How Does Your Garden Grow?

One of the joys of having our own garden is that we can be green-fingered again. It's a fairly small garden, mostly old brick paving and gravel, with a raised flowerbed running along one side, and a low one on the opposite side. There were already plenty of plants growing when we moved in, most notably the camellia climbing up the side of the old privy (now the "shed" and home to the washing machine!).

We decided to add to what was already here by attempting to grow some of our own fruit and veg. So gamely we planted seeds and saplings - tomatoes, courgettes, aubergine, peas, lettuce, butternut squash, summer squash, sweet peppers and chilli peppers. The squash and peppers had to be started off indoors but we have good sized windowsills and the house gets a lot of sun during the day (when it is shining of course!) There were also strawberry and raspberry plants already in the garden, much to our delight!

Well, we've had a few problems. Slugs and snails took a real liking to the courgettes. We tried the humane methods - putting orange slices down because they love citrus so would eat those instead - sadly they're greedy little monsters - they'd nom at the orange and then gulp down some courgette leaves for afters! Then we tried the beer trap. This merely became a woodlice graveyard. So, it was to the inevitable pellets we had to turn. Thankfully we found an organic and animal-friendly (except to slugs and snails) brand in Oxfam, and it is working a treat. The courgette plant has sprung back to life, and it is with much excitement that we can see them growing - looks like we're in for a good crop all being well, and the zucchini flowers have been popping up too (not sure our current healthy eating phase will allow us to eat these fried with cheese Italian-style though...) We've also got tomatoes appearing now, and the lettuce is blooming like crazy! Sadly the aubergines and peas didn't make it - first slimy predators, then windy weather proved too much.

Indoors, the squashes are generally flourishing - the butternut better than the summer - but we're giving them time. Hopefully it won't be too long before they can be moved outside. Our chilli pepper is fighting valiantly on after multiple aphid attacks and a nasty virus. We hope it'll make it!

In the garden already we've had the joy of seeing different flowers throughout spring, and now there are many blooming into summer too. In April there was a whole blanket of bluebells across the lower flowerbed, which were a real joy to see, especially as we didn't have a chance to go walking in the woods during bluebell season this year - instead we could admire them at home whilst enjoying a cup of tea and cake! Now we have stunning roses - an ancient red rose bush is clambering up the side of the house, and a pretty pink one is now covering the patch where where most of the bluebells were.

We also have a grapevine! It's pretty small and had been very much cut back when we moved in. We bought a willow trellis for it to climb up, and it's been flourishing ever since. We very much doubt we'll get reasonable grapes, so our wine-making dreams are currently on hold, but it's nice to see, and we're thoroughly enjoying all of these different wonders in our own back yard.

Oh, and one last thing- we live in quite a community-spirited neighbourhood. All of the houses open straight out onto the street so there are no front gardens, but everyone is encouraged to join in beautifying our street with flowerpots outside. Ours is full of purple and yellow violas which compliment our yellow front door (even when it comes to flowers I have to colour coordinate!), and there were enough left over to put in little pots by our growing fruits which are encouraging the bees and keeping things looking cheerful.

Will keep you updated on how our fruit and veg develops!

Photos my own.