In praise of the futility room :)

Now the porch is nice and clean and has dried out I can get started filling it up with seeds and plants and stuff :)

I am going to re pot all these geraniums as they are looking a bit sad. A bit of worm compost in the bottom of the pot and they will feel much better :)

It is too cold today to pot things up in the polytunnel so I have moved into the porch to work. Here is a christmas basket with two cyclamen waiting to be potted  into seperate pots and given some tlc.

I also washed more gravel trays and seed modules in the futility* room - normally I do this work in the polytunnel but it is just too cold out there for me to work without my fingers seizing up. So I have come inside to do this job. Thank goodness we have a futility* room with a sink in!

It feels so good to be doing some gardening again :) 

(It's a utility room, really. But I prefer to call it this as trying to keep it tidy is a futile task ;)  )

Two useful garden items

@AldiUK @Easywatering #busyinthegarden

 I have a huge polytunnel so you would think I had lots of space for plants wouldn't you? Well actually at this time of year no I don't :) I need all the space in there for the tomatoes and pepper plants so am gradually planting out all the other stuff. Some of the plants are a bit tender to go outside just yet so it is really handy to have cold frames and cloches but they are all full of vegetable plants at this time of year. Also to save my back something which means I don't have to bend down would be very handy. 

Some of you may remember that back in March I was sent some items to review by Aldi. I was sent a small greenhouse and some covers; a pair of secateurs and some plant pots. The pots are now filled with perennials waiting to go outside into the new flower bed, the secateurs are used for cutting flowers to bring into the house and the Greenhouse? It is full to bursting with all sorts of plants at the moment, mostly  perennials grown from cuttings - I must have saved 100's of pounds by doing this considering the cost of good sized  perennials to buy in garden centres!

It was far too windy here in March to put the Greenhouse outside so I left it in the box for a bit but when I  finally got around to erecting it I found it was very easy as the instructions were pretty clear.









Top tip - put together one side of each shelf like this,

before slotting the tubes into the other side fixture bar. Then add the four vertical tubes and repeat three more times.

Add the top two arched bars...

Drape the cover over the top...

And fill with plants. It took me about 10 minutes to put together with no help from anyone else.

I am very impressed with this little greenhouse :) The four tier greenhouse cost £19.99 from Aldi and  replacement covers are £4.99. Aldi also do some good offers on plants so keep an eye open for them in store.

Another useful garden related item I was sent recently was a small drip feed irrigation system from Easy Watering. Easy Watering was formed in 2005 and was based on a very simple principle. The owners of the business moved to a new house and found it took hours to water the garden. They decided to try to set up a watering system but found it difficult to get all the parts they needed then found it difficult to find someone who also had the knowledge on how to install an irrigation system. As a result they decided to start up Easy Watering, a business dedicated to Watering and Irrigation Systems. The business is based in Newent, not very far away from Compost Mansions.

I was sent a 7.5 Metre Micro Drip Line Kit to try. Included in the kit was 7.5 metres of Micro Drip Line, 4 x Elbow connectors, 4 x Tee Connectors, 5 x stop ends and a tap connector.

By using the elbows, tees and stop ends you can make up a drip watering system shaped to your design which takes water from a tap and delivers it where you need water. It was easy to set up and I have mine arranged around the pots which are hardening off on the tables near to the polytunnel. Later in the year I will move the system and rearrange it so that it adds to the other drip watering hoses I use inside the polytunnel

Easy Watering. 7.5 Metre Micro Drip Line Kit  price: £10.69



Disclaimer. I was sent these items to review. All opinions are my own :)

Not safe to let me go to Garden Shows!

I was very kindly sent some money by MoneySupermarket.com as part of my entry to their home improvement hero  competition.

 They are asking 

Is it possible to change the look, feel and even functionality of a room on a low budget? We’re asking bloggers to provide step-by-step instructions to help educate the nation on how to carry out simple, yet effective home improvements. Whether you have skills in craft, art or DIY, we want to see what you can do with a £50 budget.

 My bright idea was to use the money from this competition to change the look, feel and  functionality of my "garden room" ( ie flower beds) outside my sitting room.

I wanted to improve the view from our sitting room and (nearly finished - yay!) newly refurbished bedroom, so when we looked out of the windows we would see lots of colour and insect life. The view  is not very attractive at the moment, with weeds and a half dug patch of soil on show.  This area used to have Leylandii trees, but they blocked the light and shaded the sitting room so last year we cut them down .

Compostman then dug the stumps out (using the JCB) and we moved a large tree Paeony into the hole, but that is all that has happened so far. It is a bit of a mess and as it is by the road and we look directly out on this area I felt it could do with a makeover.
 

View from sitting room and bedroom window

I was working with the idea that if I improve the view out of the window, I have also improved the room itself. Inspired by some of the planting I saw at Hampton Court I came up with a design for planting up a new herbaceous perennial flower bed, as well as some improvements to at least one other existing bed. I used some of the money to buy some nice new plants but this is going to be frugal flower planting as I can't afford to spend the sort of money on plants that I saw at Hampton Court!

I marked out where I wanted the new bed to go and then Compostman got to work digging, while I gathered up plants and seeds and took stock to decide what I would need to buy.

At the moment I have quite a good collection of plants I have grown from cuttings or seed. I also always keep an eye open for "past their prime" plants sold at a discount.  I bought three plants late last year (Coreopsis, Solidago and Aster) which would have been £8 each full price, for £1 pound each and re potted them and over wintered them.  These have been earmarked to go in my new flower bed.

I also took advantage of the good deals on plants at various local nurseries with  "4 for £10"  offers which I used to buy some rather nice RHS award of merit Geraniums as well as some Campanulas and Nepetas. I am also a member of various Garden Centre loyalty schemes so was able to get BOGOF deals on some of the plants I wanted to buy (the two Dahlias in particular were a bargain at £4 each)  I also got lucky at a local garden supermarket where they were selling various herbaceous perennials cheap because they looked rather tatty. A bit of tlc and some dead heading and they looked pretty good again and will look even better next year. They cost me £1 each rather than the £5 each full price.

I had no need to buy in soil improver, either! I dug out a lot of wood chip compost to enrich the very hard clay soil in the new bed. Note my lovely new wheelbarrow - thank you, Argos!

I then got cracking and and laid out the plants in their pots on the soil and arranged (and rearranged) them to my design. Then Compostman and I got to work planting them. As it is so hot at the moment we waited until the evenings so as to be a bit cooler.
 

I also had some summer flowering bulbs which I planted in the bed in drifts of colour. These were reduced at the end of last year so I got them cheap (£2 each pack) and planted them in pots to overwinter in the polytunnel - some of them came in handy today. I also planted some of the Crocosmia bulbs I got free from Spalding Bulbs.

I had a lot of (free) wildlife friendly seeds stored up, which I scattered around the herbaceous perennial planting. Hopefully it is not too late for these to flower if the weather continues fair. If not, I have more seed packets and will be sprinkling them on the bed next year. I have also planted some daffodils and snowdrops in this bed - we have a lot from where we were digging around the pool so I have moved a lot of bulbs across

part way through planting up.

Compostgirl helped me with some of the watering

The colour scheme starts yellow at the left, moving through orange, red, blue, purple, pale lilac and then finally white on the right of the bed, with the backdrop of the honeysuckle and the climbing rose on the fence. It still looks a little sparse; I wish I could afford to buy lots of each plants to re create the dense planting effects I saw at Hampton Court, but I can't so have done what I can, with what I have. I do have lots more cuttings growing, especially Lavender, Geraniums, Nepeta and Daisy though, so will be able to add more plants to this bed as time goes by.

Finished, for now

View through the sitting room window now

I view my garden as a part of my house; an "outside room" if you like, so I want to make it all as attractive as I can. With the money I got from moneysupermarket.com I could have bought a picture to hang on the wall in the sitting room but rather than a frozen image in a frame I have chosen to improve the view of the "living picture", outside. The wildlife love it as well!

I spent a total of £43 on plants for this new bed, both new and bought at a discount.  I have also planted three Pulmonaria  and a couple of extra Lavender plants, which I grew from cuttings for free.

Planting

Wildflower Seeds (free)
many different Bulbs (free)
Globe Artichoke x 3 (from Rocket Gardens delivery)
Solidago
Coreopsis
Dahlia
Geranium (split into two plants)
Campanula Globerosa (split into two plants, one used)
Nepeta (split into two plants, one used)
Aster
Salvia
Penstemon
Dahlia
Lavender
Pulmonaria (several, split from plants in the garden in spring)
Polemonium
Aqueligia
Centaurea
Philadelphus
White Foxglove
Campanula persicifolia (split into two plants, one used)
Buddlia alba


Most of these plants would be £5 each, to buy full price, some (like the Buddlia and the Philadelphus shrubs) would be £8 - £10 to buy so I think we have managed well to buy so many plants with the money :-)



So, if you want to plant up a frugal-ish herbaceous perennial flower bed, have a look round for discounted plants and give them some tlc, maybe re pot them into a bigger pot as well? If you can, split plants into two or maybe three? Also look out for discount flower seeds which you could sow now and then plant out as plants next year? At this time of year a lot of gardening magazine are giving away free perennials and biennials seeds on the covers, why not buy one and sow the seeds? And look out for BOGOF and multi - buy offers to collect lots of plants together.

Have fun!

Well worth growing!

At this time of year it is hard to find some fresh crops to eat - April and early May are not called Hungry Gap months for nothing! Leeks, Parsnips, Potatoes, Cabbages and some other brassicas etc are coming to the end of their life, stored veg begins to sprout/soften/go off and sometimes it is nice to have something fresh and green, rather than root or stored veg.

I grow some Kales and Purple Sprouting Broccoli, some outside and a also few plants inside the polytunnel for when the weather is really foul and I can't face harvesting from the outside veg patch.

All of these can be sown now, to harvest either soon ish or in the winter months.

Stuff I grow which I am still harvesting


Asparagus Kale, from the Heritage Seed Library (HSL) . Soft buttery flavoured leaves which I like to nibble on, raw, straight from the plant. Wonderful picked and cooked immediately.




Nero de Toscana Kale - ditto slightly stronger flavour and an interesting , crinkled texture.




Purple Sprouting Broccoli - I have 8 outside plants, started harvesting the shoots in Feb and have finally just finished picking the last crop of shoots!



The hens get the tough leaves, still attached to the stems, to nibble on - finally they are allowed to eat it!


 

 

Broccoli Raab, I am growing 40, 60 and 90- day varieties from MoreVeg seeds and the 40 day variety is ready in the polytunnel now - I have sown more as we are eating the first lot I sowed in March. Another plant I eat raw when in the polytunnel. A spicy version of Purple Sprouting Broccoli I think, but not as strong flavoured as Mustard Greens - something else I grow as a salad leaf.





I still have a thriving patch of Perpetual Spinach which I planted seed for last April, the plants are still going strong and giving me lots of tasty leaves.


We are also now eating Rocket, Mizuma, Mustard greens and Asparagus Lettuce (seeds from HSL)   Again an early planting in the polytunnel but you could grow them on a windowsill inside and get good, early crops.


Something I am very pleased about this year is my sucess at growing Watercress "Aqua" - never tried this before as I thought it needed clean flowing water ( like the watercress beds in Hertfordshire near where I grew up as a child) but no! you CAN grow it in a pot! and it is lovely!



Some of these can be grown on a windowsill or in a conservatory, even if you do not have a greenhouse or polytunnel - so why not try something new this year?

In my polytunnel now

Plants all ready for selling ...

Some of my garden in June