Summer days of June (2019)

The start of June marks the beginning of summer and the joy of seeing flowers and fruits coming alive around us makes all our hard work worth it.

During one of the tv gardening programmes we saw a segment about growing loofahs (although the spelling seemed to be slightly different everywhere I looked). The plants looked amazing and the resulting fruit and dried loofah sponges were incredible. A few weeks later and we had our first loofah or luffa seedlings.

One of our Trollius plants was munched by deer or rabbits but an upside down hanging basket protected the other one and hey presto we had a beautiful bright orange bloom. These plants like wet conditions so it is very happy at the wet end of daffodil walk.

Another plant we saw on TV was the Camassia which is woodland plant which comes in a variety of blues and white. I was able to plant some white ones with a variegated leaf in the white garden. I was a little sceptical as to whether they would become deer food but in the end we had some beautiful flowers.

Despite it being June we were still allowing the last of the daffodils to die back before mowing the whole area. Sadly it always looks a bit messy until we can tidy it up a bit. In the meantime M got the mower out and cut either side of the daffodil beds. We needed to weed around the shrubs but that was a task for another day.

We have no idea who laid this egg but it must have been painful! The egg on the left is the normal size for our chooks and the one on the right was huge.

It turned out that the massive egg was a double yoker, our first one and extremely tasty.

As we have been trying to keep a record of how things are growing and changing I have been attempting to take regular photos from approximately the same spot. The orchard looked great just after M had been active with the mower again.

We inherited a shrub in the garden which covers the wall dividing us from the chicken yard. We have always assumed it was a clematis of some kind. No matter what variety it is the abundance of flowers and beautiful scent astounds us each year.

For some reason we have never been particularly successful when it comes to growing roses. There were about 5 in the garden and they all looked pretty dreadful despite our mulching, feeding and pruning regime. However, occasionally we were rewarded with a gorgeous bloom.

Earlier in the year we chipped and laid paths through some areas of the woods. By June the weeds had begun to grow through and M battled through on the tractor. It looked so much better and saved Jess from walking through the nettles.

We were amazed to find this little fellow hiding under the matting around one of the orchard trees. Thankfully M was on hand to escort him back to a safe place.

With the long sunny days the temperatures in the greenhouse were soaring and in recent years we have only shaded the south facing side of the greenhouse. this year I decided to fix some shading to the west side of the greenhouse to reduce the scorching effect of the sun on my little plants. It was surprisingly really effective.

The winter weather took it's toll on the green bench. Well that was my excuse for the fact that it collapsed under my weight or perhaps it was when Jess jumped up to join me. Either way it required a serious makeover, M put his diy skills into action and hey presto a new (and safe) bench in our afternoon woodland suntrap.

We inherited these vegetables shelters from my aunt last year and decided to try them over the sweetcorn. One was particularly wonky but seemed up to the job nonetheless, at least it was some protection from the hungry rabbits and deer.

Our local garden nursery was a wonderful find and results in a car full of plants. The latest trip found us buying 3 more rhododendron a coupe of hydrangeas and a few shrubs for the white garden.

   

The new rhododendrons planted up.

A new rhododendron added near to the ones we planted over the last few years.

A little blue hydrangea.

A climbing white hydrangea for the white garden.

We planted some Cornus Candensis (ground cover), Solomons Seal, Astrantia, Hollyhock, Buddleia, Viburnum and Campanula. They looked very young and immature but we were hopeful that they would grow strongly over the summer. A wonderful end to a month of hard work.

We grew all our tomato plants in growbags in the greenhouse after the trial polytunnel ones performed very poorly, suffering from various ailments. They were planted up in mid May and by the middle of June they had lots of healthy new green growth.

We had planted some broad beans in the polytunnel at the end of autumn last year and were rewarded with a lovely early harvest.

 

The pots and hanging baskets were beginning to fill out and enjoying the long sunny days, our main task was trying to keep them watered and fed.

I thought I'd finish with a little photo of M's collection of Hostas. This was only their second year, they appeared to be staving off any slug attacks and were putting on lots of green foliage. Just lovely and possibly the start of another obsession!

May Adventures

Today is the first day of Winter and despite the clear, frosty morning I thought it was about time I put my fingers to the keyboard and caught up with the past few months of activity on the smallholding. Here I go now all the way back to the warmer days of May.

The flowerbeds loved the early spring heatwave and were filling up nicely. The Forget-Me-Nots self seed every year and never fail to give us some spring colour.

M decided to extend the side flowerbed to include the area around one of the trees in the garden. I'd love to be able to name the tree but despite examining the fruit each year we have failed to identify them, maybe this year we would succeed.

We bought this little crab apple tree at our local nursery which was an incredible find. It was not your usual garden centre, no café, no gifts, no toys just lots and I mean lots of plants and trees.

The crab apple blossom at the beginning of May was plentiful and such a gorgeous pink.

M spent the day tidying up the main path through the woods, another day of chipping provided a fresh layer to hopefully keep the weeds at bay.

The long, sunny blue sky days gave us the opportunity to keep up with grass cutting in the orchard and trimming around the trees and veg beds.

Another trip to the local nursery and with a car full of plants we had our work cut out finding homes for them all. The woodland garden was filling up but there was room for a little Mecanopsis.

A white Viburnum found it's place in the white garden. We made the decision not to surround it with any deer defence but only time would tell if this was wise or not.

This was a further addition to the white garden, I can't remember the name but it was such a pretty flower head. It had a slightly pink tinge to the white but from a distance it was white enough to warrant its place.

We bought a few ferns started a small fernery at the end of the main path in the woods. Over the past couple of years I had also collected some small ferns and they were also big enough to be planted out. M found a few old tree stumps so this is the beginning of what we hoped would multiply over time.

Every year I've tried to work out what is my favourite season. I think Spring is probably top of my list but I have always seeing the greenhouse full to bursting with seedlings and young developing plants, not yet ready for planting out but with the promise of an abundance of flowers, fruit and veg to enjoy.

We had a little experiment this year with our onions. As usual I sowed some onion sets in cells in the autumn and overwintered them in the greenhouse before planting out in the veg bed. As a comparison I also sowed some onion sets in a similar fashion in the spring. The first 2 rows on the left were autumn sown, the rest were spring sown. Even at this early stage it was clear to see that the spring plants were much larger and healthier than the autumn ones.

I always seem to order too many potatoes and yet again this year, once the coffins were full I had to plant some in the plastic buckets.

I even had some more left over seed potatoes to fill 3 of the canvas pots. They were against the byre wall where they captured the sun during the day and were also protected from the worst of the rain.

By the middle of May it was time to get the tomatoes planted up in their grow bags in the greenhouse. Of course this involved clearing out a lot of plants to make some room.

 

Despite the high temperature in the greenhouse I managed to get the first 4 growbags of tomatoes planted up.

During the sunny days the grass moving and weeding often seemed unending but so satisfying to see everything all tidied up at the end of the day.

We moved our little Gogi plant to a new position as it had been struggling for the past 2 years and had hardly grown at all. It made me laugh when I saw it advertised in the nursery as 'easy to grow'. Hopefully the new location would give it a boost.

The beans and peas were flourishing in the polytunnel although this year we were experiencing an increase in greenfly. I was hoping that the presence of some marigolds would help to control them.

The seedlings in the greenhouse were growing well and were ready for transferring to the pots, baskets and planters around the garden.

We made a determined effort this year to grow pumpkin and squash. They had been growing vigorously in pots in the greenhouse until we thought the weather was suitable to plant them out. M cleared an area in the old winter pig pen and erected a frame/trellis to support the fruits. Unfortunately they only lasted about 3 days before they all succumbed to slugs. With time running out I sowed a few more seeds to try again.

M built a huge framework out of hazel sticks for the peas. We were hoping for a good harvest this year.

We have very few pictures of the back garden to remind us of our work there but it always looked good when it has been tidied and the grass was freshly cut.

A favourite of ours has always been Lupins but in the past we struggled to keep them alive. Another go this year in a different location would perhaps prove successful.

Making the most of the decent weather and I got the 'white garden' strimmed although the distinct lack of white flowers was not through lack of trying but mainly due to constant presence of deer and rabbits.

Approaching the end of the month the weather turned but as we sheltered in the byre we took the opportunity to plant up the simmer pots.

They looked a bit sad in the rain but we hoped they would improve as they filled out and the flowers appeared.

What a glorious way to end May, a beautiful walk at the seaside with M and the dogs, one of our favourite places in any weathers but especially on a sunny day.