Spring starts here... In August!

I've been meaning to keep a record of the gardening year, but the garden has kept a firm grasp on my time and efforts. After moving in four years ago with a completely blank slate, much of the landscaping has been done: greenhouse, raised bed, fish pond, patio, lawn... No major projects this year, just sitting back and enjoying the fruit of my labours.

However, with the late summer lull the time has come to dive in and make a start on this blog. The Spring bulbs are now on sale, summer cuttings are taking root, harvesting the veg is well under way, and the biennial seedlings planted this year are looking forward to their winter hibernation before bursting into life again in the Spring. So,  thoughts have turned to lessons learnt and plans for next year.

Compost bin and water butts

First of all, let me take you on a tour of the garden...

As a gardener on a water meter you can't have too much free water! The water butts are old soya oil containers I picked up from a local horse stable via Ebay. Angle grinded the tops off, fitted taps and raised on slabs. Pipes collect the water from the greenhouse. Free compost is worth its weight in gold too. Unfortunately I only had room for a single-box compost bin, and it is quite slow. I just keep loading it throughout the year, turning every six weeks, and by Spring it's all rotted down.

Potting bench and compost box

The side of the house is south-west facing and gets full sun and very warm. Great place for sowing and potting up. The compost box is home-made, and originally planned as a planter, but it has come in very handy next to the potting bench. The plants on the bench are monster Echiums. Bought the seeds off Ebay last year but lost them. They turned up in a coat pocket in the spring so got them sown and away they went. Hopefully they will give a great firework effect next summer.

Greenhouse and raised bed

When we moved in the neighbours thankfully cut down a huge willow tree that was shading the side of the house. For a few years I had a basic veg plot, but last year I treated myself to a 10 x 8 aluminium greenhouse. Again, £100 for the frame and concrete base off Ebay from a local guy. Spent nearly £600 on twin-wall polycarbonate to make it child-friendly (I have kids). Slabbed off the rest of the area around it, widened the path with free pavers from a neighbour, and made a raised bed with the remaining top soil. The greenhouse beds go down into the top soil too.

Raised bed inside greenhouse

It's the second year I've had a greenhouse. I've always wanted one and it's made the world of difference. Still trying to work out what works best. Tomatoes are fantastic, and last year cucumbers did well (Beth, dwarf variety.) In the past I've never had the courage to cut off the top of the tomatoes, but took the plung this year at about 5 ft. The plants reacted by fruiting like crazy! This year tried Moneymaker and Gardeners' Delight. Here you can also see 'patio' peppers, and a white grape vine, which might be a bit of a beast in the greenhouse, but should be worth it. My mother has one in her conservatory, and I have two at the bottom of the garden, but they haven't done too well. More on those later... There are some carrots in there too (early Nantes) but they haven't done so well. Grew Autumn King outside last year and they were fantastic.

Say, 'Hello Theo!'

As you can probably tell, I rarely pay for anything that you can't raid from a skip, find on Freecycle, or cadge off a neighbour. (What's the best time to take cuttings? When nobody's looking!) Here the staging is recycled timber and sits on top of the raised beds, so that it can be switched around. This year it's on the right, ideal for giving seedlings some light, pot raised cherry tomatoes and chillies thrive, house plants get a shot of UV, while underneath I'm growing short veg - beetroot and cabbage. The cabbage whites haven't made it inside, so the Savoys are doing very well. It acts as a great nursery bed too -  there are some leeks in there out of shot, should be ready to go out into the raised bed in the autumn.

OK, back outside. There's an old allotment site over the road that was closed for re-development, but nothing has happened yet. While walking the dog there I found some old rasberry canes. One dark evening I liberated them, and after rinsing off the couch grass and mare's tails from the roots, they have taken really well and gave me a fantastic crop this year. When I realised they fruit off the previous year's stems I haven't looked back. Stored rasberries in the freezer. Scrumped some apples with daughter yesterday and made some apple and rasbery crumble. Yum!

 More water butts. One collecting from the roof, with the second slightly lower acting as an overflow. that's almost 900 litres of capacity. Now all we need is some rain. Tip: when daughter asks if she can have the swimming pool out, never say no. Remaining water can go into the water butts for a dry week. I've also put some pond weed into one of them, and a few weeks later found a few goldfish fry swimming about. Mother-in-law was chuffed to have some baby fish for her pond.

Lawn left... alone

The garden backs onto a river, quite small in the summer, but in full spate during winter gets hairily close to the fence. So, the lawn slopes away slightly. Terrible trouble with moss last year, and dandelions, so this year took care to hammer them hard, and raised the blades on the lawn mower to give the grass a chance. Planter in foreground contains Heuchera and Phlox, which was given the 'Chelsea Chop' in early summer, hence late summer flowering. Bed to the left is East facing. Trying some Virginia Creeper to cover the fence up, and a Japanese Wisteria is growing from seed in the greenhouse. Might treat myself to a Fig for birthday to cover the rest.

Pond and Pergola

Pergola was built 2009 - Freddie Flintoff was winning the Ashes while I was painting it. Trying my hand at viticulture - black and white grape vines got hit hard by the cold this winter, but survived. Unlike the fish in the pond. The local Heron punctured the pond liner while catching all my goldfish, so this year have netted the pond - haven't lost one since. Pond has attracted all sorts wildlife - newts, toads, dragonflies etc. Have filled it with lots of plants from local Freecyclers - Lilies, Marsh Marigold, Reeds, Flag Iris, Water Mint.

Strawberry patch

I love strawberries, so when I finished building the low dry-stone wall - with Cotswold stone off Freecycle - I put in a little bed for strawberries. Topped off the wall with turf, but the hot weather in the spring did for it.

Finally, at the end of the path is the Japanese garden. It's under a tree, so gets plenty of shade. The bamboo has taken off well this year, and I treated myself to a lovely Jasmine. Also Sweet Peas and Honeysuckle on the fence. Perfect place to sit at sunset and take in all the scents.

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