New grass for the garden

No, we haven't re-turfed the lawn. We went to B&Q last weekend to buy some green sticks for propping up our sunflower seedlings. £53 later we had sticks, we had shears, we had mastic and filler and, best of all, we had a selection of grassy plants.

We've an idea to create a grassy corner of the garden with the kind of plants that like a bit of light and a bit of shade. They'll be bushy little things, a perfect hiding place for wildlife in the garden.

All in all it'll add another area of contrast to a garden of contrasts and should look very good in a few months when the grasses have established themselves.

The garden is really starting to come together now, and we can't wait for the summer to arrive in earnest and all our plants to grow like they're enjoying themselves!

A sunflower year in the garden

We were rather over-zealous in planting sunflower seeds recently and now we've more than 60 little seedlings at the stage where they needed re-potting before they grow too big for their small pots. Last night we spent a fair bit of time separating clumps of 8 or 10 seedlings into 1's and 2's and potting them into new pots. The only thing we didn't have is something to put those pots on to stop water leaking all over the kitchen surfaces. However we found inspiration in our recycling bin and now our pots are sitting on a varied assortment of plastic food trays from chickens, sausages and a range of tasty meaty products.

In a couple of weeks, after some hardening off, I think the sunflowers will be ready to brave the garden. With the amount we've got it will be quite some display and we'll certainly have plenty of seeds left for next year!!!

Another busy weekend in the garden

Following our successes in the garden last weekend we decided to get back out there this weekend and continue with the garden make-over. We spent a few hours digging over our borders in preparation for planting out the seeds that are rapidly germinating in the kitchen, the decided to do a bit of tidying of the lawn. To this effect we purchased 10 meters of half-log border fencing and have enclosed the lawn with that (as you can see on the photo).

Elsewhere in the garden everything we planted last weekend still seems to be doing well, we've even harvested a bit of parsley to go with a salmon dinner - very tasty it was too. In the kitchen our seeds are germinating like mad. The sunflowers started to come through only 2 days after planting and are already a couple of inches high. Tomatos, chives, and sweetpeas are all on their way, the only no-show so far are the chillis - hopefully they're on their way!

Next up we need to install our water-butt so we've plenty of healthy rain water for the garden, do a bit more preparation in the borders and take a look at the lawn - it needs mowing and feeding. It's all good fun!!!

Spring time for Ian and Ana in Sturry

Spring has sprung in our garden and so this weekend we headed for the garden centre to buy some green things. We have inherited quite a few large pots from the previous owners and decided to buy some established plants to put in these, the idea being that we could move these around the garden to fill in spaces until we decide just what we want to put there permanently.

We loaded our trolley with a selection at shrubs, herbs, flowers and ferns plus a few packets of seeds. We also picked up several different types of compost for our new friends. The rest of the weekend was spent re-potting camelias, azaleas, cordylines, box, ferns, lavender, parsley and rosemary. We've also planted seeds for tomatos, chillis, sunflowers, chives and sweetpeas. We've also got cucumbers and runner-beans waiting for sowing later in the season.

Our garden, which was rather empty, is now looking much better. As the season goes on we should be adding more and more and are looking forward to a good collection of flowers and our first harvest of vegetables. I should also mention the we've had some lovely looking bulbs flowering for the last few weeks - daffodils in the borders and crocuses in the lawn, mostly in the front garden.

We're discovering gardening to be a relaxing and rewarding activity. It's been a little expensive so far but that's the route we've decided to follow and for me it has been worth every penny. I'll let you know how we get on :o)