Gardening should come with a health warning

...because, for me least, it's addictive! But first, the sea...

Today really feels like the first day of spring. There have been blue skies and lots of sun all day and now here I am, sitting on the beach listening to the tide roll in. Bliss. The sea really is incredible and being able to sit by it with the greatest of ease is utterly divine. Thank you, world.

So. Gardening. Today was effectively weekend number three of Tigger Does Gardening. The morning saw me potting on some garlic plants I'd started in my newly designated Gardening Zone. I'd been thinking of putting a table out into my yard but given a) it wouldn't be appealling in the dark or the wet and b) my yard doesn't get much sunshine anyway I opted for a spot in my basement, conveniently placed for access to my Bath Garden. Now, due to the exciting upgrade that's currently I'm progress on my bathroom I also spent a fair while sorting through various piles of waiting-to-go-to-the-tip but even that felt very productive as next time a tip trip is imminent I know I've got a car full all ready to load.

I also managed to repot a couple of plants that were well overdue new homes and I now just have to wait and see if said new pots will do the trick. By this point the sunshine was veritably demanding my presence so I packed my bags and headed off to buy...more plants! The same shop that has so merrily been selling me £4 fruit trees had some indoor citrus and smelly plants, perfect for the extension at work. We already had a kumquat and now also have a lemon, a small-orange type (I forget exactly what it was, but the fruit is orange coloured and smaller than an orange but bigger than a kumquat), a lavender "tree" and a rosemary "tree". My only concern now is that the smells will all compete! The room is perfect for these plants, however, so whatever happens I'm sure they'll be happy.

At the office there are some existing trees, bushes and plants which I'm assessing one by one as to whether to keep, evolve or get rid. Today the time had come to say farewell to some bushes. My plan had been to get the roots out with my trusty digging fork but it turns out said fork wasn't so trusty after all...one of the tines bent entirely the wrong way on the first attempt to extract said roots, so I opted for "lop off the branches" destruction instead. This went surprisingly well and rather than have a bunch of twiggy "waste" I decided to try being a low-tech chipper and return the former bushes to their original home after snipping them up. Whether this turns out to be a good or bad idea I have yet to find out, but when it's mild and the sun is out I don't mind having something to keep me outside.

I used the last of my pack-of-three gooseberry and blackcurrant plants and also planted out some more of the lavender plugs I got last autumn and have been nurturing indoors. The more I plant, the closer I get to creating a planting plan but for the time being planting is fairly ad hoc. There's easily space for another 4 or 5 large tubs outside at this office and given I'm planning on using several at home as well I foresee another order happening soon. Whether every tub will have a fruit tree in remains to be seen! I'm also eyeing up the window ledges in the room with the citrus plants for some troughs of greens...

But the awareness of this growing attachment to all things plant related when I was heading home and stopped off to buy some groceries. "Oooh, jasmine, I've already got some of that...but a magnolia might be nice...and a...." Yep, i'm smitten. And with such a brilliant array of locations to play with, I'm a lucky, lucky Tigger.

Grow, grow, grow your boat!

In case you start wondering, the subject line doesn't make any sense. It would do if I'd netted myself (oh, the puns, the puns) a boat as a container for my garden but I haven't. I do, however, have a bath. But subject line aside, I seem to be in the very lucky position of having FOUR different gardeney places to play with! The flip side is that I'm getting slightly bamboozled by possibilities and things I don't know about gardening - every book I pick up on the subject is fascinating and reveals more things I could learn about. Crikey. But such is the way at the beginning of learning about a subject!

I always thought I knew a bit about gardening. And I think I do. But with so many things I *could* know my existing knowledge seems paltry and in much need of bolstering. Like the fact that I recognised a hydrangea as "a plant that's familiar" but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. Anyway, the only way is up from here on in (today's least favourite fact was that it'll be best if I don't pick any of this year's rhubarb from the two roots that have already been added to two of the gardeney places to give the roots a chance to "bed in" and be nice and strong next year. Ho hum) and so it begins!

From the top of the patch looking down

Last weekend saw me over in Grange over Sands at the biggest of the gardeney places - I didn't take a complete "before" picture but the bit of garden I'm getting to play with is a sloping bit which the previous house owners had kept as a limestone pavement feature. Yes, limestone pavement in a garden. Amazing. Anyway, it's got rather overgrown but is a perfect Tigger project to try out various things.

The previously mentioned success of getting wooden pallets in my brilliant Berlingo is demonstrated above - three sides of a compost bin with the fourth side being a stone wall. It's rough and ready but it works! The current plan is to put in a couple of beds running "across" from the left of this photo (the stone wall) to the path on either side of the pallet compost bin. The biggest challenge is getting enough soil together for plants but there's a potential source of horse manure and my thought is to create the "frame" of the beds and then use them as "live" composters for the year or so it takes to get the manure rotted enough and at the same time keep piling leaves into the beds for a bit of leaf mulch. Of course, we could just buy in top soil but that seems too easy...

From about half way down, looking up (the pallet compost bin is out of show to the right)

There are lots of volunteer trees that have somehow managed to find enough purchase to get their roots down and start to flourish - and plenty of holly plants too. I expect most of the smaller trees will come out but in case you're thinking trying to plant here is a recipe for disaster, there are already some fruit trees (apple, pear, damson) that are surviving. They could do with some more love but they're there!

Burning the evidence - this compost bin is proving a good point of reference, eh?

I've never been much good at capturing photos of fires, but you might get a bit of a sense of the size of last week's inferno - the round thing in the foreground is the top of a dining table. The bonfire patch is on the flattest bit of the land and will probably be one of the first areas to get "cultivated" - there's currently talk of tomatoes and rocket...

Looking down - hello Damson tree!

The remnants of the bramble heap

Having emerged from the trees at the top, below the bonfire patch it starts getting pretty wild again, as well as narrowing somewhat. I think that's the damson free in the middle. But, like I said, plenty for me to get my teeth into!

And finally, this is a view "down" from the bonfire patch and the remaining bank of brambles after last week's attack (the scratches are just about faded from my forearms now - they looked rather dramatic for most of the week but I really do prefer working with my sleeves pushed up to my elbows!) - and is a bit of a "this is somewhat representative of what the rest of it was like before I started". Lots to do!

I won't be back in Grange for about a month now but next time I'm there the days will be longer and the plottings in my head will be more advanced. Ha har! I'm already stockpiling plants and seeds to take...

Gardeney-place number two for today is the frontage of my house. About a year ago I had a small wall reconstructed along some of my perimeter (there had obviously been one there in the past but not within my memory) and for some time I've been wanting to try some container gardening. However, the key advance came with the upgrade of one of my bathrooms (which has really needed doing since I moved in but for which the time hadn't been right until now) - and the liberation of a bath! So, may I present to you: the fruit bath!

The fruit bath

Having only been planted today you can't see all that much other than the bath (complete with - non-working - taps) and in the foreground the gooseberry bush. At the tap end you may be able to make out the blackcurrant bush. Between the two bushes is a rhubarb root, along the "wall" side there are 3 strawberry plants, bulbs around the edges and I've rather hopefully scattered in some spinach seeds on the non-wall side. And yes, those are rather exciting screws sticking out. And yes, I have managed to jab myself once or twice. And I will do something about them, but not today (it's rather dark now).

The container is the proud owner of some more bulbs (Dutch Iris, to be precise) some more spinach seeds and...a Bramley Apple tree! Walking to the office yesterday (we had a course on I was assisting with - plus my spacetwin was coming along for the day which made it even better) I went into Aldi and discovered...apple trees at £3.99! And they are TALL! I ended up buying 3 (one Bramley as that was mainly what they had left, a Braeburn and a "mystery tree" - that may be a greengage and may be a Bramley and may be something else) as well as three raspberry canes (3 for £3.99 - again, amazing!). What I'll do with Braeburn and Mystery I don't yet know but I'll see how Bramley settles in and take it from there. Apples! Apples! Apples!

Space for another couple of baths. If I had another couple
of baths. Which I don't - so other plans shall have to be
developed!

There's still LOTS of space for other exciting pots and plants and brilliance but I'm starting with the bath and the planter and will see how they fare, being so very close to the general public as they are. Thinking about it, there was another bath in my life earlier in the year which I could have purloined for fruit-bath (or veg-bath) purposes but sadly it's now in a landfill somewhere. Ah well. Sadly I don't have any windows that overlook my budding (boom boom) green space but I'm so excited at the prospect of bringing some greenery to an otherwise very tarmacked area.

More fruit bushes! 

A few years back I attempted to use the space in my yard (at the back of the house) as a bit of growing space. Things grew - but didn't really produce fruit. The yard does get light but is very overshadowed and not much of an insect haven so I rather left it to its own devices. The yard is now becoming the "holding zone" for plants as I acquire them but before they're planted properly and I hope to make it into my "home brew fertiliser" zone (nettles and comfrey are the way, apparently!) later this year. But in the mean time, it's just being my yard. BUT some of the fruit bushes I'd put in all those moons ago had kept growing and doing their thing so I've moved them into the little yard outside the entrance to the basement - two gooseberry bushes in the lefthand tub, and a blackcurrant in the right hand (along with a tiny mint plant). Oh, and the rest of the iris bulbs. I'm fairly certain I need to prune these plants but, again, a job for another day.

I'm also beginning to take over all the window-ledges in my house with various useful plants. The stalwart is my ever growing collection of spider-plants: their use is to be an almost indestructable plant which takes in CO2 and gives out O2 and brings a little bit of life to a room, especially rooms that aren't in use much. The kitchen window-ledge was de-spidered today to make more room for kitchen-type plants (there are currently two parsley plants on it) and the front window ledge has a multitude of garlic plants shooting up, some mint, a geranium, a cyclamen, an aloe vera and I think one or two other things. The plan for that one is also to make it into an "edible collection" of pots - herbs, salady/leafy bits, whatever I can convince to live there. At present I think it's still a bit cool for much to be happening but I live in hope.

I've a lemon balm, parsley and spider collection in the upstairs kitchen and until this morning one of the window ledges on the stairs was home to a spider plant and two aloe vera plants (which are doing heroically in some very sandy "soil" that I scraped up from my tiny yard in Halifax as I was rather lacking in real soil). But now it has a new addition of a jasmine plant. I'd come to the conclusion in the past couple of weeks I quite fancied having some scented houseplants and this morning when I was buying compost I found some jasmine at half price - so bought three! One for that window ledge, one for my bathroom and the third is currently in the sitting room. I do hope they like their new homes - a jasmine scented house sounds rather delightful!

Gardeney-place number three of today is a "garden share" about 5 minutes walk from my house, the front yard of a house on the Prom. It's mainly concrete with planters on (although that may change with some of the concrete being taken out in the next few weeks) and I haven't done much there yet other than assess what's there (chives, parsley, marigolds, a hydrangea, strawberries, rosemary, lavender, a rhubarb root from my parents' garden, forget-me-nots and some other plants I haven't yet identified). Today I replanted two of the planters - one with a gooseberry bush and some bulbs, the other with a blackcurrant bush and some bulbs (Aldi were doing three-fruit-bushes-for-£2.99 about a week ago hence all the gooseberries and blackcurrants). I still don't have much of a plan for this particular gardeney place but I'm sure it'll come together. Here's hoping! (No photos of this one yet, I hope to provide some next time I'm there, possibly next weekend.)

And gardeney-place number four: the gardens and window ledges at the office.  There are already some well established trees and bushes there, and I've added a couple of containers by the front door with dwarf fruit trees (although only one of the trees now remains - there used to be one in each container, either side of the door), bulbs and lavender plants and we've put a bundle of bulbs in underneath one of the trees. There's one plant in particular I'm planning on taking out (it's an evergreen fir-type bush) and I'm hoping for more leafy veg along the window sills but beyond that it feels like there's potential but not yet much of a plan. Again, photos to follow!

I'd been wondering "why do I blog?" and have decided one of the reasons I will blog is to keep track of progress, successes and failures of my gardening exploits. I suspect other garden-related posts will be somewhat shorter and I also expect there will still be "inner ramblings" type posts - but as long as the gardening bug continues (and with fathers who supply, unprompted, delightful gardening books, I can't see it abating) I hope to keep track of it here!

Past the point of no return

My plans for this evening started with the idea of going to see Lincoln having failed to get to the cinema yesterday. Towards the end of the afternoon it became apparent, however, that going to the cinema this evening would be a sure fire way to pay good money to fall asleep in the dark. So, I continued on with Doingses at work (in a tiredness-adled brain way) only to discover the things I had been doing had been taking much longer than anticipated. During the Doingses I had plotted a long soak in the bath, but by the time of departure the plans were evolving yet further as I realised as much as baths are delightful, there is, in fact, a point past which just curling up in bed is more attractive.

Between getting in and curling up I had Dangerous Discovery Number 2 for the week. At least number 2 where food is concerned. Number 1 was that of being able to oven bake curly fries in the time between walking through my front door and faffing around doing "getting home" things. Number 2: that the Linda McCartney baby sausage rolls I purchased today take the same length of time to cook as said curly fries. I had, in fact, been craving vegetables as I gazed about me, walking home along the Prom in the invigorating winds so said oven-baked delights were accompanied by some sprouts. My diet may not be a classic "healthy" one, but when energy reserves are low it is, at least, a "functional" diet.

And now I look ahead to tomorrow and wonder where on earth the week has gone. There has been something immensely intense about this week and it doesn't appear to be making any great shakes to change in the near future. Oh, AND I was greeted by not one but TWO hand written letters on arriving home. Delightful! But my brain is pretty much vetoing any further thought - in fact, I'm not convinced lucid thought didn't get vetoed about 3pm...

Good Times

It has been an outstanding weekend. From beginning to end it has been productive, enjoyable and generally brilliant. Hurrah!

It all started with tidying up some long overdue "finishing" jobs on Friday evening - the whole job is yet to be completed but there's something about having started it that makes me confident it'll get done. Decorating, as this particular job is, seems to me to be a never-ending job but I'm not going for perfection, just Finish. What the difference is varies from person to person, but for me it's another hour or two of painting and then lots of cleaning!

Another "never ending" job is that of sorting out my house. Sorting through things I don't need to keep. Moving furniture. Deciding what really needs to get redone and to what extent. Doing the washing up. Et cetera. Saturday morning saw a new job started (effectively emptying a bookshelf, to move it to make space for some built-in shelves to be constructed - the job was finished this afternoon and also resulted in a whole bunch of books being lined up for the charity shop and paperwork I've been hoiking around with me dispatched to the recycling) and then I was off on a weekend adventure. That started at my office building collecting some pallets that had been left by builders on an adjacent building who had clearly decided leaving them in situ was a good idea (for them, at least) and, yet again, loving how brilliant my vehicle is. Basically, I get a car (sans VAT) which can, in less than a minute, be converted to have van-sized capacity. And this weekend I discovered it can take 3 pallets without much fuss. Huzzah!

The pallets were to make a compost bin in a bit of garden I've ended up being allowed to play with over in Grange over Sands. It's part of the grounds of a beautiful old house and has been left to run pretty much wild since the current occupiers moved in. There's not much soil as it's effectively limestone pavement on quite a slope but I still think there's plenty that could be done. Ha har! Thus far I've burnt a big pile of hedge trimmings and tree prunings that had been accumulating over about 12 months - and a whole heap of brambles. Not being one to enjoy having my arms covered to my wrists (unless I'm freezing cold I generally have my sleeves pushed up to my elbows) I now have a whole host of Tigger-versus-bramble marks but somehow it's a fond reminder. In an odd way. While I'm playing with their garden, the family that live there feed me, give me a bed to sleep in and let me use their beautifully huge enamelled bath. Plus I get to have interesting conversations with them (mainly with the parents, but occasionally with the two children and au pair) and generally have a window on a completely different world. Which is rather marvellous. And they're very grateful for the help in the garden! Win win, winnety win.

I headed home at lunch time today (after being cooked brunch - hurrah!) and proceeded with the aforementioned "sortings" in my house, as well as more of the decorating. I was on "receive stuff back from the course" duty for work and that went smoothly - just in time to head home to make myself roasted veggies, peas and gravy for tea (and lunch tomorrow) along with an "everything" flapjack (base: oats, marg, sugar and stewed apple; "everything": desiccated coconut, seeds, raisins, plus various spices). Oh, and also having got a load of washing done and put away some shopping, along with moving a bunch of stuff down to the basement.

So yes, pretty awesome weekend. Huzzah-ee-rah!