Kitchen Garden Forum

PLUMPUDDING wrote:Trying to post photos. Hope it works

It worked and your efforts look great, what a smashing plot


TRUST WESTI to spot the cat !!!!!

Yes the cat always seems to pose somewhere. There's quite a bit more garden as it's on four levels so a bit of a challenge carrying the lawn mower up the steps. The other areas have mainly soft fruit and top fruit and the hen run is in the orchard. The other bit has gone wild next to my son's workshop/garage as he hasn't got round to doing it for the past two or three years. No comment. He did pick the walnuts up when they fell off last year. It's the first year it has had a good crop, up from 12 the year before to over 150.

I'm very lucky to have such a nice area to work and relax in. It's been in my family for over 100 years, built by my grandfather for his parents and it has been a bowling green, tennis court, had goats, geese, pigs, hens and rabbits on during the war and my father built the first greenhouse and made a proper garden out of it when he came home after the war. I've grown up as his assistant, labourer and gofer and even though I wasn't allowed to do much actual gardening I learned how to do everything. My main jobs were disposing of buckets of stones and weeds. I did have one job I hadn't to tell my mother about as it was very dangerous!!! I had a jam jar with sodium chlorate in and had to put a quarter of a teaspoon of it in the centre of all the dandelions. "I must not eat any or put my fingers in my mouth or I would die".

One of the best things about gardening is trying new things and altering it all. You have the freedom to do whatever you like and if you know the basics most things work. I can't stand the "experts" who say you have to things this way or must do that. Plants want to grow, so give them half a chance and you'll get a crop even if it isn't perfect, and with experience you get better every year.

It's raining this morning, first proper rain in weeks, I've had to water containers almost every day for the past couple of weeks.

Hi Diane,
Euonymous is not that easy to grow from seed so you must be congratulate on your success. As a retired propagator I always opt for propagation by cuttings. I have this last year grubbed out a Lonicera nitida hedge and replaced it with Euonymous Europea 'Red Cascade' which is a less vigourous variety. As it's name suggests it has redish green mottled leaves and is very beautiful and the fruits are almost identical. I have a lots of normal Euronymous in my hedgerows but the birds seem to take the seeds before I manage to get to them. Do be aware that Euonymous throws out quite a few suckers when they get really established. I am thrilled with your choice of plant.
Sincerely,
JB.

Hi Plumpudding,
I would give you the thumbs up for your garden but to me it is far more than that. Quite frankly that is one of the nicest gardens I have ever seen with a little bit of everything and congratulations for making what is a gardeners paradise.
Sincerely,
JB.

Thank you very much Johnboy your comments are very much appreciated. It makes me happy just being in it, I just have to ignore the untidy bits until they reach the top of the to do list (or they become impassable).

Hi Plumbpudding,
I feel sure that I would feel the same in your garden. I looked at the garden photos for quite a time and because I no longer manage to do overly much it took me back many years when my patch was very productive. I ran my nursery on strictly business lines with regimented lines but the passion in my.. life was my vegetable garden. Certainly I had designated beds and some semblance of order but it was there that I could experiment with all manner of methods of growing a certain plant and over say five seasons work out the best way that plant gives the best result. It has been a lifetime that has never ever left me. I know that you have an enquiring mind because who would take the very bold step to plant your potatoes when you did. A very brave step which worked out. Bravo!
Sincerely,
JB.

Hi Johnboy, yes I'm still doing the November planting of potatoes and a row of Orion came through last week. I've earthed them up and covered them in straw when they forecast keen frost. I'm keeping a look out for the others to come through now.

You've far more expertise with your vast experience in growing commercially, but I think everyone on this forum shares a love of nature and growing things.

My free Strawberry seeds have germinated, Red and White Alpines, never grown them from seed before, think I'll grow them in pots for the first year at least.

I noticed some very tiny seedlings of them yesterday too Tigerburnie. I wonder how fast they will grow? I put them in the cold frame as I thought they would feel more at home in cooler conditions than in the greenhouse.

We brought some cuttings of alpine strawberries from the hedge rows in mid Wales around 45 years ago we now have around five clumps of them in the garden they are very nice if a bit seedy when eating ,only trouble is our inherited grandsons dog uses them to clock his leg up on

Started planting stuff in the greenhouse borders plus some chillies and sweet peppers going into their final sized pots.

It's all spring up beautifully in our garden, at last. Planted out most of the stuff...but still have to fight my way into the greenhouse and tiptoe around the plants in and around the cold frame.

That is lovely Diane - what a nice space!

Lovely garden Diane, are your roses out already?