My favourite bit at Chelsea

'A Children's Garden in Wales', designed  by Heronsbridge and
Ysgol Bryn Castell Schools with Anthea Guthrie

Of all the pretty things I saw at the Chelsea Flower Show, this has to be my favourite corner of all. This is how I want my garden to look. I kept going back to look at it, it made me want to be inside it! I love the contrast between the orange of the marigolds and the blue of the nigella. One corner of my flower bed is planted with exactly those two flowers (except mine aren't flowering yet). It was very reassuring to see how good it can look, and also that it won a gold medal at Chelsea and I had the idea first :).

Este fue mi jardin favorito del Chelsea Flower Show. Me encanta el contraste del naranja de la calendula con el azul de la nigella. Una esquina de mi rincon de flores lo tengo plantado con la misma combinacion, aunque las mias aun no tienen flor, asi que me animo ver lo bonito que puede llegar a ser. Y tambien me gusto ver que la misma combinacion de flores que yo elegi gano una medal en Chelsea :).

Flowers I won't grow from seed again

I have been trying to grow wallflowers and foxgloves from seed since last year (they're biennials: you sow them in summer, they grow over the autumn and winter and - in theory - flower the following spring). And, I have to confess, they have been a disappointment: I got lots of leaves.... but no flowers! I almost expected it from the wallflowers (they like full sun, which I don't have), but... foxgloves? They're supposed to like the shade!

Wallflower (leaves) and small foxglove plants (in copper rings)

But all I got was some leaves, and they aren't even very big ones. And many got eaten by the snails. I've been watching the Chelsea Flower Show on the BBC and I have foxglove envy. I think perhaps it's because I've grown them in pots and only transplanted them into the ground a couple of months ago? They may just be slow, and flower later in the year? I'm going to leave them, but if by the summer I still have no flowers I don't think I'll bother with sowing them again. I got a plant from the garden centre last year (much bigger and already in bloom) and it kept the flower for some weeks, so I may do that instead and reserve my sowing and potting time for vegetables, which are much more grateful (in general). And I only have space for a few flowers, so it won't break the bank.

Hay dos flores que sembre el ano pasado y que deberian estar en flor ahora (son bianuales), pero que han sido un fiasco: alhelies amarillos y digitalis. En la foto veis que los alhelies solo han producido hojas (eso si, muy frondosas) y las digitalis ni siquiera eso: sin flores y raquiticas. En teoria se deberian de dar bien, porque les gusta la sombra. A lo mejor es porque las sembre en maceta y solo las puse en el suelo hace un par de meses? Las voy a dejar hasta el verano, pero si siguen sin dar flores no creo que la vuelva a sembrar este ano. El ano pasado compre una planta, ya en flor, y se dio bien, asi que reservo los semilleros para verduras y cosas que se me dan mejor - solo tengo sitio para unas pocas plantas, en todo caso, asi que no me voy a arruinar por comprarlas en el vivero.

Allotment raised beds for crop rotation

I finally built the fourth raised bed at the allotment. I'm not being too strict with the crop rotation division, but I'm broadly trying to keep the four groups of crops separate: potatoes, root crops (onions, garlic), legumes (peas and beans), and brassicas ("green stuff" - kale, broccoli, cabbage, chard). Each type uses up different nutrients from the soil and develops similar diseases, so it's good in theory to move them about your plot every year. I don't think this is so crucial in a very small space, but it's a great excuse for tinkering and planning planting plans!

Ya tengo cuatro jardineras en la huerta. La teoria dice que se repartan las cosechas en cuatro grupos y se alterne cada ano para no sembrar lo mismo siempre en el mismo sitio - para no empobrecer el suelo demasiado (cada grupo necesita nutrientes distintos). Yo no creo que se note mucho en un terreno tan minimo, pero es una buena excusa para planificar las cosechas y entretenerme!

From front to back:
Bed 1: Potatoes. I earthed them up with some compost and gravel that I had left over; it's got a double purpose: covers the potato roots now, and when I dig it all up at the end it will help improve the soil.

Jardinera primera:
La gravilla proteje las raices de las patatas del sol, y mejora la calidad de la tierra

Bed 2: Onions, and a row of nasturtiums and calendula. The ground is covered by a mulch of the dry leaves from the jasmine I chopped from the shed...

Jardinera segunda: Cebollas

Bed 3: dwarf peas (already climbing up their mini sticks), broad beans, and in between a plant of borage and a small square of leek seedlings

Jardinera tercera: Guisantes y habas (no en la foto)

Bed 4: two rows of sprouting broccoli seedlings, one of red chard, one of Borlotti beans, and I'm ging to build a teepee for four runner bean plants. This is the one at the back with the taller frame of bamboo canes; birds love to munch of these leafy plants so I'm going to cover them with netting.

General view of my allotment strip

La cuarta jardinera tiene: brecol, berzas, judias y frijoles. El soporte de canas de bambu es para poner una red por encima para que que los pajaros no se coman las hojas de estas plantas, que les encantan.

En la parte de atras tengo macetas sembradas con cebolletas y zanahorias

Behind the trees, and in front of the flowers at the very back, I have at the moment a platform made with two pallets and lots of containers (the three blue things are Ikea bags) filled with compost. I sowed all the pots with carrots and spring onions, and the bigger bags are awaiting a courgette, a tomato and whatever else I run out of space for! I hope it is productive, but next year I want to build another raised bed in its placed, as containers need more frequent watering and I only go there at weekends. Plus, I think it will look better!

Shed makeover!

Clematis flowering on the arch

Painted shed and fence, rambling rose in a pot and new hanging basket

I did over the last bank holiday weekend, but didn't have Internet to post photos until today... This is what my shed looks like now! It used to have peeling paint and an evergreen jasmine covering the roof and most of the front, but the jasmine died last winter. Clearing the dead jasmine felt quite brutal, but it gave me the opportunity to revamp the shed with new paint and glass lanterns, as well as new hanging baskets and a rambling rose up the trellis at the front. A much prettier view from the kitchen!

Esta es una de las obras de las vacaciones de semana santa. La caseta estaba cubierta casi por completo por un jazmin y pintura vieja, pero el invierno pasado el jazmin se seco. Al quitarlo ya pude pintar toda la superficie, y ha quedado mucho mas elegante! Tambien me ha dejado sitio para unas cestas colgantes (en dos tengo fresas y en la tercera voy a poner un tomate pendulo), y un rosal trepador en el frente para que cubra el soporte de madera.

Self-watering tomato planter

I have made Mark Two of the self-watering tomato container. The previous one had two milk bottles as water reservoirs, but this one has a false bottom and the rest of the container underneath to hold the water (the container had no drainage holes).

But the idea is the same: First, a water reservoir is created at the bottom of the pot (a false bottom, or a milk bottle), with a pipe to fill it up with water once planted. Then, a small pot at the bottom is sunken below the compost level and into the water and filled with the compost, so it acts as as wick (it absorbs water from the reservoir underneath). This way the plant's roots can go down to the wet compost, but the whole pot doesn't get waterlogged.

Esta es la segunda version del macetero con reservorio de agua para los tomates. En la primera version el reservorio eran dos botellas de leche, pero en este caso es un falso suelo (cortado de una plancha de poliestireno). El contenedor original no tenia agujeros de drenaje, por lo tanto el espacio debajo del falso suelo actua de reservorio. El resto es lo mismo: Un par de macetas pequenas por debajo del nivel normal del compost estan en contacto con el agua y permiten que el compost se empape de agua y las raices de las plantas tengan accesso al agua del reservorio, pero sin encharcar el resto del compost. Y una tuberia de plastico permite rellenar el agua del reservorio.

The false bottom is cut out of a polystyrene sheet

Holes are cut out for two wicks and a pipe on the side

The container is filled up with compost and tomatoes are planted

A constant supply of lettuce

The way to get a constant supply of lettuce is to make successional sowings: you sow a little seed now, and a little more seed in two weeks' time, and again two weeks later, and so on. I grow mine in pots in the garden, so what I've done is sow one pot (or two) each time. This is what it looks like:

Past, present and future lettuce

Una manera de extender la temporada de las lechugas es sembrar unas pocas cada dos semanas. Yo las mias las tengo en macetas en el jardin, asi que lo que estoy haciendo es sembrar una maceta (o dos) de cada vez. Este es el resultado: lechugas pasadas, presentes y futuras.