BOUNTY FROM THE KAILYARD

I felt like a factor surveying the (mini) 'estate,' as I sauntered around the garden today, checking how the plants were thriving.  And thriving they seem to be. In my kitchen garden corner  I saw my new Borage plant just about ready to burst into flower.  I am impatient to see the flowers. The sentinels either side, the 'soup' leaves, as I call them, were looking strong and fresh.  Just out of sight below these herbs, I found some self-seeded Calendula leaves sprouting.  The original plants of three years ago, have left their small legacy. The Mimulas and Pansies provide a nice splash of colour.  The bare ground you see, has nature's flower seed mix about to sprout around the border, (no, not weeds). The mix allegedly keeps away pests such as slugs. When they are stronger, my other nurtured flower seedlings are destined for the rest of the space.

In a previous post, I mentioned my psychedelic salad box containing seeds of all sorts, including cucumbers. Without, at the very least, a cold frame  to protect fragile seeds and to encourage seedlings to grow, I was a bit stuck.  Salad leaves are no problem, they grow easy peazy, once temperatures allow, as you can see. Very soon I'll have very pretty multi-coloured bowls of salad. I'll defy anyone to not be tempted.

With hubby's ingenuity, I have acquired a cold frame-cum-greenhouse. This fish box has taken on a new lease of life.

I set to, planting seeds in peat containers.  I labelled the ones from the Psychedelic box. Oh dear; I picked up the wrong pen and the names have washed off!  It's going to be guess work now.  I know that there are radishes, and some kind of cucumbers - I'll check the box for the rest of the likely crop.  

I've got more mixed salad leaves growing in the plastic pot below; they were planted later than the ones in the tub above, and with the protection of 'the  frame' they're almost the same size as the others.  In the black seed tray are flowers, including cornflowers, (I hope)  The seeds were rather old -several years - and I am very surprised and pleased to see a result. 

The plan is to pour compost into the covered fish box when some of the seedlings are ready to prick out and use it as a mini greenhouse.  Fingers crossed I choose the cucumbers, whichever leaves they are!!  

I also have pots of flowers in between pots of onion and garlic chives; parsley, curly and flat.  I have pineapple and apple mints, currently recovering from being re-potted.  The open white fish box you see peeping out of  the bottom left corner has been used for a few years for growing coriander and salad leaves.  This, then, is my developing Kailyard, (Scottish, for a kitchen garden).

At the other end of the garden, hubby dug a potato patch. A present of some unusual species prompted it.  Added to that, a young relative wanted to be part of the planting.  Junior should return soon to see how much the potatoes have grown. Harvesting them should be fun. Junior's row is at the front, not quite as far on as the others.

I have started to develop an uncared for corner.  I want it to become a country garden; you know, the kind that looks as if it all happened by itself. 

Some of my fifty bluebell bulbs have grown and they are showing flower heads.  I can see that the Crocosmia bulb which flowered Late Summer last year, has tripled in quantity. For a further splash of colour, I planted another fifty yellow Allium bulbs in one day of good weather in early Spring, and I do believe I can see some points of leaves breaking through the soil. If you peer into the picture, (bottom left) you will see my Primula Candelabra. 

This year, after not doing much previously, it is sporting five flowering branches.

 Last, today's harvest from the sea appeared.  It's time to create space in the freezer.

THE DAILY SHUFFLE OF SENSITIVE LEAFY PLANTS

I had not intended it, the temperatures have been just too cold. My gardening hand was forced though, when I received a gift of six very healthy-looking herb plants, a clay planter and a large bag of compost.  Separately, I was also the lucky recipient of a psychedelic salad box.  The box is not psychedelic, what is in it, in packets of seed, is supposed to be. They are staying firmly closed.  Anyway, I'll have to negotiate the corner of someone's green house to cultivate the cucumbers that are part of the psychedelic mix.

As I said, my hand was forced.  This afternoon in-between heavy gobs of freezing rain  and hailstones - they were truly mini ice balls-I ran in and out of the cellar, where opened bags of compost are stored, to grab a bag of the stuff to fill the planter.  To allow spread, I could only place two of the hardier herb plants in it.  The planter has depth and not too much length. I found a space against a wall, (actually, a few inches forward of it) to plant the Borage, having first been assured that it would be okay and  as a bonus, appear annually, (hmm).  Chives grow anywhere and don't seem to mind what type of climate they are faced with, within reason.  I stuffed the chive into a pot and left it near the other plants.

The remaining two herb plants are too tender to grow outside here, even in our warmer periods of the year.  I say that advisedly, as, yes, I agree it is all relative, but, to my mind and body thermostat, we do not have, as a rule, what I would call a summer, at least not with any continuity. According to gardening advice on one of the herb species, my own sixth sense about our warmth levels seems to be right. .........."it is sensitive to the cold".  It isn't the only one, I thought.

My two Aloe Vera plants are happy souls and easy to please.  Joining them on my kitchen window sill, are two new pots of green leafy things. There's every risk of sunburn there in the mornings for those tender leaves.  You can see it can't you, it will become the daily shuffle dance of the new plant pots from one side of the house to the other. 

GROWING THINGS - IS IT THE RIGHT TIME?

Gardening: I am determined that this year the difficult corners I started work on twenty-three years ago shall take some shape, similar in idea, to my original intentions.  There were several reasons why the creations lay dormant all this time, the main ones being, life getting in the way and someone else's ideas being superimposed.  I never expected to find my early terracing design under all the unkempt grasses, leaves and healthy large weeds. But, yes, there it was, with little wall intact.

What now: so far I have planted herbs from seed,  (last week when we had a mild three days) together with young herb plants.  The latest additions are, a variety of mints that are very definitely residing in their pots, they will even be constrained in them.  I am expecting an apple mint to join the other varieties soon.  I threw some radish seeds in to the ground, let's hope they're not too old to respond.  It's worth a try.

My hopes for colourful, peppery and interesting salads lie in nasturtiums, they make lovely vibrant colours with their joyful flowers.  They don't attract aphids and behave like a weed here.  They can and do in milder climates. Marigolds were next on the agenda.  I planted the wrong ones for salad, but they'll break up the green leaf food brigade with some pretty flowers.  When I realised my mistake, I did set some of the right seeds in little pots on the kitchen windowsill.  With any luck, I shall still get a short term supply of edible marigolds.

Of course, most of these plans and wishes depend on the weather warming up encouraging my little crops to grow.  It's nearly June, the weather forecasters have warned of night frosts in some areas. I'm left wondering if I have been a bit too enthusiastic planting herb crops out in late May.