(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to catnip, polyanthus, vegetable growing on 2008-03-14, 08:52:00

The photo is of two Polyanthus Blue Shades plants. I love the way the reflexive flowers are held in the air, saying please pollinate me to passing insects.
They are Blue, with occasional white, and dutch porcelain coloured flowers. There are two plants on the left border and two plants on the right.
After I woke up I spotted the Black Cat that has been entering the garden.Once she ran off I went outside.She has been eating the Catnip Six Hill Giant, which has had all its growing tips chewed off!
I dont mind Insect damage but I dont even have a Cat!I loved the picture of the flowers. Its never occured to me that the plant would attract the attention of the Neighbourhood moggys!
I might have to dig it up and grow it on a bit.It is only a baby plant and cannot take a lot of Feline damage.When its bigger it will be okay.
The Bird table has been moved about today to by the Viburnum. The birds still flew down to it, although the Cats visit cut the visitors short. They have many eyes the Garden Birds from the Privet hedge.They are wise to the cats visit!
Three more nights to go for me. I am keeping an eye on the weather as I walk to and from work. Dry weather is what I need so I can clear the next allotment bed/s. Two long ones perpendicular to the Potato bed.
I have Onion Sets to plant, Potatoes in April, and Cabbages growing on. I have planted some seeds for Brussel Sprouts and more cabbages in the Greenhouse!
I wander if the Catnip will survive the end of Winter?

(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to african bag garden, garden art, red spears, statues, vegetable growing on 2008-02-29, 07:54:00

The Polyanthus Blue Shades is growing lovely now, even with todays wind and rain.
I am back on nights for three so the posts will slow down untill Monday.I was very productive yesterday with Cat helping me out. I bought three large 75 litre bags of compost, two bags of Pea gravel stones, and a few more plants to go with the four from Harlow Carr. I wanted to make the African bag gardens with Cats assistance.
http://www.sendacow.org.uk/schools.asp?active_page_id=271
The Charity Send A Cow started me thinking about vegetable growing in a container (or Sack) in December. I ordered two kits and they sat waiting for the stones, soil, bottle, and nice weather to be made up.

Take one hessian sack. Line the bottom with stones for drainage. Use a two litre bottle cut at both ends to leave a hollow tube. Fill the bottle with stones in the centre of the sack in a column. Fill around the bottle with soil and cow manure..I used some of the garden compost as no cows were available.
In Lesotho where these bag gardens are used they have a plentiful supply of stones from the mountains, and cow manure.

A bag garden in construction. Each bag took one hundred litres of compost and I found after halfway they are very heavy. They were placed in situ on the pavers. I put some long canes on edges to keep the sides of the sack taut and out of the way of the soil filling. The sticks can be used as stakes to hold the bag in place.

The Snappy Gardener in Action with the Second Bag Garden. Each kit came with seeds to grow vegetables. With names like Purple Power and Rocket Fuel. The finishing touch will be to decorate them with paint and coloured material. A job for when im off from work..

The central stone column is used for watering the Bag garden plants.It runs down the middle of the Sack. I need to cut some V's into the sides of the Bag to grow plants from the side as well as on top. It is heavy too and not movable by me on my own.

After the bag gardens were done I turned my Attention to planting the new additions from Harlow Carr and Hampsons. Two Teasel, One Valerian, one Catnip, two Photinia's, one Thuja Occidentalis Rheinegold, and a Picea Glauca Conica. I moved a few of the plants about to accomodate the newcomers. The garden is in a state of change. I moved the other green bird bowl to by the corner by the Blackberry bush. There are two pools of water now for the garden birds to drink and splash about in.

After Le Tigre et Le Crocodile in Paris here is my version. Two stone statues by the Holly. I watched a video of a healing garden that did Art Therapy in California. It had a collection of Art work around the Garden. This is part one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz3_CyZ8WkA
and the second part is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJub3-ul5lQ
I saw plenty at Harlow Carr and on this video. I realised I had the plants, and the hard structures but not the fun things like Statues, gnomes, pink lawn flamingoes, or fairys etc. It is the fun twist that puts your personality on your garden. Whatever you like, if you like it...

The Bag Gardens just need a splash of rainbow colour to brighten them up. I have seed potatoes from Marshalls sat in an egg box developing shoots ready to be planted in the two grow bags.I went halfs on Wednesday with Cats dad to buy a patio Herb Planter. A round polythene bag with eight pockets rather like the Victorian strawberry planter. Thats what mine will be used for too :)
Strawberrys and Potatoes will join the African Bag gardens on the Pavers. The Container kitchen garden is growing slowly. I ordered another two Veg planters but they have not arrived yet. I think there is a movement in the UK to grow Organic Vegetables and Fruit, and the experts mention how container gardening can be done on any sized plot.
The benefit for me is that the two borders can grow flowers and soft fruit, and the Vegetables will grow on the pavers. It will be interesting to see how it all grows. The seed packets have been organised into envelopes with coloured names of the bag gardens.

The Mystery red spear growing. I saw some plants at Hampsons that looked like this. I will leave it for a while before saying what I think it is. Blackswamp girl you have already guessed correctly.
Its Febuary 29th too, a leap year! March starts tomorrow and I imagine the growing plants will speed up. So much is going on in the small urban plot of mine that its hard to know what to blog about. I have plenty of topics to write about and photograph.
Hope you all have good weekends and that your gardens keep growing on :)

(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to butterfly, chrysalis, seed packets, vegetable growing on 2008-01-16, 11:13:00

I am wandering what this is? It is suspended under the top of the fence held on by fine threads and alien looking gloop!
I thought it might be a Chrysalis.. If anyone can recognise what it is please comment :)
The seeds arrived today from Mr Fothergills. Peas, baby carrots, cabbages, Spring onions, tumbling tomatos, Baby leeks, and Dwarf beans. Roll on March which is the sowing dates for most of these.
I have been visualising how to alter the right border to accomodate my Vegetable patch, the butterfly garden, and keep room for a table and chairs.
The mystery Chrysalis will not be the only thing being transformed this year. I will wait to see what might hatch from the suspended sac!
I checked my old photos and I can only see it from the 8th January onwards. I knew it was good to take so many photos almost daily! For doing Sherlock Holmes of working out how long the chrysalis has been under the top of the fence without me seeing it.
Chrysalis is an interesting word, It's old root word is Greek for for Gold, Krysos. They observed Butterflys coming from gold coloured sacs...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupa
I hope its a Butterfly and not something like a wasp or a moth that is wrapped in its own shroud. Developing under the webs and glue...It is growing right above a butterfly bush too.
I think the transformation of a Caterpillar, into a Pupa within a Chrysalis, then lastly into a Butterfly is a miracle of Nature. Beauty coming from two suprising life forms (The plant maiming Caterpillar, and the Inert but sticky looking Pupa).
Sometimes you can find Gold without mining for it.

(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to Honeysuckle, garden plans, organic gardening, urban plot, vegetable growing on 2008-01-10, 10:28:00

It was a grey overcast day today, with wind and rain. I was out in the dark again, planting the Honeysuckle behind the Camelia. The Lonicera has its own wig wam of canes now to grow up before leaping across to the trellis I want to put up.
The Top photo shows the left border as it is. The lower photo shows the Carex grasses and the Dogwood nestling with the solar lights.
A post thatI read last night before bed was the Hundred Foot Diet blogged on an Alameda Garden.
http://alamedagarden.blogspot.com/2008/01/100-foot-diet-challenge.html
The premise is simple. Try to prepare one meal a week with ingredients grown in your garden or community garden (Allotment here). I did a post before about the Dig for Victory campaign in the Second World War when the British public started to cultivate land en masse to grow fruit and vegetables.
http://snappycrocsgarden.blogspot.com/2007/04/digging-for-victory-britains-new.html
The hundred foot is the average distance from your house! You can source locally grown Organic food if your plot is bare. Thats good because I only have Parsley and Rosemary growing that is edible at the moment.



I did a google search and found this video embedded on an eco website.The garden featured belongs to Jules Dervaes , the man behind the path to freedom journal along with his family.
The idea to me thats the most radical is its in an urban area. They did not move into the country, but altered their own environment. I love their Hellstrip with the Wild flowers, and the fact he dropped six inches of mulch on the lawn. Freedom from mowing and watering. This is their gardeners challenge posted on the sixth of January:
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/journal/archives/2008/01/100_foot_diet_c.html
I am waiting for my vegetable seeds to come from Robinsons and the African bag gardens from Send A Cow.
The right hand side of the garden will be split between a Butterfly garden, and a Kitchen Garden. The raised Pavers will hold the Bag Gardens and hopefully a Grow house too.
In my year without a garden I dreamt of the ideal garden. The plan for 2008 will be trying to grow a four pronged garden:
1) An organic garden that attracts wildlife, birds, animals, and insects. Natural pest control will be used, and picking them off at night.
2) A productive garden growing as much home grown food as is possible on a North east facing site.
3) A beautiful Flower garden that has interest throughout the year.
4) A place to relax, and entertain when it warms up. A people friendly garden to chill out in after the stresses of work.
I have started some of the above especially attracting garden birds, lots more work to be done before it is completed. My garden measures aproximately twenty foot by fourteen foot, faces north east and is shaded by houses and trees.

(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to apple tree, bag garden, fruit bushes, herbs, kitchen garden, vegetable growing on 2007-12-18, 07:30:00

I could not sleep last night for some reason.So
I planned the Kitchen garden side of the garden.
Some herbs are growing already, ready to be grown on in the cold frame, and some on the kitchen windowsill. Basil,Coriander, and Parsley.
I saw fruit bushes for sale at home base, and went back today to buy two. Photographed are my new plants: Blackberry Waldo, and Raspberry Tullamen.
In the spring I will get some Strawberry plants. I am thinking of the old fashioned Victorian strawberry planter with the plants growing from the many holes in the terracotta pot!
I have some Alpine Strawberry seeds too in the matchstick books that are impregnated with seeds. The wild Strawberrys. Has anybody grown them and do they taste like our normal Wimbledon type strawberrys?
I have just now ordered two African bag gardens, that can be used to grow the Vegetables. One comes with Beetroot, Mustard leaves, and Dwarf beans. The other comes with Rocket, Chillis, and Spring onions.
http://www.sendacow.org.uk/schools.asp?active_page_id=271
From the Charity Send A Cow, she was amused that I was ordering them for myself and not for a school!
The other thing I ordered online was a Patio Apple tree in a container, for outside the kitchen door. It is a self fertile one.
Three Herbs, two Fruit bushes, one apple tree ordered, and a selection of Six Vegetables are a good start to the kitchen garden. My Chilli plants are also growing on in the kitchen windowsill. Its not quite the Good Life but its a start. Small steps towards a functional and edible Kitchen Garden.
I need to plan the Flower beds, and Containers yet. Three hanging baskets, and a water garden are in my mind also in the Spring. The joys of imagination during the Winter garden phase of the year..