Chelsea Gardens 2007

It's that time of year when the ultimate Gardening show takes place at Chelsea. Somehow these gardens are created for just a few days and look as if they've been there for ever. It's taken me almost a decade to make my garden look ... well, not exactly perfect or neat and tidy, more of a naturalised, 'leave it to it's own devices' space. I'll be keeping an eye out for anything that has a slightly edible nature or more likely a sustainable, eco-friendly design of which there seem to be quite a few.

Anyone going to Chelsea this year? Let me know how you get on and which is your favourite.

Salad Veg Planted Up

A short, early morning burst in the garden and I got half a trough planted up with salad, spinach and rocket seeds. Just a few as I don't want them all coming up at once and being overwhelmed by greenery in a few weeks time.

I've only planted half the trough, so that in theory I can plant the other half in a few weeks time and have a succession of pickings.

First Transplants

Planted out the French bean and Broad bean seedlings into four of the squares. Two squares each. Also planted out some Swiss Chard seeds and Radish in two other squares. All squares now planted up.

As the slugs and snails will have a field day with the new seedlings to say nothing of the other things that will be breaking through at any time - I've spread a band of vaseline all round the side of the SFG box and just to stop the pigeon's also thinking dinner has been served, I've rigged netting over the whole thing which can be moved up as they grow.

I also planted out four purple sprouting broccoli seeds between the French bean seedlings. When these pop up I'll transplant these elsewhere in the garden ... somewhere. There are bound to be a few gaps around.

More Beans - Second Attempt

Took advantage of a break in the showers and planted out some more runner beans and mangetout. Directly into the soil in my square foot garden, replacing the ones that never germinated.

The broad and french beans are shooting up at a fair rate and will soon be ready to plant out. Time to dust off the bamboo poles.

Seeds, Glorious Seeds

Returns triumphant from the garden centre, through the mist and rain, clutching several packs of seeds. Probably being over ambitious as I'm not really sure where on earth all these plants are going to go. However, I'm full of enthusiasm for my newly planned and planted patch.

Runner bean and mangetout seeds, to replace that which hasn't sprouted so far. Ruby Chard, cucumber and purple-sprouting broccoli. I think the chard and broccoli are likely to get planted in the flower beds as the broccoli in particular seems to need plenty of space and would quite happily take up a whole SFG on it's own. Not that I really need to grow that much just for my own needs. I can see a vegetable stall being set up at the local farmers market to sell my overly enthusiastic produce .... :)

More Shoots

Well, the broad beans and the dwarf french are just starting to poke up above the soil, so the runner beans and mangetouts are unlikely to emerge now. In fact they almost seem to be growing as you look at them.

There are a few tiny shoots starting to come up in the basil and mint pots but as my compost tends to be particularly 'fertile' for seeds, they could be anything. I'll wait to see what they develop into before I pick them out or plant them on.

Off to the garden centre for some more, before it gets too late in the year for planting them out - particularly the runner beans.

It's War - Snails

Realising that this is going to be a tough year and the snails, I'm sure are going to be very grateful for all my planting, I've taken precautions - or at least I'm starting to. They've already totally demolished one of the cucumber seedlings I got the other week and have a good nibble at the aubergines, so on the way home today, via the local garden centre, I found some copper tape and an organic pellet that prevents slugs from attacking plants.

It's one of the few creatures that I'll resort to pesticides for - those blue pellets are very effective not that I use them very often. This time, having heard good things about copper and seen my Mum use them around her hostas, I'm being good and going for the organic option, which of course I do with most things - letting the garden fend for itself, encouraging a variety of wildlife.

I spotted a few ladybird bugs around the garden this weekend - rather ugly looking black bugs with yellow spots. Very good for aphids.