Rainy summer days

Most places in England have been experiencing a very wet summer over the past few months. Grey clouds, heavy rain and blustery wind have outnumbered the dry sunny days where I live. The one thing that brightens the rainy days for me is the opportunity to use my favourite red and white Cath Kidston spotty brolly. I love the wooden handle and its cheery bright pattern, it cheers up a rainy walk to the train station.

The rain has been great for the garden as I've hardly needed to water the plants, however the downside has been the continual battle with the many slugs and snails. Here's an insight into how our courtyard garden is doing this summer...

I'm waiting patiently for the tomatoes to grow. Small flowers have started to form however with the combination of the lack of sunshine and warmth they haven't done very well so far.

The mixed lettuce bolted and the bumper crop has given us endless salad leaves perfect for creating quick tasty meals.

The lillies flowered for a few days but were very quickly battered by heavy rain and winds. After so much time waiting for them to flower we only got to enjoy them for a short time but they were worth the wait as there were so many flowers this year.

The hardy fuschia has flowered over the past few weeks and is elegantly displaying its pretty blooms.

The strawberry plants are flowering...

...their delicate flowers are so very beautiful.

There are pea pods forming on my patio pea plant! I've never grown peas before. They are so satisfying to pop open and see what has grown inside. We have managed to enjoy the small crop of peas from a few of the pods so far.

The herbs have done well and we have a huge supply of mint, chives and parsley.

The pepper plant on our sunny sheltered windowsill is growing a bountiful crop. I will need to keep a close eye on this plant as it was invaded by tiny snails this weekend.

I'm delighted with how the garden is growing, despite the unseasonal weather. It is the best year so far for growing plants in our courtyard. I hope that the summer will bring more sunshine and warmer weather so that the plants will continue to grow well.

Container Gardening - potting up and planting out

I can honestly say that I have a new found love of gardening! I spent Saturday enjoying the dappled sunlight and warm weather, potting up new plants and rearranging our courtyard garden with the hope that some plants will grow well this year! Being out in the fresh air, getting mud under my fingernails and handling little plants made me appreciate the joy that gardening brings to your life and it made me really happy...gardening is a great chance to escape and think...

Having spent last week looking longingly at the plants I bought the previous weekend...Saturday finally arrived and I got up super early to start gardening!! I started the gardening by getting things tidy...I swept up the clematis petals and pollen stamens that have now all dropped into our courtyard...

I arranged all the empty pots in one space so I could work out what I should plant in which pot. With lots of plants it was like a jigsaw getting them all potted...I'm sure some will need to go in to bigger pots in a few weeks according to the planting advice!

To add to our collection of plants I bought a range of herbs, vegetables, fruit and a few flowers to grow in our courtyard garden, these included - sage, chives, fennel, curled parsley and rosemary. I planted these into a wooden container...

To start the 'edible' summer garden I bought a few vegetables and fruit to grow in our containers, including a few different tomato plants, strawberry plants, a chilli pepper, a pepper, patio peas, french beans, mixed lettuce, little gem lettuces and a small rocket plant.

The courgettes I grew from seed in March, were moved into the greenhouse a few weeks ago and survived! I had six courgette plants that I had grown from seed and have planted them out in a temporary container to see how they get on. I know that courgettes can grow quite large so I may need to re-pot them in a month or so depending how they have got on.

I love having flowers in the garden (I'm still waiting for my lillies to bloom!)...so for some instant colour I bought an osteospermum (daisy type flower), a lavender plant and some red and yellow nasturtiums that will flower over the next few months.

One of my favourite containers didn't have a drainage hole at the bottom so I drilled a few holes...the perfect container for my new lavender! Doesn't it look so lovely next to the bay tree and one of our willow planters!

With the planting done I spent time a lot of time moving the containers into their new homes. I spent time over the past few weekends observing where the sunlight falls in our space so I could plan where the plants could get the best light. I realised that I hadn't been utilising the space near our back door in the most productive way. I have a huge willow vegetable planter that I haven't got anything growing in at the moment, so I moved this out of the way, moved the metal garden seating further along the wall and had space to create an arrangement of pots and containers near our back door.

I've started to use the window sill for one of the pepper plants in the hope that the sunlight will help it grow really well.

I have a mixture of containers and pots as you can see, they all look quite nice next to each other. I have a bit of an obsession with pots...my bright blue pot is a new favourite! I'm already eyeing up my next purchases to add to the collection and also have a few lead-look window boxes on my wish list too! Back to the gardening...

Using some decking squares we had and some bricks I elevated a space in the corner so that I could stagger the plants to make the best use of the light and space.

I'm thrilled at what I achieved and our new look space. I just hope that things will grow and not get eaten by slugs, snails and other bugs! I will really try hard to care for the plants and the space as much as I care about the inside of our home.  I vow to water the plants and not forget about them and to keep an eye out for slugs!

Now that the space is more sorted I will try and add a few things to the courtyard over the summer months, get some more flowers growing in window boxes and pots. I'm thinking about planting red and white geraniums in lead-style window boxes and maybe creating a container with some wild flowers...I need to do a bit of planning first but I'll let you know how I get on and keep you posted on how my garden grows over the summer. Keep checking back for updates!

A sunny weekend in the courtyard

Oh what a sunny weekend we have just had! After weeks of grey days and so much rain, finally the clouds cleared. Enjoying the rare chance to get outside, I bounced round the courtyard looking at how things were growing. The clematis has bloomed making our courtyard space look so spring-like and pretty...

 

There are hundreds of delicate pink flowers hanging into our courtyard space. I feel very lucky to be greeted with this beautiful display of pink flowers each day, however it doesn't stay this way for long...I will try and make the most of it while the flowers last. It wont be long until the petals start to fall and litter the courtyard with a carpet of pollen and petals. It has already begun with the heavy rain and wind we have had recently.

Looking up and seeing the blue sky made me smile and I wished that the good weather would continue.

The hosta is almost fully grown again. It always surprises me that each year it keeps coming back! It dies back to an empty pot then makes another appearance, each year growing bigger and bigger. It feels like a good investment when plants do this!

With only a few plants in our little courtyard you start recognising the patterns and know when they will grow...The clematis blooms then little purple flowers from a trailing plant on our courtyard walls start to appear...

 

...and at the same time the lillies normally flower bringing so much colour and life to the courtyard, however they seem a bit behind schedule this year. The lillies just keep growing taller and taller, but they now have grown buds where the big pink flowers will appear from. I can’t wait for these to bloom. I’m a big fan of lillies and probably should get more to fill our space with lots of colour while other plants are just getting kick started.

This weekend I took time to sit in our little courtyard looking carefully at the plants that have survived the rainy weather and the slugs! The rain and cold weather has put me off getting outside and buying any new plants, so apart from the plants you can see above, our courtyard is looking a little unloved. With the motivation that some of my existing plants growing nicely I think I will get stuck in soon and make our space a little haven. I’ve started thinking about what I want to plant, I definitely want to try and grow a mixture of flowers, veg, herbs and salad leaves. Window boxes of flowers are definitely part of the plan...perhaps some red and white geraniums...I definitely want to grow some simple flowers in pots too so I think I'll see if I can buy some daisies, lavender, pansies and hope that the nasturtiums I'm growing from seed grow a bit more. I think a few new pots are needed to brighten up the space even more, I love the big blue glazed ones...

This weekend I saw how the sunlight lit certain parts of our courtyard. It made me think that I should definitely do a bit of shuffling round of the pots and containers before I start growing things again to make the most out of the little spaces where sunlight falls.

But before I get too excited about planting I need to keep an eye on the weather...both yesterday and today we had hail, lots of heavy rain and it was really quite cold...I hope the warm weather makes a proper appearance soon! Rain rain go away!