Other People's Gardens - May 2019

Ah, Myosotis sylvatica.  Forget-me-nots.  They're so beautiful when they're in flower, but as soon as they start going over and setting seed, they're such a mess.  This photo shows an entire brown bin filled with them!

It's the time of year for emptying out all last year's produce and getting the beds ready for this year - which is what's happening here.   Veg beds being emptied and the soil being turned.

And this is what you look like after a day turning veg beds!!

How I love Aquilegias.  I'm going to be very cheeky this year and ask my customers if I could have the odd seed head of some of these as they are just beautiful - I have real Aquilegia envy!

I do love when I have company when I'm working.

This is another new garden which I'm really enjoying - again, emptying out veg and strawberry beds - the soil was lovely to work and everything came out really easily.

And this is what I looked like after a couple of hours in this garden!

The grass is coming on really beautifully - it's even more lush now and I really do need to take some more photos.  I have bought myself The Lawn Expert book to do some more research on this garden and am even contemplating booking myself on a lawn-specific course.

Seeds and Stuff - May 2019

I am absolutely loving my garden this year - the garden has never been so full of bees and birds - the birds have been balancing on the Digitalis purpurea, eating all the green fly and other nasty wee beasties.   The weather has been rather strange - we had a very hot spell back in May, but since then we've had monsoon rains and it's been so cold that the heating has kicked back in again!  Flaming June?  I don't think so!

I've sown a few seeds and have had some success with the courgettes and tomatoes (which, incidentally, are being potted on later today once I've got my sorry arse over to B&Q for more compost!) and I have a few hollyhocks although most of them have been eaten by slugs and snails, little blighters.

I think - although I'm quite nervous - that I'm going to give the tamarisk one almighty chop this year - it's so bowed over that it lays on the ground so I need to try and get a stake in it to keep it more upright going forward.  I'm so thrilled with it to be honest - considering it was a twig that had fallen off Mum and Dad's tree from many years ago, it's enormous now and the trunk is really thick.   But it definitely needs some care and attention now.

The Cercis siliquastrum has been beautiful this year and is absolutely covered in leaves now.   At the beginning of the year, I lopped off the bottom branches to try and lift the crown and it's worked really well, in that other things can grow underneath it, so I've already put it in my diary for 1 January 2020 to do some more crown-lifting.   I love it when things work.

My Lewisia cotyledon has been a wonderful surprise - the flowers were stunning.   I had read that they like being planted on their side as they don't like their feet being wet and it's definitely worked - albeit in a bit of a laying-down-on-the-table-in-its-plant-pot kind of way.  I need to find a spot in the garden that I can plant it sideways - I'm thinking probably the bed down by the shed but I need to do a lot of other digging out of there.   

(I've got some big project ideas going on this year - I'm going to chop the Passiflora right back to get rid of the foliage, then lift it and move it to somewhere else in the garden, and plant my new Wisteria sinensis where the passion flower is.   I want something to cover the pergola but not in such a thuggish way!)

My patio has become a bit like a plant nursery with all the pots of seedlings - but it's been fab, I've really loved making all these plants for free.

The garden has just been glorious this year, I've been very lucky.

(This photo really makes me laugh - it's me looking very proud of my grass plants!  I sowed grass seeds into modules and it worked!   For one of my garden customers, I've been trying to rejuvenate their lawn - I've been sowing loads of grass seed there and then planting these little plug plants also to fill the patches - their lawn is looking lush!) 

Odds and Sods - May 2019

May is the month when I start foraging - this is the beech leaf gin which has been steeping for a few weeks - since the beginning of June, the leaves have been strained off, and I've mixed the gin with the brandy and sugar syrup - it should be ready in August.

Since I finished Nan's quilt, I've been experimenting with some charm pack squares - we've signed up to have a table at a craft fair near Christmas, so I'm playing around with some play mat ideas.

Dad's cardigan is coming along nicely - everything is knitted up now, I just need to summon up the enthusiasm to sew it up!

This is a baby blanket, also for the craft fair in November.

Oh.   This was a neck warmer for the craft fair, but it's a definite reject - not enough contrast in colour and a bit scratchy too.   But all good practice.

This is actually a birthday present for Shannon - strawberries!   I'm just hoping I manage to get them to her in June before the slugs eat them all!

Finn hasn't been so well towards the end of the month - the vet has diagnosed arthritis in the spine and neck, but we've got some miracle drugs for him and he's running around like a puppy again, albeit with longer recovery times!