Greenhouse homing

So, here I was with this enormous green monstrosity, much bigger than I had been planning to buy, and not *really* (well, at all) fitting where I had planned for it to go.

I tried it here:

... but I didn't like that.

Then, in a stroke of genius, I decided it would fit behind the door where the dustbins currently reside. However, that meant finding a new home for the bins. Which meant clearing this -

... which is *actually* not *just*my mess don't-you-know; next door have very kindly allowed their spikey, uncontrollable, take-over-every-inch-of-soil plant to grow over the fence in to my garden. (We are very like-minded when it comes to gardening...)

So anyway. I had a fight with the front garden, and on the whole I think it would be counted as a draw. I created some space to put the bins:

... and it left me with a load of cuts and bruises and aching like I've just been kicked in the back by a horse. (In case you're wondering, I was pulling up bushes with my bare hands and a pair of gardening shears, seeing as my now ex-husband (don't worry, nothing to do with the gardening) took the spade with him to clear the snow earlier this year...)

What an adventure. Now fingers crossed for a few weeks of nice weather. I suppose it would have been a good idea to check the forecast before running off and planting stuff...

New developments...

Here is my latest gardening acquisition:

I think it's supposed to be like a portable greenhouse.

Anyway, it's quite cool.

Mum and I bought it last week with the thought that it would go nicely in the porch (where it's usually quite warm when the sun's been out) and could germinate some seedlings. We'd then move it outside once it warms up.

We debated long and hard whether to get the standard size or extra wide, and in the end decided that the standard would fit in the porch easily, but we didn't think the extra large one would.

And how right we were...

Probably should have read the box a bit more carefully.

Here we go again...

Well. Lots has happened since I last wrote anything here, but sadly very little of it in the garden. Dad, Sue and Tom came round over the summer and hacked my back garden to pieces (along with part of Dad's electric chainsaw...) so it's now slightly clearer but looking very ugly indeed. I'm coming to the conclusion that at some point I am just going to have to make a decision about what to do with it. Sigh.

But good news - I'm so impressed that my carrots and strawberries survived being buried under all that snow...



... the strawberries appear to still be alive, and even sprouting new leaves...



... and we've had some fantastic carrots out of the last lot!


This one is known as the 'dancing carrot'.


And these as 'cuddling carrots'.

More to follow, but I think the new developments deserve a separate post. TTFN!

Squash(ed)

I was ever so proud of my little squash, which was doing very well in it's new large pot:



... ever so well that is, until I (in my wisdom) decided it needed more room to grow and transplanted it into a grow bag.

Where it promptly died.

Because I had - of course - severed half the roots when I dug it out of the pot.

And - of course - a plant that big does actually need all it's roots.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

However, I am pleased to report that the squash wasn't as dead as I originally thought. I trimmed off a few of the deadest looking bits (I'd read somewhere that it's good to do that to some plant or other so thought it was worth a go). It now seems to be slowly recovering and sprouting a few new buds.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And not touching it again. Ever.

Success!!

I realise now I forgot to post this photo a couple of weeks ago of my carrots peeking through -



I had been avoiding digging them up as I didn't want to be too hopeful - I've been told it's very hard to grow carrots so I had this vision of little stumpy things, and being really disappointed. However, today I braved the unknown and......



Hurrah!!

We celebrated in style:



.... by taking loads of pictures of it :)

I think I will leave the others in for a while longer and see if they will grow a bit more - this one had a pretty long root still tailing on the end so I'm hopeful... even on the verge of getting a bit cocky! (After *one* carrot... oh dear....)

Progress report

I have been sadly neglectful of the garden recently.... the weather has been swinging between gorgeous sunshine and hideous rain, and typically the weekends I have been at home and able to spend time on the garden have been the ones where it was bucketing down.

The very real side effect of this extreme pendulum-like weather is that the weeds in the back garden are now taller than I am. Hmmm. I suspect I will have to rethink the plan for that and possibly enlist some help from some more garden-minded people. Any volunteers?!

On the plus side, my veggies out the front are doing well -

Coriander...



... carrots...



.. and squash - a new addition to our family, thanks Jane!



It's looking a bit limp at the moment but hopefully it will settle in soon, introduce itself to the neighbours, that sort of thing.

Lettuce

Thought this deserved a photo!