Violet's Garden Diary

Sitting in the only bit of shade, outside the front door, with Tigger at my feet. Disgraceful length of time since the last post, so a total survey is required. In brief, it has been the Year of the Aphid so far, but I am raising a whole new population of ladybirds off of them.

Flowers

Foxgloves did really well, some more than 2m high. Oriental and welsh poppies now finished. Tall annual ones never materialised, probably got eaten. escallonia just going over. Aquilegias were good out the front. Planted out the odd dahlias, rudbeckias and zinnias along the path, will see how they cope. Sensitive fern has rather too much crisp and brown stuff, so will have to move it next year, maybe into the pond, if it ever happens…

In the backthe gorgeous roses have just dropped the last petal. Had to prune off most of the tips on the red honeysuckle, as aphid damage was so bad; some transformation-stage ladybirds had to be rescued from the off-cuts and relocated to other infested areas. Globe flower did well in its pot in the temporary pond, and the primulas are bulking up nicely. White lilies are just out, and so is the passion flowers, so lots of lovely evening scent. The Fairy climbing rose is only just starting, as the greenfly set it back so much earlier on. Petunias all sold at the fete, but they were so big and colourful, that I may well have some for myself next year, especially as Nemesia, although very colourful, is quite spindly and even floppy. Splendid dark penstemons, have been cutting them for the house quite a bit. Bought a tray of French marigolds at the fete, and stuck them in here, there and everywhere, for extra  splash of colour.

Rockery has quite a lot of goodies out, but many of them are being obscured by the oversized alliums that really must come out.

Fruit

• Nearly dead blueberry
• Just netted raspberries, as blackbird was very keen. magnesium deficiency?
• Three cherries, very good flavour though
• Good crop of red currants, a fair bit was lost to the birds, so must net it next time
• Fig very late into leaf, so not pruned properly
• Apples hit by aphids, dropped quite heavily through June, so only a thinnish crop expected
• Strawberries: have quite a few rooted runners. Fantastic crop from the growbag, picking full punnets every few days. Not nearly so good from the pot, guess it’s just too small to support so many large plants. New cunning plan: put wild ones in it next time.

Vegetables

Really amazing success overall so far.

• Broad beans: very heavy blackfly, had to spray them with soap, which did work surprisingly well. Nonetheless, a pretty good crop, picked mostly quite young, so even the children noticed how much sweeter and tenderer than the shop ones they were. Second batch is just coming onstream.
• Sugarsnaps did well, nearly finished now. Were the first highlight of the season.
• Kohlrabi: again, very good. A plague of very hairy caterpillars was detected and removed. still a couple left
• Maincrop peas just starting
• Tomatoes growing strong, as are the turnips – didn’t really allow enough space for these, but their packet wasn’t exactly informative (“Standard seed 0.5grams”)
• Monster excess of rocket, been ripping it up and giving it away, especially the butch garden variety. Stick to wild in the future…
• Lettuce had grown very well in the new raised beds, and even not been attacked much at all, but most of it is frilly and pretty but not very tasty. Lakeland is probably the best for taste.
• Basil in the raised bed did a lot better than the ones in the herb area, which is probably too dry. Planted out another half a dozen left over from the fete, there were just too many to sell
• Bean tunnel is coming on, the French are just starting to flower, so won’t be long now
• Carrots in the big pot are doing well, permanently fleeced

Of the last batch of seeds, brocolli and fennel sprouted straight away, but the sweetcorn only managed 2 out of 8, so I am soaking the rest of the packet now, as 2 sweetcorn plants is silly.

Soaked some dwarf French beans, in case none of the direct sown ones come up at all ever.

Blueberry is in a bad way, leaves scorched, curling up and dropping, despite all attempts at ceaseless watering. It’s probably too hot a spot, as well as not enough good soil for a decent root run. Will attempt to stick it into a pot, now that the crop is probably lost anyway.

Sown carrots (Amsterdam sweetheart) into the big pot vacated by the potatoes. According to Bunny Guiness on Gardeners’ Question time, they work really well in pots, especially in big ones, as the carrot fly can’t fly that high.

Planted out the next batch of leeks. Pruned and trained the cherry.

Returned from holiday to find wilting strawberries and potatoes – apparently from only one day’s not-watering. The bag strawberries recovered quite quickly (and had the first few ripe fruits), and the pot had to be soaked in a bucket, which brought out the vine weevils in force by the next morning. Picked off a good half-dozen, and another ten or so from the grow-bag when clearing out the dead leaves just before we went away. I guess that means I will have to re-plant next year…

The potatoes ended up being picked anyway, and they had made a pretty good crop. The space was needed to build the bean-den, which has come out as rather a bean-tunnel, due to space constraints, but is no worse for it, in fact probably better in terms of use of space. The climbing French beans were getting very twiny, the ones that had germinated that is, as less than half came up. Probably worth pre-soaking them to see who is a doer next time. Sowed the runner beans (Polestar) for the tunnel direct, 2 per station. The dwarf French bean sowed outside have not come up at all so far, although most of the small-seeded subjects are doing well.

Also planted out The Pepper, a few of the cucumbers, four or five basils, French sorrel. Ripped out lots of the forget-me-nots. The horrid slugs have eaten most of my new Dahlia, the bastards – they are all dead now, ha-ha. Have had to stake quite a few of the aquilegias, and the thalictrum. Lovely Gertrude Jekyll rose is out, and I cross the muddy hole that is the future pond to smell it. Out the front, the aquilegias are now joined by a good number of foxgloves, and the oriental poppies. Inside, achimenes are taking over the house. The “meadow”, which was knee-high, has had its first proper cut – looks barren and shaved now. Annabelle has planted out her tagetes, and her chamomile is out now, and the bean is flowering, she is most pleased.

Had a good first crop of sugar-snaps yesterday, they have done well so far. Currants are nearly ready, but the cherry has dropped most of its fruitlets, only a couple of live ones left on. The fig is very slow, only just come out in leaf really.

Rockery is a riot, mostly with alliums that are much too big for it, especially moly. I shall have to read the riot act, but maybe after they’ve finished… Lots of lovely goodies as well though, all coming on apace.

Planted out the rest of the alpine strawberries, the first batch of leeks (in the broad bean bed), the rest of Sungold tomatoes. Sowed 4×4 climbing French beans (Sultana) in root-trainers. Tried to plant out the chionodoxa into the grass triangle, which proved rather tricky, as they has grown very long fleshy roots, so it was hard to make holes deep enough and then get them into there without breaking the roots off.

The first new raised bed filled in and raked. Sowed 1m (ie cross) rows of: Mixed salad leaf, carrot Fly Away (x2), French Beans Purple Queen (x2), beetroot Bonnel, proper Russian turnip (Petrovskaya), lettuce mixed Lobjoits Green and Lakeland, rocket, planted out half the Sungold tomatoes (had to cover them with a fleece tunnel, it’s been quite nippy at nights and they are suffering).

Planted out Swiss chard at the end of the second of the new raised beds. Can’t fill it completely yet, because the link-a-bord kits were rather short on dowelling.

Found a monstrous number of leatherjackets while clearing space for the raised beds, almost more than the slugs. Maybe they are still the cause of damage to the raspberries?

Sowed 4 root-trainers each of dahlia, rudbeckia, gazania and zinnia. Also bought a cactus dahlia labelled R.Zoe at the plant sale a few days ago.

Planted out the maincrop peas, in two little towers.

Sowed courgette, watermelon, and cucumbers (both).

Things in pots are getting rather dry. But it is the most beautiful time.

Found (and squashed) the first scarlet lily beetle of the season.

Everything apart from the morning glory sprouted very quickly, but I am not too bothered as they have managed to seed themselves, so I don’t really need a pot-raised one. Have had to plant out the nemesia a few days ago, as they were bursting out of the pots and starting to flower, but it is a bit too chilly for them at night still, so should have started them a bit later. Artichokes and kohlrabi seem ready to go out, and the peas.

The new purple mustard from Sarah Raven’s is not nearly as hot and interesting as the one we had last year.

The parsley that was brought inside in early spring for quicker growth did grow quickly, but got aphids just as quickly, making it pretty unusable, and setting it back a lot. The ones outside are now pretty lush. The bay tree is flowering So is the rosemary, but that’s not nearly so exciting somehow.

The ceanothus is in full bloom, but there is barely a bee to be seen, which is pretty horrific.

New raspberry canes are mostly sprouting, or at least have promising-looking buds.

Thinking of scrapping the sickly big camellia, and putting in a small trellis arbour seat, for better contemplative viewpoint. And what a great opportunity for extra climbers! Can’t think where I’d squeese in the penstemon that would have to move though.