Photos 1st May

May bank holiday weekend and its not as hot as last weekend. Still only really had one rain shower though last weekend. Rain was expected Friday but didn't come so haven't been able to put nematodes on garden. Still haven't weeded the other half of the garden. And the grass by Joes conservatory just hasn't come out - surely i can't have killed that?

April heatwave

We've had lots of sunshine and hot temperatures over the last two weeks and no April showers. The clementis at the end of the garden is out already. Spent a couple of hours weeding today and did about half the garden. Also cut back one of the bushes a bit. The orange blossom tree is now a peculiar shape where bits have broken off but i don't want to cut it back to badly. Noticed a few slugs when i was weeding so I need to get some nematodes again. Couldn't really use the other slug stuff as you are meant to do it when its damp; and it is certainly not damp! After weeding the cottage bed though realised now that the fennel has gone the bed is pretty bare. Two of the three bushes I bought 3 years ago have now died. Several of the plants and bulbs are now under where the bushes have grown out to. In the hot bed I didn't cut back the red hot pokers last year and now think maybe I should have. I'm a bit concerned the grasses by Joes haven't started growing at all. Hope I haven't killed them. Have been looking back at last years photos and realised I've already lost quite a lot of the bulbs i planted the year before last - didn't get any of the yellow bulbs along Joe's bed at all.
I need to:
Carry on weeding
Try and get some shape into the bushes at the end of the garden
Lawn care
Get the slugs
Do some tomatoes
We've another long weekend next weekend so hopefully I get some of this done then.

tulips

The daffs are nearly over but the tulips are out. The daffodils didn't seem to last very long this year. the weather has warmed up a lot but its been quite windy. The garden looks OK from a view but a bit scruffy close up.

Photos start of March

Need to cut the grass though!

Déjà vu to last year, although a week earlier this year!

Didn't really do anything to garden at end of last year. Went out yesterday for the "spring clean up". I had started the clean up a couple of weeks ago cutting down grasses and old plants and removing some leaves and digging out the bulb pots which had been hidden in the grasses.

We had a really cold December (2010) followed by quite a mild January and I was thinking I'd lost a lot of bulbs. However looking back at last year maybe its just that my February Golds don't surface until March! There are a couple of crocuses and snowdrops out but not many.

The orange blossom tree suffered more damage in the snow (as it did last year!). And all the bushes and shrubs in general need a good trim but I'm not entirely sure when to do that. Its quite cold still and it was pouring with rain yesterday so tried to avoid prunning. I did need to cut the tops off the hydranga though and as always it meant i could see my lovely little hellabore.

Will try and take some pictures soon

Summer

Well its not rained for about 3 weeks. we were away for the first week and the garden felt our absence. We lost all teh strawberries as well as several plants. The slugs ate all the salad. I now realise how brilliant those nemotodes were because we now have loads of slugs in the garden. About 20 hit the bowl of beer last night/this morning. So there are lots of gaps in teh garden but it still looks great from teh lounge window (well if you ignore all the childrens toys!)

The garden today

Lots of rain over the last couple of weeks but lots of sunshine yesterday and today.

Put some nematodes down in the garden last weekend to try anad get rid of the slugs. One of the four new plants i bought in the hot bed has taken (the other 3 eaten) but didn't write down what they were each called. durrrr.

Raised veg bed

This is our bank holiday project which we managed between the rain showers..

May bank holiday weekend

Well so far this weekend it has mainly rained.

A few flowers have broken out on the clematis but it needs a sunny day.

Lots of jobs to do in the garden have not been done.

photos from today

After no rain for days, it did rain today and some of the tulips lost their petals.

The "hot" bed