Path News - The Beginning

It was a garden without a path.  There were some stepping stones - set hopping distance apart, useless for walking on, and not even particularly decorative.    



So we marked out a path from the house to the veg patch, and on the hottest day of the year Wilf and Himself set to work.



Very soon we had turf mountains



And after three days work and much earth moving later the path was dug out to its full length and depth.



Because of the curve in the path, bricks are really the only option for the edging and so on another hot day Wilf turned bricklayer for the first time and got to it.



Seventy bricks later one side is nearly edged and suddenly the space looks less like a new motorway and more like a garden path.  

Veggie progress

Everything is growing like mad without too much interference from us!

Peas are flowering and setting their pods - just a few more days before we start picking I reckon.  After giving them one final go last year we seem to have found our pea legs - they were a big success last year, and this year looks to be going the same way.  This is a dwarf variety - Early Onward.



We're also growing sugar snap peas and mangetout.  The mangetout are purple-podded, and have the most beautiful flowers - almost good enough to pick!



Courgettes are coming on nicely - I inspect them every day for fear of growing a marrow!  Madly, we've got three plants this year - Bianca, Defender and Soleil.  This is the first Defender just coming to picking size.



The greenhouse is cleared and home to the tomatoes and chillies - a bit further behind than I'd hoped, but there's still time for a good crop.  We've also got four hanging baskets of cherry tomatoes which are setting fruit nicely.




The chard and overwintering onions came out the other week, and more onions and carrots went in.  This is our second sowing of carrots - very poor germination of the first lot - I wonder if the soil was just too cold.  The bed behind supposedly has broccoli, chard and calabrese in - but the poppies seem to be hiding them from sight for the time being.



The potatoes are looking abundant - too early to peek yet though, these are second earlies.  Have to resist the temptation until next month.  Hidden by peas, the dwarf beans, runners and borlottis and runners are all starting to set pod.  And in any spare gaps there are spring onions and beetroot.



So with the veg garden vaguely under control we've started digging a path.  Well.  I use 'we' loosely.  What I actually mean is that Wilf and Himself (my nephew) have started digging a path, and jolly fine it's looking too.  

Fantastic flowers

Despite not having paid any attention to the flowers in the garden in our quest for more veg, everything seems to be flowering well.

The opium poppy crop is, as usual, beautiful and appears in all sorts of places and in glorious colours



Lavender and Lady's Mantle sit side by side



We moved this rose - Margaret Merrill - from Wilf's mum's garden a couple of years ago.  It's in memory of Aunty Peg and flowers away valiantly every summer and smells beautiful.



The honeysuckle is finally established and smells divine



And in the corner Philadelphius Belle Etoile is quietly flowering.



All we need now is some properly warm weather to sit out and enjoy it!

So far, so good

All's well in the garden.

Beans are planted out - French, Borlotti and Runners.  We've put netting all round the bed to keep out marauding cats.  No space in the patch for the sugarsnap peas and mangetout - spare wigwams have gone in the sunny border.





Tomatoes and chillies are thriving in the greenhouse.



A real mix of sunshine and rain this week has meant everything's been growing while we watch it - herbs and salad are abundant and green and the chard is glossy and colourful.  Took the PSB out yesterday - it's really not done badly considering it was ravaged by caterpillars last year - every mouthful was a bonus!  Overwintering onions are plumping up nicely, a few more weeks and they'll be ready to harvest.

Oh, and the weeds are growing well too.

Definite progress

We're continuing apace here - just about keeping ahead of all the jobs to do!

Two years ago, fed up of mowing between the veg beds we started laying stones.  Wilf's weekend project last week was to complete another side.  I'm convinced it's helping to reduce snail and slug damage - the pea wigwam closest to the camera has been munched - a quick ferret through the grass revealed the perfect hiding place.  Hmm.  



If you're eagle-eyed you'll notice we've put in our bean wigwams alongside the peas.  With two more to put up, I spent the afternoon digging couch grass out of one of the chosen sites in the border.  I hate that sort of gardening!

Tomatoes and chillies are potted on and living in the rough and tumble of the greenhouse.  Everything else is still living in the conservatory - I need more room!

Elsewhere in the garden everything's growing and blooming - despite my neglect!

The Gardeners

Mabel and Wilf.   

Wilf''s good at the big stuff.  He likes nothing better than to plug in his MP3 and getting digging and clearing.  He has a personal vendetta against dandelions and anything else with a deep tap root and can spot a sleeping slug at 50 paces.  He doesn't like the fiddly bits and hasn't ever deadheaded a flower in his life.

And me?  Well, really I'm in charge.  I have lots of the ideas, decide what we're going to grow and am keeper of the Garden Notebook.  I like the fiddly stuff, will potter around deadheading and hate gardening with gloves on.

We've been gardening together for 10 years now and we're coming into our fifth season in this garden.

The Garden

Well.  How do I describe it?  The back garden is typical of its age (1950s) - rectangular and a good size, about 85ft long and 25ft wide.  It faces due east and gets a good amount of sun.  The soil was fairly grim - though it's gradually getting better.



Getting as much veg and salad from the garden is our main objective this year - well, and a new fence!  We've got four 5ft square beds starting to be planted up with this year's seeds, with the final crops from last year (chard and PSB) still going strongly.  There's a 6x8 permanent greenhouse and a temporary greenhouse.



 A herb bed by the house provides us with plenty of pickings.



The latest addition is a small fruit bed - nothing adventurous yet, just rhubarb, raspberries and strawberries.  



Salad leaves are starting to sprout in pots on the patio and there'll be hanging baskets at the front for the cherry toms.  For the first time we've got a proper successional sowing plan, so fingers crossed for some bumper crops.