courgettes – Gardening within LiMitS

I have neglected the garden…

I’ve had my flu jab but managed to pick up a cold! It’s been cold and miserable out so I’ve neglected things somewhat… Halfterm involved lots of tv. Next week is going to be busy (exams) so I can’t really spend much time in the messiest garden in Letchworth.

These are the miscellaneous seeds… the middle ones were a strange shape. No sign yet!

Halfterm would have been a good time to garden but heyho! Ironically today I decided to check up on the things in the greenhouse and raised beds and was pleasantly surprised! There were sprouts in plenty in the trays I put out a couple of weeks ago. The mystery bags from Amazon and old seed packets. Maybe next year I will have poppies after all? Even the blue poppies from the garden in Perth I’ve mentioned before? How exciting!

These are from old seed packets. The blue meconopsis in front ☺️

The beds had some courgettes and salad leaves but I think they might have gone over, losing the deliciousness of little leaves? I might try them on a sandwich this week?

Lots of tidying needed! I just need to shift my cold… there’s always tomorrow 😂

This young silver birch needs moving? Eek! Right by the proposed new shed.

Purple salvia might need rescuing too. It was close to being stomped recently by the arborists…

Back in the Garden! On a Bank Holiday no less…

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I have picked up six bucketloads of fallen apples. I have composted three and brown binned the rest. We have received the bill for our next year, to start in October. This includes our three months extra and we are gonna need to continue paying. Lots of talk about the Government sneaking through changes to council responsibilities but hey we are getting used to this by now.

The garden isn’t paying any attention as a week’s neglect has just seen the same old, same old – weed growth and more weed growth alongside a heavy scattering of fully plump apples. I was meant to cut the grass but apple buckets were filled instead.

And discussing the shed has meant a new site has been chosen. Still need to clear the fallen sycamore which was stored for burning. Think it is seasoned after three years? But the garden is being planned! And it is going to mean a lot of work…

Clearing this area by the greenhouse still needs to happen…

Baking bits!

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We have a few too many brambles, and I left the biggest bunch too long! Soggy mouldy blackberries don’t make super crumbles… we made two sponges today and that wasn’t using too many berries so I’ve gone out to pick some more and with my Apple catcher pulled off some largish apples from the tree. The sponge mixture was a bit soft because I decided mid mix to double the quantities and went a little off recipe… And we are getting a chorus of sorts from the apples, and I get the feeling we may lose a few more smashing onto the Perspex of the greenhouse.

I love the little buds on verbena boniariensis.

Lots of sweet little flowers around and about in the garden at the moment and I had thought all the best things were past. I discovered a penstemon or two coming through. I’m not sure whether that is perennial or not. Will watch out for it next year!

Oxalis? Peeking through in one of the raised beds…

Apple and bramble sponges. They do look a bit flat…

Some tidying before the end of summer?

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I don’t like driving up to the house and being confronted by weeds and all things needing trimmed. Even worse when we have been away? So the garden bin was collected this morning and I’ve hacked at the golden rod and spiky buds and remains of valerian. And that’s before I can get out of the front garden.

Hosta flowers. Maybe it’s in a better place.

So the back was full of windfalls… makes the bin heavy and I am bushed. Thankfully I only get to the windfall apples every few days, as the waste of apples makes me sad. We have some brambles so I shall make a crumble or a sponge when I get some energy back.

The house is looking tidyish but I am loathe to muck up the kitchen making sponge… but it’s the one I prefer. Sponge it is!

Random continues…

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I drove a little way away from LGC and bought some gravel. Four bags full. I am now questioning why I do these slightly random things? Not part of the giant scheme of things for sure and not identical to previous freecycled gravel…

All will come good for sure. Maybe it’s the time of the year or the random things that being stuck at home do to you. Maybe I need to go and take the lumps out of the patio slab space? Then we can use the gravel from the herb garden to level it… not sure how, we don’t have a roller?

And today the umbrella was moved so the corner I’ve been eating my lunch is sheltered. More weeding and pruning was needed as bindweed went mad unchecked. Lots of areas being changed for the better and trees are being dug up too.

This spiky plum? tree which has only produced fruit this year is being pruned heavily. The gooseberry bush at its base had dried up so much it literally snapped apart so I could get to the ivy on the wall that was running amok. That’s given me a dry throat so needed pulling for sure. But spikes and dust made me want to stop for lunch. Bon appetite!

You can see the woodpile behind the ramshackle shed after clearing that corner…

Gardenkeeping!

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Like housekeeping only in the fresh air! Excitingly the Perspex ordered for the greenhouse arrived tout suite and in a day the ‘glazing panels’ with shatterproof and appleproof qualities have been inserted. The greenhouse is back in action and tidy! Lots of pressure washing has been done and decisions about steps into the greenhouse are in place.

Great slabs of concrete were being used around the littlest shed, which lies in pieces around and about – and it would make more sense to use them for steps out of the house? We built an extension and have never had a proper kitchen step. And double doors on other rooms also land on, well, not a lot, and it’s been a few years now. Like I’ve said before, lifetime projects…

But we have a paved area where the greenhouse was which can now be a little patio outside the shed in progress? It was made with some lovely little paviors I got through free cycle. And a little sitting area is much better use of this sun trap.

Swapping jobs today!

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I am trying to finish a paint job I began under lockdown… it’s involving climbing up ladders and trying to stay stable which as most MSers with vertigo know is not as easy as it sounds. Roof lights were asked for but I always thought we’d get someone to do it? In fact when I first took our collie for a walk and she went for someone before I pulled her back, the man she lunged at turned out to be a decorator. A year in and she is much calmer on walks and doesn’t seem to need to protect us, her current herd.

Husband has shifted the greenhouse and in a definite reversal has been in the garden all morning. He is going to purchase some Perspex panels to save the glass from dropping apples. But it looks like the shed is going to be built over the herb garden after all. Which was the original intention?

It also means losing, or cleverly sculpting, the two trees in this corner which we haven’t identified. And replanting some of the herbs.

The greenhouse frame was moved by three of us, while I held back the roses. We are dismantling the arch which was rusted through and again that changed the vistas through the garden. I feel like I am now keen to finish the painting and get back outside!

Arch will find a new home? Or will go to the tip?

Spotted!

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The eagle-eyed spotted that we have a tomato! The tomato plants are definitely coming on. I think they might be cherry tomatoes and I am looking forward to having some.

We’ve enjoyed potatoes and I think we will do something with an alarmingly yellow courgette! The veg beds have not suffered under my neglect… except the spinach which grew well but went to seed before much was picked. I have lost interest in cooking and have managed to put on a stone in weight since lockdown started. I blame the uncertainty of the pandemic and losing my sense of optimism. It’s the summer holidays now and we will have to try and get motivated and off computers more! I vow six weeks of change! Starting tomorrow?

Clearing Ivy!

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My new slabs are being neglected for the home office plans now! A concrete base sat under the littlest shed which was decrepit and overrun by Ivy. That base will form a base for the rejigging of the middle shed to form a more practical potting shed while it will be replaced with something more practical for home working as it looks like the future may encompass more of that. And I have enough cut down to fill the garden bin on Thursday after collection…

This morning saw me doing weeding and sweeping and decapitating the laurel. It will not survive the footprint of the potting shed, which will have to be swivelled so that the window is on the opposite side of the shed and repairs will have to utilise the best panels kept from the tiny shed. I was visited by Red while pulling up strands and strands of Ivy around those concrete blocks and the apple tree. While ivy seems to grow really well around the base of the apple tree, in freeing it from the base last year we seem to have promoted better apples this year. Here’s to chutney and crumbles this year!