This week I’ve been working on improving the year round colour and foliage in our garden, starting with the borders which appear to be full of wild flowers.
And linking up with Mammasaurus for the wonderful How Does Your Garden Grow Linky. Last week I loved these 
I am loving the combination of the pink blossom and the yellow rape seed at the moment. I find the contrast crazily enjoyable and kind of psychedelic. Soon the blossom will be gone, (it’s already falling) and then the next phase of growth will come along. There are tulips galore, these are ones we planted when I was still pregnant back in early November. I had forgotten which ones I’d bought and these pink blossoms are very unlike me, however I’m finding them strangely appealing. 
Then on with the next stage of the garden. I think these are my anemones de caen coming through. I soaked the bulbs and planted them months ago and hoped they would grow so I can cut them to display inside. The bulbs seem to have swelled from these tiny corns to gigantic conkers, I’m so excited to see them bloom.
The garden is being somewhat taken over by the field. It’s wonderful having such an open fence but as the wildflowers creep in I think I will have to take some of the garden back. I find myself madly googling what weeds look like in their infancy so I can strike before they grow madly. It is a battle I am loosing at the moment. The ground up there is rather mossy with a couple of old tree stumps and fungus seems to grow in abundance. 
The flower assortment is growing, I just love this unusual double daffodil and the gorgeous tiny flowers on the rosemary. Then there are the big floppy pansies that Nye insists on ‘watering’ by ripping them out of the ground and blasting them with a hose pipe! I’m thinking more and more about flowers now most of my fruit and veg seeds are sown. I recently bought which I have been feasting my eyes on. It’s done nothing for my addicition to buying seeds and I was totally blown over by a bed of poppies, verbascum and astrantia. I’ve bought some similar varieties to grow from seed so we shall see how it goes!
One of the major easter jobs has been re-painting some teak garden furniture we picked up from ebay a few weeks ago. I ended up applying about 4 layers of this blue paint but I am so in love. As I spent yet another afternoon dripping in blue paint I tried to imagine how pleased I’d be when it was finished. I’ll be sharing a full set of before and after pictures later this week.
The veg patch continues to grow, we now have potatoes, big fat onions and garlic, peas and lettuce. I went to sow some more carrots, thinking the first ones had failed, but just as I crouched down I found the tiniest of carrot seedlings sprouting up from the earth. Nye has been trampling all over them, I hope some survive, at least I can be certain that they will be hardy!
We’ve been pottering about in the garden almost daily, peeking at the seeds to see if any have sprouted and keeping a check on the water levels. We’ve even had our first bbq, although we had to eat off a rickety old pasting table as we’ve not got a garden table at the moment. The above picture shows the progress I’ve made since Christmas on the front garden bed, the new trellace adds some much needed height and I must admit I’m pretty pleased with it.
My new hellebores have flowered, I’m so pleased with them but the front garden bed is still looking very sparse. Just a mass of stony soil and a few fledgling weeds. It literally has 2 hellebore’s a viburnum and some new bulbs that are yet to flower. There are signs of my alliums and the tulips but this area still needs some serious work. Around the front of the house I have various daffodils almost in bloom and and a rose which has so much new growth already. There’s also these bushy shrubs in clumps which I’m still yet to work out what they are… (They’re the purple and green leaved things beneath the daffodil stalks) Any ideas?
In a dangerous move, I recently discovered our local market has a garden stall and it happens to be on when I am toddler free just before baby bounce at the library. I can see buying things there becoming a bit of a weekly treat. Last week I bought a lovely Spinach plant for £1.70 and 6 
Indoors there is gardening action too. I forgot to mention it was my birthday during half term (it went by in quite a blur), but I was very happy to receive a subscription to Gardeners World and a new gardening journal from my husband and a lovely seed kit from my sister. After one week on the kitchen windowsill the seeds had already sprouted and now at 2 weeks they are positively thriving. I think maybe I should thin them out… What do you think? Don’t ask me what they are, I threw away the packaging so I shall get a lovely surprise when they flower. The roses were a gift from my husband, I love the way the light of the window washes them with with subtle colour. And finally, I’ve been able to use my beautiful plant labels as I planted out my peas, they were a present from my husband at Christmas.
This week I thought I would share what we have been up to in the greenhouse courtesy of my camera phone, (sorry).
2014 is the year of the gardening challenge. In 2014 I want to try my hand at having a proper allotment style fruit and vegetable patch, as well as in generally beautifying the garden i.e keeping up to date with … Continue reading
Get Kids Gardening
June 24, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 19 Comments
Interested in getting the kids out of the house? Got your trowel and wellys to hand? Here’s my guide to get kids gardening.
First off, we know that children love to explore things with all their senses. In the garden it’s easy to provide a feast for the senses through bright coloured plants and heavenly scents. Why not dip your toe in the water by selecting a small space, just for the kids and choose some plants together. Don’t be off put by making massive grand garden designs, let the children lead by creating a cottage style garden which includes a range of flowers, and even some vegetables into the gaps. Lettuces is great for this kind of thing, they germinate easily from seed and grow quickly and can take a certain degree of being trampled on.
At this time of year I like to use summer bedding plants, as these are an easy way of having a quick impact and a great choice to get kids gardening. Children can see the results of their efforts straight away, and once dug in and watered, the next day the plants should be thriving. This year we have chosen a few perennials (will grow again next year) and annuals (for this year only) care of Plant me now which are fantastically healthy, immediately brightening up our garden.
A small container is a great way for kids to take responsibility for their own space, giving them a sense of pride and accomplishment. We selected a lovely deep raised bed that was looking bare since the daffodils have faded. Nye chose the Calibrachoa Cabaret Yellow, Fuchsia Semi-Trailing Buds of May Jean Taylor and Ivy Geranium Supreme Burgundy White. Alongside these he went for a cucumber plant, which was in need of a new home.
For a real wow factor try to use contrasting colours in flowers and foliage. I like the Ipomoea Bright Ideas Black as it is so striking with its deep black leaves, which looks great with any combination of other colours. The great thing about annuals is that they tend to have fantastic colour, we particularly liked the peachy colour of the Diascia Aurora Apricot and bright white of Verbena Aztec White. 
Fragrance plays an important part of any garden and creates an added sensual impact for children. Lavender and sweet pea’s are great in the summer but in autumn wallflowers are a great pick from the winter bedding plant. They come in wonderful bold colours with a divine smell that keeps the garden going all year round. This of course means that the children have to look after the plants all year round, an important skill in learning to test whether the soil is wet or dry.
With a slightly older child, they might like to choose where to put the plants, but with a toddler it’s (sometimes) easier to direct them by asking them to do small tasks. For example you might ask, ‘Can you dig a hole here?’ or ‘What colour shall we put here?’ Personally, I like to look up the size and spread that we can expect so that I can make sure it’s in the right place. But equally, I don’t place exacting requirements on how things will look, as perfection doesn’t really matter as long as the children are enjoying it.
And once you’ve planted up your gorgeous flowers, you should have a wonderful space that you can enjoy for months (and years) to come.
Disclosure: Post written in collaboration with Plant Me Now, all words, thoughts and opnions my own.
We also have a raised bed, two vegetable/fruit beds and a greenhouse. These were mainly cleared when we moved in but the previous owners did leave us their last harvest of tomatoes and lots and lots of giant runner beans. In the raised bed I have already planted up some garlic and onions. I planted two different varieties of each to see how they grow. I noticed yesterday that some of the onions had already started sprouting, I have no idea if they are meant to be doing this yet as I have never grown them before but I’m rather chuffed that I was organised enough to get them planted.
I’m now trying to be organised and make a list of all the things I’d like to grow next year. I ordered a seed catalog a few weeks ago which I have been flicking through, but there are so many things it’s difficult to concentrate on what we would actually use. Realistically the things that would be really useful to have would be, potatoes, onions, garlic, broccoli, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, salad leaves, courgettes, raspberries and strawberries. Nye gets through apples like nobodies business so I’m also thinking about buying a tree to grow up the side wall. (No idea how feasible this is or just how many years it will take to get any fruit…) We already have lots of rosemary growing but we regularly use thyme, basil, oregano and coriander as well so I’d like to plant some of these when the time comes. I keep thinking there must be somewhere that sells a basic variety of seeds or even seedlings for a small home fruit and vegetable garden but I haven’t come across quite what I’m looking for just yet. If anyone has any tips on where they buy their seeds and/or plants and what they have had success with I would love to hear from you. I quite like the idea of growing butternut squash but I have no idea if that is even possible for a novice like myself.