My Patch – A Garden update: June 2019

June 3rd – The borage has started to form buds πŸ™‚ 

I wanted to plant some plants in the garden this evening but first I had to make the decision to pull up the Forget-me-not!  It was taking up a huge amount of space and the majority of flowers had gone over.  I am sure it spilled lots of seeds so I’m sure I will have lots more next year.  

I managed to plant out 18 common fleabane, 6 lady’s bedstraw, 6 red campion, 10 oxeye daisy and into a pot, 4 marigolds. 

June 4th – The cat has decided to use one of the garden pots as a toilet! I have discovered that last year the scarlet pimpernel had self-seeded and is growing again this year πŸ™‚ I planted out another 2 teasel, 2 perennial flax and 3 birds-foot-trefoil, put 8 field marigold and 3 borage in pots and tidied up the tomato area!

June 5th – planted out some of the herbs; mint, thyme and marjoram in a trough container and also potted on the cucumber.   Its the first cucumber I have tried to grow so we will see how it goes! 

June 6th – Planted out 5 cornflowers, 1 marigold, 1 common fleabane, 1 red campion, 6 oxeye daisies, 1 rudbeckia, 2 love-in-a-mist, 4 birds-foot-trefoil, 1 teasel and 2 perennial flax! I moved a sow thistle to the field. One of the poppies has started to flower πŸ™‚

June 7th – I noticed today that the hazel has started to develop this years fruit

June 10th – It has been raining heavily all day.  What I had forgotten is some of the trays on the racking don’t have holes in the bottom.  I had put the plants out to get acclimatised and… well…. bless them they went for a swim today!  I had to go out in my waterproofs and rescue them.  Thankfully there were not too many but I had to find any empty pots or trays I could to put them in, they have been moved to the glasshouse to dry out!

June 11th – I put out the stakes for the sunflowers I would have done it sooner but it has been raining on and off for nearly a week.  I have had to put the tomatoes back in the greenhouse as they are too wet and looking a little unwell.  There are however 5 baby tomatoes starting to appear.

June 14th – I thought it best to start to feed the tomatoes seeing more fruit is appearing.

June 17th – The red campion in the pot has started to go to seed, the lavender and scarlet pimpernel are starting to flower and the cornflowers and roses are starting to show their first buds πŸ™‚ 

I had to remove a few nettles that had crept into the garden to put in the sunflowers.  I checked them over before removing them and put them over the fence in the field so any creatures I may not have spotted could safely escape.  I planted out 7 sunflowers, 6 rudbeckia, 6 field marigold, 2 bird’s-foot-trefoil, 2 love-in-a-mist, 6 oxeye daisy, 6 red campion, 1 lady’s bedstraw and 4 borage in a pot!

June 18th – Tonight I only managed to plant 6 rudbeckia and 4 marigold’s in pots.

June 19th – The cat has trashed the rudbeckia!  I have dug them back out but I don’t know if they will survive.

The Penstemon I bought earlier in the year has started to come into bud, the cornflower and marigold have started to flower and I found a black medick in the raised bed. I like it when wildflowers start to fill the bed without me having to plant them.  

I decided the best way to try and deter the cat was to put some hawthorn in the pot!  I just hope it makes him think twice!

I planted into pots, 4 borage and 10 zinnia.  I staked the tomatoes and tidied the left side of the garden as it was just untidy; it was starting to annoy me.

June 20th – The borage has started to flower 

I planted out 6 cornflowers, 6 lady’s bedstraw, 6 common fleabane, 6 red campion, 4 love-in-a-mist, 2 perennial flax, 3 oxeye daisy and 9 bird’s-foot-trefoil.

June 23rd – The cat has pooed in the pots AGAIN, but not just one pot THREE!!! he’s now killed three of my zinnia!  I’ve stupidly planted more as I guess he will probably dig them up again πŸ™ 

June 24th – deadheaded roses and removed some of the weeds from the front garden. It looks better than it did – honest! – it still needs more work.

June 26th – I planted the buddleja into the front garden.  I had to dig though the gravel and cut the weed suppressing membrane and then dig a hole to put it in! hopefully it will be happy there and won’t mind too much that it is surrounded by gravel. 

The love-in-a-mist, marigolds, sunflower, and poppy are all flowering, or starting to.

June 27th – The jasmine has been producing lots of growth so today it needed to be supported.  I couldn’t tie it up so some canes have been weaved into the top of the metal support to make it a little wider so it is all held up (I forgot to take a photo!)

June 30th – the sweet pea has started to flower πŸ™‚

My Patch – A Garden update: August & September 2018

August

I like how the garden looks in summer but the amount of patio is starting disturb me!  There just seems to be so much of it which is not covered in greenery! Seeing this is only one half of the garden and the other half is all patio I find it even more disturbing! 

I was hoping by the end of August the patio will have been concreted – since it was cleaned there are now huge gaps in between the slabs that concern me, they are more than big enough for a hedgehogs leg to fall down!  However I have only managed to complete half of it  and unfortunately I don’t think the rest of it will be done this year!  

I have found some of the taller plants have needed to be staked up this month as they have been falling over onto the shorter ones.  The method I have used this time is to just put a cane at the back of the plant and use some twine to wrap around the plant to hold it up.  I might have to look for a better method for next year.  I have removed some of the leafy weeds that have been taking over the garden, I don’t have any idea what they are but they have gone as they just seem to be smothering everything else! 

August 1st – a small purple flower has been teasing me all summer, its either a bud or a seed head and its taken me ages to figure out what it is…well I think I know what it is… a perennial flax.

August 8th – I sometimes get a small helper in the garden!  He sits there looking grumpy until he gets cuddles and then thinks its helpful to use the raised bed as his bathroom facilities!! There’s a field behind that fence – why can’t he use that!!! 

August 14th – I have been around the garden this evening and deadheaded the roses.  I keep forgetting to do them so tonight they have all been cared for.  I have also been collecting some seeds from the plants that have been going over. 

August 21st – I’m rather pleased with the tomatoes, I have never grown them before and there seems to be loads of fruit forming on them πŸ™‚

August 27th – I have been gifted a couple of lavender plants, they will have to live in pots as there isn’t really any where for them to go in the garden but at least the pollinators will appreciate them when they have grown a bit bigger.

August 29th – I had to cut back some of the jasmine tonight.  It was on the list of things to do but the task had to be brought forward as the brother of my friend decided he didn’t like it dropping water on his head and took a chainsaw to it!  I was going to cut it back so that it would have the best chance at flowering again next year but I don’t really know how it is going to do now πŸ™

August 31st – I ordered a compost bin so I can make the most of the ‘waste’ from the garden πŸ™‚

September

September 2nd – Last month I sowed some Sweet Williams and they have sprouted πŸ™‚ 

September 10th – I cut back some more of the Jasmine, half of it has now gone! 

September 12th –  I trimmed back the hedge at the front of the garden and collected up the fallen blackberries for the birds.  I removed most of the brambles from the front garden as they were running very wild and tangling themselves around everything, they were newly established so thought it was best to get them removed before they took over entirely! The ivy has started to flower πŸ™‚

September 17th – I’ve had to pulled up a few of the leafy β€˜weeds’ as they seem to have taken over again!  I really hope they aren’t so much of a problem next year! Also I have had to relocate some of the daffodil bulbs as a certain four legged creature has broken the pot they were in and dug them up! He wasn’t admitting responsibility!  

September 20th – I have been tidying up the jasmine by pulling out the wilting vines which we cut off the other week.  It still needs to be reduced and weaved into the arch way to make more of a feature out of it.  It has become obvious as it has been cut back that it has been winding its way into the cables for the house which has made it a little more difficult to deal with. It has however started to sprout at the base again so I am hoping that the new growth can be weaved into the trellis on the wall and then managed as it grows so it doesn’t become unmanageable again.     

September 27th – The jasmine was finally fully cut back tonight, I feel awful for it!  I just hope it does okay over winter and bounces back next year.