(02-07-2022, 11:17 PM)Veggie Wrote: [ -> ]Started the makeover of the rockery and adjacent path. The rockery (loose term for a mound of soil and rocks riddled with montbretia and bindweed) lies between GH2 and GH3. The path runs along the base of the rockery parallel with the north side of GH1.
I want to make this path wider; lower the height of the rockery and create a path across it that connects GH 2 and 3, so that I don't need to come down from GH2 onto the main path and go back up into GH3.
So far, I've pulled up the plants between the rocks and the path and the log edging (acquired yesterday) has been hammered in to make a new edge a foot or so away. I need to move the rocks back about a foot and fill the space between the rocks and edging with the soil that I'll be removing to make the path between the GHs.
Still with me or did I lose you in the first paragraph?
Yes.......................
I haven't managed to get into the garden much in the past week. On a background of having done far less over the past 6 weeks or so than I had planned. Sometimes that's the way life goes...
Anyway, yesterday I finally got round to putting my greenhouse tomatoes (and solitary aubergine) into large containers. Far, far too late and some varieties already have quite a few tomatoes on them. However, I'm really hoping that moving them to bigger containers will encourage a bit more growth and get me a few more tomatoes than I have coming right now.
I also had a walk round the rest of the garden. I should be able to harvest more broad beans today. Not a lot but hopefully enough for a full portion for me later. I snaffled the few ripe raspberries that hadn't been eaten by the birds. My raspberries canes are collapsed all over the place as I never got to tying them up, so the are easy pickings for the birds!
I'm surprised how some things are thriving despite my neglect. My winter squash plants are looking pretty good, and the supermarket peas I sowed for peashoots are now giving lots of pods so I may leave them to give me a small crop of marrowfat peas to dry.
One lot of onions is looking great. That's the one planted into the heavy clay soil and then mulched with decent compost a few weeks later. The onions I planted directly into my first B&Q compost all look stunted and sad in comparison. To be honest, I blame that compost (in which all my seeds were sown, and seedlings were potted on) for a lot of my garden's failure to progress. Everything was so stunted by it early on, and the difference that the new compost I bulk-bought from Wickes is astonishing. Unfortunately, some things just couldn't catch up from that poor early start and my beans and peas in particular are pretty disastrous. I think it's not too late to direct sow a few more beans and peas in the hope they do better, so I'll try to get those in today. If nothing else, I can hope for enough growth that the runner beans might come back stronger for a second year, so probably worth doing.
All in all, it's not where I hoped it would be at this point, but that's okay. It's a work in progress, and I hope it will continue to slowly improve and give me bigger and better crops next year!
Fed toms, cuc and courgettes, mulched container potatoes.
I started the day with cutting the lawn which was very overgrown. I didn't want Jay to have to do it as his hayfever is pretty bad at the moment. That took at least an hour and a half, considering the grass was so long, it was wet at ground level and clogged up the mower.
Then I pulled weeds from all over the place.
I then tackled the greenhouse while I was waiting for the horse manure lady to let me know she's at the horses so I can go. I put in half of the roof glass, and the bottom row on the other, before my hands were hurting. The horse manure lady was late, and I've decided to go tomorrow night instead.
I went in, shower, dinner etc... then decided to go back out and sow various beans, mangetout and sugar snaps.
Armpitted and twisted in the tomatoes.
Planted out some parsley.
General weeding and sorting out young plants on the bench and then packed it all onto shelves and under cover as the thunderstorms rolled in.
Sieved a load of compost ready for some potting on.
Motorcycle ride in the morning - the last few kms scrubbing in a new back tyre, glad to have a slightly nervous 200km behind me! We can head back into the mountains next time.
Yesterday morning was spent processing red currant and gooseberries. I tried some gooseberries and red currants in my morning porridge and, with a little bit of honey, I thought it was excellent and will definitely be picking all the gooseberries this year. I might not pick any more red currents as I've got about 8kg in the freezer and some of them are a bit slimy now, I think some snails cause that but there are still loads on the 2 bushes.
I then picked the first of my peas; just over 1kg giving 400g nett.
Then in the kitchen, I persuaded one armed Chris to bake some scones to go with the strawberries the squirrels missed.
Bought and spread 8 more bags of gravel on the widened path by the rockery.
Needed to pick a few peaches but to get to them I had to do some serious weeding alongside the patio wall. Managed to clear enough of the weeds to reach the tree
Spotted Bess trying to pick the apples off a heavily cropping tree. She stands on her hindlegs and snatches at the apples, usually pulling of part of the branch as well as the apple. Then she brings it to me to throw for her. I don't mind her having the tiny fruit but not the ones on my favourite trees. Found a prop for the branch and propped it up out of her reach.
Cut back some goat willow that's overshadowing a bit of garden and chopped up the branches for mulching the path.
Spotted hazelnuts nearby - hope the squirrels don't!
Potted up two Black cherry toms I've grown from armpits.
I was meant to go get more horse muck today, but there's been accidents on the motorway, which means all the village roads here are backed up, exactly in the direction I need to go. I've rescheduled for tomorrow night.
Instead I made the best of a lovely, warm, sunny evening and put more glass into the greenhouse frame. I couldn't figure out why I suddenly found bigger pieces of glass... taller, if you like. Tonight I figured it out - they need to go on the roof, under the windows. I'd already put most of them in, so I had to take them all out again, and replace them with the correct glass.
I'm missing quite a bit of glass. I'll know how much exactly towards the end of the week. Then the glass hunt begins.
Where do you get your greenhouse glass from?
. Once more from the top please Veggie 
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