You are very welcome Busy-Lizzie. My freebies that came in my parcels from Mr. Fothergills trials for the Nation of Gardeners project are performing well in their second year - lots of strawberries on my "Sweetheart " plants and good broad bean plants from my saved seeds and luscious brown leaves to colour up my spring salads from the Pak choi F1
we had to try for cut and come again salad leaves.
Hi happymarion, busy-Lizzie mentioned you are in Bristol. I am also. I'm glad there are a few from Bristol on the forum. Your garden is looking very colourful.
p.s. Bring on the rain, my water butt is empty, although I can use next doors hosepipe as she isn't on a meter, we njust need some of the soft rain to get into the soil.
Hello,mdw84,Fruitcake lives in Henbury and we have a contributor who has an allotment behind Horfield prison while I live in Brentry(Bristol North West). Where abouts are you and is your garden completely new as I see you landscaped it yourself! I have gardened in my half acre for 51 years but it was looked after by a professional gardener from the thirties till 1964 as the major who lived here was in a wheelchair. As you can imagine I have wrought many changes and still am as I do like to try new things.
Hooray, the rain dance worked. We had a shower or two in Bristol during the night. The garden is damp but it is dry and warm once more and no rain forecast till this evening. so should get my six hours in today. I will prick out my Heinz tomato seeds and another red tomato I had as a freebie which had lots of seeds in the packet so I can pick out the best plants. There are primulas needing to be divided too, especially the auriculas. More beans to plant and the usual daily list. Most of last year's dead leaves have been gathered from the pathways now and the twenty bags of horse manure to be put into the potager beds are dwindling too so that list will soon get shorter giving me more time to potter, experiment and plan ahead for when I next can buy new plants.
It's good to finally see some rain, the soil at my chicken plot was starting to resemble a dried up river bed! Sadly, it's impossible to water the entire plot . Still, yesterday's approx 1.8 tonnes delivery of wood chippings should help that! Well, it would if I had the energy to shift any of it today. I ache rather a lot after getting that lot shifted yesterday.
At both sites I have rhubarb. At one, it is plentiful and the stems look fantastic. At the other, it looks good until you look under the leaves, and it looks pitiful I'm guessing they are both different varieties so maybe the sad one will pick up soon
Oh we have had enough rain to make weed pulling out easier so green wheeliebin nearly full again. Time for a coffee break now. I have bought my tickets for me and two friends to hear Monty's lecture called "Why Garden?", ordered a month's food shopping online which is coming tomorrow and all set for a month of great gardening to get ready for my open day. Oh I know by my time of life that the "Best laid schemes of mice and Marion gang oft awry" to paraphrase Rabbie Burns but " Hope springs eternal in the human breast " too.
I must be a prophet. Parcel post has just arrived with a parcel of seeds and plants from Mr. Fothergill. 10 each of onion plants, Tasco and Tough Ball. two pkts of cosmos Xanthos and Hummingbird pink, one pkt of sweet pea still to be named, one pkt of sunflower "Titan". Ah well I am adaptable! Making room in the conservatory for three more pkts of seeds and deciding where best to put those lovely onion plants, now.
My garden has changed so much since moving here, it has gone from being quite a large plot to being a reasonable size due to the buildino of a new house on The largest part of the garden. Over the past few years I have moved and changed things constantly, but last year and into this year am happy with how it is working out, it's not so much me landscaping the garden more like the garden landscaped me. Did I read that you are preparing for an open day, is that an open day at your garden?
Yes but for a church ladies' club.mdw84! They have been coming for years and really enjoy it, cream tea and all. I have planted out the onion plants and sown 34 sunflower seeds and 10 no-name yet sweet peas for Mr Fothergills Seeds trials, just the cosmos to sow now.
Posts
You are very welcome Busy-Lizzie. My freebies that came in my parcels from Mr. Fothergills trials for the Nation of Gardeners project are performing well in their second year - lots of strawberries on my "Sweetheart " plants and good broad bean plants from my saved seeds and luscious brown leaves to colour up my spring salads from the Pak choi F1
we had to try for cut and come again salad leaves.
Hi happymarion, busy-Lizzie mentioned you are in Bristol. I am also. I'm glad there are a few from Bristol on the forum. Your garden is looking very colourful.
p.s. Bring on the rain, my water butt is empty, although I can use next doors hosepipe as she isn't on a meter, we njust need some of the soft rain to get into the soil.
Hello,mdw84,Fruitcake lives in Henbury and we have a contributor who has an allotment behind Horfield prison while I live in Brentry(Bristol North West). Where abouts are you and is your garden completely new as I see you landscaped it yourself! I have gardened in my half acre for 51 years but it was looked after by a professional gardener from the thirties till 1964 as the major who lived here was in a wheelchair. As you can imagine I have wrought many changes and still am as I do like to try new things.
Hooray, the rain dance worked. We had a shower or two in Bristol during the night. The garden is damp but it is dry and warm once more and no rain forecast till this evening. so should get my six hours in today. I will prick out my Heinz tomato seeds and another red tomato I had as a freebie which had lots of seeds in the packet so I can pick out the best plants. There are primulas needing to be divided too, especially the auriculas. More beans to plant and the usual daily list. Most of last year's dead leaves have been gathered from the pathways now and the twenty bags of horse manure to be put into the potager beds are dwindling too so that list will soon get shorter giving me more time to potter, experiment and plan ahead for when I next can buy new plants.
It's good to finally see some rain, the soil at my chicken plot was starting to resemble a dried up river bed! Sadly, it's impossible to water the entire plot
. Still, yesterday's approx 1.8 tonnes delivery of wood chippings should help that! Well, it would if I had the energy to shift any of it today. I ache rather a lot after getting that lot shifted yesterday.
At both sites I have rhubarb. At one, it is plentiful and the stems look fantastic. At the other, it looks good until you look under the leaves, and it looks pitiful
I'm guessing they are both different varieties so maybe the sad one will pick up soon 
Oh we have had enough rain to make weed pulling out easier so green wheeliebin nearly full again. Time for a coffee break now. I have bought my tickets for me and two friends to hear Monty's lecture called "Why Garden?", ordered a month's food shopping online which is coming tomorrow and all set for a month of great gardening to get ready for my open day. Oh I know by my time of life that the "Best laid schemes of mice and Marion gang oft awry" to paraphrase Rabbie Burns but " Hope springs eternal in the human breast " too.
I must be a prophet. Parcel post has just arrived with a parcel of seeds and plants from Mr. Fothergill. 10 each of onion plants, Tasco and Tough Ball. two pkts of cosmos Xanthos and Hummingbird pink, one pkt of sweet pea still to be named, one pkt of sunflower "Titan". Ah well I am adaptable! Making room in the conservatory for three more pkts of seeds and deciding where best to put those lovely onion plants, now.
I am near Whitchurch.
My garden has changed so much since moving here, it has gone from being quite a large plot to being a reasonable size due to the buildino of a new house on The largest part of the garden. Over the past few years I have moved and changed things constantly, but last year and into this year am happy with how it is working out, it's not so much me landscaping the garden more like the garden landscaped me. Did I read that you are preparing for an open day, is that an open day at your garden?
Yes but for a church ladies' club.mdw84! They have been coming for years and really enjoy it, cream tea and all. I have planted out the onion plants and sown 34 sunflower seeds and 10 no-name yet sweet peas for Mr Fothergills Seeds trials, just the cosmos to sow now.
Onions planted and other sights up my garden this afternoon.
This is "Big Ben" a very large berried blackcurrant the Nation of Gardeners participants had to trial. Very good cropper.