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bessyj

Listed below are comments made by bessyj between Tuesday, 14th October 2008 and Saturday, 17th October 2009.

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I am on the hunt for a pumpkin 2:09pm on 17 Oct 2009 My garden is also too small for growing pumpkins, much to my son's disappointment! However, the recipe sounds lovely so I will give it a go anyway. Well done on getting that allotment; I am still on a waiting list...
Christmas in a cup 9:50pm on 22 Sep 2009 Yawn - totally bored with your predictable and sarcastic comments Stonecoldheart. Some people are optimists, others not; that's just life.
Growing something different 07:47am on 08 Aug 2009 I'm neither middle class, middle aged or live in 'middle england' and indeed have no aspiration to be so, and I enjoy the blog despite that, now there's a thing! Keep up the good work Alys and the rest of the team.
Growing something different 8:45pm on 27 Jul 2009 Alys, there is something quite autumnal about your post - bread making and jars of rasberry jam waiting in the wings. I thoroughly agree about the rain and my son and I have taken to doing welly walks as we both hate being cooped up inside. My garden definately has the high Summer blues with all that I love (sweetpeas, roses, lavender, hardy geraniums) all but gone and my tom's are not looking great. My rowan has berries on it for the first time which are again hinting at autumn round the corner, although the blackbirds have already started pinching them! I might give breadmaking a go if the weather continues to be blustery and wet; there are only so many cakes you can make...
Additions to Alys' Garden 9:10pm on 03 Jul 2009 Alys, I think your theory regarding pest and predator relationships might be right. I've just popped out to the garden to find lots of ladybirds and their larvae all over the black fly smothered echinops - they are chomping their way through the blighters. Hooray!
Additions to Alys' Garden 9:14pm on 23 Jun 2009 Congrats on the chickens! My friend has three chickens who work wonders on the pest control front and has foiled the foxes by popping them in the greenhouse at night. Its been hideously busy at work and the weekends have been hectic too, however, I have found time to sit outside and ponder on our small garden at its peak. I have a huge soft spot for roses, and the rosa mundi, zepherin drouhin, and gertrude jeykll are looking and smelling fab. I've also been growing some old fashioned sweet peas next to the back door and bringing in some bunches every day or so which cheers up the kitchen table. All very pedestrian in terms of species and type but I'm happy which is all that matters. My five year old son has noted that for somebody who doesn't like pink to wear, our garden is full of pink and purple flowers!
The garden seems very quiet after the active nesting and fledgling period. Birds pop in now and again but they must be having a happy time munching on bugs elsewhere as I have greenfly on gertrude and blackfly on my echinops. I'm not too worried as these things sort themselves out but my usual ally the ladybird has been almost entirely absent from the garden this summer. We had two seasons of the asian (harlequin) ladybird in the garden, and in the house, but I haven't even seen any of these blighters.
One quick veg question for the forum; to pinch out or not to pinch out the tips of broad bean plants? They are flowering and a good size - does pinching out give a better crop?
Spring awakening 8:23pm on 21 Feb 2009 The joys of spring indeed. I have one problem though, not being a particularly fastidious gardener when it comes to marking what bulbs I've planted where, I wandered out today to find bulbs popping up with no idea what they are! I think that in a frenzy of Autumn planting I popped bulbs in wherever I had the space (I have a small garden) and didn't keep track of what went where. I can spot all the obvious ones; crocus, iris, daffs, but I'm scratching my head with some. Anyway, I'm really excited to see what emerges in the next few weeks. I also got out my hoe which was one of a wonderful collection of old tools which came from my grandfather in law (champion dahlia grower!) and got stuck into the weeding. Again, I have a problem in that in some cases I'm worried about scrubbing up some seedlings I might want to keep. I am, I must admit a bit lazy on the weeding front, but this has its benefits; I found a lovely hellebore seedling nestling at the bottom of my malus today which was a wonderful treat.

My cat, also knows Spring has arrived. He spent most of today stretched out in the sun on the bench!
First signs 8:33pm on 25 Jan 2009 After spending most of the week getting up in the dark and getting home in the dark I haven't seen much of the garden over the last few days. In between bursts of torrential rain today I've popped out to check the progress of the bulbs I planted in the Autumn. Minus a few spots where the squirrels (grrrr) have been digging my crocus, daffs and iris are on their way - hoorah! The rain is having a shocking effect on our front garden which is heavy clay and currently like a quagmire. Worse still, the acer we planted last autumn looked like it was in the middle of a huge puddle, thanks to the squirrels (grrr again) digging up the earth around the root ball. So I donned the raincoat and took some remedial action; my husband was advocating a shotgut but as a veggie this went against the grain! My son helped me choose some veggie seeds today and is hopeful that his pumpkin will survive the slugs this year. I too received your book for Christmas and rescued two old bookcases from my son's room which were on their way to the tip. They will now be the basis of two raised beds of the bottom of the garden. My husband was also a little puzzled at the small mountain of used yogurt pots building up in the garage, until I informed him that they were going to be used for potting on seedlings. His mind boggles sometimes...
Post-Christmas pounds 9:08pm on 05 Jan 2009 Ah, the Christmas pounds. I think the whole nation may have been a little shocked at just how much tighter their back to work trousers felt this morning!

I spent a few days with family in the welsh hills; quite different from the rolling countryside of the weald, but terribly nostaligic. The mist creeping up the valley towards their house, or the inevitable sheets of rain pounding the windows took me back to my slightly mopish teenage days where I'd spend hours musing over life and probably how unreasonable my parents were!

I've also been enjoying the garden, more specifically the wildlife. My garden is on the small side (yes, I know that we'd all like bigger gardens) but backs on to a more established garden which has a huge Scots pine, a Maple and an ornamental cherry. Consequently my feeders are very busy. In one day alone I spotted blackbirds, great tits, blue tits, a song thrush, a lesser spotted woodpecker, a very territorial robin, tree sparrows, dunnocks and the usual collared doves. Squirrels are an ever present foe. Not sure if there are any bird experts out there but I also saw around seven long tailed tits on my small crab apple tree and they are constantly flitting about in the large pine tree. It just goes to show how important urban gardens are to sustaining Britain's bird population.

We've been in the house for four years now and I'm planning to spend the next few weeks looking at what needs to stay and go in the garden. I'm constantly frustrated by my lack of space and I'm sure my husband will divorce me if I get any more pots for the area outside the back door! Enjoy the seed catalogues and get well soon.
Waiting for the leaves to fall 8:16pm on 14 Oct 2008 Ah, how could I forget a decent crumble to go with the wine and seed catalogue! Enjoy.

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