Good and Bad News

When we were in Italy on holiday a few years ago, I bought some of the local seed (this is permitted as they are part of the EC, 6 packets, if I recall correctly). I bought some tall “French” beans and some Dwarf ones, with violet coloured pods. I have grown purple podded beans before, but haven’t seen climbing ones for sale for a while. I found they were delicious… better than the ones I’d bought in England. The packet is old, now and the beans not fertile, so planting them in a tray would be a waste. I tried “chitting” them by putting them in a small bottle with holes in the cap and washing them twice daily, treating them like sprouting beans. They didn’t sprout so I knew they were not viable. Then I found some seeds self-saved from two years ago and tried the same trick. I got excited when I found a couple had chitted, and potted all the soaked seeds into individual cells, and put them in the propagator. Two came up, and I wondered where the others were, so I stuck my finger into the compost (as you do.) Yuck, the others have rotted, so it seems few of those beans are viable. I’m going to have to “sprout” a lot of the remaining beans and hope I find a few more viable ones.

The good news is that I have two plants. I’m intending to put these into a new bed in my greenhouse, but that is cluttered at the moment. So I’ll pot them up, cherish them, then plant them later. “French” beans do well in a greenhouse because they are self-fertile, and don’t need the bees to pollinate them. Mind you, I have seen some bees around so an early start to all my beans might help.

Because my garden is overshadowed, the growing season is cut short, especially with sun-lovers like the curcurbits, which need lots of sunshine to form female flowers. So an early start is essential to get the best out of them. This means my greenhouse is packed this time of year.

Since my garden has been so neglected over the past few years (What a tyrant novel-writing is) I have several projects and a lot of tidying up to do this year. The first thing I did when we moved here is make some raised beds with timber which I thought had been treated. That has rotted away, which means I need to replace the timber. I am a bit vexed about this (understatement). I expected the timber to last twenty-five years.

I am also vexed that the raspberry plants which I bought as disease resistant were not, and have succumbed to virus and rust. They have to go. This leaves me with a bed ideal for the runner beans. I replaced the rotten timber with old slate tiles from a reclamation yard, three deep, buried in the soil against the concrete path. I’m not sure how these will do, because they are on edge and may well shatter in the frosts, but they won’t rot. They were quite cheap, too, since I didn’t mind broken tiles. I have several other raised beds to rejuvenate. At the moment, though, they are covered in clutter.

I keep reminding myself it's only March. OK, nearly April. But I don't have to get everything done at once.

Some old snapshots

I'm trying to figure out how to upload images to this blog. As I'm not very technically minded, it's proving a tad tricky.

These photos were taken a couple of years ago, and are snapshots taken on the old camera before I started to learn how to take decent pictures. Even so, they are my copyright, so please don't use them without my permission.




Oh, thank goodness; I appear to have got the knack.

This is my beloved wisteria. Every year when I prune it, it seems like so much hard work, until I get a display like this.


This is the view from my back door. The bananas are covered every winter, but this year I fear they may not have made it. I won't say what I do exactly because I may write an article on it.




And this is my quiet, shady end of the garden. My garden is long sideways but very short depthwise. Over-the-back's extention is very intrusive, and I hate it.




And just to show I've learned something about plant photgraphy:-

Welcome to my Garden

This blog came about because a friend said I should share my garden notes with more than just a handful of people. I am in two minds about this because there are plenty of magazines and garden blogs for people to read... why create another? Another problem which inhibits me slightly is that I'm a published writer hoping to sell some articles to magazines. I can't sell pieces I've already publicised on the blogosphere.

However, it takes an awfully long time to get anything accepted, and there's a good deal I can say which might be interesting, yet not publishable in magazines.

So why not write a blog?

I want to maintain some anonymity so call myself Evelyn, I live "somewhere in Essex", and have done for ten years. I took up writing about 6 years ago, starting off with a crime novel, perhaps not the best way of doing things. I made all the usual mistakes a novice writer makes, yet found an agent with that first novel. After much patience on her part, and many re-writes on mine, I had a presentable novel, but alas, her attempts to find a home for it failed.

Meanwhile I wrote several more, and, since most of the rejections were due to my novice status, decided to try short stories and articles. I have had a couple of short stories published, and some non-fiction articles. So when I'm not gardening, I'm writing. (Anything to avoid the housework.)

My garden is a real garden, not a TV garden or a show garden, in which I try new things, I make mistakes, and I have my successes. I have a very limited budget and tend to make do. My garden isn't really big enough, so everything is crammed in. I have a pottager round the side, thought this is horribly overshadowed by my neighbour's massive extention. Another neighbour's massive extention is right in my face in the back garden. It's rather depressing, but like most of us, I have to go with what I've got, and make the best of it.

Because of the writing and other committments, I have neglected my garden for a the last few years. It's now time to claim it back.

One thing I will not be showing on this blog, is my front garden. As I say, I want to maintain some anonymity and streetview is just too revealing. Also, I shall not be divulging any of my security measures which keep my home and garden safe.