Our little garden at home is filling up and filling out
nicely. We measured it at approximately 35m2 which is quite tiny,
but it is big enough for us two, some raised beds, a shed, a bird feeding
station, a makeshift pond, a seating area, a potting bench, and some bedding
either side. Honest. There was already some greenery here when we moved in –
mostly evergreen shrubs – but the landlady has given us permission to plant
more things and to grow veggies too.
David has built me three wooden raised beds and put together
a raised trug planter thingy that Momma P gave me. He has also put up the bird
feeding station, a solitary bee box, and attached a hanging basket hook to the
shed. I have put sturdy garden mesh along the fence panels so that climbing
things can climb, and tall things can be tied up to give them support.
In the garden I have sown veggie seeds in the raised beds
whilst leaving room for sowing more next month. I sowed most things at the
start of the month and they are only just coming up now! I have radish, carrot,
turnip, spinach, beetroot, chard, peas, beans, salad leaves, lambs lettuce,
spring onion, leek, nasturtium, and calendula. I also dug up some strawberry
plants from the plot and replanted them in the garden, and I have ordered some giant strawberry plants today to go into a new hanging basket.
I also chucked some seed potatoes from work into the longer raised
bed as I needed somewhere to put them – being furloughed means I cannot plant
them at work, and we already planted loads at Ley Hill Community Garden before
the lockdown started, which was fortunate. These potatoes at home are now
poking up between the carrot, radish & turnip seedlings so I hope they all
get along fine, and that the seedlings can put on enough growth before they get
swamped by the spuds!
I spent a happy three hours in the sunshine a couple of days
ago, in a rocking chair, reading. I basically moved the living room outdoors,
and with my wide-brimmed sun hat and a coating of factor 30, I was good to go.
I have started reading 'Dancing with Bees' by Brigit Strawbridge-Howard. I bought
this a while ago but was waiting to finish another book before I picked this
one up.
The birds are still happily visiting us; I am going to have
to resupply with bird seed etc soon. The blue and coal tits are still taking cat
fur – I have to keep scooping it up from the shrubs where they drop it to put
it back in the holder for them to collect. They are getting quite good at
clinging to the garden mesh on the fence to get the fur they want!
I installed a bird watering station too. There is a small
water tray on the bird feeding station but it gets filled with peanuts and
sunflowers, so I thought I’d make a ground level watering area – mainly for the
dunnocks and blackbirds to get a drink. It is a cat litter tray from Poundland
with a timber off-cut ramp, and some pebbles to weigh the wood down. I have
seen coal tits drinking from it a few times now!
The garden is very green, except for the acer which is a
rich red colour. I am really looking forward to having it full of colour; I have
several sunflowers to plant (white, red, orange, and yellow), and I have also
ordered some other plants. There was already a clematis which I think is going
to have white flowers, so I bought a purple clematis whilst grocery shopping
last week. I have ordered honeysuckle, red-hot pokers, and a load of seeds
including campion, cowslip, deadnettle, clover and toadflax. Some of these seeds
are going to be spread in the garden and some at the allotment. I have already chucked a load of flower seeds down and these are starting to come up too. I sowed calendula, tagetes, nigella, cosmos, foxglove, poppy, and whatever else I could find in my seed box.
We/I spend the days in the living room with the doors flung
open so we can hear the birds. Our neighbours are quite quiet and the pub down
the road is shut, so it is nice to just be able to sit.
