The compost heap

Moving

I am supposedly moving house, and can’t think of much else to say about my Carshalton garden (the same thing happens every year, to be honest) so I’m going to wrap up this little blog and move over to kleruez.wordpress.com, which *might* have non-gardening stuff on it too, though possibly won’t. Who knows?

More birds

Having spent some money on a bird box, a large box of buggy balls and more mealworms, the birdwatch-fest is in full flow. I have to say that I hope they don’t just all disappear when the weather improves.

This morning I saw the blue tits, blackbird, robin and also a tiny little wren. The latter was on the fence, hopefully doing a good job on the overwintering pests.

Speaking of pests, seeds are now off the menu as I definitely saw a mouse yesterday morning. It’s now insects and apples only, plus the ubiquitous feeder full of peanuts (and bits of buggy ball, of course).

Dig up your drive

I don’t have a hope of digging up my drive. It’s solid concrete and fit for purpose, and a layer of gravel will make it reasonably attractive too. However, my patio is neither attractive nor practical. When it rains water pools on it, and the whole thing gently slopes towards the house so when it rains properly (and for the last few days it has REALLY rained) the rear of the house gets pretty wet.

The problem is made worse because the gutter drains into the water butt, which constantly overflows, and the rear of the house faces north so the sun doesn’t reach it in winter (though it does in summer because all the surrounding buildings are very low).

What we need, therefore, is to break the solid surface so that water can drain down into the ground below. To this end, we are going to dig up the patio and re-lay at least half of it, taking inspiration from checkerboard patios such as this:

http://artofgardeningbuffalo.blogspot.com/2009/01/indoor-inspiration-outdoors.html

The aspect of the above garden is very different so we can’t use the same plants. However, there are some plants I have already that should be suitable:

Christmas box (Sarcococca) is tolerant of shade and likes moist, well drained soil, so our damp sand should be perfect. It grows to 80cm so will go either side of the door near the house.

Strawberries are low, spread quickly, and do surprisingly well in shade. I find the ones near the fence in our garden do much better than those in full sun. These also won’t like to be stepped on so will go near the edges.

Chives are shade-tolerant and I have gazillions of them so they will get a square.

Forget-me-not may as well be a weed, covers ground rapidly and retains a low level except when in flower. Again, one for the edges.

I have some magic carpet thyme seeds, which I bought for the front garden to go in with the gravel. They will be good towards the northernmost edge of the patio where it gets more sun. Probably in next to the border.

For the centre of the patio and especially the bits nearer the house, I’m going to plant mind-your-own-business. Some say it’s a weed, but it’s a quick-spreading shade-tolerant weed so perfect for this situation.

For the other gaps I’m going to sow white clover, which is already abundant in the lawn, is shade tolerant, beloved of bees and happy to be walked on.

The corners nearest the flower bed can be used to extend the bed itself. Foxgloves can go in near next door’s house, and perhaps hollyhocks and verbenas near the bed.

I’ve also got a fairly low level geranium that has small pink flowers and likes shade and some allium seeds to sow.

The aim is for it to drain naturally, look pretty, encourage wildlife and yet still be suitable for a table and chairs and some foot traffic. Hopefully a version of the above will fit the bill and as soon as the interior is finished, it’s time to get the crowbar and spade out. Needless to say, it will spur me on to get the painting done…

Battening down the hatches

It still hasn’t really got cold so lots of stuff is still limping along when it should really be dying back. The shasta daisies are still flowering, which means their clumps are spreading unchecked. I’m desperate to chop them up into lovely new plants but can’t bring myself to sacrifice some of the few flowers in my garden.

Today I did manage to do quite a few things though (having been given a break from the diy). I sowed peas, sweet peas, alliums, lupins, sisyrinchiums and salvias. I’m not sure if the latter three should be sown in autumn or spring, but thought I’d give them a go.

I finally got round to untangling the strawberries and composted the majority of the runners. I still have about twenty new plants in pots, ready to give away next spring, along with the official box full and the colony that are taking over the flower bed. I should really dig some of these up, but I can’t see them getting so well established that they force any of the perennials to properly compete for nutrients so thought I’d leave them to it. I did give everything a bit of manure mixed with ash today, which I hope is good for them all. It looked nutritious anyway.

I’ve also left a fuchsia and salvia struggling in the shadow of the pink penstemons. I want to move them so they have a bit more of a chance but there really isn’t anywhere for them to go. Assuming they stay small I’ll take them with me when we move. At the moment there is so much stuff in pots I’m starting to think we’ll need an entire luton van just for the garden stuff when said moving day comes…

The Japanese Maple was repotted today - one pot size up, as instructed by the Bodwen Nursery. The roots looked good and dense and it’s now got a bit more manure and compost, plus the pot is the same size as the blueberries’ ones so it has achieved equal status.

I also moved the lupins (in pots) into Vince. I’m not worried about the frost getting them, more about all the new growth being munched away before they get going. They look quite happy anyway.

Autumn approaching

The amount of time I’ve been spending updating this blog is an accurate reflection of the amount of time I’ve been able to spend in the garden recently. Everything’s a bit neglected.

I received a big order of bulbs last weekend so aimed to get them planted on Sunday. However, by the time I’d felled the sunflowers, untangled the tomatoes and separated the blighted ones to go to the council compost mountain, filled the two newly empty veg boxes with leaf mould and old compost, scowled at the lawn and avoided the wasps, I didn’t have much time.

I managed to plant the bluebells around the jasmine and into the lawn - this is generally an area where nothing grows because the jasmine is so strong, but hopefully the bluebells will appreciate that this area gets very little sun over winter and that there is no ground cover.

The daffodils and tulips have gone in pots and been covered with net or chicken wire because I assume a squirrel will sniff them out somehow. I have thirty of each and hadn’t quite realised how much space they’d need.

The 150 crocuses are in the shed. Not 100% sure what I’m going to do with these… The plan was to get them in amongst the perennials but said plants are positively refusing to die back - the daisies are still flowering and the dahlias have put on such a beautiful display I’ve cut some of the flowers and brought them inside so that they can be appreciated. The penstemons are still going and even the wiegela has a couple of late flowers. Combined with the nettle patch and the nasturtiums, the last bees are pretty happy though.

Speaking of wildlife, I saw a robin on Sunday, which wouldn’t be of note but for the fact that it is only the second one I’ve seen in my garden in two and a half years (birds are generally pretty scarce). He was very friendly and quite taken by all the freshly dug patches.

I’ve also just received some Christmas box plants and a Magnolia so I’m looking forward to potting them up this weekend. I’ve also got an as yet unrealised plan to try and grow some salad in Vince this winter. I need to research the best varieties and decide what to do in there and whether there’s anything I can plant in the middle box too (the peas will be going in the right hand box in November again, given that they were so successful last year).

Slim pickings

I think the 2009 veg season has finally come to an end - we had two tiny peppers today, a couple of courgettes and a few garden peach and snow berry tomatoes. There are still plenty of green tomatoes and some courgettes that look like they might turn into something edible but the weather has taken a real turn for the worst so we’re not holding out much hope.

It seems impossible that we were on holiday this time a year ago and came home to trusses full of tomatoes and two full on marrows.