Garden News from Molokoloko: How does your garden grow...?

...Fast - in April!

Tulips in my garden

As much as I try to get on top of the gardening I seem to fail. There is so much to do. In truth, I should be digging not tapping this post. However, digging in the middle of the day is probably unwise. Well, that's my excuse. Also the ground is pretty hard because we have not had any rain to speak of for ages.

It doesn't deter little Digger....

I have to fence this off from digger
or it will all be pointless

Mmm, that patch is supposed to have potatoes, peas, courgettes and strawberries in it by now....oh dear. I better get on with it.

I was going to plant strawberries in a planter under glass but the children commandeered the box I had in mind for an imaginary steam train.

Another plan foiled by those who more or less live here.

The meadow? That should be doing well now...well, yes, it should...but...

Less meadow but hardly lawn!

...Seren needs space to play and poo. I'll explain - I need to be able to see where she's 'been' so I can clear up. Of course there is plenty of time to let the meadow grow later, we'll see how I feel about it in a month or so.

So there you are. Three not-done jobs already. I did buy fencing for the veg plot but I stupidly ordered the wrong height. At the minimal cost I paid it is not worth returning, it can be adjusted and made into plant props to supplement the ones I've already made. But it does mean I need to reorder the right size...bother.

But making up for the failed jobs are the tulips which, if I say so myself, are stunning. Let me encourage you to plant tulip bulbs every autumn it really rewards you in spring. They aren't difficult to plant and they are relatively cheap...and go on popping up every year for quite a few years.

Pale Pink Double

One of my favourites, green as a pea pod.

Miniature pink, love the simplicity

Sunshine colours

Are they not worth planting every autumn?

Leah loves the almost black ones.

Darker than this in real life.

So those success have made my failures easier to live with - but that is no excuse for not getting out there and digging, planting weeding.

This is the month to pull up those pesky weeds. While they are visible before other things hide them under new growth or, worse, get so entangled with the roots that they are almost impossible to remove without hurting the plant they are strangling.

False widow spider

But I have tidied the sheds...and that is an energizing job. I can't work when I can't find the things I want! So I have found my tools and tidied up all the bits and pieces into sensible categorised groups. I found a few rather big spiders too. Those were not tidied up. One ran away and the other one I squashed. Sorry spider but you did look as if you might deliver a bite - not all that poisonous, in fact, most unlikely you would bite anyone...but just in case little fingers probed where they shouldn't.

Kiddies' Corner

I plan to feed the roses today. They are greedy little beauties and will repay you for a feed now with lovely flowers in June. Fish, blood and bone will do them nicely.

When I tidied the sheds I took out the children's table and chairs. I notice they love to play at the bottom of the garden where they think I can't see them (I can...I'm a granny - we have eyes in the back of our heads). This is an unexpectedly sheltered from the wind corner. I found a cheap vivid pink geranium at B&Q and a little green recycled bamboo pot to hold it. I hung the bird feeder I bought last summer in Windemere. It is a little bit of fun. I've seen very few birds use it but maybe in this new position they will feel safer using it.

This is placed right next to the pond and the little bird bath. There are some white bells in flower just in front of Jonah.

White bell flowers, i don't know what they are

These flowers have all grown from one little plant I found growing by the kitchen door whe I first moved here. It was not in the right place so I moved it...oh my goodness, it loves this spot!

The greenhouse is full too. A lot of the plants that have over wintered there are coming back. I pruned them and the pelagoniums have new shoots. The fig tree must come out of there this week. Tomatoes are doing fine. Mostly. Two of the six got eaten by a slug on their first night in the greenhouse - one will regrow but the other ...well, let's say, I'll hope.... Meantime I have reintroduced slug pellets but only in the greenhouse and it is safely barricaded from Seren AT ALL TIMES!

Full of overwintering plants
plus some seedlings

Tomato plants

The slug also got all, every one of my germinated marigolds. In the greenhouse back right in white plastic bag are some pelagonium cuttings. Various family members have indicated they would like some if they 'work' - actually if they do work I rather think a few of them will be looking for homes. I could probably successfully post them to you if you let me know....I'll ask again later...if they actually sprout roots and grow.

I have made JP's headstone (or head-driftwood as he loved the beach so much) One of my jobs this afternoon is to fix it into place. In a manner that little Jaws cannot remove and chew.

Well, I cannot, nay, must not sit here any longer when the day is fine and there is so much to get on with. I'll leave you with a few shots of the garden...successes not the failures.