A Day of Two Halves

After last night's torrential downpour, this morning started off nice and warm and the sun shone - T shirt weather, so it was off with the jacket and on with the Jungle Formula.
I couldn't post any photos last week as the 'puter and camera had had a falling out but they seem to have kissed and made up now, so expect a couple or three this week. To start, here is this weeks view of the border from the potting shed.

So, today started with me digging another veg bed , this time to accomodate some Hispi Cabbage, Samantha Cabbage (a Savoy) and some Cheesy Cauliflower (cheesy being the variety name and not a description of the plants!)

The wheelbarrow behind today's bed is full of the roots removed from that one small patch!
The rest of the veg in the west facing border is looking good, with minimal slug damage and no sign of any other beasties as yet but there is still plenty of time yet, so to try and minimise hiding places and other attractions for the pests, I weeded the veg patch. There is one area where I am slightly at a loss - I planted three rows of tatties at the bottom of the veg bed, two are fine but the centre drill which contains Belle De Fontenay is only showing shaws at the top end of the drill - might have a root around next week to investigate.
I also weeded the rosebed as the annual willowherb were getting quite numerous.
As it was still nice and warm and the green stuff was dry, I took the opporchancity to don the knapsack sprayer and spray off the middle section of the garden (the area that the digger cleared ) to try and minimise the weed comeback as much as possible.
The young pear tree by the garden gate has been attacked by Pear Midge and has lost a lot of fruitlets to this pest but there are still a few healthy looking babies on it, so I must remember to spray against these little buggers next year - having checked the older pear trees at the far end of the garden, another two seem to be afflicted with this problem too, though the remainder of the pear trees seem to be free of damage.
The rain didn't stay away all day and the afternoon was hit by some really heavy showers, but hey ho, on with the work - I cut down most of the oriental poppies in the herbaceous border as they were going over and looking really scrappy - the foliage was lying down and was in a few cases beginning to smother some of the newer plants, so away they went - I have to confess this gave me quite a bit of pleasure as I have these in my garden at home and am not a fan - although I will admit that they provide an early burst of colour, to me they are thuggish and get scruffy looking too quickly. I also staked up a few more perennials that had taken a bit of a kicking from the previous night's downpour, and tied up the sweet peas to their bamboo supports to encourage them on thier skyward journey. Finally I watered the toms , peppers etc in the greenhouse
So what is new in the borders - including a couple from last week, and in no particular order we have...

Some Kniphofia (Red Hot Pokers) appearing behind some of the lupins.

A coule of self seeded (or via the gut of a passing bird) Verbascums 

A lovely looking Iris that is a "Garden Original" 

Some Red Centranthus

The Scabious are starting to make an appearance now

More "Garden Original" Iris

And yet more "Garden Original" Iris

And on the Rose front we have the following....................

And finally, here is the blue tit that is busy feeding it's youngsters, just about to enter the crack in the wall that serves as home

See you all next week. Take care y'all, y'hear!

Bit of a mixed bag this week

Today the weather forecast was not too good but apart from a strong breeze this afternoon it was actually quite pleasant. Got lots of little jobs done. But to start with, an apology for the lack of piccies this week - I did take a few but the computer and the camera are having a bit of an argument and the computer is refusing to let the camera download so sorry, sorry, sorry!
Sally brought down some Dahlia tubers she had ordered from T&M. These were from their Sky High range so were planted at the far end of the lower herbaceous border at the prescribed depth and distance. There are six varieties but nothing to say what colours each are, so we'll just have to wait and see - each is clearly labelled so we'll know what to expect when we start propogating from them next year.
Then I potted on the Hollyhocks from their cell pack into 3" pots - 27 from a 54 cell pack. This might not seem very positive (to save you the trouble it's exactly 50%) but the seed was self saved ( though not by me)and should probably have been sown a bit earlier but 27 free plants are not to be sniffed at!
The remaining sweet peas were planted into large pots and placed alongside the Runner Beans that are in pots up by the potting shed - both beans and peas will be trained over the arch of the potting shed entrance.
I then planted out two Hebes at the far end of the rosebed, and pinched out the growing tips on the two Hebes that have been grown from cuttings to encourgae them to bush up a bit more.
Having looked at the veg plants still in the greenhouse, it was decided that they shoud be planted in the new veg area, so I dug over a small bed (approx 8' x 4') - this gave me a taste of what is to come - a barrow and a half of roots from that small area ! Anyway, I got it dug over, and it is now home to the Crimson flowered Broad Beans, the last three Runner Bean Achievement and some Beetroot Chioggia. I managed to find room for the last six Brokali plants in the temporary veg bed so that only leaves the cauliflower, cabbage, calabrese, PSB and more chard to find a home for - will need to dig another bed next week methinks!
I sank pots beside the toms and the cucumber in the greenhouse today to make watering them both easier and more effective - I don't know why I didn't do it at the time as this how I always grow my own toms and cukes, but anyway, no harm done and it's another job out the way.
In the herbaceous borders,I dead headed the Oriental Poppies - I know that they are big and bright when in full bloom and that they flower for what seems like forever, but when they start to go over, they are one of the scruffiest plants I know. I also staked the peonies and a couple of the taller perennials that are yet to flower and finally I moved one of the Ceanothus, variety Blue Mound, as it was getting lost in mid border, so it has a new home at the front of the border where it's more prostrate form can be both seen and appreciated.
Oh yeah, and just because it needs to be done all the time, I did some more weeding !!!
That's it for this week - if the computer and camera start talking to each other again, I'll post the piccies as and when - if not you'll just have to wait til next week!
Byeee..........

Horsey stuff!!

Once a year Scotsburn Farm plays host to the most northerly  British Eventing one day horse trials, which consists of dressage, showjumping and cross-country for various classes. This was held on Saturday and the weather was as good as it could be given the recent crap we have been experiencing. Anyway I just thought I'd stick some piccies that I took on the day up for anyone who may be interested.

That's it - back on Wednesday night.

What a difference a day makes!

Well, D Day arrived this morning - and the D stands for digger! Percy and Alan arrived this morning and set about transforming the middle section of the garden. So that you can appreciate what was done, here is a piccie I took before they started .............

and here is one during.....................

And here are a couple that show how it looked when they ( or more accurately, Alan) finished.............

So what we now have is a flat area at the bottom of the slope approx 4m wide and 30m long. This will be the site of the new veg area and although plans are not yet confirmed for the sloped area, several ideas are being considered, including a shrub walk. Anyway, the sloped area is graded into where the first of the apple trees are situated and then there is a semi circular area, sloping down to the bottom hedge which takes in all the other apple trees in this mid-section of the garden. I've just read that back and it sounds as clear as mud - maybe I'll do a wee diagram in the future to try and clarify what has been done - then again, maybe I won't!

Now, although this all looks very good just now, in a few weeks it'll be as green as green can be, so I think my knapsack sprayer will take up residence in the garden for a while, to try and combat all the nasties that will surface.

The first thing that Alan did this morning was dig a nice deep hole to bury the very large pile of weeds that had accumulated from the start of the restoration of the herbaceous long borders and the temporary veg border. So I now know that the topsoil is at least a full metre in depth and is lovely and black all the way down to the hard - almost definitely imported at the beginning of the building of the garden. Anyway, 3 large buckets of this clean soil from deeper down was dumped over the bottom hedge and used to fill the beds in the greenhouse.

The beds were not filled completely to the top as that would leave no room for adding manure etc in future years but even so, there are a lot of wheelbarrow loads in there. The deeper bed is home to 5 Sweet Peppers "Californian Wonder", 1 Cucumber "Petita" and a short row of Swiss Chard "Bright Lights" which will be used as baby leaves for salads. The larger bed is home to assorted tomatoes - "Black Cherry", "Golden Sunrise" and "Tigerella" - and before anyone says anything, that slab was in two pieces before it was laid!!

Back to the long borders now and here is this weeks photo from the potting shed

New arrivals on the what's in flower front are two different iris

and other than these, it's the same as last week only more of them!

Now I need your help to identify a plant that appeared at the base of one of the "Governor" Cherry trees against the SF wall. I have attached a couple of pics below

It is not the most attractive plant, and the flower buds seem to have some sort of outer covering that resembles a cobweb! Remember to click on all the photos to enlarge them! So if anyone can help, please leave a comment - maybe I'm having a senior (ish) moment but my mind is completely blank on this one!

What else did I do today? - dead-headed the poppies and remaining tulips, sprayed one of the rose bushes for whitefly, cut out the blackfly infested new growth on the cherry trees and planted out the courgettes and Sally planted out the Heleniums that had been growing on in the greenhouse.

To finish this week, here is a pic of a little bee on a Star of Bethlehem flower - Enjoy. Catch up with you all again next week

A new weed!

Not a lot to say this week really - due to a technical malfunction, the digger didn't materialise to start Phase 2, so it was back to the long borders for some more weeding - and as if having nettles, thistles, dockens, dandelions, shepherds purse, annual willowherb, rosebay willowherb and ground elder wasn't bad enough, I have discovered the first traces of Bindweed in the second of the two borders - all I need is Horsetail to make my set complete!!
Anyway, as always, things in the border have progressed again, though it hasn't been quite so warm this week but there has been some rain ( which is why the weeds were needing seen to again!). As always, here are some piccies, starting with the border itself. I am going to take one of this view each week so that I (and anyone else who cares to have a look at this blog) can see the changes as the year progresses.

And here is one looking down the temporary veg bed, from foreground to background we have Rhubatb, onions, lettuce, potatoes, petit posy and brokali, potatoes, carrots, potatoes. Still to go in are leeks, Hispi cabbage, savoy cabbage, chard, psb, kale, broad beans and courgettes - though most of these will have to be planted up elsewhere in the garden this year. I have planted the runner beans in two large pots either side of the Potting Shed arch and these will be trained up over the willow sticks that were fixed there last year.

And here are some final shots of what is new in flower this week. First up is Astrantia

Followed by Lupins

And finally some Geum

That's it for this week folks, catch you again next week.............................

Yet another scorcher!!

The good weather continues, and thanks to days where we got some rain but it still managed to stay nice and warm, things really are starting to motor and flowers are ready to burst out all over the place. Most of the tulips have now gone over, though the ones planted in the rosebed are hanging on in there, the poppies and the white geraniums are in full swing, there are a couple of roses open just by the gate, the first hemerocallis opened today and numerous other perennials are on the point of flowering.

So, on to what I did today. First off I planted out the brassica plants from the greenhouse - the Petit Posy (sprout x kale) and the Stem Broccoli . 1 dozen of the first and a dozen and a half of the latter. I also tried to prick out a pot of lettuce Salad Bowl Mixed that Sally had been given, but after getting a dozen or so into the ground, I gave up as I was destroying too many - their roots were a tangled mess. So I took the remaining clump, potted it up and gave it to Sally to take up to the kitchen to use as CCA salad leaves.
I planted up the 4 bamboo wigwams I erected last week with sweet peas (Horizon Mixed) and also planted up some Primrose and Primula plants that I brought back from my mum's garden in Glasgow at the weekend.
So what's left in the greenhouse?
There are still some Heleniums that Sally already has a spot earmarked for in the long borders, the Hollyhock and delpninium seedlings, the 54 cell pack of assorted veg, the runner beans and broad beans, a few Sunflower Pastiche, three courgettes plants, a dozen tomato plants, a cucumber plant and 5 Capsicum plants.
I laid the four large slabs at the entrance to the greenhouse today - they are laid on top of granite dust and we have decided that the rest of the floor area will be gravel. The beds will be filled next week.
And on the subject of next week, the digger is coming! Work to landcape / terrace the middle section of the garden is planned to start next Wednesday - so Phase Two commences!

This is what it looks like just now.

The plan (at the moment - always subject to change until it is finally completed of course) is to have a semi circular area sweeping round the existing apple trees, a level area about 12ft wide along the bottom hedgeline which will be where the vegetable beds will go and the top area, which will be slightly sloped will be planted up with shrubs and small trees and will have a winding path through them. As I say, that's the plan - watch this space!!

And finally, at Richards behest, I dug up some self seeded Horse Chestnuts and potted them up. As you all know, there is a saying "Big Oaks from little acorns grow",  Well, if we can succesfully translate that into "Big Chestnuts from little conkers grow" we'll all be happy people, though it might take a while for these.......

 to get to be as spectacular as this stand just outside the garden..........

Well, if they keep growing, who knows, maybe Jen's grandchildren will enjoy them !!

Phew! What a Scorcher!

Well, first thing I weeded the rosebed but as this week has been amazingly hot, this has meant that everything has really got going and the perennials in the herbaceous borders are beginning to fill in the blank spaces ( anything that means less weeding has to be a good thing don't you think?).

The tulips are still going strong and have now been joined by the massed ranks of the oriental poppies and two of the peonies are flowering too.

Other plants starting to flower include the white Geraniums and the Centaurea (aka Knapweed)



Courtesy of our local Gardening Club, a member of which got hold of his neighbours bamboo which had run to seed and then died, as is the way of all bamboos, the garden is now the owner of approx 100 bamboo canes cut to approx 8ft in length, ( the actuial length is the length of my van, from front windscreen to rear doors) with the removed tops, which are about 3ft, being kept too for use as pea sticks and plant / bulb markers. These will be used for beans and sweet peas in the borders this year.

Sally had been to Inverness and returned with another couple of perennials so I planted out 5 x Campanula persicifolia Alba and 2 x Erysimum Bowles Mauve. The ground is unbelievably dry and all the plants received a full watering can to help them settle in. She (Sally that is) then brought down 4 pot grown lavenders and some clumps of Nepeta (I think that it is probably Six Hills Giant) from the house to be planted out alongside the steps down to the greenhouse. The lavenders needed a bit of TLC and the Nepeta just needed a haircut after planting.  I think that the top side of the steps would look quite nice with Alchemilla mollis and some welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) - all yellows - and I can dig these up from my own garden without missing them! Feel free to suggest alternatives though!

In the greenhouse, although the toms hadn't put on as much growth as I had expected, the Petit Posy and Stem Broccoli had not only fully recovered from their mice attack but had grown on so well that they will be ready to plant out next week. The hollyhocks sown last week have germinated already and so have most of the other veg that was sown, with the exception of the crimson flowered broadies and the runner beans. I spent the rest of the afternoon knocking together two raised beds for the greenhouse - one being a deep bed and the other a single height bed. The photo shows just how much ground needs to be brought in just to raise the floor level to the correct height, never mind to fill the two beds!

That it for another week, hope you're enjoying the journey as much as I am.