Awful weather - typical Brits talk

MovingForwards

I'm enjoying seeing your gardens and plants, how they've been transformed and look so idyllic 😀

Somehow I seem to have ended up with pinks and purples, even down to the herbs. 

Everything is starting to pop up in the borrowed garden. Today I've had nearly every dwarf french bean appear.

Hopefully I can get some more veg planted out the weekend, freeing up space to transplant others, nurture then put them out.

goldfinches

2p - what a difference in such a short time. You've made a gorgeous garden, thankyou for showing us the photos.
Farway - lovely pea photo, I especially like the colours of both the leaves and the flower.
Davesnave - enviable photo of your lovely garden, another plant has gone onto my ever lengthening wishlist. 

Davesnave

Thanks for the before photo and the afters 2p. I see you still have plenty of lawn to dig into when things get tight and you find yet another 'must have' plant! Did I read correctly that you had much  interior work to do as well?

I can't claim any responsibility for the design and planting of our gardens. I just grow the plants and do some digging and heavy work, while DB does the rest. We started in 2009 from quite a low base:

That's a pile of tyres in the middle distance in front of the leylandii and the big white thing is a home made polytunnel...of a sort! This is maybe 1/4 of the back area now, because we stole a rough, awkward shaped bit of field with 2 septic tanks in it which couldn't be cut for hay and had ended up as a dumping ground. That became our first proper garden as we had to leave areas directly behind the bungalow due to planned relocation of drains.

There were small  dumps in this lot too, plus two other very big dumps (maybe 200 tonnes combined) where building materials and rubble had been hidden. It was lucky we had places where we could redistribute the soil and the council were not then charging for anything other than rubble. We got rid of about 100 tyres before the charges were slapped on. Much of the rubble went into farm roads and land reclamation.

There are 3 small medlar trees somewhere here and we saved those, plus some pears and a few smaller plants, but obviously this wasn't a spade and wheelbarrow job and we simply annihilated everything else!

twopenny

Inheriting fruit trees is a dream. Especially medlars. That's exciting.
Yes, still working on the inside. Was looking forward to buying everything for the first time ever but covid sent me back to being creative with what I've got. Rainy days and winter can deal with that. 
Too hard ground to dig out wider beds, too wet in spring but enough room for the veg is the main thing.
The badger run to sort next. Been done but the never ending rain makes it look like it's never been touched!

Farway

Dull this morning but still needed to water the pots out the front first thing.

The sunflowers in them are romping away now but a bit spindly IMO, hopefully they are now not worth climbing by snails, unlike my runners in the back, some seem impervious but others must be extra tasty as they make a slugline for them despite my best efforts

MovingForwards said:

Everything is starting to pop up in the borrowed garden. Today I've had nearly every dwarf french bean appear.

Ah yes, now reminded to sow mine, I only need about half a dozen so I'll raise them in pots inside first to try & avoid the snails & at least give them a chance

I have two packs, both opened & older but not ancient, Saxa & Tendercrop, I'll try six of each on damp kitchen paper to start and see how it goes

From thinking I may struggle to grow enough tomatoes this year [a lot succumbed to a mystery killer] I now have them popping up everywhere in the growing pots, obviously from last year's old ones that fell off & I left forgotten.

May never come to much but no point in wasting them now I have them, I'll try them outside and hope for the best

greenbee

I've got millions of tomato seedlings @Farway. Also leggy cosmos. All replacements for those that died in the frost at the end of April/early May. I now need to dig a bean trench as I have two runner and two flat more than ready to go in, and daren't sow anything else until I have space for them. I'm not looking forward to it, as I think the place I need to put it will be full of tree roots from the plum and apple tree that had to be removed (they'd outgrown the very narrow space by the time I moved in, and apples had to be picked from the bedroom window!). Today would be a good day to do it, but I have to fit work in somehow! I suspect it will be a bit warm at the weekend. 

twopenny

Sheesh Sunflowers. I was given some seeds from Morrisons free and forgot all about them

I had tomatoes that grew from the compost I put down and they were fine. Just a little less productive but there were so many of them it didn't matter.

Love the idea of picking apples from the window. Sounds like a great idea. I had a bottom cut off half a drinks container taped to the end of a rake that I used to get apples off a tree. They should come easily if ready and were totally unbruised. Not sure where I got that idea. The gorgeous Geoff Hammiliton I suspect.

Here are a couple of bargains I got - a Ceanothus from the supermarket £3. It was 6" high. This is 2yrs growth. Happily it seems to have stopped. The bird table, I saw one just like it for £100 so I found one for £30 and painted it. Silver gnome £1.50 laquer. Real one would be over £1000.

A rose that was in the rescue part of the garden centre. So rootbound that I got it for £2. Dublin Bay.

The little glass thing was charity shop. Ignore the bird bath. A failed experiment to waterproof it. Its gradually coming off.

With the income on my savings there's going to have to be a lot more money saving ideas!

Davesnave

I had the Morrison's sunflowers 2p and they germinated well. Currently about 3cm tall, but starting to pick up speed now they're individually potted. They're a dwarf variety and not really my sort of thing, but I'll stick them in the veggie garden for the birds.

My tomato cuttings taken in May are doing fine as small plants, so my idea of buying one or two plants and multiplying up from them might work for some people, maybe with an extended season bonus. I once took cuttings in July and had tomatoes at Christmas, but it was just for the challenge. They weren't as good as summer ones. Similarly, I used to grow very early toms from a special strain that sprawled around untidily, then culled them in July when the 'proper' ones arrived. I don't bother with that now as I'm too pushed for time lazier!

Yes, we found the discovery of Medlar trees a nice surprise among the chaos and they were still just small enough to move with a digger. A lady used to come here, collect the fruit and turn it into jelly, so she was pleased we kept them, but she then moved away. There might be a specialist jam maker interested  if we advertised them for free, as even the chickens don't appear to like them!

We shifted a number of other trees around and only the pears sulked. That was 11 years ago and they're still sulking!

Speaking of chickens we moved the Dark Dorkings into their intermediate quarters yesterday. I'll take a photo soon. Apologies to those who might have seen it before, but this is the set-up.

The house on wheels (old station trolley!) mates with the ark via a short tunnel and ramp. Every two days we move it to pastures new.

twopenny

Wonderful! I love the little trolley one. What a great idea.

Do the chickens get confused when you move them around?

Davesnave

twopenny said:

Wonderful! I love the little trolley one. What a great idea.

Do the chickens get confused when you move them around?

The trolley house is secure, so where they roost or go for a sleep, while the ark is where they have food, water and a place to scratch about. They're apart in the picture, but joined when hens are in residence. We only need to move the units the length of the ark (about 8')so the chickens don't get disorientated.
EDIT: Forgot to mention I was in a garden centre today; a somewhat alien environment for me, but needs must when DB wants something urgently. Came our with a very reasonably priced Lakemont grape, larger and £5 cheaper than the ones at Rosemoor. Didn't come out with a seat for the herb garden, or even an offer to order us one.