Garden furniture

A visit to our favourite garden centre for some pots ended up with some great buys in their end of summer furniture sale.

All summer long we have been looking for a good replacement for out now very rickety picnic bench. Until today nothing was quite right. Then we found these...


We bought two sets so we could have four chairs and two tables. They are lighter than they look, being aluminium, but I hope they will last a few years at least. A real bargain too, with 60% off their regular price. We already ate tea out in the garden on them this evening, and they are quite fabulous, and surprisingly comfortable.

I've always wanted one of those porter trolley-shelf units that you often see in shops. So, when I saw one in the garden centre I was almost delirious with delight... A bonus was that it too was half price - it must have been my lucky day!


I think we will paint it in the same blue colour as our trellis boxes and then I will use it for small painted pots of plants. I think it would be particularly good for succulents that can endure being outdoors in the summer.

We've worked hard on the garden this weekend and have just a few things left to do before winter:- A few seedlings still need planting, particularly some echinacea, coleus and silene. The lawn needs weeding and patch reseeding. That then leaves the final tidying, composting the vegetable plants once they are finished, washing pots ready for next year and general tidying. We just need a couple more dry weekends and it should get done. It all looks so good, we had no idea that we could achieve so much in our first year of proper gardening. And who would believe that we would both end up loving gardening!

Until next time
Gillian

The garden

We've worked really hard on our garden this year. A lot of weeding and removing bits we didn't want ( eg our ginormous geranium that overwhelmed our front garden just had to go) and generally doing a lot of planting and tidying.

Our front garden- we've planted lots of home grown perennial seedlings, and put in a lot of bulbs.


The perennials are already spreading and should make a good display next year and in the future.



The bottom of our back garden, and our treat to ourselves, our fabulous arbour (note the cushions I made the covers for last month). The pots hold a variety of perennials and small shrubs, including Honesty which is the first plant I really remember being special as it grew in my Grandads garden. I even bought a small eucalyptus plant last week- the first time I've ever seen one on sale. I really like the stepping stones - they look great and add a touch of class.


The forecasters are now saying that at last the weather is turning sunny and warm, possibly for the next month, so we hope to spend plenty of time in the garden finishing the planting out and getting ready for winter, with, hopefully, plenty of time for relaxing too... Let's hope they are right!

Until next time
Gillian

Realisation

The thing with gardening is that you are strongly dependent on the weather. Through gardening I have realised a few things...

1- Cornwall gets a lot of rain
2- Cornwall is prone to drought
3- Cornwall is very windy

All three have played havoc with my new garden this year. First we were put under a drought order, following a hot March during which there was heaps of watering with a watering can. This was followed by heavy rain that seemed to go on for weeks, leading to some very soggy plants. During this time my new plastic covered greenhouse was blown over three times - I know they aren't that strong but I didn't expect them to go down so easily. Each time was followed by the horrible and depressing task of trying to rescue my poor seedlings from the upside down jumble of pot, soil and greenery. A few tears were shed the first couple of times, but by the third time it was a more matter of fact job of just tidying up as quickly as possible!


Early days ---- May 2012

Somehow the garden has made it though. Though most of my vegetables are not at all productive. So far there have been a few sugar snap peas, peas, strawberries, potatoes, courgettes and tomatoes, though certainly not enough to make more than a meal or two. The remaining plants aren't liked to give much more either and are mostly looking rather awful now. I console myself with the awareness that many of my more experienced gardening friends have not fared much better this year.

At the moment my plans for next year are not to focus much on vegetables after this years poor crops. Instead I plan to concentrate on flowers so that the garden will look great and be a lovely environment to sit in and enjoy. I've planted lots of perennials seeds to overwinter for flowering next spring/ summer and have been buying lots of flower seeds ready for sowing next year (most are half price this time of year).



August 2012 - plenty of growth but not much in the way of actual vegetables!

I really wish I had grown more veg, but, if nothing else, at least this years experience of gardening has given me a love of it- and if I can enjoy something when it doesn't go right too much then I think I may have joined the ranks of the "proper Gardeners". I even garden in the rain! (My kids think I've gone mad when I do). So now, when I see the weather forecast, my thoughts go to whether I'll need to water, drain trays or stand up fallen plants- I now realise that weather will happen and I just have to cope with it...

So until next time, take care
Gillian

Summer in Cornwall

Hi again,
I'm embarrassed that it's been so long since I last blogged, life has kind of got in the way.
I've discovered the joy of gardening! The one thing about gardening is that it takes a lot of work and obviously a lot of time.
We've lived here twenty years now and have intermittently weeded, mown and trimmed the hedges- just doing enough to control the jungle out there. This year that all changed. It started with a couple of pot plants in our newly refitted bathroom, then I wanted to grow lavender to use to make lavender bags. Then it seemed like a good idea to buy four very cheap little tomato plants. Soon after I was buying herbs and various vegetable seeds.




It became quite addictive and soon I was gardening whenever I could find a few minutes spare.
John has been very supportive and so my little garden has grown...




It's become a early big job. John has been fabulous and has been busy clearing both front and back gardens. It has made all the difference, claiming back our space, but wow, it's been hard work with some major jobs (getting our huge conifer cut down, clearing our garage and removing all the rubble and broken shed at the bottom of the garden.)
I'll be showing more of our garden over the next few weeks...along with my other work in progress projects (still lots of sewing and crochet, plus taking lots of photos). We've also been out and about a lot recently too, so I'll be showing more of beautiful Cornwall.
So until next time,
Gillian