keeping up with Mr and Mrs Jones (plus Leon and Reuben): 06/01/2010

I just had the thought to document what I've been up to this June in the garden, as much for my own reference.
I bought the Alys Fowler book, The Edible Garden - the philosophy behind it is Poly-culture, which is a system growing in popularity where you plant stuff together as oppose to in separate rows and as much as possible things in your garden that are useful, either edible to humans or birds and bees. By planting stuff together in drifts together instead of rows, with the right combinations it can keep pests at bay, conserve water and provide support. There are many ways and combinations and this book is giving me a good deal of inspiration.
The Veg plots are not exactly part of that philosophy but my excuse is that I've not done veg before so I want to be able to see what they are doing. What I have done is plant corn and courgettes together as they help each other - the courgettes provide shade at the soil surface so the corn doesn't dry out too much and the corn helps provide structure for the courgette to use as support. I've also planted Marigolds in with the brassicas which is supposed to confuse things like caterpillars that like brassicas. I have spinach, Kale and a Kale/Brussel sprout hybrid good for stirfrys in the winter.
I'm harvesting salad pretty much daily there must be a dozen varieties in different places at different stages, some bought as mixed bags some, like rocket and lollo rosso on their own. The rocket in places has bolted and flowered which is pretty and the bees like it so in moderation I'm fine with that - I've been cutting the herbs back hard to prevent bolting and keeping them in use.
Thistles out the front are a problem and I've been weeding alot in the gaps between the young lavender bushes and newly spread out crocosmia. I should probably mulch and plant mustard seed to dig back into the soil.
Rosmary bush out the front is massive and unwieldy, I will be sawing it back to a stump, it's sure to get going again.
Both rose bushes out the front are flowering well but will be happier when they are not so encroached on by the rosemary bush.
Foxgloves out back are doing well and seeing plenty of bees - read in July's GW that when they start to go to seed, collect seeds straight away, plant in pots, separate, keep in cold frame over winter and plant out next spring. I'd love to have a massive patch of foxgloves, they are so pretty.
The delphinium I planted from seed last year is massive, still producing more flowers and I hope should be even bigger and spread next year.
Potato plants in bag grower is massive, can't wait until we can see how they've done in a couple of months. Same with onions.
Tomato plants are looking healthy, not flowered yet.
Watching and waiting for all the Echinacea bulbs I put in (hundreds) to flower, there are clumps all over the place - I wanted to try them in different places sunny, shady etc. Can't wait for them to flower. There are perennial flowers like Aqualeigas (scuse spelling of plants in this whole post) and other old fashioned looking things coming into flower which is attracting plenty of bees. The forgetmenots were everywhere and are now officially over. The teeny tiny penstemon plugs I got last spring are massive and I'm on my second year of taking cuttings from them. The perenial daisies, various varieties are all over the place, mainly where it's hot and sunny near the house either up against the house or in the Belfast sinks. The Belfast sinks are also home to mini spreading alpines that have come back every year since we got here, chives which i planted last year and have flowered profusely, attracting lots of bees. I planted cosmos and cornflowers both grown from seed and they are just coming into flower in the sinks, in pots and by the veg. My new Verbena Barosa (I think - it's the big leggy purple one) is doing really well and is already about 5ft tall. The blue thistle thing (Eryngium Purpurea) as recommended by Alys is settling in well. The Canna Lily given to me by next door is about to flower and looks very happy. I made a mistake in planting putting the cornflowers in front of the penstemons, which are about half as tall and dwarfed behind the cornflowers. The only consolation is that the cornflowers will be cut flowers and cut back and over by the end of the July while the penstemons will go on until the autumn. I will move things around next year though. I just didn't expect the height at the front of the bed. A good lesson learnt.
There are hollyhocks everywhere and once they start to flower, it will really cheer the place up along with all the other flowers still to come. Plus all the bees! later in the summer when the 3 varieties of budliea flower, the place will be thick with bees and butterflies. I let the hollyhocks really go for it round the frog pond, mainly to act as a barrier to stop the boys throwing stuff in the pond. The frog pond is home to at least 10 frogs from about 3cm long up to the biggest I've seen at almost 10cm. On sunny days they bask in the little islands on the surface of the pond and you go past and see about half a dozen plops as they jump in out of site. Sometimes they are chilled out and I've counted half a dozen or more just sitting there.
My sweet peas aren't doing anything yet, it might be that the roots were disturbed by the boys with their diggers when I first put the pots out. Not a flower in sight.
The Lambs ears I moved from the back to a pot in the front are magnificent, flowering and attracting the bees that are also out there for the clover on the lawn.
I see so many bumble bees and as I seem to spend time most days shooing them out of the conservatory I thought I'd find out who I've got. I looked them up online, found the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's website and decided to join, it's only about a tenner and now I have a book on gardening for bees, a nice poster now up in the conservatory and a pretty bee badge. So far the ones out the front are mainly black with very reddy orange bums, these are...Red tailed bumbebees and out back we get alot of Buff tailed and White tailed bumblebees. My aim is to create a garden that's beautiful, productive and home to birds and bees alike.
I've tidied the conservatory and now that the majority of seedlings that were veg are outside, all I have indoors is the chilli and sweet Romano peppers in big pots. Then coriander, basil and parsley - I'm cultivating them in smaller pots from seed to go on the windowsill in the kitchen in rotation so we plunder them and swap them so they get time in the conservatory to re-grow.
I've just taken cuttings from the lavender out the front, penstemon and forsythia, they will hopefully be big enough to go out next spring.
I took flowers from the Hellebore next to the compost heap, put them in a paper envolope and left them in the utility room for a week. All the seeds dropped out and I've planted the seeds into small seeding pots and they are currently inside a propagator waiting to sprout. As they grow I will separate them and grow them on in pots to go out in the Autumn, hopefully to flower next winter.
Oh and the blueberry bush is doing well, plenty of blueberries to come. Oh and the sunflowers are approaching 5foot and flower heads are forming.
Before the party next week I need to have a good weed, trim the lawn edges and hope for as much in flower as possible. Not to mention a sunny day without too much wind so our friend and their kids can make the most of the garden.
The weekly feeding goes without saying :)

Nice farm, very intensive in parts - they are contracted to provide wheat for Warbitons and weetabix , Peas for Baxters tinned mushy peas among other things. They did mention the things they do like plant strips of seeds to feed the birds through winter and leave nature strips along the drainage ditches so it was an interesting tour. The boys liked the ride on and vintage tractors. The weather was funny, it rained and was sunny about 20 times in about 2 hours. I took wellies, coats, sun cream sun hats and plenty to drink.
Reuben was really impressed with the sheep and the sheep shearing too. His sheep noises are coming on a treat.
We went to this farm this time last year and we really like this one as there's lots to see and do.