Spring Update

Pruning

Ok, so one likes to prune. Most often not, quite aggressively, so front row are all Olives, back row (left to right, is Olive, lemon stick, lemon with a leaf or two).

Poor things don't like the cold, so will have to be brought inside before the first frosts.

Disappointed with the lemon trees - was expecting a bush, but got a spindly 6ft twig. Topped one and left a few leaves on the other. Experimenting with the Olives, the tall one is again very spindly, obviously quite a few years old, judging by the shocking pruning cuts it's had to endure.

Will sort it out, do't worry!

How I feel at the end of the day

Loves a long stretch and a brief tummy tickle, a second too long on the tummy and your fingers will be shredded!

The blue rinse is the pre-op prep when she was spayed - probably need to give her a bath, but want to live...

She actively stalks and attacks next door's puppy - older and much bigger than Anna, doesn't bother her - she literally chases and attacks him!

Grape balls of fire

Having watched a million youtube videos on vine pruning, had a jolly good time hacking the vines back to two buds. Left a few laterals to see if we can reach the four corners of the vine frame.

This year's grapes are already forming, if you look closely.

Geraniums

Having been caught out by the rapid transition from summer to winter, all the Geraniums were subjected to one or three frosts, before half were moved to the Greenhouse and the rest to the garden shed.

The shed won. Just one of the greenhouse plants lives to bloom another day. In the shed, 80% of the cuttings have signs of growth.
Spend most of today potting the Olives and surviving Geraniums.

Figment of the Imagination

Last year we managed about 5 ripe figs.

Not sure if the late frosts were to blame, or probably clueless pruning.

Anyways, my brutal thinning and opening up the centres has started well.

Really love freshly picked figs - so fingers crossed.

Anyone Care to Guess

It's a baby walnut!

Again, last year produced zero fruit across 2 trees. Both this year bore numerous male stamens and most ends of branches have a single or double fruit emerging.

Front Bed

Roses are growing strongly, except the one that has died - a replacement already lined up.
A lot going on here! Plan is to look like an English Country garden, with all space filled. 

Lettuce, radish, sorrel, dill, parsely, rosemary, marigolds, peppermint, lemon balm, cranes' bill, garlic, daffodils, chamomile and many other things!

Stawderberries

Next door, Dimo and Rossa offered us some strawberries, was expecting half a dozen, but no... there are 16 in each gutter and put a few more in the existing strawberry bed.
A temporary solution. The exisitng bed needs to be deep dug to eliminate the couch grass and bindweed, will wait until they've stopped flowering and fruiting.

Fruity

The new orchard consists of 13 or so sticks!
All came essentially as 1 year old whips, so all have been topped. Just water them every day and start imagining each tree's shape as the new branches form.
Obviously won't be seeing any fruit for 4-5 years on most.
Have got plums, cherries, peaches, an apricot and two pomegranates.

Cherries

No issues with late frosts this year!

Not the Pear

Having been told that the tree in the lawn was a pear, and not having any fruit on last year, we bought 3 more pears to ensure that it was polinated.
Both Dimo Canada and the little old lady both remarked "nice quince"... and indeed the pear tree is covered in baby quinces... We wanted a quince tree anyways! Looks like we will have to prune many of the fruit as the branches won't support the current number. Expect to lose many along the way, so will wait until they start getting bigger. 

Greenhouse Tomatoes

Selected just eight tomatoes for the greenhouse, tried to put the taller ones at the back! Planted some marigolds and basil to help keep the pests at bay - all experimental.
I'm sure I read that tomatoes stop blooming when the temperature exceeds 28C, which might be a big problem later in the year, we'll see.

Hopefully will have the irrigation equipment early next week.

Greenhouse Peppers

After a massive space clearing exercise, liberated the pepper bed, planted 4 heirloom cucumbers under the netting and squeezed in 20 ish peppers and chillies - Carolina Reaper, Jay's Peach, Naga, 7 Pot and the Bulgarian Carrot leading the way for the hot ones.

Propagation of the chillies hasn't been easy, I think the nighttime temperatures being so low is the issue, still have enough to feed the village.

Furrows to match my wrinkles

Put the metal wheels and plough attachment on the beast. Dimo next door demonstrated how to plough. Will be useful for the couch grass contaminated areas as the roots are over a foot down.

Today's task (20/04/2024)

Getting as many tomato plants in the ground. The little old lady down the road gave us these bad boys, there must be 50 plants in the greenhouse!
It's back to the counting chickens again, these are only the plants, a long way to go before we get to ripe fruit.

EDIT - it's p*ssed down all day - potted on some stuff in the greenhouse and sown some more chilli seeds of the ones that failed in previous sowings.

Expert

x - an unknown factor

spurt - a drip under pressure

So, anyway, the extra bits for the large irrigation system arrived and phase I now completed (24/4/2024).

Opted for drippers for the tomatoes and a seep hose for the pepper bed.

Phase II commences today (25th) for the first outside tomatoes.
Phase III will be for the corn et al and tomatoes/peppers on the otherside of the greenhouse.

Gravity

Get a feeling that the requirement for a perfectly level garden is serverely underplayed in the Irrigation Company's literature.

There's a fair slope in the greenhouse, so all the water runs to the bottom of the hose lengths, meaning not a lot is seeping out of the hose at the top end.
Still, the hose isn't saturated yet, so will let it settle down a bit.

WIll run the next seep hoses across the slope, rather than down it and see what the difference is.

Edible Border

Very little earth space left!

Lettuce, sorrel, radishes, onions, lots of herbs (mint, rosemary, lavender, chamomile, borage, thyme, lemon balm, mustard to name but a few) and spinach. Apologies to those I've missed out!