Apple Blossom

You may remember that I planted out three yearling apple trees in January. Well, they have all survived and two are flowering, the Redsleeves and the Saturn. These are both on rootstock M26. 'The tree will reach a height of about 3 metres /10 feet, although pruning twice a year will keep the tree to a height of about 2 metres / 7 feet.'

Saturn

Redsleeves

The Crispin is on rootstock MM106. 'This rootstock will produce an apple tree about 3.6 metres (12 foot) wide and 3m (10 foot) tall at maturity.' I am assuming the difference in rootstocks is why the Crispin is not flowering.

I have moved the mountain of earth that was on the future site of the runner beans and cherokee beans, and have been digging over the earth underneath, teasing out buttercups, marestails and couch grass. It is hard work. My back aches. And it's still not done, and the beans are still not out, but are getting bigger and bigger in the window sills. Things are getting desperate!

MUST ... GET ... THEM ... PLANTED ... OUT!

Still, despite the back ache I had a very peaceful and satisfying time digging, ferretting out weeds and listening to BBC World Service podcasts. Anything to do, perhaps with this? A natural high from gardening? Wow... gotta like that!

Wet Days

We have had two days of pretty much solid rain. Not conducive to sanity for little boys or their mummies! So after tearing around the house for too long they were begging to go out, and I was more than happy to let them. Spike stayed out longest, just pottering around in the sodden sandpit and puddles. Here's a couple of pictures I took of him enjoying himself.

Harrogate Spring Flower Show

You know the trouble with a blog? When you have lots to say you are too busy doing it to write about it. And when there's nothing going on you naturally have plenty of time to report that nothing's going on.

So I am a few days late in reporting that last Friday I got to go to the Harrogate Spring Flower Show! It was amazing. The flowers and plants were so perfect they looked artificial. And it was huge. We missed one of the big tents because Spikelet had had just about enough, thank you very much. But what we saw was wonderful. The bonsai! The orchids! The ferns! The daffodils! Fuschias! Clematis! Tulips! The flower arrangements! All of it was gorgeous. Have a look at the pictures:

'The Wizard of Oz' 'Flamenco'

In the garden there are the first shoots of potatoes coming up, so that's wonderful. My trial peas haven't come through, but it hasn't been a week since I planted them, so that's not surprising. And it has been raining all day, so any plans I had for the garden today were scuppered. Although, to be honest, they were scuppered anyway, since I spent a good portion of the day at the garage while I waited for them to figure out what was wrong with the radio in my new car. They had to take it out of the dash, and when they did it rattled. Seems that the people who had the car before had been feeding the CD player with pennies, and they shorted the system out. So my car has a big gaping gap-toothed hole in it while they fix the stereo. At least I still have my car, and the fact that there's no radio is really no change... it hadn't worked in the whole time I had it! Still, at least it's on it's way to being fixed, and is still in covered by the place that sold it to us. And I had a Gardener's World Magazine to read while I was waiting.

Too Many Seedlings, Not Enough Space!

I love tulip time. Even more, perhaps than I love snowdrop time, crocus time and daffodil time. There is such variety in tulips, and every year there seems to be 'just one more' tulip I need to get, that I can't resist. These are this year's acquisitions. Lovely, aren't they?

But the other thing about tulip time is that, generally speaking, the weather is undeniably springlike, and getting better. The days are long and getting longer, the sun (when it's out) can be quite strong, and there are leaves everywhere. It is a gorgeous time of year.

I have been working in the garden as much as I have been able in the last two weeks (the Easter Hols). We have also had grandparents staying, and all the excitement that brings, plus a short break in the Peak District, which was totally beautiful, even if the weather wasn't at its best. So that has limited my gardening ability. But still. This is the stage I am at:

Potatoes are in, one teepee of sugar-snaps are in (next to the shallots in the raised beds) and I have managed to squeeze another teepee in on the 'flower' side of the garden because I have way too many peas and beans to fit in solely on the 'veg' side. The one on the flower side is the one that will be playing host to the sugar-snaps and mangetouts that I got courtesy of the RHS pea trials (remember? They sent me 300 of one and 250 of the other? WHO NEEDS THAT MANY SEEDS? EVER?)

Well, anyway, I finally figured out where I was going to put them ('flower' side), and figured out what I was going to do with the mounds of earth that had come out of the potato trenches (bagged it up into old compost bags) so I could put up at least one teepee on the 'veg' side. I still have another mountain of dirt to find a home for and no more bags. Considering invading the children's digging/sand area, but think it will probably mean that the sand pit will become a sand-and-dirt pit. Am I ok with that? I haven't decided. But I may not have any other option...

When I finally come to a conclusion about that I can plant out the heritage runner beans. Of the 9 I have had 7 come up. Rare #8 (of which I have the final seed since my uncle's died) is doing best of all, thank goodness. I haven't seen any sign of #7, and #1 and #6 are only now coming up. The others are about 3 inches tall or more, so needing to be planted out asap! (MUST figure out what to do with the dirt!)

I also have the Cherokee Trail of Tears beans to be planted out. I got a beautiful little package of seeds courtesy of Kath at Vegetable Heaven (she got hers from the Heritage Seed Library) last autumn and all six which I have planted came up. Very good germination rate! I have since given a few of the extras Kath sent me to the visiting grandparents, since they all live in Oklahoma, which is where the Cherokee Trail of Tears ended. It will be interesting to see how they grow out there. No doubt it will be ideal conditions for the beans!

I also have two butternut squash seedlings which are getting too big for their starter pot (an old plastic pastry tub with a flappy lid, which made a wonderful propagator pot) and, as is looking to move up in the real-estate world to a place where they can really spread out and consider having a family. I only started growing these (from seed saved from a supermarket squash) because Dude really wanted to grow pumpkins. It's easier to show him that squash and pumpkins don't really do that well here than to tell him. He doesn't believe me. (Or am I just being defeatist? Perhaps they will grow, won't be eaten by slugs and get moulded into nothing by the rain.)

Anyway, that's the state of the garden, here's the state of the family. We bought two £3 kites from a shop at an English Heritage site. Better than the usual pencils and bouncy balls, I thought, and they have been brilliant. We lengthened the tails by about twice as much again, and they have given much delight to all of us. Bargain. In this pic (you'll have to click it and make it big to see properly) you can see Pip and Dude both flying their kites.

Gardening Update

I got all my stressful jobs done last week, and I have had time to 'play' now. Which means time to get my gardening jobs done, which isn't at all stressful. Physical, yes, but stressful? No. Theraputic.

Mostly what I have been doing is finishing up the weeding of the part of the veggie plot that used to be the onion patch last year. It has had a THOROUGH weed, and I have moved the chives and the random snowdrops and crocuses that were planted there, and the roses (in a veg patch?!). And now it is being transformed into a potato field. Field in the smallest sense of the word, you understand, but still...

So here you have it. As you can see (can you?) I have dug two trenches, and managed to get 8 potatoes in each. I still have one row to dig. The internet says the rows need to be 2.5ft apart, hence the large 'wastage' of land inbetween the rows. So, 3 rows x 8 potatoes = 24 potatoes. Which leaves 20+ potatoes left in my egg boxes still chitting away... I guess they will go down to the ever-so-neglected allotment (remember the allotment?). Last time I was there it was still very muddy. It WAS early March (or was it still Feb?) but it wasn't looking much like anything could be planted soon. It was cleared, finally, but the raised beds were still to be built. Hopefully Deb's tool wielding friends have been doing that for us, as promised, and I wil be able to plant out spare potatoes next time I am down there. This week? I hope...

This shows the extent of my veg patch. I am not allowed to dig up the grass on the near side of the flagstones. So, left to right:
Onions and garlic (you can just see their spikes infront of the 'raised beds', made from old drawers)
Raised beds with shallots (spiking up nicely, for the most part) and asparagus (still waiting...)
Soon to have a sugarsnap teepee (more about that later).
Then come the potato rows. Two so far, one more to be dug.
Then, in the patch that is still green (weed covered) there will be an A-frame with lots of beans and peas growing up it. Or perhaps as many teepees as I can fit in. Which is the best use of space, do you think?

Now, about the sugarsnaps...

I volunteered to be part of the RHS pea trial (someone offering free seeds for something I was already planning to grow? I'm in!) but before I heard I was accepted I had bought some mangetout seeds. I wanted to get an early start so I could eat my peas nice and early. So anyway, in the post today I received two packs of seeds. 300 Oregon Sugar Pod mangetout and 250 Sugar Ann sugarsnaps! And this on top of the 300 mangetouts I had already bought. Same variety, from the same supplier as my freebies.

What on earth am I going to do with all these seeds? Holy smokes, batman. I will never have to buy a pea seed ever again! I have a feeling the allotment will be full of potatoes and peas this year.

This picture (you'll have to click on it to make it big to see properly) is of some goldfinches studiously ignoring the niger seeds that have been put out specially for them. The niger seed feeder is the green one on the left. It is 1/3 full. It has only been filled once this winter. They prefer the hulled sunflower seeds. It is the absolute favourite of all my garden birds. I wanted this picture to be up to reassure a blogging acquaintance of mine, Mrs B, of Carrots & Kids who is having trouble luring goldfinches into her garden. I dont' think it was the niger seeds that did it for me. Perhaps I was just lucky?

And speaking of being lucky... this is my baby! Aren't I a lucky Mum?

Busy Week

It has been quite a week.

I took my car in on Fri because it wasn't driving right and the fuel injector light was on. Boy was it not right. Needed a new head gasket (apparently that's a big deal), was only running on three cylinders and the clutch was going. So bye bye car, helloooo car hunting. We needed to get a bigger one anyway because 3 car seats in the back is not possible in our car. But not so keen on making car payments again after 2 years off... Oh well, ho hum.

We had birthdays over the weekend, mine and Dude's. We're twins, just 30 yrs apart, which makes it very easy for me to remember how old I am. I never believed my parents when they said they couldn't remember how old they were when I was little. Now I know they weren't faking...

We took 8 kids bowling and then to BK next door. Sounds easy? Try it.

Then my lovely auntie came to stay the night on Sun, and we went for a long walk, getting a bit lost, finding our way, then stopping at a friend's for an impromptu coffee.

Monday was the day that Dude had his first day at Beavers and that Pip had his last day at Beavers and first at Cubs. Big, big deal. Dude has been hankering to get into Beavers for 2 years and he finally made it.

Monday was also spent car hunting on the internet. We knew what we wanted but couldn't find a car to fit our simple (!) needs: 3 carseats across the back. Not a bus. At 10pm we found the Honda FR-V. Tues we went to look at one and decided to get it - Hooray.

Today and yesterday were spent finishing up the parish magazine that I produce monthly. Needs to be in church for Sunday. Not cutting it fine at all... who me?

And now the weather is lovely and I am going to get out in it because I can! Finally! I don't have to do anything, except perhaps continue digging the garden, but that's ok because it is SUNNY!

Apple trees are budding!
Early tulips have started flowering!

Look at what the kids at school have been producing. Not my kids, I regret, because I have been WAY TOO BUSY to be so creative. They have been lucky to be fed and to find clean socks in their drawers in the morning.

And here is Spike, to brighten your day.