Tag: Gardening

Winter Gardening

Normally the garden is dormant through the winter months but this year we’ve been planting up the space where the boundary hedge used to be, and making a few other changes around the garden too.

I’ve totally ignored the spacing guidance and planted four apple trees (Arthur Turner for cooking, Ashmead’s kernal, Saturn and Red Devil for eating) along the fence, interspersed with climbing roses and clematis. We moved the Crown Princess Margareta and James Galway roses from the damp and shady corner at the back of the garden to the fenceline. I really hope they survive the move, especially Margareta as its a beautiful rose and has always done well despite a less than ideal aspect but one that has been retired by David Austin. We also planted The Generous Gardener and Strawberry Hill along the fence, and the rambler Malvern Hills to climb over the pergola, because I go into a kind of trance when the David Austin catalogue arrives. I planted daffodil bulbs between the roses and apple trees at the end of December and start of January, far later than planned.

We’ve moved one of our square raised beds from the shady, far corner to beside the green house to make space for the kids’ swing, a birch tree and Holly bush in the corner instead.

Our youngest daughter usually toddles about and digs in the mud when we’re gardening, while our oldest helps planting bulbs, watering and collecting worms and other creepy crawlies. We all get so much out of time spent outside in nature.

In the deep midwinter, when the weather swings between hard frosts and torrential rain, it feels good to get outside when we can to feel the sunlight on our faces and tackle some of the jobs in the garden that need done. Now in the first days of spring, we’ve had sunshine (if not warmth) the hellebores and daffodils blooming and the promise of so much more as nature starts to wake from hibernation. Have a lovely week. X

September Sunshine and Storms

September has always been one of my favourite months, usually offering a gentle transition from summer into autumn, as the last of the warmth and light fades into crisp cool mornings and darkening evenings.

It’s also one of the loveliest months in the garden. The hardy geraniums have passed their best but they’ll stubbornly continue flowering until the first frosts, the roses have caught a second wind, the pink aster has flowered and there have been butterflies fluttering around the garden in the sunshine.

In one week I gathered over 600g of cherry tomatoes and my husband has conceded that I was right to salvage the plants he’d given up on. I’ve picked a single sweet sugar pumpkin, as always slugs and snails appear to have gotten most of the others before the skins had a chance to harden. Most exciting of all was harvesting a dozen small cooking apples from our Grenadier tree planted in 2018, enough to bake a pie or eve’s pudding.

Time outside at this time of year feels precious before the cold, dark and inclement weather sets in. We’ve been enjoying trips to the park kicking a ball around with our energetic three year old, gathering fallen leaves to press and acorns for the squirrels that visit our garden. We’re an outdoorsy family but it’s easier to get out when the weather is fair than foul, and I’m determined to find ways to get outside through the winter months.

After the mini heatwave earlier in the month, the weather has definitely turned this week bringing the first named storm (‘Agnes’) of the season, so we’re making ourselves cosy at home until it passes. Take care and have a lovely week. X

Bittersweet Changing Seasons

Autumn is upon us once more, a transitional season that reminds me of the inevitability of change, and this year feels particularly bittersweet. At the end of July, my blog turned seven. I originally named my blog ‘Lovely and Grateful’ because I wanted it to record all the loveliness in my life that I’m grateful for and even the not-so-lovely parts that remind me not to take anything for granted, but I’m not sure if the name still fits. I’d love to know what you think in the comments.

There have been other milestones too, our youngest daughter started crawling at 7 months, then pulling herself up and crabwalking around furniture, she is just so desperate to join in with her big sister’s games and to see what we’re doing. We’ve had a fair few disrupted nights because of teething, but she has taken to weaning with great enthusiasm, willing to try anything and enjoying most of the same meals we eat (without the salt or stock). At nearly 10 months old, she’s still petite and cheerful, but curious and determined too. Over the last few months, we’ve been getting out to bookbug sessions at the local library and baby sensory, which we’ve both really enjoyed. As her first birthday draws near, I’m already feeling the nerves and guilt about returning to work but she’ll have her big sister to look out for her at nursery.

As for our oldest daughter, she is as boisterous and independent as ever but also surprises us with her caring and generous side. We’ve finally started getting to know the parents of our 3 year old’s nursery friends and have had a few playdates together, that we’ve all enjoyed and that I really felt we’d missed out on because of Covid19.

There has been a big change in the garden too, and I’m still getting used to the new view. When our new neighbours in the house attached to ours moved in they asked to replace the privet hedge that separates our gardens with a fence, we politely declined citing the wildlife such as nesting sparrows and hedgehogs passing through. Unfortunately, we’ve had to reconsider recently as they now have a dog that regularly strays into our garden, and he’s a large, reactive breed that scares our kids.

As it happens, I suspect the sparrows had already abandoned the hedge, and we haven’t seen any hedgehogs this year, but it does make me sad that we’re making our garden inaccessible to any that try to visit in the future, but we’ll find other ways of making the space wildlife friendly.

It’s been a summer full of family trips to beaches and playparks, our first family holiday together and lots of time in our garden, and I’m a little sad to say goodbye to the season. So many of the summer highlights have been the pure and simple joy of gardening and watching our daughters learn and grow, and the ordinary moments playing, dancing, reading stories, crafting and swimming together that is the fabric of our family life. As the weather cools and the nights draw in, we have a couple of autumnal light shows to look forward to, as well as our youngest daughter’s first birthday, and all the seasonal loveliness to be found in nature at this time of year. Have a lovely week. X

Summer Harvest

I’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch lately, but trying to find little joys everyday, and one place that I can always find a sense of purpose and peace is our garden. As summer is almost over, it seems like a good time to reflect on some of the successes, failures and lessons of the growing season.

We’ve built two new raised bed in the front garden, and filled them with soil from digging out the pond. We had dried peas from ages ago, so decided to use them as a cover crop to improve the soil in one of the new raised beds. Next year, my husband plans to turn this bed into a permanent strawberry and asparagus patch.

I find courgettes and pumpkin will grow almost anywhere so I’m growing some in the other new raised bed in the front garden. The slugs got quite a few of the early yellow courgettes so we’ve only picked a handful that made it to a reasonable size. Next year, I might grow them in the greenhouse.

Our oldest daughter is always an enthusiastic little helper in the garden, we let her plant carrot seeds in some tubs, which turned out to be one of our biggest successes. I’ve never had any luck with root veg, but we were all thrilled when my daughter pulled up the carrots she had grown all by herself.

The biggest disappointment were the brassica, the sprouting broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale that all got devoured by the slugs.

We’ve been gathering handfuls of strawberries through June, then a few blueberries and wine berries. The rhubarb has been disappointing, I suspect it struggled with too much sunlight and heat early in the season.

My husband lost interest in the tomatoes; some become pot bound, the ones in the greenhouse were dehydrated while the ones outside were drenched by the rain. I’ve never grown tomatoes before but I’ve taken charge of the survivors. My husband says we’ll get 10 tomatoes if we’re lucky, and I say challenge accepted!

August often seems like monsoon season in the west of Scotland, hot and wet, but I noticed rowan and elderberries, horse chestnuts and acorns on the trees, and I’m so looking forward to Autumn and hopefully harvesting a few pumpkins and apples too. Have a lovely week. X

Wildlife Watch in the Garden

One of the highlights of the summer has been watching all the wildlife in our garden, particularly the front garden since we’ve added the pond.

I’d read worrying reports of a lack of insects across the UK leading to chicks starving, but I was so relieved to see our blue tit and sparrow fledglings in the garden in June. In previous years, the blue tits nested in a disused pipe on the side of our house and invariably at least one chick would either shuffle or be pushed off the edge, last year we lost three chicks from either the fall or dehydration before we could return them to the nest, so the birdbox has been a huge success in that regard.

It made my day when I spotted a pair of goldfinches bathing in our pond because we’ve never been able to coax them into our garden before. While chatting with a neighbour, I also spotted a bullfinch in her garden and I’m wondering if I can lure it to our garden just a couple of houses further up.

Many of our most interesting wildlife finds have been in the front garden, my husband spotted a lacewing for the first time and I spent half an hour watching a red damselfly flit around the pond. My husband was beside himself with excitement when he found grasshoppers in our fairly wild front garden, giving him the perfect excuse not to mow the grass for a while longer.

The Kilmarnock Willow was covered in aphids in early summer providing a feast for ladybird larvae, and we also spotted a very hungry and very fat green caterpillar crawling around. None of these insects are particularly rare or unusual but it’s wonderful to see our garden becoming a thriving habitat in an urban environment.

I know one little garden is not enough to stop the rapid decline of so many species across the UK, and I feel so out of sync with my friends and neighbours who are replacing their lawns with artificial grass or paving over front gardens to create driveways, yet I have to try, and I’ll keep trying to create a little safe haven for everything that finds its way here (especially if it eat slugs!). Have a lovely week. X

An Oasis in the Urban Desert

Last summer, my interest in environmental issues peaked during the heatwave and I was alarmed to learn that the UK is one of the most nature depleted landscapes in the world. I’ve always been someone who believes that small actions matter and we gardeners have the ability to make a real difference to support wildlife and biodiversity.

One suggestion that came up again and again was adding a water feature to the garden. I have fond memories of watching tadpoles, frogs and dragonflies in my best friend’s pond as a child, and thought a pond would be a lovely feature to add to our own garden.

We decided to put the pond in the front garden as it seemed safer for the kids as they’re never out the front unsupervised. We (or rather my hubby and father-in-law) dug out the pond, put in a liner and part filled with the hose, and then cemented crazy paving around the edge. It’s about 60cm deep at the deepest point with a shelf at 30cm and a gradual slope up to a wide pebble beach to prevent any animals from drowning.

I’ve been filling the pond with plants, Hornwort and water crowfoot as oxygenators, then water forget-me-nots, flag iris and Marsh marigolds as marginals. We’ve also submerged a couple of water lillies in the deepest part of the pond, but I’m prioritising native plants to attract wildlife.

Cranesbill or hardy geraniums are my favourite perennial, so they were my first choice for planting around the pond to soften the edges, provide shelter for critters and food for pollinators. I relocated dragonheart from the long border in the back garden to the edge of the pond, along with a blue geranium I picked up years ago that has been living in a pot while I tried to find a permanent home for it, and added a few more that I bought from a local nursery.

I’ve always taken a “build it and they will come” approach to coaxing wildlife to our garden, and been rewarded when birds, insects and animals have found their way here. We all trooped out in our Pyjamas one evening after I’d spotted a pond skater, and my husband found diving beetles a few days later. It made my day when I spotted a pair of goldfinches bathing in the shallows as we’ve never had them in the garden before.

We’ve had a prolonged spell of dry, hot weather, leading to water scarcity warnings (very rare in Scotland!) and we’ve seen the pond water level dropping, and algae spreading. Nevertheless, I hope that over the summer our pond will be a little oasis in the urban desert for wildlife. Have a lovely week. X

Birds, Bees and Seedlings

We’ve been enjoying a spell of warm, sunny weather lately, which has meant we’ve been spending lots of time out in our garden.

I risked sowing chilli seeds at the start of February, as always tricky to judge when the best time to start them off is as they need a long growing season but seedlings raised on my windowsills tend to go leggy as they stretch towards the sun on East and West facing windows, before transferring them to the greenhouse.

I sowed pumpkin, squash, courgette and sunflower seeds in the middle of April, and I’ll plant them out in June – which will probably bring a month of rain and a plague of slugs knowing my luck. My husband has also started off lots of tomato seedlings, and we spent an afternoon at the weekend pricking out and repotting them. The greenhouse is currently full of seedlings and plants as we’re always ridiculously optimistic about how much we can grow in our garden.

There was blossom on three of our four apple trees, unfortunately the other has grown several water spouts from the trunk, which is usually a sign of stress or a failed root graft. Our plum tree also had two little flowers on it earlier in the spring.

In the flower beds, the tulips and daffodils have died back but the Geum and Thistle have flowered, and I always enjoy counting and identifying the bees that have been crawling all over them.

We got a bird house for Christmas and affixed it to the side of the house, soon after a pair of blue tits moved in and I love watching them flit back and forth to feed their chicks while I’m working in the greenhouse.

May is often a month of anticipation marking the gentle transition from spring to summer, and it’s been lovely to spend so much time outside. Even when we have very little to show for our efforts, gardening brings us a tremendous amount of joy. Have a lovely week. X

Sunshine and Snow in the Garden

Over the last few days, we’ve had a cold snap bringing frost, subzero temperatures and a tiny dusting of snow, but it was only the week before that I spent a lovely afternoon out in the garden with my girls in the sunshine.

Our youngest was wrapped up in her bouncer watching pinwheels spinning in the breeze before she drifted off for a little nap, as I tidied up the long border removing all the dried stems from last year, while our the three year old played witch on a broomstick. It’s not easy to keen on top of gardening with two little kids underfoot so I’ve been trying a little and often approach.

It’s always lovely watching the garden waking up after winter, from the first hellebores underneath the bamboo to the tete-a-tete daffodils in the long border. I’ve also enjoyed watching birds flitting around the garden, there have been blue tits, sparrows, long tailed tits, blackbirds, Robins and tiny wrens, which we’ve never seen in the garden before.

We woke this morning to a light flurry of snow falling. Spring can be such a changeable and unpredictable season, and yet one that I appreciate more and more as a time of renewal and the return of light and life after the barren darkness of winter. Have a lovely week. X

January in the Garden

Something about the new year always fills me with inspiration, and I’m itching to get into the garden – alas we’re still in deepest, darkest Winter here in Scotland. The bamboo is providing some greenery, the Winter Spinach in the raised bed is doing well too and there are tips of spring bulb stems peeking above the soil but with the temperature hovering around 0°C this week, spring still feels like a long time away.

Nevertheless, I’ve been sorting through my seed box and thinking about what I’d like to grow. We have heavy clay soil and have never had any luck growing root vegetables, and its easy enough to get carrots, potatoes and onions so I leave those to the professionals. This year the plan is to grow kale, spinach, chard, peas, pumpkins and squash, as well as tomatoes and chilli peppers in the greenhouse. I’d also like to try growing ginger and my husband wants to try growing asparagus though that’s a long term project.

The flowerbed is fairly full of hardy perennials but I’m planning to grow more wildflowers around the garden too, partly because they’re lovely but also for the pollinators and insects. I’ve had mixed success with wildflowers in the past, the first few years, the beds were overflowing with lavetera, cornflowers, poppies and calendula but they haven’t done as well over last couple of years but I’ll keep trying.

Though we’ve lived here for 6 years now, I’m still so grateful to have a garden of our own. Have a lovely week. X

Halloween at Home

Just typing out a quick post at the end of a busy but lovely weekend spent celebrating Halloween. With my due date just around the corner, we’ve been staying close to home but have still found lots of ways to have fun while we wait.

I bought a pumpkin to make a Jack O’Lantern and my daughter requested a cat. It’s a bit of an odd skill but I enjoy the challenge of carving pumpkins, though compared to some of my previous ideas, this one felt like I was resting on my laurels.

We had planned to light the firepit in the garden to toast marshmallows but rain scuppered our plans so we baked a spiced pumpkin cake instead. Lucky for us, our daughter is almost always happy to bake, paint or shape playdough so we don’t have to worry too much about being stuck inside when the weather is particularly inclement.

We haven’t been too cooped up though as there was a Halloween party at our toddler sensory group, full of themed activities and fun. We also went for wanders around parks between rain showers to let the little one burn off some energy splashing through puddles and thrashing through a thick carpet of leaves, while I admired the autumn foliage.

We’ve spent some time in our own garden too, making a note of ideas for next year and little jobs to do over the winter. I don’t bother tidying up too much and just let things die back naturally as the weeds tend to take over when the soil is left bare, but we really need to trim the hedges, thin the bamboo and mow the lawn once more before winter. Another job for winter is to paint and seal the inside of the summerhouse.

My last minute winter veg experiment has had mixed results: the winter spinach has done quite well, but slugs ate most of the rainbow chard, there’s a couple of daikon (mooli) and a single turnip growing too. I planted a row of peas to add a bit of nitrogen to the soil, and scattered some wood ash as I’d read that it can deter slugs and add potassium to the soil. I started some more chard in the greenhouse that seems to be doing reasonably well, but the cabbage and kale failed, which is disappointing as leafy greens are one of the few cravings I’ve had during this pregnancy.

I really love the “embery” months from September to February with the contrast of wrapping up in coats and boots to venture outside and making ourselves cosy at home with blankets and candles, and this Halloween weekend has been full of simple, seasonal pleasures. Happy Halloween, and have a lovely week. X