Planting

 

Cucumbers, Peppers, Chives, Sunflowers, two varieties of tomato, basil, mint and parsley. We started off with two enthusiastic little helpers and Daddy did the rest when they moved on to other things! Hoping for lots of lovely growing things in due course.

Helping Grandad in the Garden

Primroses

When we moved into this house nearly nine years ago, my dad brought some primroses from his garden for me. I have never split them, so they now burst forth in glorious profusion every spring and are so pretty. I have several clumps around the garden, but these are by far the largest. I've always thought of them as a little piece of Devon growing in my garden and they gladden my heart whenever I see them.

Fairy Gardening

The Podlings received an indoor fairy garden kit from the fairies behind the fireplace last Christmas. We pulled it out at the weekend and the girls had a lovely time putting it together. The kit contains everything you need to make the garden, except the soil. We also added in some pine cones and the girls put in lots and lots of extra glitter from our craft cupboard. It is very sparkly now!

Lily is checking daily to see if the grass has grown yet. The girls are rather hoping to attract some fairies once the grass has grown. The great thing about the garden is that it is never finished. We have already added in a twig that looks like a small tree. We should also be able to reuse the garden in future too. Let's hope the fairies enjoy it as much as we do!

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My Little Piece of Devon

When we moved into our home almost eight years ago, my Dad brought me some primroses from his garden to plant in ours. I consider them a little piece of Devon and I look forward to seeing them flower every spring. I have never split them, so they bloom in the most glorious profusion now and I get such joy from seeing them from my kitchen window. They always remind me of home and make me pine for Dartmoor, where I spent many happy hours growing up. I am so glad I took these photos as two days later my largest clump of primroses had their petals devoured by some nasty garden pest. 

Emma's Sunflower

For Mother's Day this year, Emma brought home a sunflower seed for me from school. It was planted in some soil in a little pot she had decorated herself and had a sweet little poem with it. We kept it on the kitchen windowsill to begin with, but it soon needed to be planted in a larger pot and we moved it to a windowsill in the conservatory. We kept watering it and watching it grow and soon it needed to be replanted again and we put it on the floor of the conservatory.

I'm not sure exactly how tall the plant is at the moment, but it is now taller than Mark who is 6 ft. It has finally come into flower this week, so I took a picture of little Emma next to her sunflower. She has waited patiently for months to see this flower and has been so excited at the rapid growth of the plant.

We have never grown sunflowers before, but it was tremendous fun. They grow so fast that even the littlest children can be entertained by watching their progress and it is immensely satisfying for them to grow something so big from a little seed. We will certainly try growing more next year and see if we can grow another sunflower that is bigger than Daddy.

Emma is very proud of her sunflower

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Small Beginnings

Last weekend we bought some seeds and some compost and spent Sunday afternoon planting. This year we have planted cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and cress. We also plan to plant peas, but we couldn't find our seeds (left over from last year) so once we have found them we will plant them too.

The Podlings got a bit excited with the flower seeds in the shop, so we have Petunias, Pansies, Lobelia, Morning Glory, Sweet William and Lily of the Valley to look forward to. I wasn't about to quell their enthusiasm as I love flowers and think you can't have too many flowers in a garden. Granted, you can eat the vegetables, but I do get such pleasure from growing flowers. I'm afraid I'll generally choose pretty over practical!

Lily and Emma had a lot of fun planting and watering the seeds. Tom came out briefly to plant the Morning Glory seeds he chose, but it was really too cold to tempt him to stay and plant more. Our seeds are nice and cosy in the conservatory (it doubles up as a greenhouse!), but I plan to wait until it gets a little warmer before I plant the Lily of the Valley. We bought those so Lily could have a namesake in the garden and they should come in to flower around her birthday in late May. These little details please me!

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The Dahlia Walk

The Dahlia Walk at Biddulph Grange Gardens was looking beautiful yesterday, so I stopped to take a few pictures of the flowers. Apparently the Victorians had rather a passion for dahlias and I can see why. I hope they are easy to grow as I rather fancy having a few in the garden next year. They would need to be easy to grow as I am not entirely skilled in matters horticultural and would be bound to kill them otherwise!

I think this one was probably my favourite

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The Gardener's Assistant

Emma and I are making the most of the warm weather this week to spend some time outside and get some gardening done. Emma loves to help me put the flowers in the ground, but her favourite thing is to water the garden. She looks rather sweet carrying her trusty watering can around the garden, waiting to be told what to water. We love our outdoor time, my baby and me.

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Finally...some sun!

"The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth,--

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth."

- Dorothy Gurney

After what feels like the wettest April in history it was with a glad heart that I went into the garden today to find that it actually felt like spring. Emma and I spent a happy morning doing a spot of gardening and trying to tidy up some of the more unsightly corners. As you can see from the length of the grass and the profusion of dandelions it has been some time since the weather has allowed us to spend any time gardening.

The sun brought out more than just us. Emma and I must have seen at least 10 ladybirds in the garden, which Emma named after members of the family. She'd keep asking where the Lily Ladybird was and getting excited when the Tom Ladybird started running along a blade of grass. I'm thankful that whilst Emma is happy to look at all sorts of insects and gets quite a thrill from spotting snails, she won't touch any of them. I really don't know how I'd react if one of my children came running up to me holding a creepy crawly. Eeew!

Emma and I love being outdoors, so I'm hoping today wasn't just a one off and we can spend some more time gardening later in the week. I think it will take me several days just to tackle the dandelions!

Emma watching a ladybird 

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To the garden...

Emma at the sand table

Although I still wouldn't go out without a coat on, the nicer weather has driven us into the garden. The Podlings are so happy to be able to play outside again and it is all we can do to drag them off the trampoline to eat their tea!

Emma and I spent a lovely day outside together yesterday whilst poor Tom and Lily were cooped up in classrooms. I re-filled the sand table and we spent a good while making sand castles and squashing them. We blew bubbles, sang songs, looked for ladybirds and made a start on what will be our vegetable bed. Emma loves gardening, so she really enjoyed getting to play in the mud!

It is so nice to be able to get outside again after the winter. I'm getting excited preparing our planting for this year and have visions of flower beds and homegrown vegetables dancing in my head. I'm looking forward to playing outside with the Podlings, reading in the garden, country walks and picnics. Let's hope this nicer weather sticks around for a while...I just need it to get a little warmer!

Emma helping to prepare the vegetable bed

What child doesn't love the chance to play in the mud?

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Signs of Spring

We have been seeing a bit more sun lately and whilst there is still a decided nip in the air, the promise of Spring is evident in the birdsong, the daffodils blooming in the garden and the appearance of the first of my primroses. I am always happy to see my primroses every spring. They originally came from my Dad's garden in Devon and I always feel like I have a little piece of my childhood home blooming in my own garden. Spring flowers are such happy flowers, their beautiful colours bringing so much brightness and joy after the long, grey winter. It makes my heart sing just to look at them.

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First fruit

Lily showing off our first homegrown cucumber

This year we have been trying our hand at growing vegetables. It started out as a 'this would be a good thing for the Podlings' activity, but Mark and I have found ourselves getting quite excited about the whole thing. Initially, we just planted some tomato seeds, but have since widened our horizons and are also growing cucumbers, peppers, peas, potatoes, sugar snap peas, rocket, radishes, pumpkin, squash, runner beans, blackberries and strawberries. Oh, and cress...does cress count? I also have many varieties of flower seeds strewn at various points in the garden, because you can never have too many flowers.

We seem to be having phenomenal success getting the seeds to germinate and at one point we had 12 cherry tomato plants and 23 normal tomato plants, though we have since given some of these away. Our conservatory has become a makeshift greenhouse and every time I open the door the smell reminds me so much of my grandfather's greenhouse. It makes me very nostalgic!

Lily couldn't wait to wash our cucumber and polished it to a high shine before I sliced it.

This afternoon we had the excitement of harvesting our first cucumber. Tom declined to be photographed with the fruit, but he had no problem consuming vast quantities of it with his tea. With the exception of Mark, we all love cucumber, so this little guy didn't last long. Hopefully we won't have long to wait for another one to be ready for picking. It's all very exciting!
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Bluebells at the bottom of the garden

Mark and I spent an evening late last spring planting some bluebell bulbs in the garden. We both love this pretty little flower and Mark has a particular fondness for them as they remind him of his native Sussex. Our gardening efforts have been rewarded this year by a modest little patch of bluebells under the trees at the bottom of our garden. We hope that we will see a few more every year until we have our own carpet of blue to look forward to every Spring.

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A little bit of home

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The first year that we moved here I asked my Dad if he could bring me some of the wild primroses from his garden to plant in mine. Every spring I look forward to seeing their delicate yellow heads gently nodding in the breeze. I feel like I have a little piece of Devon blooming in my garden and it gives me a connection to a county I dearly love and miss. Devon will always be my home.
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The first snowdrop

Mark and I bought some snowdrop bulbs in the green last year and spent a chilly evening in late Spring planting them around the garden. Our efforts were rewarded this week by the appearance of this pretty little flower. It is the first of the snowdrops to open completely. There are plenty more in various states of emergence under the trees at the back of the garden, but I can see this one from my kitchen window. We're hoping the bluebells we planted at the same time will show us their pretty heads in abundance in the spring.
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