New beginnings

Returning visitors may be wondering what on earth I've been doing as I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks. The answer is that I've moved.

I am still an urban girl with no car, but I now have a postage stamp garden. There's still a patio area for my containers but there's also a "proper" garden bed with "proper" soil.


As with many things in life, it's not by any means perfect.

Firstly it doesn't get the sun for much of the day at the moment. I'm guessing that as the days get longer, so will the amount sun on my little patch, however I think it is going to take quite a lot of experimenting to find exactly the right spots to grow the various fruit and veggies I have in mind.

Secondly, the garden bed is not only full of weeds and tough grasses at the moment, as can be seen in the picture, but there is a huge confifer in one of the adjacent properties - possibly +100ft - whose roots have invaded my little patch with a vengence.

Hoping to get that all dug over and relatively root free this weekend ready for some serious seed sowing next week.

In the meantime, I have sown some pumpkin, courgette and tomatoes indoors this week and also some lettuce and peas in troughs outside on the patio.

More soon.

What's going on with the weather forecast?

I know they say they can't accurately predict the weather more than 3 days ahead but really...even up until yesterday the Met's website was showing that it would be sunny today, tomorrow and Friday so I had planned to do some serious stuff on my terrace today. It's been raining ..... practically ALL DAY. So, nothing doing. Most disappointing.

On the TV earlier this afternoon, they have said it will be sunny tomorrow. We shall see.

Green shoots

In my last post a week ago, I wrote about the lateness of daffodils. My dafs are now completely out: it was just a matter of 2 days before they started showing lots of colour. Great that they are in pots as I have moved them to a position so I can see them from my bedroom window every morning when I open the curtains - so cheerful.

The rhubarb is also coming along leap and bounds and there's a couple of inches worth of deep red stem now showing.

The plum tree on the other hand, is looking remarkably bare. It began to worry me as other plants are showing signs of waking up including my clematis and honeysuckle. I decided to make a really close inspection and found (to my great pleasure) one bud which is just beginning to show green (picture inset). Hope springs eternal.

The sun has got his hat on...at last

Dare I say it....has spring finally sprung? The BBC's One Show had a short piece about the fact that daffodils have been very late to flower this year resulting in a shortage for mother's day. So much for global warming.

Indeed, despite being in a really sheltered spot, even my dafs haven't quite bloomed yet although I reckon another couple of days should do it - same with my hyacinths.

And just to prove that spring seems to be well on her way, my rhubarb is throwing out her first main leaves. Come to mama !

Everything's coming up....RHUBARB

Well ok, not EVERYTHING is coming up, but my new rhubarb crown (bought last October) certainly is. There's a lovely fat bud poking through the soil surface.

No pictures

It's been snowing lightly here all morning (now into the afternoon). Definitely no gardening going on. In fact, the weather just makes me feel like curling up on the settee with a cup of something hot and a DVD. Pity I have work to do on my websites. Although I have received a new gardening catalogue in the post recently, so perhaps I'll take a break and leaf through it ... just as a reminder of more promising times to come in the spring.

Welcome Sunshine

It's so bright and sunny here I should really be doing some stuff on my terrace but it's soooooo cold I decided against it. The most I could manage was a 5 minute stint just to see what's happening and take a couple of pictures.

With the albeit light but unexpected snow on Friday night, plus the heavy frosts, my over-wintering onions are looking decidedly flat however, my pansies have perked up!

Better still, there is real hope of spring on its way with the daffodils showing good signs of strong growth. A little bit of an experiment this year as I re-potted all of the bulbs last October but have tried an old method of planting more bulbs in each pot but at different depths. The aim is to get a container to hold more plants.

I planted some around 12.5cm/5-inches deep - covered them with a good layer of compost, then put more bulbs on top (about 7.5cm/3-inches deep). Not only do you get more plants per container but, with a bit of luck, the ones which were planted deeper will come up just that little bit later so extending the flowering period. Great idea.....if it works.

Yes I know the pot needs weeding but truly, it was so chilly out there it was as much as I could do to take the picture.