Hare today, gone soon (I Hope)

Well, the ongoing hare problem continues - so far the score is hare - lots, plants - nil. Not content with chowing down on the phlox, sea holly and heliopsis last week, this week he has nipped the tops off most of the onion sets, the chives, a lot of the cosmos, a couple of young hemerocallis - he has even had a nibble at rhe gladioli leaves.

Double spring trap is mow in position, baited with runner beans and lettuce - kindly donated by Sally, and if we succeed in catching the little beggar, he can be released in the forest I also work in, with the permission of Lesley. Just gotta catch him first !
So anyway, on with what was accomplished today.
I began by giving everything in the greenhouse a good soak, and side-shooting and tying in the tomato plants. Then it was onto the cordon sweet peas, weeding as I went along the rows placing rings on those plants that needed them. Some of the original exhibition varities have put up side shoots so all may not be lost but they will be considerably later in producing blooms so we might have to rethink entering at least the Sutherland Show. This was the first show the garden ever entered sweet peas in last year and we got a second place, so it would have ben nice to go and try and get a red card but it's not looking too promising as the show is in 4 weeks time.
After this I weeded the strawberry patch and placed some straw round the plants to keep the berries clean and act as a barrier against annual weeds.

Then it was back to weeding - weeded the rosebed (Dahlias, Gladioli and Canterbury Bells) then moved onto the small slope above the steps down to the greenhouse.
Finished the day by hoeing off the path from the top of the garden to the greenhouse and barrowing in scalpings to tidy it up and stop it becoming a mudslide after it rains.

The garden has this week also seen two local garden clubs have evening visits - Edderton Garden Club came to see the garden on Monday Evening, and this evening I showed Alness Horticultural Society around. There is on more group to visit, and next Thursday afternoon will see East Sutherland Gardening Club come to pay us a visit. The borders are looking good, with the irises, hemerocallis and paeonies joining the lupins ,assorted geraniums and  poppies, and the red hot pokers are about to burst onto the scene too, so here are a few pics to finish with

B*****d Hare is back !!

Well it would appear that the young hare has found it's way back into the garden - this time it has left the cordon sweet peas alone and concentrated on the two herbaceous borders - it has eaten all the sweet peas at the base of both wigwams, all the newly planted heliopsis, one group of three newly planted sea hollies and has nipped the tops off all the phlox planted last week - am picking up a trap on Monday and I swear if I see it in the garden at any time, I will smack it over the head with a spade!
Cute and fluffy no more !
The border looked really good in the sun today - the oriental poppies, which are not my favourite border perennial,  do look great in the sun, and there are a  smattering of lupin spikes open, the geum has started flowering as has the hemerocallis and the iris and kniphofia will join the party next week.  The roses against the SF wall are starting to bloom and have lots of buds forming so they should put up a good display this year. Here are a couple of pics of the borders taken this morning............

 

The lupin "wall" is beginning to put on a bit of a show too............

 

 

Hare or not, plants have to go out and today I planted over 100 Cosmos "Purity", and about 60 Alyssum "Carpet of Snow", I also planted out three gooseberry bushes and 7 blackcurrant bushes.
In the greenhouse, I flooded both beds, then planted out some lettuce and spring onions in front of the tomatoes , which are just beginning to show their first flowers.
We now have three long hoses running from the greenhouse so I also managed to water the rosebed where the dahlias are doing well, the gladioli are just sticking their heads out the ground and the Canterbury Bells looked like they needed a good drink!
I cleaned a couple of areas in the west facing border to take the limited amount of veg we have this year and also prepped an area for Sally to plant out the 50 or so Statice plants for her mum's flower arranging,
I also did some weeding and tidying up as we have our first of three Garden Club visits on Monday evening when Edderton Gardening Club are coming to have a look at what we have done and see what we are planning to do.
Back next week....................

We're getting there, slowly, but we're getting there.

After last weeks devastation caused by the baby b*****d hare, I finished erecting a net round the cordon sweet peas and set about replacing all those that were beyond new growth - and there were a lot of them. The most annoying thing was that the hare seemed to take a particular liking to a variety called Gwendoline which was by far and away our best performing sweet pea last year. Anyway, all the canes now have a sweet pea planted at the base, all had a good watering, and the bed was weded as I went so it looks pretty good, though it has to be said that the replacement sweet peas (bought in garden centre) are nowhere near as strong as those we grew from seed.

 

I also planted out 17 x assorted Phlox, 5 x Heliopsis, 6 x Sea Hollies and 4 x Echinops - so any spaces left on the borders will be filled with the white Cosmos "Purity" ( there are about 140 of these) and  the remaining 36 Canterbury Bells, and possibly some white Alyssum "Carpet of Snow, (94 of these) though these are mostly for the side of the rosebed walls and the walls of the beds either side of the summerhouse.

The border is beginning to fill up nicely with only a few plants (most notably the Scabious and the Phlox), not performing as well as expected. 

The oriental poppies are opening and there are quite literally hundreds of flower buds on them this year, so if the weather stays good, it should be a fantastic display - if it rains, they'll fall to bits and look like sh** ! The lupins should start to put on a proper show over the nect couple of weeks, the white geranium alomg the top border hedge is flowering it's socks off, and so much more to come. The Peony Sara Bernhardt is still in flower though the "garden originals" are still just in bud.

The lupin wall below the top borders is just beginning to show a flush of colour so should also look good in a couple of weeks time.

Add to that loads of blossom on the apple trees, campanulas already surpassing the height they reached last year, cherries forming on the two trees against the wall (and no sign of blackfly as yet)

and thigs are definitely moving - and about time too - it is June after all.

So here are a couple of pics to finish, firstly the Lupin Wall and then this weeks shot of the borders,

 

Back next week  -will be planting out veg and fruit plants from the greenhouse.

Devastation

Two weeks ago, Sally and I came across a leveret (a baby hare) in the top herbaceous border. I like hares - both on and off the dinner plate so no further action was taken against this young 'un. Well, on Friday did I live to regret not giving it a knock on the head. On my arrival in the garden, after a week of brilliant sunshine I was expecting to see a big jump in growth in the garden, In the two herbaceous borders this was obvious, but I couldn't see much down at the cordon sweet peas and I soon discovered why - every single plant bar two or three was eaten to the ground. Now my first thought was wood pigeons, then mice / voles but having made a mad rush into Tain and buying all the sweet pea plants left in the town, I returned to the garden and what did I see upon opening the gate - the b*****d leveret sitting finishing off the plants that he / she / it hadn't got round too at it's last sitting. Rex was dutifully called upon and after some initial confusion, he got onto the hare and it fled the garden, hopefully with enough of a scare to not want to return. Anyway, another trip home produced a long, long. long length of green windbreak netting and a barrier fence is now being erected round the sweet pea bed and the replacements will be planted out next week - by then I should be able to spot any of the originals that may recover.

So there we go, the sweet pea saga - watch this space!

In between the above events, I did some sorting out in the greenhouse, and Sally and I have now placed all the phlox, sea hollies and Heliopsis in their final planting places ready for next week.

The borders are beginning to fill out now and we have the first real splashes of colour appearing in the shape of oriental poppies, geraniums, knapweed and the peony "Sara Bernhardt". Peonies do seem to like this garden, and in fact we found another one hidden in the wilderness that is the botton third of the garden, which will be dug up and transplanted to the borders next week. I know that conventional wisdom says that peonies will throw a strop when dug up and transplanted and will not flower for up to a couple of years, but all the ones transplanted from the bottom of the garden so far have positively thrived and flowered straight away. They do not get any special treatment - dug up the I spend uip to 10 minutes sitting extracting couch grass and ground elder root systems from their root balls, placed in their planting hole, firmed in and watered and that is it - no feed, no compost, just an option to live or to die.

I also planted the larger greenhouse border with six tomato plants - a mix of Shirley, Gardeners Delight and Sweet Millions - this leaves room for a cucumber plant, a couple of chillies and some salad crops too.

After this I planted out the remaining three dahlia plants in the rosebed and then filled the centre of this bed with quite a few of the Canterbury Bells that were sown last year. So that is the rosebed planted up for the year, Gladioli to the left, Bells in the centre and Dahlias down the right,

 

 

As I mentioned earlier the borders are beginning to bulk up and we have the odd splash of colour as you can see.......

 

 

However, I w3as comparing it to last year's photo (see below) for same time and given that the plants are a year older and therefore larger, we are still well behind where we were last year.

 

 

 

 

 

So anyway, that's where we are just now. I also weeded the strawberries which have their first flowers, the tatties are through and look healthy, I have also tidied up the edge of the lupin wall after the digger had done it's work, and pricked out 108 Alyssum "Carpet of Snow". Onwards and Upwards!!

Big Changes afoot

So I get to the garden last Friday morning and by the time I leave, the centre section has been remodelled. Now I know the levelling of the veg garden area was completed last week but this week we have a new semi circular bed mirroring the shape of the rosebed which is accessed through the boxus arch and the sloping area between the lupin wall and the cordon sweet peas has now been terraced to give a flat growing area in front of the lupins - more on that later.
Anyway, other than more weeding, I lifted the last of the leeks, sprayed off all the paths and all the as yet unplanted areas (the bottom section of the WF border, the rosebed, the area for the new fruit trees and the new semi circular bed mentioned earlier). I also sprayed the area round the edge of the cordon sweet pea bed and then proceeded to plant out the first three batches of young plants, so Gwendoline, Alan Titchmarsh and Orchid were planted out, with Vera Lynn, Tranquility and Jilly done this week after the arrival of the new 8ft bamboo canes. .
The sweet pea bed and the roesbed (which will be home to the Dahlias and Gladioli) have been given a feed with FB&B and will also get a top dressing of the same later in the season. On the subject of the dahlias, they have finally decided to get a shift on and are only now starting to throw up fresh shoots from their home on the greenhouse bed.
I have also put up supports round various plants, especially the campanulas againt the wall as these will reach 5 - 6 ft at flowering so really need to be held against the wall. Last year I was late putting in plant supports but hopefully this year, the supports will do their job and will be hidden as the plant grows.
Generally speaking everything is growing away strongly, we have buds on the oriental poppies, peonies and the tulips are just starting to flower, so it's getting there.
Anyway here a re a few photos showing what has been happening over the last fortnight.

Site of new veg garden

 

 

And again

 

looking up to raised bed in front of box arch

And again

 

Terracing the slope in front of lupin wall - for lots and lots of sweet peas next year

 

And the borders on Friday.

 

And finally, it only remains for me to congratulate Jen and Hamish on their engagement, and now I have to figure out how I am going to have sweet peas in full bloom for the end of June next year - not easy this far north but we'll have them.

 

 

 

May - and still it snows !

Well, not snow exactly but definitely sleet - and a lot of rain and cold cold winds. However, time is marching on, so I started by going down to the greenhouse and watering everything, then sowing some veg (cabbage, caulies, PSB, lettuce, leeks and spring onions) , two pots of Alyssum " Caopet of Snow" and about 70 white Cosmos "Purity" - these last will be added to the 50 or so that I potted on last week.
Sally has been buying some young perennials again so I also came across 18 mixed delphiniums, 6 trailing fuschias ( a freebie with her latest purchase which are coming home with me next week), 6 sea hollies "Blue Star", 6 Heliopsis "Summer Sun and 3 Anemone H. Jobert.
Add to the above the dahlia tubers, blackcurrant canes, phlox, sweet peas, and the greenhouse is filling up again.
After sorting everything out in the greenhouse, I weeded the bank by the steps down to said greenhouse - this is home to Mullein, Perovskia, Japanese Quince, Aquilegia, Alchemilla mollis and a couple of young buddleia,
I also planted out 3 Echinops in the lower of the two herbaceous borders. Things are still greening up but there are buds appearing on the peonies and most of the daffies are open now, so here is a pic of the borders for this week

Now, there was a bit of a misunderstanding as to how the digger was to set out the area for the new veg garden and things have changed as a result, but the area is now cleared and ready for paths etc to be marked out, though there is no real rush as it doesn't need to be finished until late on this year, so that I can get all the beds filled etc ready for the 2014 growing season. So here is a pic of the area, cleared of stumps and scraped back to a level that we are happy with.

There are more groundworks that have been undertaken this week and I'll update you all on these after I've been back to the garden on Friday.
Other than tying in the first row of sweet pea canes and helping Richard and Sally mark out levels for the digger for this week, that's about it.
Back next weekend.

End of April

So much for it warming up - it is still cold and wet and Friday saw several heavy showers of hailstones in the garden. On the plus side, things are starting to green up and we have a semi decent amount of daffies in flower in the herbaceous borders.
Along with everything else greening up, there has been the usual explosion of weeds and so the weeding continues apace - this weeks main efforts being focussed on the top of the west facing border which is now home to the 130 or so onions that were started of from sets in cell packs in the greenhouse, another session on the cordon sweet pea bed and one of the beds by the summerhouse.
I'm sure that I failed to mention that I have now planted out 5 x tree peonies that were started from seed two years ago - I do hope they flourish as it would be a shame to lose them after waiting for so long!
BIG NEWS!! The work has started proper on the creation if the vegetable garden. Alan arrived with his track digger on Friday and spent the morning digging out stumps and the old cotoneaster hedge from the allotted area. And after marking out roughly where the edges of the veg plot will be, he started work on terracing the area. There will be three levels, each with three beds and the centre bed on the middle level will have Tim's apple tree as a centrepoint. However, this meant Alan digging up the apple tree which was done with as large a rootball as possible and placing it to one side whilst he worked on the terracing. There is a lot of willowherb and ground elder in this area but hopefully the digger's work will kill off a lot of this.
I am really looking forward to seeing the garden on Friday as the terracing work had just got underway when I was finishing up for the day. Expect a few pics of this next week !!
What else has been happening - Sally has grown some Cosmos "Purity" from seed and these are now all potted up into individual 3" pots, all 56 of them,  and will be planted out en masse in the lower of the two long borders when they are ready.
I sorted through the dahlia tubers as well - we lost three over the winter but all the remaining ones are now snug and planted up in the larger greenhouse bed to get them underway.
So as per usual, here is a pic of the borders this week...........