Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Planting out leeks

I sowed these about April. Now, thanks to the pond that I'm digging and a bit of compost from the shop (for the top) I finally filled in these big boxes so I can plant out the leeks. They were ready to move on, you can see the pots were filling up with roots:


Sembre los puerros en macetas alla por abril. Ahora por fin rellene estas cajas de plastico con la tierra del mini-estanque que estamos excavando y compost comprado encima, y ya tengo espacio para transplantar los puerros. Veis en la foto que ya estaban listos para el transplante, las raices empezaban a llenar la maceta.

Saturday, 26 July 2014

Visiting butterflies on the budleia

I've spent all morning in the garden today and I got to see a bit of the wildlife that visits us. The most spectacular is this budleia with its two visiting butterflies. They both have these colours (no idea what name), and they've been feeding on the flowers all day.



Tenemos dos mariposas como esta que llevan todo el dia posandose en esta budleia. 

Sunday, 13 July 2014

The cottage garden patch

This is a part of the garden that in my head I call the cottage garden bit. I plan to grow a mix of many plants I like, some annuals and some perennials, some edible and some purely decorative. I have found over the years that this style is often described as cottage garden, so there you go, this is my cottage garden corner. 

Esta parte del jardin la tengo reservada para una mezcla de flores anuales y perennes, comestibles y decorativas. He descubierto que es un estilo ingles tradicional, pero yo lo hago porque me gustan las plantas la verdad. En Inglatera el origen lo achacan a las casas de la clase trabajadora, que tenian jardines pequeños y tenian que aprovechar y plantar todo junto, flores y para la cocina. 

This year there hasn't been time for much planning (we moved in in April), but some things have worked very well and I want to take note to repeat it next year.


The only cosmos that survived from the whole tray I sowed is looking fabulous. I will definitely sow more or buy plants next year, I love this plant. It looks good with dots of blue cornflower behind it. And a lovely stand of daisies and purple budleia in the back.

De una bandeja que sembre de cosmos solo me quedo uno, pero me encanta esta planta, el año que viene sembrare o comprare mas. Y centaurea azul por el medio. Y margaritas y budleia de fondo.


The Iceland poppies and the poached egg plant were both a fist for me, and they've done very well - germinated well and now look spectacular. Also want more for next year. And one lone red poppy that appeared spontaneous at the front, it's my favourite.

Las amapolas naranjas y la flor que parece un huevo frito son novedad para mi, pero se han dado muy bien. Germinaron sin problemas y ahora lucen preciosas. La amapola roja (delante) salio espontanea y es mi favorita.


The nasturtiums are also nice and fit well because they fill gaps between other plants. 

Los nasturtiums tambien me gustan, quedan bien entre las demas plantas y llenan el espacio.


This teepee of sweet peas hasn't performed that well, though. I bought the plants to make sure they were as advanced as possible (the ones I sowed took forever to grow), and yet no flowers! Next year I'm planting beans and eating peas instead (those are cropping already, in the veg patch).

Los guisantes de olor sin embargo no se han dado bien. Estos son de tienda porque los que sembre no daban crecido, y aun asi aun no han dado no una flor. El año que viene plantare guisantes de comer, que los de la huerta si que estan dando flores (y frutos).


Another thing I want to change/improve for next year is the border between the bed and the path. At the moment it's covered in weeds or grass that I try to clip small. But I dream of making a mini hedge with sweet williams (the pink flower in the photo) and pinks. I may do it this autumn, or next spring. In the meantime, I'm sowing more sweet williams and taking cuttings of my pink that I bought in May (and smells divine). Here's my potting shed with all the cuttings in the propagator:


En la caseta tengo esquejes de clavelinas, si se me dan en otoño o primavera los plantare en el borde entre el jardin y el camino. Ahora el borde consiste en cesped y hierbas, pero me encantaria que fuera todo clavelinas, y la planta de flores rosas (dos fotos mas arriba) que es de la misma familia. Esa es bianual, y he sembrado varias. Tambien sembre alhelies, estan todas en esta estructura esperando que crezcan y antes del invierno si todo sale bien las plantare para la primavera que viene.


I have sweet williams and wallflowers growing outside in pots, waiting to be planted out before the winter for flowers next spring.

Waiting to be planted as soon as it stops raining: verbena bonariensis (a friend gave me ten she had too many) and parsnips that I sowed. 


Verbena bonariensis (una amiga me dio diez que le sobraban) y chirivias que sembre, esperando ser plantadas en cuanto deje de llover.



Thursday, 10 July 2014

Mulching pot tomatoes with grass clippings

This is an experiment I did last weekend, because my pot-grown tomatoes we're wilting even if they got watered almost every day (the patio area were they are is very sunny and quite windy). So I thought mulching them will slow down the wilting. I've never had a grass to cut before, so this is a first for me!

Los tomates en macetas me daban señales de falta de agua casi de dia en dia, la verdad es que estan a lleno sol y bastante viento en la terraza: asi que voy a probar este experimento de cubrir el compost con el cesped cortado (¡ahora que por fin tengo cesped!) a ver si se evapora el agua mas lento.

Before: 


And after:

Thursday, 3 July 2014

Summer at last

After three months (like felt forever) of semi-bare ground, summer has finally arrived and the garden is looking full and colourful: 


¡Por fin llego el verano! Flores y frutos. Estos comiendo ensalada de la huerta todos los dias.

We're wating salad from the garden every day:


And cucumbers to come. Los pepinos llegaran pronto.


My patch of Mediterranean/ South African (ish) plants:


And the cottage garden style patch. Lots of colour, a bit chaotic looking, but all carefully contained within the boundaries. 


Las dos ultimas fotos son mi rincon de plantas mediterraneas y de Sudafrica (mas o menos), y la zona de "cottage garden": este es un estilo ingles de plantar flores y verduras todo junto. De momento tengo casi solo flores. Me encanta que tiene mucho color, y esta todo junto pero no revuelto.