That was May!

It's JUNE! - not flaming June as today has dawned cold and wet. Whatever happened to May?

Well, we actually had some lovely spring - even summery - weather during May, which meant we could get out and DO STUFF in the garden. Quite a lot of digging over of vegetable plots that were neglected after  last year's crops were harvested, clearing some horrible ground-elder that is marching above and under ground from the neighbouring field, tending various seedlings sown in the greenhouse, re-potting 40 brussel sprouts and 60 Ailsa Craig onions from the seed tray into little pots......as well as cutting the grass (which with the wet and warm weather is growing like crazy), trimming bushes, hedges and so on. It's been really busy - hence a dearth of blogs.

Last weekend was a bank holiday and we had son Paul staying. We were all out in the garden for 4 full days and achieved miracles.

Planted out the rest of the squashes (6 Sprinters - kind of butternut). Already have 7 marrows, 5 Winter-fest squashes, 2 Turks Turban squashes growing outdoors.

Put out the French beans with their bamboo wigwams (Paul says they're teepees, wigwams being something entirely different!). I've always planted Blue Lake, but the last few years only about 50% of beans have germinated, both saved and bought-in seeds, so I've tried a different variety - Cobra. They nearly all germinated and are looking pretty good out there.

A new venture - Sweetcorn. We sowed these in the conservatory for warmth and on Saturday planted 18 about 12" tall in the raised bed.  The bed is a bit close to the hedge and so worried about rabbits and of course pigeons and pheasants who are greedy and eat everything. So we used out some poles, connectors and netting to make a cage to keep them safe until they get bigger. Mind you, it's also right by the hazel tree which attracts squirrels in the autumn. We'll have to keep a look out for robbers!

We also slung netting over the redcurrants which last year got completely devastated by birds.

Last autumn we acquired 30m of hedging courtesy of a tree scheme from the council to patch up some of the hedge between our garden and the field. But with Mum going and then with such wet, wet weather over the winter we hadn't put them in. Mostly hawthorn and some hazels, they were all wrapped up in bundles by the wood shed and beginning to look a bit sorry.So Chas spent most of Bank Holiday Monday transplanting them into pots where hopefully they will recover and thrive until we can get them to their proper positions.

Here's the walnut trees now with leaves. Also showing the raised bed and cage
with the Sweetcorn and tops of the French bean wigwams.

Spring update

Spring is well under way and the mixture of sunny days - up to 20C on occasion - and plenty of rain means everything is growing like crazy as you can see from these photos.

View from the conservatory door

Top of the garden taken at dusk. No leaves on the walnut trees yet.

Spent last weekend clearing ground elder from under the Korean pine. Horrible stuff that had runner roots like couch grass. it's come in from the field next door. There's a whole lot more under the magnolia!

Composting

1st-7th May is Compost Awareness Week!

Lots of information about different types of composting at www.carryoncomposting.com.

We have a fairly large garden so have lots of grass-cuttings, clippings, weeds and leaves to dispose of. So composting is the obvious way. Indeed we also need as much nutrients as possible to rejuvenate the soil in the veg plots and around the fruit trees and bushes. I also use the compost for seed-sowing and potting. This is a little problematic in that our compost heaps don't get hot enough to kill off weed seeds so along with lettuces I get a lot of weed seedlings, mostly chick-weed and nettles. That's OK because I can recognise them and quickly pull them. On the Carry-on-composting site they have suggestions for gently pasteurising compost in the oven or microwave. However, although this process will probably kill some seeds and bugs it may also kill off good organisms too.

Our compost regime

We have 3 composting bays in a row made from a wooden frame and sides. The bottom is open to the ground. They are about 2 metres square. We rotate them as:

1. Collecting
2. Maturing
3. Using

and the cycle takes about 18 months.

We dig them all over from time to time to get a good mix and aerate the compost. A rather motley collection of plastic roofing and wood panels provide part-shelter from the rain to avoid it getting too wet. It's also easier to deal with compost from the Using pile if it's not too wet.

What we put in:

1. Grass cuttings
2. Non-seedy annual weeds
3. Plant waste from tidying borders etc
4. Smaller prunings and cut-up twigs
5. Kitchen waste - peelings, etc (except for potatoes and bought-in onions)
6. Fallen apples
7. Leaves
8. Plain cardboard and paper (i.e. stuff without shiny printing)
9. Dirt from the vacuum cleaner
10. Ash from the wood-burners and bonfire

What we don't put in:

1. Rose branches and twigs
2. Thick twigs and branches from pruning
3. Potato peelings and bought-in onions (potatoes harbour viruses and I'm still nervous about the allium leaf miner which I'm sure was originally brought in from purchased onions.)
4. Couch grass, ground elder
5. Seedy annual weeds. (Must get to them earlier!)
6. Moss - takes forever to rot

This latter list goes on the bonfire and then the ash from the bonfire goes in the compost.