A Busy Week But Not Much gardening

Well this half term was a busy one but one where very little gardening got done.

Tuesday I woke to rain lashing the window panes and the garden looking properly soaked. The rain did stop and the sun started to break through at about 11:30am. The girls and myself spent the day emptying their wardrobe and going through the clothes to see what fitted and what didn't. Out grown clothes from my eldest were put into the loft for the youngest when she's a bit bigger and the little one's out grown stuff was bagged for the charity shop.

I soon realised that they both needed a whole set of new things as almost all their clothes were to small for them (they grow as quickly as the weeds outside, so maybe I was gardening after all) :)

Thankfully the older one has always taken very good care of her clothes so I had two storage bags full of hand me downs to go through to practically suit out the younger one in summer wear but no such luck with the older one, so a shopping trip was imminent.

When I did get out into the garden, I sowed some khol rabi and swede directly into the vege beds. I also potted around checking over everything and putting misplaced stuff to right. I think one of the cucumber plant's stem is broken, whether it will mend or not is to be seen. I think I'll be sowing a couple of seeds in the greenhouse, they should germinate and grow quickly with the current warmer weather. I have never had so much trouble with cucumbers before, I normally would sow four seeds get four plants, transplant when big enough and harvest a pretty decent crop. Ah well maybe nature is just trying to keep me on my toes this year.

Photos taken:

Wednesday was 'S' day, yes Shopping Day. So armed with a list of what they both needed to prevent impulse buying and over spending as sandals was also needed we set off to the shops. The weather was still lovely and in between shopping and a sit down lunch we also fitted in an hour at the museum to take part in one of their fabulous craft activities events.

At the end of the day almost everything was got from the list only a couple stuff to get which won't take too much time the next time I go into town.

Found this little critter inside upstairs so I moved him/ her into the conservatory onto my aphid infestered luffa plant.

Thursday was spent doing the girls laundry (Friday is my dedicated laundry day) because my older daughter was off to Brownie camp on Friday I needed to ensure all her clothes was clean so packing would be easily done later in the day. The garden saw me from time to time but it was more pottering and looking around than anything else.

The aphid infested living willow bench is really attracting the predators.

Friday was an early start as we were taking the bus halfway to her campsite destination, a friend of mine who lives in the area took us the rest of the way. The little one and I then visited with my friend and her baby till mid afternoon before heading back home. The rest of the day was spent doing the rest of the laundry that still had to be done. I was also able to start to plant out the amaranth plants but had to stop as I ran out of cardboard which I was using as a weed suppressant.

I couldn't resist temptation and bought another hardy carniverous plant for my boggy area.

Saturday I started the day harvesting all my pak choi and mizuna as the were quickly going to seed, my mom thankfully washed chopped and bagged the lot which was then thrown into the freezer. It was a blazing hot day so gardening was a little challenging so I took my little one to visit with some playmates as she was a little lonely without her sister.

When I returned home I was off again this time with my OH to do the monthly grocery shopping.

Piccies of today:

Caterpillar of the The Vapourer/Rusty Tussock - 'Orgyia antiqua'.

Sunday I woke early to do some watering mainly to the plants that are grown under shelters; the tomatoes, sweet peppers, aubergines and the germinating corn which by the way there are fourteen strong shoots. I think the recent hot weather basically fried most of the germinating seeds in the soil. So I uncovered the bed but placed soda bottle cloches around each of the young plants. Then it was time to get myself and the little one dressed as we all had a baby christening to go to.

After the service we ran a couple of errands and returned home for lunch. Before I left for the church I did put twenty one sweetcorn seeds to soak after I ate lunch I resowed them. Using my finger to create planting holes, I noted how warm the soil was and I had on gloves.

I also noticed today I have mangetout peas, I'll aim to harvest them at the end of the week to give the really little ones chance to grow. The cranberry plant that is still waiting to be potted up in its final purpose built 2ft square container is in flower (naughty me).

That done it was time to collect the eldest from her camping weekend.

Whew!!! no wonder I'm knackered I feel all exhausted again writing it all.

Piccies of today:

Fledgling goldfinch seen in pairs feasting on the aphid covered willow.

Oh by the way the robins appear to be raising another rood in the earlier used nest box. My neighbour have only seen one bird flying back and forth with food, so we are asuming the female may be in there on eggs.

Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!

Well the sun has been beating down on us here in the south of England as though its the height of summer not that I'm complaining, I just hope the weather doesn't burn itself out and give us another wet cold summer like it did the last two summers.

Sunday I finally got round to tidying the strawberry tower by removing all the dead vegetation from last year. I only lost one plant and I gave the rest a spray of rhubarb insecticide as there was some aphid infestation observed.

The lawn had its second mowing of the season and it has fulled out really well in comparison to last year, so the resowing of grass seed last autumn and the application of fertiliser three weeks ago seems to have had a good result thus far. There is one area though that looks really sad, mossy and full of perennial weeds, I'll have to sort that out before it becomes a bare patch.

The compost bin which holds the rabbit droppings and bedding material from last year was investigated. I removed a sack full of the stuff at the bottom and added some of the fresh grass clippings to it, to help break it down further as I want to use it in the bottom of the pots I plan to grow the ochroes in this year.

Just before cutting the lawn I noticed a plant in the weedy patch, it had some very pretty flowers and my wildflowers book identified it as a forget-me-not, I think it may be the water variety. I do like these plants but they can be a bit invasive. I believe it came from two doors down, I observed this year that she has a large patch of these plants in her back garden and although I have some miss giving about letting the plant stay in my garden I have decided to give it a spot in my bog garden and aim to keep the spread under control.

Fledgling birds are starting to appear and today I saw a family of mistle thrushes, two fledglings and one adult. The adult flew off as soon as I approached but I was able to get fairly close to the fledglings and so got this picture.

Monday found me weeding and scraping that weedy, mossy patch of lawn and although I may have to go over it again I got most out this time. Once I'm done I'll reseed and fertilise before the next forecasted rain which is for next Sunday according to the Met.

Got some sowing done as well, seeds of khol rabi, chinese cabbage, 2nd batch of lettuce, calabrese and early purple sprouting brocolli. Also finally got round to pricking out the lemon grass seedlings and generally shuffled things around the greenhouse to make more space.

Tuesday I didn't really do much besides lots of watering of plants to keep them alive, I also potted on the largest cabbage plant and weeded under the larger of the two apple trees. While I was weeding I found numerous oregano seedlings which I potted up and a what I believe is a wild dog rose seedling, so I potted that on as well. Under the freshly weeded apple tree I planted out two more sunflower plants.

While I was weeding I observed there were lots of twigs on the lawn under the apple tree, now earlier in the morning I did notice a collard dove taking one of the twigs and flying away with it and just assumed it had dropped them earlier but since there was much more there than in the morning I decided to look up and blow! the darn things are trying to construct a nest in the apple tree. Now collard doves are easily spooked so why would they think about constructing a nest in a tree where we pass daily many times a day is beyond me.

On another note, I saw quite a lot of a blackbird fledgling and was lucky enough to get a really close photo.

The cucumber and salsify seeds have started to germinate.

Wednesday was very hot, too hot to stand in the greenhouse and do any pricking out of seedlings, so I opted to working outside and got some weeding done on part of the unpaved footpaths. I was also busy with watering everything due to the hot weather.

The chinese cabbage seeds have started to germinate.

The collard doves have been busy adding more sticks to their mess of twigs, describing it as a nest is a bit of a stretch. Well either they thought it was finished or maybe the female couldn't wait any longer because there is now one small egg perched precariously on top the mess of twigs aka nest. I can't see it surviving as the nest is so badly constructed (not surprising as this family of birds are notorious for badly constructed nests) and as the birds keep panicking and darting of the nest every time some one goes into the garden, I expect it will get knocked off or through the mess of twigs fairly soon.

Here is one of the parents and I have to say, though they can't build a decent nest they know how to pick a beautiful location.

Thursday I attempted to make a dent in planting out some of my flowering plants into the flower beds. I also got some weeding done again in between the vege beds footpaths.

The greenhouse is still way to hot to work in, those seedlings that need pricking out are glaring at me every time I go in there. Lots of watering continues to keep everything alive.

The inevitable has happened and the collard dove's egg has fallen. I think it might have happened when one of the birds attempted to add more twigs to the structure, I did see it flying to the apple tree with quite an awkward looking twig and wondered how it was planning to incorporate it into the nest aka mess of twigs. Maybe now they may get the idea its not such a good place to build a nest or they may be slow to learn and try again.

The robin family on the other hand are much better off and yesterday I was able to hear for the first time the chicks cheeping when the parents approach with food.

The Flowers in the garden were looking really beautiful in the sunshine and were very well visited by the bees. Not much longer till the spring flowers are all spent and the summer ones burst into bloom. Trees in the area are all of a sudden becoming

bright green with most now in new leaf.

The kids second pot of daffodils are finally in bloom and are perfectly beautiful in its own miniature way.

Friday not much done today, I have noticed that the early purple sprouting broccoli, lettuces have begun to germinate along with the lime basil.