The Novice Gardener

This year I am determined to make something of the garden.  We have an odd garden; the house is two cottages merged into one house but nothing was ever done with the gardens.  As a result, we have two very small, kind of separate, gardens - one yard and one lawn.  I'm focusing on sorting out the grassy bit first.  The yard is U-G-L-Y and needs a little more time (and money) spending on it.

With the sun shining brightly on Saturday we hit the garden hard.  Andrew's mum came over to help;  she also brought yummy scones and clotted cream for our mid-afternoon treat :-) 

There I was; forking up earth, snipping away dead stems, yanking out old [blind] daffodils and other dead 'matter', having a whale of a time.  Really enjoyed it (and the endless enamel mugs of tea)!  

I am determined to have a cutting patch this year so that I can have jugs full of my own flowers all through the summer.  Andrew's mum dug an extra [small] flower bed for us in the sunniest spot of the garden and I'm seriously considering finding some enormous pots or barrels to plant more flowers in the yard area.

So, before we went on holiday I sowed a few seeds.  (Ha! Get me!)  I am trying to grow my own scabiosa, cup and saucer flowers, cosmos, helianthus, salvia and cleome spinosa (confession:  I don't know actually know what the last one is).  I bought a tin of seeds from the Sarah Raven website which seemed a good place to start for someone like me who doesn't have a clue when it comes to gardening.  I think for just £30 I can give it a whirl and just learn from my mistakes.

I also bought a tin of salad seeds.  The amount of wilted salad I throw away from those supermarket bags drives me crazy and I'd like to be able to nip into the garden for fresh salad leaves this year.  I threw them in a few pots of compost and here they are:

Doing well so far.  Only trouble is, I am not sure what to do with them next.  Panicking a bit.  I have rocket, a couple of varieties of lettuce, mustard and mizuna.  Need to read the next stage on my instructions! 

I have pricked out some of the cosmos seeds already; they are growing like billy-o.  I think there will be a little more pricking out to be done this weekend too.  I bought a little tiny greenhouse to transfer my seeds to and now I am obsessing over finding some nice wooden plant labels!

At the garden centre I picked up some sweet pea plants; I was excited to use the teepee that I made.

It just about fits in this old Christmas tree pot.  Am so proud of myself.  If the sweet peas grow enough to wrap around the willow I'll be even more chuffed!  

I love this old wall behind the sweet peas.  A little further along it has this ornamental plaque thing attached to it.  Anyone know what it is?  I love it, but it does puzzle me. 

Enjoy the sunshine my lovely bloggy friends.  Thanks for all of your comments, I love reading them.  Just wish I had enough time to respond to everyone.  I get there in the end! 

Nicki

x

PS Not going to talk about my horrid dentist appointment on Thursday.  Thank heaven I am being sedated for the treatment. I am panicking about it so much.   Keep having comedy day dreams that I'll try to run away from the dentist before he can do anything and he'll have to get me with one of those darts that they use for angry gorillas on the telly.  :-)