Gooseberries galore

Gooseberry bumper crop, picked  1.5lb tonight, but there are tons left to pick!!

The other crops are doing well as well, its amazing what a bit of sun does.
The new potatoes are not far off ( late being ready because of how late they went in). The currants are dripping and just turning  black and red. There are one or two strawberries. There are little apples, pears and plums on the fruit trees.  The runner beans are romping up the frame and starting to flower, however the peas are struggling a bit. They were  munched by something when they just came up and I think this has knocked them back.
We also have a lovely load of basil in the conservatory (Thanks hubby), so its delicious fresh pesto
for our tea! Hubby also growing on some chilli plants donated by Richard the neighbour.


We have bought some climbers for the patio and rigged up some wires to encourage them to climb. A couple of honesuckles, and a jasmine. They are planted in large pots, so lets see how they get on.
 We also have a few pots of sweet peas growing up nicely

Borders

 

Theleft hand border now a couple of months on from the picture in the last post

The right hand border in front  of the chicken run

The left hand border looking towards the house 

Generally doing ok, particularily the perennials, however due to chucking them all in, it is a bit crowded in parts. I have started labelling all the ones that need to be moved to a better position or one with a bit more room for them to spread.
Some of the shrubs did not survive the damp over winter and I have popped in a few new ones, to see how they go on.
I have also  sown some cosmos seed directly into the border and they are growing away happily, so will fill the gaps left by the small shrubs.

Doggie Destroyer,

Being surprisingly good, no chewed shrubs so far. He does pelt through the borders but oh well!!! His favourite thing is to lie flat out on the grass and soak up the sun. He also likes to wander past the chicken run fence and pounces if the hens decide to ignore him. He obviously can't reach them but I think he likes to keep them on their toes. The other week one of the kids left the gate open to the run and barney got in with them. I ran out to the garden thinking he would be after them, but all he did was sniff around them. I think he was shocked to be next to them and did not know what to do.

On news of the chickies,  the one who had the mites on the legs passed away the other day. We bought a 2 new girls  a few weeks back, Patricia and Molly. I think the older one, decided enough was enough an gave up. 

 

Hopefully the weather will last a few weeks, I may even have to water the borders at this rate, a bit radical for Cumbria

Rain

Well from empty water butts in the beginning of May to  what seems like non-stop rain since. While it was welcome in May, it is not welcome now. The plants are starting to suffer,  as the rain is just washing all the goodness out of the soil. The solution is to mulch with some garden compost but it is hard even to get a few dry minutes to get out there and do anything.  The grass needs cutting desperately, come on the sun, show yourself!!!!

I did manage to get out one day and plant out the purple sprouting broccolli.  I wandered through the plot a few days later, to find three purple sprouting stumps, I was not impressed. I am pretty sure it was birds. I thought to myself, no worries I have some spare.  The spare on the side patio were also purple sprouting stumps. Grrrr. I put the stumps in the mini greenhouse to see if i can get them to recover, I do not hold out much hope.

We have had a few strawberries,  along with the birds who have also had a few. I have put some fleece over the top of them, to try and keep the birds off.  We also picked some gooseberries last weekend, enough for a some fool for hubby and I, yum!

I can see some blue sky this am, fingers crossed we have a dry day!

The doggie destroyer update:-

Excellent at grubbing up mint, no fear of it spreading in my garden it seems. Enjoys chewing woody shrubs, making sure the chosen branch is bitten through. Runs at full speed around the garden with evidence in his mouth, closely followed by me with the BRUSH. Has been banished from the veg patch for crimes against plant labels, running through the veg beds willy nilly, pulling out the pea sticks, jumping on the fleece over the cabbages and biting off ripe strawberries.

March madness

Its still early on in the month, and I am still biding my time, before planting/sowing outside, as the weather can be so unpredictable. I have started off some beans, artichokes, sweetcorn, basil, & parsley in trays/pots. They are all on the window sills of the conservatory. The beans and artichokes seem to germinate almost overnight, closely followed by the basil.  I take a look every day willing the little green shoots to appear.

The grass is growing like billy oh, the cutting cannot be put off much longer. I took delivery of another lawn mower last week. Our lawn mower, according to the lawnmower repair man is for cutting nice short fine lawns and should not be used on field grass. He was very upset by the treatment we were dishing out to it last year, despite the money he was making on repairing it every five minutes. We now have a tough old rotary Honda, lets see how this one holds up. D day, or should I say M day is Saturday.  As the grass is growing now, I have given my supply of ornamental grasses a no 2 haircut. Fresh new shoots appeared the very next day.

Planted up the raspberry canes, varieties I have bought are Octavia and Glen Lyon. Hubby and I rigged up some posts and wire supports, which I was very pleased with. I was muttering away while fixing up the wires and sounded just like my Dad. I always was dads little helper when I was a kid. (Hi Pop!).
Re-potted a couple of blueberry bushes, and planted a couple of rows of strawberry plants, donated by a friend. As I was planting the strawberries, the chickies were behind me scratching them up, so their freedom has been curtailed. They are confined to their little run for the time being. I have asked a fencer to price up fencing for a decent sized run for the chickies and basic fencing around the veg plot. I feel this is essential to give the hedge time to grow, and to give some added protection for the plot, from the wind, and visiting creatures, on the hunt for a free lunch.

Veg beds warming under plastic sheeting

Must get onto planting the onion sets........