Brrrrrrr!

The weather here yesterday was nothing short of chuffing freezing! A cold wind was blowing in along with sporadic bursts of rain. When is this weather going to finally become a little more predictable? Luckily I hadn't put some of my plants in the polytunnel outside to begin hardening off because that wind would have ripped right through them, I think I'm looking at at least another month before we can trust the daytime weather here not to kill our young veg plants.

I sowed Leeks (Mussleburgh) a while ago and they've been really slow to get going this year, I know they'll grow rapidly from now on though so I guess I better decide where I'm going to plant them. For some reason this year I have not even made a planting plan for the veg, I have loads of seedlings waiting to go out and haven't even allocated them their space yet - I'm a naff veggie grower aren't I.

Not ready to go out yet but at least they're growing now.

Due to the weather I haven't managed to get stuck into more of that clay soil but I did take a picture of what I next have to 'makeover' for this landscaping plan.
I'm beginning to wonder whether this landscaping idea was one of my finer moments ...... or not!
The problem I have with that clay soil is that I have to get it dug over before summer because I will have no hope of even getting a fork 2" in if I don't. Luckily the clay soil appears to be contained to the foundation areas of the house, the rest looks like it will be pretty good.

Look at all the stones and rocks I have to move before I even begin to turn it over. Eek!

During the clear up I did find this rather neglected Black bamboo. Now some would say it looks dead - me included - but I'll hang on to it and see if resprouts.

Not looking too hopeful I admit.

I hope the spring weather is warming up wherever you are.

Blah, blah, blah.....

Do you ever have one of those Blah days in the garden? You have a list of jobs that need doing but you just feel Blah? You need to move plants but....Blah?  Paint something.......Blah? Build something...Blah?
Well that was me today, blah, blah blinkin blah!
Don't get me wrong I got stuff done but to be perfectly honest I couldn't have given two hoots about whether the job was done properly - I get those Blah days every so often and I guess they're the days when I should just sit and enjoy the garden (if it were warm enough of course, oh and if the plants were actually growing of course).
Last night Mr TG dug out a rather thuggish grass that was making itself known around all my other plants and had even taken to mingling with my garden grass - gasp, I hardly have any decent grass left after the dogs have mullered it so no way was I giving it up for this invasive, rude species of unknown name (though I suspect it is ribbon grass)
So today I had the wonderful task of digging out all the roots I possibly could so I could reset the area back to proper grass.

All cleared. It's a bigger area than it looks.

Then I had to relocate a Rhododendron from the same area to another area of the garden. This poor Rhodi has taken a battering from the variegated thug grass and an even bigger battering from me as I prized all the grass roots out from the roots of the Rhodi. I don't hold out much hope of said Rhodi surviving but whatever .... blah!

Rhododendron 'Cunninghams White'.

Yes, I really did re-plant it at the front of a freaking border - where was my mind!  I actually thought this was a smaller type of Rhodi but having looked at 'RHS plant selector' I see it's going to possibly grow to about 2 metres - great. Looks like I'm potting the thing in a bucket tomorrow - grrrrrrr!

On a less blah note, I pricked out my first batch of veggie seedlings and got them into small pots ready to grow on

In all honesty I was a bit premature with this batch of pricking out, they could have waited a little longer but what the heck, they'll be fine. The first few pots had Perlite put on top but I got in a mess doing it and gave up - blah!

I do have casualties though. My sweetcorn - Incredible F1 - aren't going to survive.

They're really not as pale and bleached as they look, it was the cameras fault but still they're not going to make it plus I only had about 50% success rate with what took anyway.
I've always had 100% success rate with sweetcorn so I don't know why getting a heated propagator this year made me do things differently and sow them too early with heat - won't be doing that again!
I've sown more Sweetcorn Incredible F1 today (which is the time of year I normally do it) and am growing them in the polytunnel without heat.

The best part is that my 2 new raised beds we built last Autumn are now ready for their veggies. The soil in this is pretty darned fluffy and I'm quite pleased with the quality of it. It's entirely top soil and as I haven't managed to get them manured on time I'll scatter some Blood, fish and bone a couple of weeks before we plant anything out

Those beds are alot deeper than they look too because we dug out about 2ft of soil before filling them in. Can't wait to see what they look like on 6 months time.

Any of you had or have a 'Blah' day??

Tomato seedlings

Every year I grow Tomatoes and every year I end up with a bunch of green fruit that just never ripens, I assume the growing season here in the Highlands just isn't long enough because usually it's around the end of March beginning of April before  I can even sow them.
I always sow in a propagator (unheated) and even though I have a polytunnel and greenhouse it takes a long time for seedlings to appear. I guess I could buy Tomato plants from the garden centre but tbh I'd rather not grow them at all than go to the expense of buying plug plants cos it kind of defeats the purpose for me.
So anyway you can imagine how pleased I was to check up on the seeds I planted in my new heated propagator 7 days ago and saw these peeping through

Black Russian Tomato seedlings @ 7 days.

Just 7 days and the Black Russian Tomato seedlings are already eager to get going. Hopefully this means I'll have a longer growing season this year and maybe, fingers crossed, some ripe fruit.

My excitement about the seedlings was kind of short lived though, basically I had to face up to the mess that is my greenhouse.
This greenhouse is basically made of recycled materials, it comprises of a wooden bottom half that is slats to the outside, polythene middle and boarding inside. The top half is made up of recycled double glazed windows and the roof is clear corrugated roofing, it may not be the prettiest (or largest) of structures but it does the business.
Originally it was full to the brim with plants and veg but then Mr TG bought me a polytunnel so the greenhouse became redundant, until I decided to turn it into my workshop. You see I love building things for the house and garden, I'm lucky enough that Mr TG is a builder so we have every tool known to man and plenty of scrap wood for working with.
This workshop has enabled me to create quite a lot of stuff but inevitably it's gathered some of those 'useless' items that Mr TG wanted to landfill but which I hoarded and now I need to re-use the greenhouse for some crops but it's looking like this


ready for this........






it's a tad embarrassing..............

Recycled greenhouse mess.

This is looking in from the door. It's horrendous isn't it! I'm ashamed to say that this place has not been cleaned or cleared since my last project last year.
It's not a huge space so it's important it's kept tidy to be even remotely functional and as I now want to use it as a workshop and to grow on Tomato plants I really need to sort it.

Here's looking from the back to the door

More recycled greenhouse mess.

Just look at the door! It apparently suffered that damage during some winds while I was on holiday but it shouldn't have because it was shut before I left - me thinks the kids went in and forgot to close it behind them!
And what I think I'm going to do with that red trunk is beyond me but I'm loathe to throw it or let MR TG fill it with building tools.
Bad isn't it!

So guess what my next job is (again it's not even one on my list of 42 jobs that I haven't even dented yet), yep, I've got to somehow bring myself to be ruthless and realistic with what I need to keep. Either that or I start hanging stuff from the ceilings.........hmmmmmm, now there's a thought!

Oh, it's a good day for singing a song.......

"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust" :- Gertrude Jekyll. 


The weather here in the Highlands continues to be bloomin marvellous  (happy faces all round).
Yesterday I managed to get quite a lot of my garden plants divided and/or moved and I have to say working outside in full sunshine lifted the spirits immensely, I still have a lot of bare areas that need planting but until I get my 'garden plant map' out I'm not sure what's under the soil just waiting to pop through in certain areas.
I've also managed to get some seed sowing going. It honestly felt like seed sowing time was never going to come around, although it is still a tad too early with our climate.

I bought a heated propagator off Ebay last month. It's not brilliant as it doesn't have a temperature control but it's a decent size and has meant that I can start off certain veggies much much sooner than I ever have.
So far I've sown (in the heated propagator)
Tomatoes: - Black Russian, Roma, Gardeners Delight & Yellow stuffer.
Pepper:- California Wonder,
Herbs:- Tarragon, Chives, Garlic Chives

(In unheated propagators in the greenhouse)
Sweetcorn:-
Cabbage:- Greyhound.
Broccoli:- Calabrese
Cucumber:- Marketmore 76
Celeriac:- Invitation
Courgette:-
Onion:- Bedfordshire Champion
Swede:- Invitation

Flowers:- Lupins, Hollyhocks, SweetPea & Bouganvilla (bought back from Jamaica)

Next I'll get started with the Turnips, Leeks, Carrots, more Cabbage, Parsnips

It's a good job I've been feeling upbeat of late because I am getting quite sick of this eyesore every time I head to the polytunnel

There was rhyme and reason to making that bloomin awful flower bed at the time - honest! (though the actual reasoning does allude me at this point in time).
I have no idea why (probably because I didn't know Willow back then) but I thought it would be great to plant Willow as specimen trees in there - I know! please don't judge me!
There's also a Mock orange, Olearia, 2 Escallonia, Leycesteria, Montbretia and Hosta all crammed into that area. Yes, it looks hideous! And if you could see the rest of the surrounding area and how out of place the whole thing looks you would piddle yourself laughing.
Guess it's going to be one of the many jobs I have to do this year and I suppose I better add it to the other 42 jobs I listed the other day!
In hindsight that area would have been a better place to site the 2 new raised veggie areas instead of here..................

You'd hope I'd live and learn but I'm going to make loads more of these stupid mistakes as the year goes on.
Guess I better start planning what to do!

Time to catch up...

Finally I am feeling half normal again and yesterday I managed to spend some time outside. The weather was lovely and warm, perfect for pottering around outside.
I spent most of my time checking on what's happened while I've been ill for the past couple of weeks and when I saw all the jobs that needed doing I decided to write a list, this will give me a purpose each time I go out rather than wandering around aimlessly and getting nothing done.
By the time I'd got to number 42 though I gave up!
42 jobs so far and those aren't even things like seed sowing or scarifying the garden, they're huge projects like replanting the borders and building a new compost bay - I think I may have set myself too many tasks and if that's the case I'll get demoralised and nothing will get done, again!
So instead of doing jobs here there and everywhere a bit at a time I've decided that i will concentrate on jobs in the actual garden first as this is the area we have to look at all the time - well that's the theory anyway!

Anyway, I had another look at those 6 Garlic cloves I planted earlier in the year, I'm amazed they're still growing and showing no signs of rot or death yet. This is the first time I've ever got Garlic growing even to this height

Wish I'd planted loads more now!

And remember those Dogwood cuttings I took here? well every single one of them is showing signs of growth - this is another first for me as I have never been able to propagate it with any success

Dogwood cuttings

And what about those Olive cuttings I did at the same time as the Dogwood? Well, I can't really tell if they're rooting but they're certainly not dead - or at least they don't look it!

Olive cuttings.

As well as checking on things I also managed to find the energy to cut some Willow ready for a Willow fedge (though I'm now thinking maybe a Willow fedge is not a good idea. I need the Willow to help with the boggy area but Willow is terrible for any kind of hedging in my opinion, it just never looks quite right).
I haven't decided if the Fedge will actually go ahead yet so I've just stuck the Willow in a bucket of water for now, they'll be happy there and will start to root pretty soon at which time I can decide whether to pot them up or plant them out.

40 willow whips waiting on my decision, next to the filtered seaweed tea.

I also strained off that Seaweed tea which didn't smell anywhere near as bad as I thought it would. It's now waiting in containers to be put to use but I'm not sure what the shelf life is and how quickly I need to get it used up, I think maybe it's something I should have put off until the summer months when I can actually use it.

Today is another dry day, not as sunny as yesterday but that just makes the polytunnel more comfortable to be in (it got reeeeeeally warm in there yesterday) so I think I'll do some potting up and seed sowing.  Oh wait, I'm supposed to be concentrating on the main garden - oops!

Anyway I will leave you for the moment with a piccie of my garden helper. He helps an awful lot around the garden, what with his digging and pooping (insert sarcastic face) and never really gets the credit he deserves, so here he is

Huntly! My best pal.......holding his best pal - Fimble.

Finally!

Finally after what seems like ruddy forever I managed to get some gardening done - in between wind and rain storms.
When I say "gardening" what I actually mean and what would be nearer to the truth is that I managed to sow some seeds. Yep, that's the extent of my "gardening" and all 10 mins of it were carried out undercover in the polytunnel.
Hardly enough to call "gardening" I know but those 10 mins felt bloomin good, sowing seeds in the middle of winter somehow makes you believe that Spring may just be around the corner.
So what could I be sowing in the depths of winter?
Well, I was out shopping the other day, one of the few times I actually leave the sanctity of my home and land and once again I passed the Phormium Tenax that are growing like triffids outside a department store so this time instead of promising myself that one day I'll get some of the seeds, I got hubby to wait in the car while I grabbed a few seed pods.
I know nothing about Tenax seeds but I assume these are ready because the pods had actually burst open and the seeds were literally just about clinging on inside.

Once I got em home, I asked a few people over at UK Veg Gardeners if anyone had had success with Tenax seeds (my last attempt years ago produced nothing) and once I had a reply I got to work with them.
Basically I sowed them in damp multipurpose compost, sieved compost over the top of them and then put them in the coldframe to get that period of cold they need.
Once I'm back off my holidays in February I will then give them some bottom heat and see if I get any seedlings - fingers crossed.
I'm seriously hoping that I get a couple of plants from these because I've noticed Tenax does extremely well in the exposed coastal gardens up here.

As seed goes these are really quite pretty methinks.

Don't you just love it when you have an excuse to buy more chocolate tubs - they make super seed trays once you've pierced drainage holes in them.

I'm quite excited about seeing whether these produce anything for me but I have to tone down the excitement a little because I have a tendency to chuck them away if they don't produce in the time I think they should.
So fingers crossed and away from the seed tub - eyes only!



 

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