What's growing

I'm quite a negative person - it has to be said! My glass isn't half empty - I have no glass! and if by chance I did have a glass it would have a hole in it!
Negativity is part of who I am and always has been, it never really bothers me until I'm having a fight with the Black dog in which case it can be quite debilitating and when I'm gardening it can turn what should be a pleasant potter in the garden into a full blown mental assault on myself, anxious about all the things I'm not doing and which are getting on top of me - this usually then results in me flouncing about all cheesed off with myself and achieving nothing. Of course that then results in more of the mental attack on myself and so the cycle begins.
I tell you this because it began to happen again over the last few days and so nothing was getting done but instead of wallowing in the 'woe is me' attitude I determined to go to the polytunnel (mess as it is right now) and think about nothing but getting plants planted and seedlings potted on - music is my choice of weapon for those wandering thoughts.

So here is what is growing in my polytunnel just now

I don't grow many onions, certainly not as many as I should - these are Stuttgarter and they seem to love it in this soil.

Sweetcorn grow so well in this soil and last year I had pretty much 100% cob success. I wasn't going to grow in bottomless pots this year but I noticed mice ate the first batch of seedlings so I decided to play it safe with this second batch. The polythene is purely to stop that wretched Horsetail weed.

I am seriously naff at growing salad crops so I only gave up a small area this year. The Spring onion ain't springing it has to be said and the Pak choi has bolted - what the heck is Pak choi anyway? and what do I do with it?. The rocket was waaay to strong flavoured for me but the Spinach is tasty as are the radishes - guess I'm sticking to Radish and Spinach from now on.

First year Strawberry plants. I gave up growing these years ago cos I never got a decent yield but I'm giving it another go and hopefully have better succes over the next few years.

This Conference Pear is still riddled with some kind of pear leaf disease so it's going out in the garden in a sheltered area from the summer on. It may not produce fruit outside but it'll give the birds more cover in the garden.

The Victoria Plum is outgroing the PT so it too will be going to the garden against a sheltered south facing wall. It has 7 fruit this year - a grand improvement on last years one!

Climbing French Beans - I love these. They do so well in here and produce masses of fruits.

Second batch of Cucumber plants after mice ate the first lot. Also Courgettes are growing the other side.

The cut flowers are really romping away and I've already had a few Dianthus flowers.

The one flower I couldn't imagine not growing - sweetpea.

Quite alot of Allium on here, lord knows what I'm going to do with them all. Plus can you see the Thalictrum n the two middle pots on the middle shelf - I have loads of these that I grew form seed this year, I'm really pleased to see the doing well.

More shelving with Sunflower 'Teddybear', Coreopsis plugs and other plug plants from one of the 'Gardeners world' readers offers.

The plants have now overspilled to outside the PT door.

More overspill

Somethings got to give!

A few years ago (and I'm talking as little as perhaps 3) had I wandered round to the polytunnel and been faced with this

I would have simply rolled my sleeves up, got the fork out and the lawn mower and set about clearing it all up before losing what little crops are left.
However when I was faced with this yesterday I could muster the energy to do little more than stare at it and the more I stared at it the more despondent I became, the more despondent I became the less I cared - vicious circle. The parcel of cat droppings so nicely deposited right in the center of this first bed was just the final straw - the blinkin cats haven't even bothered to cover this one! Mind you that's something to be grateful for I guess.
For a wee while I sat on the wooden sides of the bed figuring out (or trying to) what I really wanted to do, do I even enjoy this gardening lark anymore? If I did then surely the areas wouldn't get so neglected? or at least I'd be more enthused about clearing them?
This particular area won't take much more than a day or so to clear if I'm honest, it's a fairly big area but it just needs mowing, tidying and the beds weeding but move on into the adjacent veg plot and it just gets worse - this is the bridge that takes me to the next plot

Looks a picture of health huh! NOT!
The gorse can be cut back obviously, the dead stuff can all be raked away - simples, but it gets worse - this is the path that leads one veg area to the next

The path is no longer there and it's now too long for the mower - it's gonna have to be strimmed, then I'm going to have to chop alot of plants back to get through that gate, all doable I know.
But the real heartache has got to be the second veg area. Before I had a garden (when the house was being built) this area was my haven, it was kept spotless, weed free, well manicured and the veg beds were lovingly cared for, in fact I spent as much time round here as I possibly could.
Now though it could only be classed as a haven for insects and weeds

A few years ago I would have scoffed at anyone suggesting it could end up looking like that and I've been seriously questioning whether this is just a blip or whether I need to take a break from veggie gardening. In all honesty I do not enjoy vegetable gardening, I only started it because I was a stay at home mum and felt obliged to do it with all this land available and once we got the polytunnel it seemed a crime not to fill it with veg. The problem is not the growing of the veg though it's the upkeep of such large areas. I've always tried to manage my Narcolepsy and Fibromyalgia to enable me to do the hard tasks outside, I'm aware that if I sit down next to the pond I could fall asleep and end up in it or that if I do too much one day I will be useless for the following 3 but it's getting harder to cope mentally as well as physically.
Yep, I'm thinking I may shut the tunnel down and close the gates to the veg areas at the end of the year and concentrate solely on my garden for a while.

Veg from the polytunnel

It's so nice to be able to pop out to the polytunnel and freshly pick veggies for an evening meal, last night we had friends over for a grill and the fresh picked Corn on the cob went down a treat with a smidgin of butter and plenty of black pepper

The Black Russian Tomatoes are currently huge, they're real beefsteak in size. The only problem I have is that it's kind of hard to tell visually when they're ripe because they retain some of the green to the top of them, in fact I only had an inkling they were ready because they were soft rather than hard. This was the first time I've grown Black Russian and while I wouldn't say the taste was anything terribly amazing I think I will grow them again purely for the fact that they are ripe when the 'Roma' and 'Gardeners delight' are showing no signs of relinquishing their green cover.

The Cabbages are proving popular too. I usually love to do Cabbage and Leek steamed together but these ones are particularly nice with Garlic, Onion and Red pepper all sauteed together.

As for the rest of the garden, it's holding up. There's still alot of weeds taking over that I haven't got around to tackling just yet and there's plenty of forgotten areas in the part of the garden that I haven't made a start on renovating yet - such as this Butler sink planter.
I'm not entirely sure what's actually a deliberate planting and what's weed as it's so overgrown but it's on my list of garden chores to bring it back to glory.

This hardy Geranium - G'Phaeum' Somobor - is treating us to a second flush of flowers due to me cutting it right back to the ground a few weeks ago after it had finished its first flourish.

Here in Caithness the weather can be very windy and decidedly cold even in the height of summer (made worse by the fact we live next to the coast and are very exposed)  so it's really hit and miss as to what will survive even in sheltered areas, so whenever I manage to successfully grow pretty flowers I make sure they're photographed for posterity.
This Orange Dahlia is flourishing in a tub alongside a red one - both of unknown names.

I've posted a photo of climbing rose 'Compassion' before but I just couldn't resist a new one. This rose is doing amazingly well, the blooms still look fabulous after heavy rain and the scent just has you constantly returning to stuff your nose in it. I'm definitely going to have a go at propagating this one.

Finally the Fuchsia 'Hawkshead' is getting to full bloom. This particular Fuchsia is very hardy and I have a few of them planted out in the beds all year round with fabulous success.

Garden overhaul

The Cauli's and Cabbages planted in the polytunnel are still getting eaten by slugs (I haven't got around to putting down cardboard yet) so I was quite surprised to find that the ones outside in the raised bed haven't been touched at all.
I do keep them covered with fleece to keep the butterflys off them but surely that wouldn't deter slugs?

Here's a glimpse of the extra land to the side of the house that we're thinking of adding to the existing garden. There's as much of it as I need but as you can see it needs a whole lot of work and extends way out to the right and far behind me.

That ground is about 3ft deep of hardcore so any planting would have to be in raised beds, grass would be viable if we lay a good layer of top soil first.
The back fence does have a line of Willow trees, these are usually shallow rooted and don't last very long in our winds so we dug out a trench all the way along the fence first approx 3 ft deep to the soil below. The 6ft willow were then planted into that and the trenches filled in with soil, this means that at least 3ft of the trees are underground and should therefore stay upright.
Still that's gonna be a lot of work if we go ahead.

Remember when I said in my last post that Mr TG and I were discussing what water feature to add in the pond? Well I was thinking along the lines of this

http://www.retaildisplaysandprops.com/custom_nature-themed_environments.htm

Ok more realistically this

http://www.waterfeatures.co.uk/nh.html

Basically I would have liked us to build something where the water runs off slate.
Today though I left Mr TG to his own devices and I thought he was working on "his" patch of land that he's been clearing but nope he'd been erecting this

Excuse the foreground mess it's waiting for decking to be erected but that piddly fountain is everything I hate about garden water features. Some people can make them look great but the wind we get here makes that kind of 3 tier fountain pretty pointless.
I'm currently convincing Mr TG that we need to collect some of the humongous rocks we have and make it look nicer than just an oblong with rocks round it - hard work though, bless him he thinks a water feature is a water feature is a water feature so it could take some time.

With the first half of the garden requiring only minimal work now - mainly decking - I can get onto to the second half once the dogs have their own area finished.
This is the current state of some of the bit to do

It's full of weed and it's been made worse by the fabric we put down under the gravel. The weeds had no problem growing through it and even self seeded in the gravel itself, this image only shows the grass weed but honestly, it's a mess.
All the Pink and Blue is Aquilegia, one plant that self seeded over and over again and is now more of a weed than a plant - but it's a pretty weed so it gets to survive one more year.
There are some nice plants in there such as a Rhodi, Hosta, a hardy Fuchsia, Dogwood, Cranesbill etc but I'm looking forward to getting to grips with this second half later in the year.

Life is good!

Well the weather certainly seems to have finally decided to get into the spirit of Spring, the days have been glorious here - dare I say....warm - and the wind has even realised it's unwanted.
The garden is really beginning to take shape now and my polytunnel certainly looks better for all the room now I've got so many plants into the ground.

Talking of the polytunnel though there's been a few calamities alongside the successes

These Cucumbers should be romping away by now but the slugs are having their evening meal dining on their leaves, despite the slug pellets I reluctantly put down

They're also munchin away on the Cauli's in the tunnel too.

I always swore that the slugs could do their will but I refuse to go out with a torch at night picking the blighters off their chosen meal, but I think I maybe changing my mind on that one.

At least they're not interested in the Onions, this is the first year after many of trying that I have managed to get an onion do this

The sweetcorn are being left to romp along as well

Believe it or not these Tomato plants are the healthiest I've ever produced as well. They may not be the biggest around but I'm quietly optimistic that I'll get some decent fruits and as I've never grown 'Roma' or 'Black Russian'  I'm looking forward to trying them.

I hope the sun is shining for you, wherever you may be!

The perfect Fuchsia cutting

I love Fuchsias and I'm determined to master the art of taking successful cuttings, I even want to have a go at training a standard.
After my recent problems with cuttings I took (I say recent but I've had the same problems every year I've tried doing them) I decided to dig out a book on Fuchsia that I knew I had somewhere. I then sat with a coffee and read the whole thing - well the bits that had pictures anyway, and then this morning I took it out to the polytunnel with me and followed the instructions to the letter.
It seems I have been making a few mistakes each time I've tried this

1. I always use regular potting compost - too nutrient rich apparently.
2. I've always put them in full sun - I've literally cooked them.
3. I've always firmed the soil - no need apparently.

So with this new info in hand

I filled my pots with potting compost mixed with perlite, I took my cuttings of 'Paula Jane' (the only one I have left that has enough growth due to my previous attempts) according to the book - it seems that they don't need to be cut below a leaf node this time of year, who knew! - removed lower leaves and dipped each one in rooting hormone.

In one of the pots I did cuttings below a node (old habits die hard) and the other one as the book suggested.
The cuttings were then well watered in and I resisted the urge to firm them down. Finally I put them in the heated propagator and moved the propagator out of full sun - no cooking this time round.

If these don't survive (look too leafy and big for my liking) I'm giving up and I'll buy the ruddy things!

I haven't just been playing with Fuchsia though, I finally managed to get those Parsnip seeds sown and the Leeks out.
The first year I sowed Parsnips I simply sowed the seed on the soil and I had a fantastic crop that year but then I read it's a good idea to create a cone in the soil, fill it with compost and sow the seeds into that - it helps to prevent forked roots apparently. Ever since reading that it's the method I've used even though I didn't have a problem with forked roots, so this year I tried both methods and will compare the crops.
With the Leeks I've always used a piece of bamboo to create a deep hole and simply dropped the Leeks into the hole and watered them in, the soil settles itself eventually and I always get a decent crop.

Fleece covers everything right now to stop both critters and cats.

Leeks are uncovered but I'll be checking them tomorrow in case the feral cats (of which most have decided they like us because we offer free food 24/7) have left messages everywhere.

Oh the weather is glorious right now!

Glorious weather and veg planting

Finally! Today the weather has been glorious and apparently it's set to stay fine for a few days - yay! It was even hot enough today to warrant sunscreen, but then there was that sad moment when I was applying it and the smell took me back to our recent holiday to Jamaica - has that ever happened to you?

Anyway with good weather afoot I figured I'd finally make a start on getting these veggies planted out - my veg beds finally have veggies in them yay!

Half of the main raised bed has Swede 'Invitation', Cabbage 'Greyhound', another Cabbage I forget the name of, Cauli 'All the year round' and Broccoli. I covered them over with fleece to stop the cabbage Butterfly laying eggs and to stop every feral cat in the area using it as a loo (yep it took alot of clearing before I could plant - Ew!)

The smaller raised bed now has Carrot 'Chantenay Red cored 2' and carrot 'Early Nantes' seed sown. I only planted the stumpy Chanteney one because I had the seeds, ordinarily I find them a waste of space but thanks to these 2 new beds I have plenty of spare room now. These were covered in fleece too because of the cats though I dare say this fleece will not last 5 minutes if the wind whips up no matter how secure they are

Last year I grew Climbing French bean in the polytunnel but they grew like triffids and took over so this year I'm planting them out on the lower allotment area (I call it an allotment but it's just my greenhouse area). I've also cut down on the amount of plants this year too because we just got inundated with them last year - though maybe I shouldn't have done that as crops may be less outside anyways. These were protected with fleece just in case we have a frost, I'll remove the fleece once that risk is gone.

On another note, the runs for the dog kennels are finally getting dug out. Once the runs are up it will mean that I don't have to have the dogs on the garden quite so much and I'll be able to relax knowing they're safe and secure and can't escape, least I hope they won't be able to. I won't bore you with details of the enclosures that Atlas has managed to escape from so this enclosure has got to be completely escape proof

See the green panel to the right? Those are what we'll be using. The enclosure will end up being about 40ft by 20ft and those bars on the panel are perfect for stopping Atlas climbing. It's gonna be a while in the making though.

Remember that garden bed I showed you the other day, the one where I had been a very lazy girl and put turfs directly on it to rot down? Well I finally got it cleared, manured and some lovely soil in it today

BEFORE

AFTER

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