New Garden Additions

The weekend is here and there is so much that needs doing in the garden. I made this cold frame up a few days ago. It replaced the old one that got destroyed by the high winds. This one is made of wood, and was prefabricated with the screw holes drilled for me.Once I had got the sides the right way round it fitted together like a dream. It is housing the Leeks and Cabbages that I sowed in February. Overnight it took in the flowers that need planting into the garden as we had frosts and below freezing temperature.

Over the winter one Rose pot has split in two. I decided to re pot the Roses, the Monkey Puzzle tree, and the Gooseberry. I went to Wilkos for the plastic pots, then Hampsons for three bags of multipurpose compost. They are only sixty litres now. I wander of the overuse of peat has caused manufacturers to go from 75 to 60 litres? I bought the two Barrell planters as we have some already that house Cats Hostas. These are all in the Greenhouse awaiting my attention.

After ten months in the outhouse the plastic connectors and metal bars for the Greenhouse were taken out of the box and laid onto the grass.
Cat secured some more instructions from Wilkos (Big thanks to them for giving us a copy of them. We lost the original in the move). We spent an hour poring over the plans working out which connector went where and built it. We sent off for a new cover as the old one ripped to shreds, over the bars. I love the new/old Greenhouse. It will be the powerhouse behind all of this years Flowers, and Vegetables.
This weekend will be a mixture of planting, re potting, digging the allotment, sowing seeds, and doing blog posts.
Tomorrow is the official first day of Spring. There is so much to do, but that is good. The growing season always fills us with hopes and dreams of a perfect year. Its sunny outside and the birds are filling the garden with there singing.

Saint Patricks Day

Its Saint Patricks Day and in honour of this we are cooking Irish Sausages, and Colcannon for tea. We have had a busy few days with Mum visiting us, and ongoing gardening tasks. The photo is of the Dogwood Mum bought me at Harlow Carr. I will do a blog post about our visits to Harlow Carr, and Newmiller Dam.
These Dogwoods look beautiful in Winter with their colourful stems. I want to buy a few more so they can be grouped together. During the summer this one has variegated leaves.

The other plants I bought was this David Austin Rose called The Dark Lady( Old Rose scent and scarlet flowers), and three pots of the Wildflowers, Marsh Marigolds. These will illuminate the pond with their golden yellow flowers.
Mum has gone back to Cheltenham now. Cat and I went shopping today for greenhouse instructions, pots for my Roses, and some Solar Frog lights.
We have been busy building the Greenhouse. Spring begins in 3 days on Sunday. More posts later.

Inca Gold And Sunshine

Its a beautiful Sunny day here today.I am about to make the new cold frame that we bought the other day. It was a frosty night last night. The garden was covered in ice crystals this morning.
The birds have been busy feeding in the garden. Flocks of Goldfinches have been noisily flying in, chattering to each other all the way.
Talking of which I have now just gone onto Twitter. Another platform for reading my thoughts, between posts on the blog.
I will try to link between the two of them.
http://twitter.com/#!/snappygardener
I am off work for a week on annual leave, and today my Mum is coming to see me and Cat for two nights. We will be going to Nandos tonight for tea, and RHS Harlow Carr tomorrow with her.
The photo is of some Alstromeria that we bought from Asda. I love these Peruvian Lily's with their cheeky tiger striped petals in a variety of colours. We have three bunches in Purple, Lilac, and this pastel Orange in a red glass vase in the front room window.
I went shopping yesterday with Cat to buy some bird food. I bought some new seeds. Sweetcorn, Outdoor Girl Tomatoes, and some more Leeks Musselburgh.
The growing season is beginning in earnest in the Mid March sunshine.

Today's photo is of one of the Crocus that has flowered in a rectangular planter. I love the violet stripes and the egg yolk yellow golden stamen.
There are three of these types of Crocus Flowering. These actually open to flower, unlike the black and yellow ones which seem to collapse or get eaten in the Lilac pot. They look like deflated balloons.
Gardeners World came back on tv on Friday night. It was presented by Monty Don.
Poor Toby Buckland has been released from his job at the BBC. I saw him at Tatton Park RHS show last year and i thought he was a decent, humble man. In TV gardening its the audiences that win through, and the decision was made for him and Alys Fowler to leave the programme.
I saw Alys at the BBC Gardeners World Live show at the NEC, at the end of the day as we were leaving. I hope they both recover from losing their jobs and go onto great and better things. As they say when one door closes another opens up for you.
We have booked time off to go down to Birmingham in June to see the BBC Good Food Show/ Gardeners World Live. We will stay overnight and arrive to the shows refreshed..
The Harrogate Spring Flower show is in a few weeks on April 14th. It is the Northern Horticultural Societys 100th Anniversary, who run the show every year.
I cant wait to go with a new camera ready to take lots of photos of all the colours of the rainbow.
I do love the jewel like beauty of the Crocuses. The Spring Flower show will be a treat for weary winter eyes, and be a blaze of colours and scents.

Retail Therapy

I'm back again. After four night shifts, one sleep day, and one long day!
I went to Hampsons today to buy a small water Lily for the pond. I forgot as we walked around so i still need to buy one.
I bought some Spring Colour that can be planted in the sunken border and in the pots and boxes. Flamboyant Primulas, Violas, Pansy's, two Geraniums, and some Gladiolus and Peacock Orchid bulbs for summer colour.
There have been terrible gales over the last two days. My old Cold Frame blew into the pond in bits!
I bought a new wooden cold frame which still needs putting together. The Battered Cabbage and Leek seedlings will go in there once its made.
The wind also blew the Apple Tree over in its pot, and split the roof of the Bird Table when it got blown around the garden. The roof is split and broken. It needs some emergency repairs to keep it going.
Every time I think the worst weather is over we have some other major winds, rain, or snow! The garden continues to grow in preparation for Spring. Some of the container Crocuses are flowering now, and the Daffodils have got flower buds forming.
I'm working one more day tomorrow then I'm off for a week.
I want to go to the RHS garden at Harlow Carr in Harrogate, and down to David Austins near Wolverhampton for Roses. My Mum is coming too I hope next week to see me in Yorkshire..
We are planning further works on the garden. These bought plants will bring some colour into the borders and pots.

Pond Sitter

The bamboo fencing has now been replaced around the pond. The end closest to the door has simple green wire frames for easy access for the wildlife. We can also see towards the pond from the Kitchen.
I went out today to have a look at the plants. I spotted a large Frog on the edge of the pond. He dived into the deepest section.
He is chilling under the grasses on the deepest shelf. From the surface he is completely camouflaged.
Only the colouration and a slight movement showed where he was hiding when i was showing Cat.
The sunshine has come out now and started to warm the garden up. The birds have been busy feeding all day. They seem to use the garden as much as I do.
Every day sees a new plant growing, or something interesting to look at. Spring is only a few weeks away now.
I'm happy the Frog found a new home, only two days after we built it for him.

A Thing Of Beauty

The two jobs I wanted to do on my days off were to change the Turtle pond liner for the new Mayfly 250 litre one, and to put up my greenhouse. I have done one of the jobs, but had to abort the second due to losing the instructions on the greenhouse!
The first stage of the first job was to dig a hole big enough to accommodate the new pond liner..

This photo shows how much soil I had to dig. The two rectangular potato grow bags were full of soil, and five 75 litre compost bags were full as well. Two hundred and fifty litres was a lot of soil to remove to fit the pond liner into. I wanted the top of the pond level with the soil. This took around two hours to shovel a hole that I could stand in.

I played around with the direction the pond liner sat in. The original builders of the house left a sandy/stony mix beneath the soil. This was a partially dug hole with the liner sat telling me how much deeper i needed to dig.

Once the hole was dug deep enough for the top to rest at the soil surface I had to back fill the hole around the liner. This exerted some wonderful pressure on the liner. It has some new twisty edges now around the pond top.

I put the top soil back onto the edge of the pond. I split the green grasses into smaller clumps, and planted the Carex, Astilbe, and Bergenia around the pond.
Cat helped me fill the pond with water in a filling ceremony. The oxygenator plants were put onto shelves under the water. I placed Bricks so the birds can drink and bathe on the pond side.
My Flag Iris has moved into the deep end of the pond on bricks. Finally I sowed some Wildflower mix around the soil, and scattered some dark Poppie seeds.
A robin flew in to drink two minutes after this photo was taken to show his approval.
I saved two milk cartons full of old pond water (with all the beasties in it). This was added to the new pond water today. I hope that it will attract Frogs and Dragonflies this year.
The greenhouse needs instructions. It has hundreds of metal bars and connectors. I cannot remember how the top sections are put together.
The Greenhouse has a new cover that we ordered as the old one ripped in the wind. I thought we would use the plastic covered walk in greenhouse this year until we were organised to lay a concrete base for a permanent glass greenhouse.
I had to take it to bits again, to wait for either my old instructions or for new ones. The pond is a thing of beauty. I hope that the plants will grow, and my wildflowers germinate.