Garden 2014 no 2

Garden 2014 no 2

My garden is changing this year, I’ve decided on my priorities, and much as I love my blue fenced garden, I need to prioritise painting time above gardening time.
So far this year I’ve done virtually nothing. I’ve pruned a couple of flowering shrubs, tied some bits back into place, had a general tidy up and cleared away the rubbish. Now I’ve run out of time to do anything else because; it’s almost time for the annual trip to France. In a couple of days I leave for a month in France and when I get back, I’ll have week or two organising my garden.


I went out there this afternoon to take a few photos and do a bit of tidying up before I leave. Some of the spring flowers are in bloom, I have periwinkle, daffodils, wild currant blossom, and rosemary all in bloom. The fruit trees are in bud and even the little yellow pond flowers are in full bloom. I can’t remember the name of those little pond plants but what ever it is, the frog seems to like it. He has returned for about the third year in a row, So far he hasn’t honoured me with any frogspawn this year but I remain hopeful. I have had frogspawn in the pond in previous years but this time I don’t think Mrs Frog accompanied Mr Frog, looks like he’s going solo this year, maybe she’s just been delayed and will turn up soon
.

The snow drops are all gone now, I had loads this year and they did last quite a while, but now the warmer weather has arrived, they’ve all died off.   I think I’m going to miss the tulips and the start of the bluebells this year, I can see loads of foliage and tulip buds, but I think by the time they flower, I’ll be away.

This year my garden is  destined to become a less time demanding, less labour intensive place and a more,  ‘sit and chill and watch the world go by in-between painting sessions’ sort of place. The veggie plot and its grass verge is all getting rotavated, raked, seeded and turned back to grass. The veggi containers will be emptied and stored, the herb pots are going to get a serious talking too and those that have become too overgrown with grasses and weeds may have to be sacrificed. I think I’ll be fence painting again as well, I painted most of my fences last autumn but we have had so much rain, they all need doing again. I think the excess rain over the winter added about three normal years worth of wear and tear to the paint work out there.

So, this is the view of my rather neglected garden that I’ll see as I drive away, but as soon as I get back, it will be gardening in earnest time.

Garden 2014 no 1

Sunday, 23 February 2014

Garden 2014 no 1

The spring flowers are blooming and what better way to spend the first semi decent Sunday afternoon of the year than out in the garden? Not that I did an awful lot. I had already decided to cut back on the garden this year and spend more time painting, but it still needs a little TLC.

Today I cut back the flowering shrubs ready for summer. The buddleia was so tall last year I found dead heading difficult, after today there is more of it in the garden waste bin than there is left on the tree. Hope I wasn’t TOO enthusiastic.


Apart from some vigorous pruning, the only other task I tackled was a general tidy up. The garden was swept clean of leaves and general debris the wind had blown in plus some bits of broken wooden boarders that I found scattered around.

I noticed the rhubarb was sprouting so I covered them with pots, if the weather holds I’ll get the first of this years crop with in a month or so.


Oh………..and I couldn’t help noticing all the buds on the cherry tree.

Garden 2013 no 3

My garden is the only cloud on my horizon, except the many rain clouds that constantly hang over it. We had a wee window of opportunity in February when the sun shone and the ground was dry. I did go out there a couple of times and began getting the garden ready for planting, but before I could actually plant any thing, the window closed. First we had snow, wind and ice and that gradually dissolved into steady rain. Now I find myself half way through March, nothing in the ground, the shallots and garlic should have gone in by now but I haven’t even done the prep digging. It has rained on and off for a couple of weeks, the ground has never dried out enough to get any thing done and I’m seriously behind with every thing. I’m not sure how long it will take me after eye surgery to be well enough to start gardening.
But…………..the need to be positive tells me maybe a year off growing will do the soil good and things like lettuce, radish, nasturtium, rocket, the what I call ‘pick and eat collection’ can go in any time and usually only take about 6 weeks before they are ready. 
I find myself looking for frogspawn every day and worrying that the ice has prevented the frogs from spawning, I hope not, I loved watching the little tadpoles last year. I’m spending most of May in France so I guess the modified plan must be to utilize containers as much as possible and plant things before I go that will be ready when I get back.
But, since I have nothing of interest to report on my garden, I thought I would share a link passed onto me by my sister.


My sister has alerted me to a fantastic ‘new’……………not exactly new but new to us, garden blog. As far as I can see this lady is doing every thing right. I especially love her post about composting. She composts just about every thing from dog poo (somehow I’ve never liked the idea of composting ‘poo’ but maybe I’m wrong). to egg shells and she does it every where from pits in the garden to little pots that she plants directly into. I also found the post on garlic interesting. I’ve book marked her site, joined the site and intend to visit regularly, recommend any one who is interested in gardening does the same.


http://averysmallfarm.wordpress.com/page/2/

Garden 2013 no 2

Garden 2013 no 2

Last weekend I spent a whole hour in the garden, one whole hour. Not that I did very much but it was good to get out there. First thing was to empty the shed and put it all back in some sort of order. I’ve been thinking about my old bike recently and when I was sorting out the shed I dragged the bike out from the back. It’s not ‘ridable’ at the moment but I don’t think it needs a lot doing to it, new inner tubes for the tyres and maybe some new brake cables and that should be it. The chrome handlebars have lost their shine and are rusty but I guess I could clean them up. I’m still not convinced I would be safe riding even if I did get the bike sorted, but  I have someone who knows someone so it shouldn’t actually cost me vey much to get this bike of mine back to road worthiness and then I’ll give it a go. There is only one way to find out if I can still ride safely and that’s to try.
 
After the shed was sorted I turned my attention to the ‘water’. We have a lot of water here, but even so I don’t like to waste it. I have one smallish water butt that’s full and I also have a collection of old buckets and containers scattered around the garden. These are in various stages of ‘full’. 

The empty wormery but has been in the shed ever since the worms died and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to use it as another water container. I always thought it would come in useful, and now it has. It’s full of rainwater ready to water my plants in the dry season, if we ever get a dry season. I still have buckets lying around the garden, I like to collect as much water as I can, we have so much of the stuff fall from the sky and I really hate seeing all that good water flowing down the drains and being wasted
I had a general tidy up, spread chicken poo pellets over the veggie plot in readiness for my shallots, picked up all the littler that had blown in off the street and checked out the new spring growth. So far I have Snow Drops and Dwarf Iris in flower and I’m sure the daffs will be there soon. Now all I need it the opportunity to dig over the plot and plant the shallots which I’ve already bought.
Like I said I didn’t do much, but it’s a good feeling to know the garden is starting up again.

Feb 3, 1010, Multiply, Almost Spring

Almost Spring

These are just a couple of photos I took over the weekend. I've taken photographs along this walk hundreds of times before and I'm sure you all recognise this place by now. My reason for taking these was the pink light of the late afternoon sun. Looking ahead of me, directly into the almost setting sun you can see the light shining pink on the sea.
Then looking behind, away from the setting sun, you can see how it lights up the land in a bright pink glow.
And back home there is the first sign of spring. Its still very cold, I still have ice on the pond and the ground is covered with crunchy frost in the mornings, but here it is, the first sign of spring in my garden.

Tags: environment, spring

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delete reply eprichaunmagic wrote on Apr 10, '10 lovely coastline fotos of sunset..beautiful lighting...

delete reply sandycaar wrote on Feb 5, '10 Very lovely photos Loretta. I think 4 & 5 are my favs!!

delete reply stillwandering wrote on Feb 4, '10 I just love the light! Thanks for sharing your walk, it's beautiful

delete reply mitchylr wrote on Feb 3, '10 Beautiful shots Loretta. I'm the same as you in having favourite places to walk and photograph. I have a particular favourite piece of coastline called Freshwater West, it's great for sunsets. I particularly liked the shot of the sun peeping out from behind the building, and also the ones looking back. Spring in all over the place this year. I was in Milford (a local town) two weeks ago and there were a couple of beds of Primula already flowering, and the daffs were starting to shoot last week also.

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Feb 3, '10 yeah! :)

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Feb 3, '10 I really do love the evening light and how the landscapes glow.

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Feb 3, '10 Hope they don't get frost bitten. The almond trees bud this month and sometimes they get frozen. These are lovely photos.

delete reply veroniquemariquita wrote on Feb 3, '10 I love seeing the first brave little leaves peeking through.

delete reply wulfshadow wrote on Feb 3, '10 I like 1 and 4 best. Very nice.

delete reply vaziry wrote on Feb 3, '10 Well after a close look i see most excellent pics in here ,It shows you have such a gentle soul. And a sharp eyes to view the beauty around you . Thank you so much .

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Feb 3, '10 veryfrank said onderful photos. If I could move enough snow, I could see my snowdrops. LOl.................just goes to show what hardy little plants they are

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Feb 3, '10 Wonderful photos. If I could move enough snow, I could see my snowdrops.

delete reply msowens1 wrote on Feb 3, '10 beautiful photos!~ I love the pinks of the sunsets.... amazing colors! and thankfully, spring is coming.... ;-)

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Feb 3, '10 love your photos........it is wonderful to see those sighns of spring!

delete reply theblueswans wrote on Feb 3, '10 I love the looks of it! And as the background also! Fabulous! I think my fave photo though is the one that the sun takes a bite out of the building... I love using the rays to do that! digital cameras make that so much easier to find the angle of it!

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Feb 3, '10 oh yes...............such a joy, they give hope and say that spring is on its way at last.

delete reply djdx wrote on Feb 3, '10 Lovely photos. Aren't snowdrops a joy?