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.

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:

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.

The 2014 vegetable growing list

Following the golden rules of "grown what you enjoy eating" and "if short of space/time, prioritise what is expensive or difficult to find in the shops", these are the vegetables and fruit that I'm growing or planning to grow this year. And those which didn't make the short list.

YES:

Lettuce and salad leaves

Rocket

Sorrel

Herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil)

Chives 

Spring onions

Spinach

Beetroot: yellow and pink-striped

Radish

Courgette (but only one plant)

Cucumber

Romanesco

Purple sprouting broccoli

Climbing French beans, but next time I'll plant them in a wigwam among the flower beds, and leave the raised beds for smaller plants that need closer weeding.

Tomatoes (7) and chillies (2)

 

ON THE WISHLIST (as soon as I save the cash, they're going in - I already found them a spot):

Raspberries 

Blueberries

A quince tree 

NO:

Too much space and easy to buy: cauliflowers (with the exception of romanesco), cabbages, onions, potatoes. Strawberries (expensive fruit, but you need masses of plants to get more than a handful of fruit).

Because we never eat it: runner beans, broad beans, kale.

ON PROBATION:

To see if they grow well: Garlic: you can eat it fresh and it's nicer than the dry garlic from the shop, apparently. And Leek: they won't grow big but apparently they are very tasty harvested small.

Peas. Because they take space for months and are easy to buy. And we don't eat them enough to appreciate the mythical flavour difference between fresh and frozen. I have some in the ground already, but once these are gone I don't think I'll bother again. Might try growing pea shoots with the leftover seed, perhaps.

Parsnips and swedes. Because I had the seed and felt sorry for it and I was in a sowing frenzy and not thinking straight. I may put parsnips in the Yes list if they grow well because the bunnies like them. I might grow them as foliage in between the flower beds.

Pak choi: this is an experiment, I'm growing it for the first time. If it grows well and we eat it, I'll keep it on the list. The purple leaves look amazing in the seed packet.

(By the way, the photo is only a section of my vegetable patch, about half, the whole list above wouldn't fit in just this bit!)

Esta es la lista de frutas y verduras en las que me voy a concentrar este año - son cosas que a) nos gusta cocinar, y b) son caras o dificiles de encontrar en la tienda:

Lechugas de varios tipos, rucula, perejil, hierbas aromaticas (tomillo, romero, menta, albahaca), cebollinos y cebolleta, espinacas, remolacha amarilla y rosa, rabanitos, calabacin (pero solo una planta), pepino, coliflor pero solo la variedad romanesco (la de los "pinchos" verdes), brecol pero solo el que da floretes peqeños, puerros, tomates y judias (pero solo las que dan vainas estrechas. Ademas, la proxima vez las voy a plantar entre las flores, y dejar las jardineras de la huerta para plantas mas pequeñas que necesitan mas atencion).

Y tengo sitio reservado para plantar: frambuesas, grosellas y un membrillo. Fresas no, porque para un bol de fruta se necesitan muchas plantas y no tengo espacio.

Slug-protected petunias, and dahlias

I like petunias but I've never really grown them before. Now I now why everybody puts them in baskets, the slugs destroy them otherwise! I learnt it the hard way. I planted some in the open ground (fool!) and overnight about half the plant had disappeared. Completely vanished. Luckily there was some plant left, so I could move them today to this hanging "basket" (along with some verbenas that suffered the same fate). Hopefully the slugs won't attack them here:

Estas petunias las plante en el suelo antes, solo para descubrir al dia siguiente que son la comida favorita de los caracoles. Me habian comido la mitad de la planta! Por suerte quedo algo de planta (seis fueron atacadas, solo dejaron el tallo principal y poco mas), asi que las he puesto en el aire, junto a unas verbenas a las que les paso lo mismo, a ver si ahi no llegan!

And I also bought two red-leaved dahlias, which I've wanted for years:

Llevo con ganas de estas dalias años, por fin hoy compre estas dos.

Annual flowers and first crop ever from the new veg garden

The tray of annual flowers I bought yesterday in my local market, to help put some colour into the garden (next year, with more planning, it won't look as bare in June!):

Ayer compre estas flores en el mercado. El jardin todavia esta poco establecido y hay muchos huecos sin nada, asi que las flores son para poner algo de color este verano.

Neil painted the bench, and with a few pots of flowers at the bottom and the rhododendron in bloom it's one of the best corners of the garden at the moment:

Neil pinto el banco, y con unas macetas de flores y el rododendro en flor, es una de las zonas mas bonitas en este momento. Entre el banco y la huerta tengo esta esquina con alguna flores y arbustos perennes. Los astilbes estan a punto de abrir. He puesto unas petunias y una lobelia (del mercado), para completar, y espero que durante los meses del verano crezcan y llenen mas el espacio con hojas y flores!

This flower bed is in between the bench and the veg beds. It's got some perennial plants and shrubs I really like, but with still a lot of gaps. I put some petunias and lobelias (from the market), and I hope they will fill up the space a bit in the coming months with leaves and flowers:

But it's not only about the flowers: I also had my first ever edible crop from this garden!! It's only a few lettuce leaves, but they made the burger from the barbecue all the more delicious.

Mi primera cosecha comestible de este jardin! Porque no solo de flores vive el hombre (o la mujer)...

Foxgloves in the front garden

The best thing in the garden at the moment is the front, which was all planted up when we bought the house. The only thing I've done to this is weed a little. I do like a lot of the plant combinations (the foxgloves are particularly nice right now), and since I've never had a whole flower bed like this to play with, I'm trying to learn as much as I can to make sure I can replicate this myself in the future!

El frente del jardin estaba plantado cuando compramos la casa, lo unico que he hecho aqui es quitar alguna mala hierba. Estoy intentando aprender como funciona un jardin en suelo directo a esta escala, porque es nuevo para mi, a ver si puedo repetir un efecto tan bonito.

Behind the flowers there is grass and a few plants by the low wall. I made the strip wider and planted two yellow roses. Next to them I am going to sow some beans (pretty and edible and will improve the soil).

Aqui he ampliado el espacio para plantas y he puesto dos rosales amarillos. Al lado voy a sembrar unas habas, que ademas de ser bonitas y comestibles condicionan el suelo.

Next to the front door we have this. I think it's a climbing hydrangea. It smells very sweet!

Junto a la puerta de casa tenemos este arbusto, no se muy bien lo que es pero las flores huelen de maravilla!