Flipping Dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's now dug up my newly planted celery plants THREE TIMES in less than an hour {{{{grrrrrrrr}}}}. Looks like I'll have to change the plans for putting plants in pots around the garden to fence-mounted troughs and hanging baskets only ...... anything the dog can't reach!

The gravel arrived yesterday, and we're all set to sort out the bottom garden tomorrow. Just hope the rain which was promised for yesterday doesn't finally arrive tomorrow! It's the only day Ian will have off for about 6 weeks, so we've got to get it done.

I've been looking through the cattys at garden furnature and seen some lovely patio sets - I want one with a large rectangular table and 6 chairs for when we have visitors. I can't wait to be able to work in the garden - it's so stuffy indoors at the moment, but work has to be done :( Still, got a full day in the garden tomorrow to look forward to ........ piccies will follow!

Progress :)

Didn't get as far as planting the containers up on Saturday, but we did manage to remove loads more bushes, and cut the vines right back. Still more to do this weekend, but it's almost there.

Got a load of pea shingle arriving on Friday, which will make it's way onto the bottom garden. It'll be so nice to finally be able to sit out in the garden, now that the summer seems to have arrived. Mind you, it is Wimbledon fortnight, so that won't last long lol!

Tomatoes are now in bigger pots, I've planted some cuttings from Mum's lavender bush and re-potted the two pepper plants I got from the school Inflatable Day.

As for the raised beds ....... I HAVE COURGETTE FLOWERS :)

These were taken on Monday, and the flowers are now open and looking gorgous (I'll get a few more snaps tonight). I'm reliably informed by my fellow (more experienced) grapes, that these are female flowers ...... just hoping for some male ones now to do the pollinating!

Cucumbers are also looking good, as are the Pak Choi, Runner Beans and Cauliflowers I sowed in modules last week.

Good news on the bean & pea front!

Checked up on the veggies this morning, and there are a few flowers on the peas, and the broad bean flowers have pods :)

So, that's fruit appearing on the courgettes, runners, broad beans and peas! I also have a great crop of radishes (ok, so they are pretty easy to grow lol), and my cauliflower and pak choi seedlings have poked their heads through.

I can't wait for Saturday - plan is to empty all the big pots and troughs around the garden growing weeds, direct sow some more seeds and plant out some of the stuff in the greenhouse.

Roll on Saturday!

Growing nicely!

So, after a couple of days of sunshine with plenty of hosepipe watering, the beds are looking fab.

Courgettes plants are HUGE and I've noticed the startings of lots of flowers. I've also got loads of flowers coming up on the runners and broad beans. The radishes are getting very big now and the lettuces are very tasty (pinched a few leaves off for product research and development!).

Planning to sow some more radishes, lettuces and beetroot tomorrow to replace those I'll be harvesting over the next couple of weeks. Also going to sow some turnips and swede into modules ready to plant out when I've got some space.

Noticed some germination with my Pak Choi this afternoon - not bad seeing as I only sowed them on Thursday evening!

Found a great site for all things gardening tonight while surfing, so I think I'll be flexing the plastic fairly soon!

First Flowers on my Runner Beans!

Wooo hooooo! I've just spotted half a dozen little red buds on my Runner Beans! Unfortunately, there were rather a lot of blackfly as well, so I've blasted those with the hose and given those I couldn't get off a little bath with soapy water. Hopefully, that'll sort them out.

I've had lots of flowers on my Broad Beans for a couple of weeks now, but still no sign of anything on my peas yet. Got a few on my potatoes as well.

Sowed some mushrooms this afternoon, which are now sitting in the greenhouse. Can't do much more until after the Inflatable Day tomorrow when half the pots in the greenhouse will be making their way to the Plant Stall.

DH didn't get home until after dark last night, so he only saw the bushes/trees by torchlight, but he has agreed with me that they really did need to come out ..... maybe not right now though lol. So, tonight will be spent shredding the branches I cut off last night, and then Sunday evening we'll (hopefully) be taking out the trunks. Then it's lots of flowers in pots - it'll be so nice to have a garden full of colour - I'm really fed up with just green!

My garden is going to be SOOOO much bigger!

Well, I spent 4 hours this afternoon cutting back the bushes down one side of the bottom garden (ours is kinda split into 3 sections). We've not really touched them since we moved in 6 years ago, and they'd really gone wild. I started by trimming them, but as I got past the outer layers, they were all dead underneath. So, I cleared the lot :)

It's made such a difference to the size of the garden, and the amount of light there. Only drawback is the neighbours can now see into my garden from their upstairs windows, but I guess I can live with that.

There's also a VERY large pile of clippings in the middle of the garden which I've got to clear, but I'm sure Ian will help with that.

Speaking of Ian, he's not home from work yet ........ I think he's going to regret buying that pair of telescopic loppers LOL!

The First Piccies of my Efforts!

Well, I managed to get a few photos of my efforts so far before the camera batteries ran out. I'm quite pleased, and can't wait till Sunday when my greenhouse will be a little less full (the school inflatable day is on Saturday and a lot of the plants in there are for the plant stall) and I can get started on some more seeds for my own patch!

Rain, Rain and more Rain!

Well, after a heavy bout of rain last night I had visions of my containers being awash. But, thankfully they were fine. Hopefully it will have soaked through enough for the carrots and parsnips I sowed yesterday to start germinating.

The runner beans look very happy with the downpour, but I need to go out tomorrow and put some canes in for the peas and broad beans as they are looking a bit lopsided. I also want to sow some more radishes and lettuces.

Speaking of radishes, I took some over to Mum & Dad today - they were very impressed! It's amazing how much difference a few days has made to their size.

I picked up some Slimming World magazines from Mum today so I can copy the weekly menus and start food optimising. Thank goodness veggies are all free on Slimming World! I'm hoping that the combination of the diet, gardening and my new Wii Fit will make for a more sylph like silhouette by Christmas. Here's hoping!

The Veggie Patch Lives!!

Well, after being here for 6 years, I've finally started to do something with the garden.

Up until now, we've just tidied up the shrubs and bushes as they've grown wild (well, hacked away at them really) picked the apples from the two apple trees, and the very small grapes from the vines outside the back door. Not exactly what you could call gardening.

I've toyed with the idea of a veggie patch for a few years, but never managed to get off my bum and do anything about it ...... until now!

Thanks to my wonderful, and very handy hubby, I'm now the proud owner of two raised veggie beds, complete with chicken wire fencing around the outside to stop the dog from digging everything up (he's not called Digger for nothing :) ) Over the past few weeks, I've planted Runner Beans, Broad Beans and Peas in one bed, and Radishes, Beetroot, Courgette, Lettuce, Carrot, Parsnip and Cabbage in the other bed. I've also got some potatoes in an old compost bag, which is now full and waiting for flowers.

So far, the only harvests I've had are the Radishes, where we've been eating the thinnings. They may only be small, but they don't half pack a punch! I gave some to Nanny this week, and she loved them!

I've also been growing lots of extra plants for the school Inflatable Day next weekend, so the greenhouse is packed at the moment. Once I've got those out I'll have some more room for our own stuff.

But I've not been sitting on my hands today - I've been out and planted up my herb container which is just outside the back door. At the moment, it's got Basil, Chives and Mint, but there's still room for another couple of herbs, so I'll probably get some Parsley and Rosemary this week. The Dill I sowed a few weeks ago is doing fairly well, as is the parsley, but nowhere near ready for putting into the container, and I'm not known for my patience!

I've also sown some more parsnips and carrots into a container, so we'll see what becomes of those, and put some more potatoes on the windowsill to finish chitting before planting them in the huge compost bag I have waiting for them. I'm hoping to get some more planting done tomorrow, if the rain stays away. Then I just need to work on Ian to buy some plug plants :)

Back indoors, I've joined The Grapevine, the members forum on the Grow Your Own website. I've not had a chance to have a proper look around yet, but it looks like it's going to be a treasure trove of information. And, I've started this blog!

I wish I'd started growing veggies years ago - it's so theraputic, and I get a warm fuzzy feeling seeing the seeds I've sown become yummy veggies to feed the family!