponds and threw one of the pond plants onto the foot path (there they go again telling me they don't like my style in relation to plant placement, BAH! critics who needs them).

Then they started digging up my sown in situ seedlings, I'll be resowing the salsify and some of my parsnips this week because of them. The legume bed is also a favorite digging area with great amounts of soil displaced and the contents of my bean trenches being brought up to the surface. Then Thursday morning I was greeted with bite holes in my carrot fly barrier ????

Friday night I forgot to close the greenhouse and well I was greeted with a lovely little package and evidence of frantic chewing on the corner of newly bought box of Blood, Fish and Bones Fertiliser.

So far the cardboard that has been laid to suppress weeds in the area earmarked for pumpkin and squash growing has not been to interfered width, fingers cross it will remain this way as its my experience in the past that the adults love to dig this form of weed suppressant up.

Yesterday I decided to fence my vege beds in as I don't think my plants would get a moments peace if I leave them to the mercy of the cubs. It does mean that now I have only one entrance to this area so a bit inconvenient but at least my veges will grow.

So that is it for now I did get other things done over the last few days since my last post but I will go into more detail in another post update.

Here is a parting video of the rambunctious cubs with one of the parents in my neighbours garden two doors down, (sorry about the picture clarity but it was shot through the bedroom window).

Here have a listen to a fox calling at night, creepy :)

I'm Tuckered Out

So I've been at it now for a good couple of months and I think its caught up with me. I took myself to bed early last night and the night before and woke up this morning knackered. I mean I have no energy whatsoever to dedicate to the garden/ vege patch.

So I did a little crafting instead, I have been meaning to make a little sign to hang on the front door when I'm out back mainly for the post/ delivery man re packages, etc. The piccy on the left is what I normally used and the piccy underneath is what I worked on today and I'm quite pleased with the results.

Well after lunch I still dragged myself to the greenhouse and spent an hour pricking out lettuce and Chinese cabbage seedlings, I also watered a couple of stuff and well that's it for the day. Hopefully I'll have a little bit more energy and will be all gong ho!! tomorrow.

I'll just fill you in on what I did get up to the last two days.

Tuesday, well my abdomen is still killing me from the holes I dug on Monday and the Sunday, so I wimped out and transplanted my spring onions which involved sifting some homemade compost and adding it to the bed I planted the spring onions in. The french marigolds were also planted out into heir final spot on the edge of the tomato bed. I still had a half hour to kill so I bit the bullet and dug two holes for the cucumbers, OUCH!!!! Washboard tummy here I come.

Wednesday found me filling the holes I dug for the cucumbers and erecting their support, a rose arch. The area under the arch was prepared with more sifted compost and I then planted out my onion seedlings.

After the afternoon school run I proceeded to dig and full four more holes, these are for my squashes and pumpkins.

Overall I have 10 more holes to dig for the above plants plus 4 more for the tomatoes and another 4 for the summer squashes and courgettes combined.

Well that's it for now, here are a few photos I took over the last three days, hope you enjoy them.