Enjoying the garden as summer comes to an end

It's time to accept that the long summer is coming to an end. We've been so lucky this year with the weather, and we've really made the most of the our lovely garden that was finished in the spring. The weather this weekend was still really nice, a little bit of rain but it hasn't started to get too cold yet. So I decided it was a good time to make a start on preparing the garden for winter.

I began with the vegetable patch, clearing it all out and tidying up my strawberry and raspberry plants. I hope that they survive the winter! I also have some foxgloves that I planted from seed a couple of months ago. Some are in the borders and some are in pots, I'm keen to see if they survive and how they compare to the seeds which I'll plant in the spring.

We get a lot of fallen leaves in the garden and usually I'm out there picking them all up, this year I'm going to experiment with leaving the ones that fall in the borders and moving ones from the paths to the vegetable patch to see if they help the soil at all.

I pulled up my remaining tomato plants and picked off the last green tomatoes, hoping that if I leave them indoors in the sun then they might ripen. My tomatoes were amazing this year, I think it was a combination of the great weather and the new topsoil that we had added to the vegetable patch. I had so many that for a couple of weeks I was making a big batch of tomato soup every day and stocking up the freezer.

I've packed away some of the garden chairs because they are quite light and they blow around in the wind. But I want to keep my little table and one chair out on our breakfast patio, with the intention of sitting out there whenever it's warm enough. I had a lovely sit with my Kindle after all my hard work.

The canna lilies on the right have been amazing this year. I planted them in May after a recommendation by our garden designer and I wasn't quite sure about them, but they've been incredible. I cut back the flower heads just as they are starting to finish, and more and more kept appearing with plenty of buds still to flower. I know that they will die down soon and I'll have to decide whether to dig them up for the winter or to just wrap them in fleece and keep my fingers crossed for their survival!

I still need to plant my bulbs, I've never bought bulbs before and I went a bit mad at the garden centre a few weeks ago. I'm planning on putting some in the centre of my vegetable patch, which is always an awkward space for growing things as it's difficult to reach from the edges. Ideally I will end up with some lovely flowers which I can pick for the house. Then I'm just going to fill all my borders and spare pots and see what happens!

There's still an apple tree that needs pruning and lots of weeds growing between the stones in our beautiful front garden - I've got lots to keep me busy!

End of June garden update

I'm not much of a gardener but I do like to try and make an effort, so I thought I'd do a quick update on how my garden is looking as we get to the end of June!

I was late planting out my seedlings this year, and I was starting to get a bit worried about them. We had over a month of sunshine with no rain which was glorious, but even though I watered my plants every day they just weren't growing. I think it was just too hot. But we've had a couple of cooler days now along with some rain, and almost overnight everything in the garden recovered and started growing like mad!

I love my vegetable patch, it's a separate area from the main garden with a large raised bed and paving slabs around the outside for pots. It has a trellis fence with a gap in the middle and I've been growing ivy over it to try and make it look a little more mysterious. The focal point of my vegetable patch is the enormous lavender bush that ended up there by mistake. I need to do something about it really otherwise the whole vegetable patch will become a lavender patch! It's recently come into flower and is attracting plenty of bees which is really good to see.

I currently have twenty-two tomato plants spread over the vegetable patch and in pots. That is what happens when you plant plenty of seeds in case some don't germinate and then they all do, and you can't bear to get rid of any tiny seedlings! I did lose a couple along the way to slugs, but I probably did over-compensate. I also have about seven broccoli plants although they are looking a bit spindly at the moment.

The tomato plants in pots usually do just as well as the ones that are planted out in the soil, and one of them is enormous already! I love working through the vegetable patch picking out the side shoots, it's a really peaceful and satisfying job.

I planted lots of sunflowers this year but they are taking a while to get going, and the slugs did get a few. The seedlings around the bottom are not weeds, they are a wildflower mix that I planted for some colour, I hope that they pick up a bit!

My garden is all very green at the moment so I'm appreciating the colour from these lovely nasturtiums which my mum gave me a few weeks ago. 

I also have a wild section to the garden around the side of the house where I've had some nice poppies, as well as nettles and enormous dandelions. I'm hoping to attract back the hedgehogs that we used to have living in our hedgehog house!

I'm looking forward to a bumper tomato harvest this year!

My garden and vegetable patch update

Over the last few months we have all spent so much time in the garden and it has been really lovely. I've really been enjoying pottering around and pulling out the weeds gradually, keeping up with the watering, and taking time to appreciate the things that I've planted and watching them grow. 

I'm very lucky to have a separate little vegetable patch area at the bottom of the garden which is tucked away behind the garage. We had the raised bed replaced last year so it's all looking nice and neat, although I don't keep things pristine, there are plenty of weeds growing! I made the bunting a couple of weeks ago. It's a lovely private and sunny area, my husband often talks about making it into his outdoor kitchen and hot tub area but I'm not letting it go without a fight!

Luckily the pole framework was built by my Dad last year as I wouldn't know where to start building it myself! I've got lots of sweet peas planted at the bottom. the plants were so tiny when I grew them from the seeds that I set three around the base of each pole, and now that they are getting bigger it has become a little chaotic and tangled!

The tomato plants in the bed are ones that I planted from actual tomatoes in the fridge when I couldn't get hold of any tomato seeds earlier this year. I didn't expect them to grow let alone produce tomatoes so I'm really pleased that they've started to produce flowers, I'm interested to see what happens with them! I have more tomato plants from the seeds that I managed to buy in pots up against the wall. They are doing really well, some of them already have tomatoes growing nicely.

This gorgeous lavender bush was planted by my parents last year. It took a little while to get going, but this year the purple flowers are stunning. I really like the extra colour that it adds to the vegetable patch, and I'll be harvesting some to make lavender bags later this year!

The only other colour that I have in the garden at the moment is my marigolds. The first batch that I planted from seeds are flowering beautifully. I have some from my Mum which will be flowering soon, and another batch still growing on the windowsill indoors which I'll put out when they are a bit bigger.

I have an old pallet in the garage and I have some vague plans about making some kind of planter with tin can planters on it but I'm not very handy when it comes to woodwork so I'm not really sure where to start!

I'm looking forward to when the flowers start appearing, hopefully I'll have a nice colourful garden this summer!