Guess why I have been missing for a while?

I have just come back to my blog to fill you in on the most amazing thing I have grown since I last posted...

Well,
This is Katy, she was born on 29th November and she is adorable :) We are all totally besotted by her. I am hoping to really get stuck into my garden this year as I will be off work until August, so hoping she develops a good sleeping routine

So much to show you!

We are having a mini heatwave just now, and it is wonderful! As a result, it is a pleasure to spend all my time in the garden, although at one point this morning, it was a little too hot to work!!! Plenty of cool water to drink did help mind you!
I started off this morning planting up those gooseberries, do you remember how sorry they looked for themselves a couple of days ago? Well, look at them now, they are starting to green up a little bit, and I think they look stronger.
There are a couple of others in there with them, which survived the winter, but I am not sure how well they will do...
Of course, after planting them, I had to check my pond and plant a rock and the lily from Paivi. I was hoping to catch sight of the frog, tadpoles and newt, but they must have been hiding! What do you think?

I took a quick photo of the rhubarb whilst I was up that end. After the addition of manure a month or so ago, the rhubarb has really taken off! I am sure I have counted 7 crowns!
With that done, I set to work clearing a bed for my strawberries. I bought 12 strawberry plants from homebase a week or so ago, and they were desperately needing to be planted, but look at the task ahead of me! It was difficult to make myself get started, what a task ahead of me, but, once I cleared the rubbish, and the dead grass from the top, I found the remains of the chicken wire I had covered the strawberries with last year, so I moved it, and the ground underneath wasnt so bad after all! I think it had acted as a protective mulch throughout the winter, so it was easy enough to fork it over, and dig out those weed roots! Mind you, what a fright, I was picking up the roots, when all of a sudden, out popped a frog!!!! Not a very big one, so I dont think it was the one from Paivi's, but I scooped him up, and took him to the pond. I put him down next to it, with just one foot in the water, but he hopped away! i think he may be afraid of water lol! I managed to take a photo of him, but you will have to concentrate to see him!
One final photo in today's blog, whilst I was digging the strawberry bed, I could hear the constant buzz of the bumblebees, I couldn't get a photo of one for you, they didn's stay still for long enough, but I photographed one of the blackcurrant flowers they were feeding on, they are ever so small, but it is lovely to see them opening up already!

We have a pond!

Just a quickie, to report on yesterday's progress.
Firstly, all my onion bulbs are now planted in their bed, they are all standing proud, with a row of setts (bulbs) and a row of partially grown onions.
Alex made a start on the greenhouse, but ended up clearing it out and weeding it rather than glazing it! Hopefully he will glaze it today......
The most exciting news though is that we now have a pond! I had an old baby bath, which I used to hold all my pots in the greenhouse, I also had two boys who had spent far too much time sat indoors on the xbox and needed some exercise..... The solution? Get them to dig in my pond near my rhubarb :):) They both seemed to actually enjoy it, and it did get them away from the dreaded xbox for an hour! Paivi has promised me some tadpoles, so I will go and get those this afternoon. I have to go and deliver my Avon orders today, but hoping to hurry round all of these, and get back to work on the garden, loving all the time I am spending in it just now!

Quite a few changes

Well, I have been quite busy over the last couple of weeks.
The final beds on the greenhouse side have been dug and manure applied, I have prepared a bean trench for my peas and beans, so all is well on that side.
I cleared the weeds from the black currants and rhubarb, and have applied manure to that area too.
On Saturday I started to plant my onions outside, I have done them in rows, one row of onions started off indoors, then one row of onions sets. I thought if I did them like that, then they should have more space and be ready at different times.
I only got 3 rows planted like that, then stopped, as I wasnt sure if I should leave a 'path'. I have now found out that I should, so I will get the rest planted just as soon as this awful rain stops!

Last weekend I went to a bugs workshop with Moffat Can. We were doing a composting demonstration, but it was still interesting to watch the other talks. I have become quite interested in bugs since, and have been keeping my eyes open to photograph some.
I haven't found many yet, but did snap this common beetle in the front garden.

I have been checking online and in my books, and the good news is, beetles eat slugs!!!! anything which eats slugs and snails is a friend of mine lol!
I spent ages yesterday (mothers day) planting a range of flowers in the front garden. I bought some bedding plants in Dumfries on Saturday and planted 'Bellis' in pots either side of the front door, they look lovely, nice to see a bit of colour after the long winter!
I also planted a pot of 'stocks'which are not in flower yet. I salvaged a bit of what I think is a fushcia bush, which I thought had died off in the frosts, and have surrounded it, but I am not sure if it will survive as unfortunately I broke it when I tried to get it out of the pot it was in.
I also planted begonia bulbs and two 'Dicentra, bleeding hearts' but as these are bulbs, I wont see them for a while yet.
Unfortunately, I didnt take any photos of my flowers, so haven't any evidence to show yet!
I've also started off my sweet peas, so hopefully I will be planting them out in a month or so.
i love shopping in poundland and get most of my seeds and bulbs from there, we have a rose in the front garden from there too and it has survived well for the last 4 years. Unfortunately, because they are a bargain shop, rather than a garden centre, they don't exactly spend much time caring for the plants they have, and I spotted two poorly looking gooseberry bushes struggling for survival on Saturday. They had started to grow, but were really white and sickly looking, as they had no water or sunlight. I just had to rescue them!!! I now have them in a bucket of water. I had planned to plant them today, but it has poured all day, so they will get done tomorrow. Hopefully they will survive!
Seed planting is beginning in earnest this week as I am off school. I still have no glass in my greenhouse, so will be tackling that this week too, even though I havent a clue what I am doing!
If you read this, please leave a wee comment!

I love the sun!!!

Wow! What a fabulous day today!
I got up this morning to a frosty, foggy day, but by 10.30am the sun was starting to break through and so I got to work!
On sunday I had collected a trailer load of well rotted manure, so today I finished putting it over the two beds which were already dug.
It seemed to take forever to complete the task, but once it was done, I got to work digging another patch. I havent finished it yet, but it is well underway!!!
The third patch runs behind this one, but is longer, as it is going to go right up to the water butt.
I am so enjoying this now! My onions are coming on really well, I have more than 30 happily growing on the windowsill, I'm going to harden them off this weekend, then hopefully get Alex to fix the greenhouse and they can go in there. I need my windowsill for other things!!
I'm really hoping for more sunny days, it makes the job so much more enjoyable, and has really lifted my mood!!

Just a quickie

The onion sets I potted up last Wednesday are now sprouting, more and more each day are poking their shoots through the compost.
Trying to find a heated propogator now so that I can start some chillis off

A whole day in the garden!!!!

I had a whole day in the garden yesterday! I did loads, although at times my fingers were so cold, I thought they would drop off!!!
First job of the morning was to start potting up my onion sets. A friend suggested that if I started them off in pots, it would give them a better chance against mice and birds, as they would be bigger, and have roots to hold them in the ground once I plant them out.
This job took ages! I used the old compost left in the driveway since the summer, it was very wet, and VERY cold!!!! It probably wasnt perfect conditions for the poor bulbs, but hopefully they will forgive me! I stopped once and went inside to wash my hands and get a cuppa to warm my hands back up, but eventually they were done!

I still have as many bulbs left though, so will be potting more on Saturday! I used two varieties, both bought from poundland I think!
After that, I started digging another bed. I was a little stuck, as because the previous bed had been slightly wider than planned, I was going to be left with either a very narrow bed, or a very wide bed, which I wouldnt be able to use the middle of without standing on the seedlings!
I decided on the wide option, but didnt take it back to the hedge, so I am going to make two beds in the wide space.
I also spent a bit of time in the greenhouse trying to tidy up, but I was so terrified of the the mice running up my trouser leg, that I was a bit distracted to say the least!!! I'm going to aim to finish clearing it this weekend, then I'm going to set some mousetraps, after all, I dont want mice eating all my plants this summer!!! I'm hoping once that is done, Alex will replace the glass in the greenhouse, then I want to get some wood preservative and treat the wood, before putting my plants in it next month!!!