More seeds planted

True April weather still going strong - it’s somehow comforting when the seasons do what they are supposed to rather than the boiling hot temperatures we had this time last year. However it does mean it’s raining again! Good job it runs away into the sea.

Planted cosmos seed yesterday for filling in spaces in the borders. The packet said sow in a seed tray – I made more newspaper pots and sowed single seeds direct into the pots, surely that will cut out the pricking out stage which disturbs the plant? I have had cosmos self seed in the past in the garden so am fairly certain they’d do OK. I only planted 13 of each sort tall and dwarf, it’ll be interesting to see the success rate.

I haven’t got to the escallonia yet, but having decided it has to go I am itching to make a start cutting is down but there are more pressing tasks at the moment like planting sweet corn seed and nasturtium seed. I have never planted sweet corn before and an not sure where I shall squeeze it in but it obviously grows well because there are fields of it around here even if they are grown for silage and not the cobs – or so I believe. Come to that I even saw a field of sun flowers last summer up by Dorchester, how ‘climate change’ is that or perhaps not? I certainly don’t remember ever seeing such a thing before, except abroad in hot countries.

Other task to be done is tidying the front garden hands and knees job. Poor soil in the front garden as unlike the back it has never been cultivated and had lots of mature etc added. I am very lucky with my back garden soil, no stones, easy digging – what I do need to do is to get a soil testing kit and actually find out what I’ve got. I would hazard a guess that it’s fairly neutral but that is only a guess.

Forget me nots

This blogging is a bit time consuming and at this time of the year whenever the weather is nice and there’s not too much work indoors I’m out in the garden. However an update, last week we had terrible gales, yet again I didn’t plan ahead and take the terracotta pots of box bushes off the wall outside the back door and they got the full brunt of the storm and yet one more pot fell off and broke. Opportunity to repot in a larger pot and give a healthy amount of feed.

I have also been weeding and digging over the bed around where the Viburnum was. It is looking lovely with so much for-get-me-not in flower. I know it is technically a weed but I don’t care, it is easy to manage is very pretty and as can be see from the photos give loads of colour which is a bit lacking at the moment now that the daffs are over. I have another weed too all under one hedge, celandines, only a weed because it spreads but once its flowered it dies away so what’s the problem. Not weeds anyway - just wild flowers allowed into the garden.

I went for a lovely walk in a wood in Herefordshire last weekend and it was carpeted by bluebells, wood anemones and also some narcissi absolutely lovely. I’m not sure I have seen wood anemones in Dorset woods certainly not in such profusion, they were also growing in the hedgerows along with lots of violets and cowslips.

Anyway back to my garden. Having enjoyed the gain from the removal of the bulky green monster in the main border I am now considering that the escallonia that forms a huge bush 8 foot high and just as wide and doesn’t really do anything except take up a lot of space and needs a ladder and long arms to cut twice yearly can also go – watch this space. I do have another one so will still have the lovely scented foliage for flower arrangements. I’m not sure what should go in the space freed up but it’s a bit like knocking down walls indoors, you are never quite sure how the space will look.

My potted up petunia seedlings are thriving on the garage windowsill, both the ones in plastic pots and newspaper pots. In fact it hard to believe how squashed and bashed they were then they arrived in the post. Not sure how much bigger they should get be before planting out. I have repaired the bottom obelisk and dug over the area ready for planting but even though I am pretty sure that we have had the last of the frost… better wait a bit longer.

The strawberry plants from T&M which are planted in one of those bag things on the patio are in flower and very healthy, so maybe early strawberries, I think the sales pitch in the catalogue went something like ‘the sweetest, juiciest strawberries or your money back’! Still no sign of the tomato plants ordered at the same time.

Camellia Killer AKA Viburnum Killer!

Today after much contemplation went out into the garden and cut down a nice healthy, well rounded, ever green, shrub. The Viburnum (can't give a Latin name - just common round here) was a good and probably at the time cheap 'filler' for the new widened main border some 5 plus years ago. Just a little 2 foot shrub. However as a huge round dark green mass in the middle of the mixed border it was no longer working. I do feel mean about it and was considering taking cuttings which I am sure would take just fine but should a inflict such a boring plant on anyone else... I think not. The flowers were boring, never seemed to be smothered in insects, the scent, non existent. Of course next week I will learn that viburnum wood is highly prized by someone and if only I had let it go on for another few years.... my fortune made!! Perhaps not! However much as I have cut it down, there still remain lots of suckers and whether I poison the roots or dig them out. A time issue me thinks. However I can now see the lovely black Sambucus (black lace) that was hiding behind the Viburnum.

The plan for the garden

When I started out with the blank canvas of grass and apple trees I was a little overwhelmed and I have to say a nice expanse of grass does have a certain appeal especially when just mown. But I do like flowers so whilst pregnant with my first child I started to created a small border along the curve of a path to put in sweet peas. I was very pleased with my attempt but looking back now at the photos it was slightly pathetic and could hardly be said to add to the garden.

However I persevered and after a year of living with the garden and learning what was where and how it was affected by the weather and prevailing winds I decided that the bed at the top of the lawn by the bungalow should be a ‘hot’ bed with reds, oranges and yellows and after a couple of years the word ‘tropical’ was also used to define that bed. No bananas yet though.

At the bottom of the top lawn I had a lovely old apple tree with a 2 foot wide trunk which unfortunately had canker (nasty wasting disease that can spread to other trees) so I had to get it chopped down, though they don’t chop anymore do they, they chain saw them. Any way it had to go and because of the ‘shrubbery’ at the back of the lawn the area was quite shaded so I decided a ‘cool’ bed to balance the ‘hot’ bed at the other end of the lawn. The bed started a bit narrow and has slowly expanded to 6 foot deep as I have got more plants. I never have had the money to go and buy 5 of this and 3 of that to fill up the beds quickly.

I have always wanted a pond and after a couple of years whilst having a 5 year old and a toddler I decided to dig the pond. It did cross my mind that I should wait until they were older but since they were never in the garden with out me I thought it should be safe. Never having dug a pond before I had no idea quite how hard it was going to be. I didn’t want to use a rigid liner and so marked out a shape by hand. I made the mistake of having it follow the straight edge of the path along one side, it is never going to look right along that edge and if I did it again I would have a more natural curve all the way around.

The pong digging took much longer than I thought it would, kept going back and doing a bit more and then a bit more. After the foot or so of top soil was removed the sub soil had quite a lot of clay and was no good for topping up other borders so I had to find room under my privet hedges, I don’t think they have suffered for a top dressing of sub soil and it’s out of sight it was either that or hire a skip and carry buckets of soil up the garden through the garage and out to a skip.

No photos of pond digging – pre digital – obviously no film in the camera that couple of weeks.

Having finally finished digging the pond purchased a butyle liner, again another unknown, irregular shaped hole in the ground don’t want to get a liner either too small or too large. However the wastage was minimal. The pond once filled and established looked fine for while with a gentle slope at one end for wildlife to access the water and a small water feature. However at some point a slow leak has developed and the normal water level is constantly 2 or 3 inches lower than looks good. Have tried to patch where I think the leak was but it’s still happening. One of those problems that will need a good think about and some sort of solution but what ever it is will take time and effort so it’s on the back burner.
The silly little bed created for sweet peas in that first year had evolved gradually into quite a substantial mixed border with two hand built obelisks for growing climbers. I did have a perennial sweet pea on one but it got so untidy by mid summer that this year I have taken it out and plan to plant a new variety of climbing petunia. This is being done with mixed feelings as have tried with petunias in hanging baskets over the years and given up because of the mildew so we’ll have to see how they fare.

The bottom of the garden was once a well tended vegetable patch as evidenced by the richness of the soil and the rows of rusted soft fruit support that we all that was remaining when I got the garden. As the worst of the mess was hidden behind the shrubbery it got sorted very slowly initially just by mowing the weeds and brambles until the submitted and I was just left with grass. It then became just a play area for the boys and more lawn and has now become the start of the veg patch and room for the trampoline.

In the Beginning

My garden in 1995 when I first moved in

Welcome to my blog. This is all very new to me but I have been encouraged by a good friend who has several blogs on the go, which I will give links to when I have worked out how. I also found it very useful recently to post a message on another site regarding gardening and getting several suggestions of answers to my problem which made me realise that there are lots of normal 'gardening' people out there who may be interested in my progress and problems.

Firstly, the name of the blog refers to the fact that I look out over the sea in Weymouth, Dorset with what is, apart from the view, a normal 'surburban' back garden. I have the benefit of lots of sun and I suppose an added benefit of the warmth from the sea which means I rarely get a serious frost and no more than a few flakes of snow, much to the disappointment of the children.

I also have the negatives of being battered by gales which seem to come at all times of the year and which can seriously mess up a summer garden in full bloom. Also there is the issue of salt laden air which is not kind to all plants. However, I can leave dahlia, cannas and various other 'tender' plants in the ground or in pots on the patio with little fear of losing them. Last year I saw some strelitzia (birds of paradise) in pots in someone's local front garden so purchases 3 plants, they didn't do anything last year and have been left to fend for themselves in pots on the patio and it will be interesting to see if they manage to flower as the books say they are a conservatory plant.

When we moved to the property 13 years ago there was just lawn and apple trees and one border. Despite having a young growing family the garden has gradually got more and more borders and less grass - that never ending problem of having new ideas and plants that were bought on impulse and then having to find a home for them. I say my garden is a 20 year project at least and even then it won't be finished.

I have done all of the work in the garden myself, digging borders and building the pond, even did the brickwork round the edge. Also made some obelisks for plant to grow up as I have no fences for that purpose. Some occasional professional help with the tree pruning but can't afford anything too expensive. Wonder what it would be like to win the lottery and have a wonderful 'garden designer' garden but I would miss the pleasure of achieving something all my own.

I have started a proper veg patch this year having just had a few runner beans, tomatoes and corgettes in the past. I got the preparation all wrong, I had a tennis elbow all last year and only after the 3rd injection in November did all seem to get better by which time it was too late to dig over the patch and put the contents of a mature 3 year only compost bin onto the plot. I did all this in January and then after proudly surveying my work, reading in my veg book about only adding the compost in the autumn. It didn't say why this was, so it will be wait and see with the results of my crops.

At the moment I am planting up seeds and having had a clear out in the garage/potting shed last year realised that I had very few small pots so I went off to the garden centre and got some of these you plant straight into the ground as the pack can with 2 free packets of seeds - sucker me! However it was only when I got home that I realised they are 'peat' pots and though I do still use some peat compost as I haven't yet found a reliable alternative I was sure there must be alternatives to peat pots - then I remembered I had seen pots made from newspaper. Quick browse on the web and found the instructions and have done a test session with half peat pots half newspaper pots and the same seedlings and compost mix so we will see which do best. It will certainly cut down on the recycling box if I make the newspapers into pots and put them in the ground.

My first 'newspaper pots'