Flowers in our home

I love having flowers in our home, temporarily decorating the space with colour and filling the flat with a beautiful scent. These beautiful red tulips were a present from friends...

These pretty flowers were freshly cut from the containers in our courtyard garden. I grew them from bulbs I planted in the autumn last year. I love the pretty orange ruffle detail and the delicate white petals.

I grew these gorgeous purple and pink tulips too.

When I was in the garden this weekend I could see that the flowers I had grown in our containers only had a few days or so before then died. I wanted to enjoy them a little longer before they got battered by rain so I decided to I cut them and added them to a few vases to enjoy them inside. I love having my own freshly cut flowers from my garden. Hopefully in time I'll be able to grow more of my favourite flowers to bring inside and decorate our home. My favourite flowers are peonies, tulips, roses, sweet peas and gerberas.

What flowers do you love having in your home? What flowers are you growing at the moment?

Planting seeds for our edible garden

Over the past few weeks I've been planning what I would like to grow this summer in our courtyard garden. Our little space is quite a shady, we don't get a lot of direct sunshine so growing some plants can be a little hit and miss! There are a few spaces in our courtyard that get sunshine so I try and arrange pots and containers to make the most of the light. I'm planning to make more of the sunny spaces this summer and I'll keep you posted with my plans and how things are growing.

I bought a few packets of seeds to kick start growing things in our containers. I decided I wanted to start to create an edible garden with some variety to what we are growing. I'm having a go at growing lettuce leaves, radishes, spinach, spring onions, beetroot, courgettes and carrots from seed. I've also planted some nasturtium seeds too, so that we can use the flowers in salads. Our rocket planted last year is still growing but I think I'll sew some new rocket seeds soon to ensure we have some fresh leaves and the flavour of the leaves is not too bitter.

Following the instructions on the seed packets I've planted some of the seeds directly into newly dug soil within the containers we have. I've also sewn some seeds in seed trays and left them to grow in front of our window in the lounge, making the most of the warmth in our flat. I'm pleased to say that the radishes planted both inside and out are starting to sprout. The lettuce seeds are trying to grow too.

All the other seeds are lying dormant at the moment. I'm hoping the weather will continue to get warmer so that the seeds will start to make an appearance.

Over the next month or so I'm going to plant some chillies and some new herbs in our window box. I'll keep you updated on the progress of our edible garden. Let's hope the weather is better this summer and we get a better crop. I'm really looking forward to having home grown salad leaves and dressings made with herbs sourced a few steps away from our kitchen.

April in our courtyard garden

I have a real love of container gardening. It's a new passion of mine that has recently grown over the past few years. This week it's National Gardening Week and I'm going to celebrate it by bringing you a few gardening themed posts!

I love getting outside in our small courtyard garden.Over the past few weekends we have had the relief of mild weather at last. The sun has been shining and being out in the fresh air pottering round the courtyard has been great for clearing my head and starting a fresh for spring. Recently there have been tiny noticeable changes to our courtyard space signalling that spring has well and truly arrived.

I’ve been poking around our plants checking to see what is still alive and what is growing. Our blueberry bush has new leaves, the mint has burst into life, the clematis has small leaves appearing, the chives have grown...

 the lillies I separated last autumn are all growing happily in their new pots, and my three strawberry plants are still alive and have a few new bright green leaves growing. In my cold frame the home grown geraniums are still alive and growing from last year...

Our bulbs are blooming with the daffodils and the blue and white grape hyacinth being the first to flower. The tulips have started to grow but no flower buds are appearing just yet. I cant' wait to have these flower too so we can have different pops of colour brightening the courtyard.

I’ve been busy sorting our space, digging the soil in the empty containers and pots ready to start growing new plants, sweeping up, tiding dead leaves and dead parts of plants and moving a few empty pots and containers around.  I moved a few of the pots around so that we could see some of the flowers from our lounge and put a few small pots of Grape Hyacinths to the window ledge while I decide what to add to the window box. I had the company of another lovely Robin both afternoons who was darting around the courtyard enjoying the worms, twigs and bugs I was stirring up.

I found a few hooks on our outside walls that I’m temporarily using for my two hanging baskets. I moved one of the small strawberry plants into one and hung it from a fixing on the wall. I hope the new location will mean the sun will get things moving and we will have a better crop this year. I’ve put some netting over the basket in the hope that any crop doesn't get eaten by visitors!

I've also been busy planting a few seeds too but I'll tell you about that tomorrow!

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!

Container planting - my gardening inspirations

Gardening is something that I have been itching to learn more about. I dream of owning a house in the country with a garden where I can grow wild flowers, have a little herb garden, grow vegetables all year round and maybe a fruit tree or two. I'd love to have borders of flowers and a tree to sit under just like those lovely gardens you see in Country Living magazine and gardening books. A big dream but perhaps I can do something on a smaller scale within our courtyard and grow similar plants in containers...

You may have noticed over the past few weeks I've been writing a number of gardening posts...well, as part of my goals for the year I wanted to start gardening again. I know that I need to learn the basics to make it a success and have spent a bit of time trying to learn from books, asking friends and family for advice, and looking at gardenersworld.com.

Last year Mr C and I had a delivery from the wonderful organic garden company called Rocket Gardens. We were given a generous gift of a Patio Container Garden...ooh it was so lovely getting the delivery of lots of baby plants, carefully placed on a bed of hay in a huge box. We planted the plug plants in our containers and watched them grow...however shortly after they arrived we had an unwanted visitor that managed to dig up lots of the plants. Following this many of the plants died as they didn't have chance to establish themselves...our little visitor put me off our garden space a little! However after the visitor was no longer able to dig up our remaining crops, many plants did grow thanks to the dedication of Mr C who took it upon himself to tend the tomatoes! We had a constant supply of rocket and mixed lettuce as they grew really well in our containers. We had one huge courgette, some green tomatoes and we had a few French beans!

I vowed that this year would be the time to try hard and learn more about growing plants and how we can make the most of our urban garden space. With the sun finally arriving and the weather warming I have a real desire to make it work. I'm keen to make our space tranquil, a place to grow things we can eat and admire and also improve our space to entertain friends. To get started I looked through a number of books that I have for some inspiration.

I especially like Organic Crops in Pots - How to grow your own vegetables, fruit and herbs. The lovely photos of bountiful crops, querky containers and achieveable projects really inspired me. Then there are the more practical books by the 'gardening god', Alan Titchmarsh, and his 'How to Garden' series. I have the Vegetables and Herbs and Container Gardening books and found them packed with practical details.

After looking at the books I set about making a list of plants that I thought would grow well based on a few years of experience, what may be suited to our environment and space, but also what I was keen to tend and eat over the next few months!

I also had a think through the many gardening mistakes that I have made over the past few years, I don't want to let these happen again this year! I tend to forget about my plants and not regularly tend to them, this means that they get attacked by bugs, shrivel and die, and are therefore beyond rescue. I told myself that if I am going to invest in new plants that I must go on a slug hunt each day and remove the nasties, find good locations for the plants with plenty of sunlight and water regularly...

Inspired and raring to go, I took a trip to our stunning little garden centre a few minutes drive from our flat. The Riverside Garden Centre in Bristol is tucked away near the river and some old industrial buildings. The Riverside Garden Centre have such a lovely collection of everything you need for an 'urban' garden and plenty of healthy looking plants tended by their helpful staff.

I was armed with my list, as I knew I would be in danger of getting carried away. I treated myself to two big blue pots to make our space more cheerful, and bought a new Burgon and Ball trowel which blew a hole in my budget...I know I will use them year on year so it is worth the investment. I selected a range of herbs, vegetables, fruits and plants suitable for container gardening.

I saw so many beautiful flowers and little plants that I wanted but I will wait until next month to make a few more purchases as buying new plants can be expensive! I definitely need to try and grow more from seed! I'm hope to grow some red and white geraniums in window boxes and have some more flowers in pots to attract some bees!

Take a look at how I got on with the gardening in my next post where I kick start the summer by getting our courtyard looking tidy and a little bit more summery!

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!

Oh how the garden grows...

I enjoy getting out in the fresh air and spending a time in our sunken courtyard garden. Here's our little shady space...this is taken looking at our basement flat.

You can see our containers and pots...plus some trailing plants on the old walls. You can just see one of the arches on the right above my new little greenhouse.

Here's how our little space is shaping up as things start to come back to life.

There are new buds forming on our weeping willow...

The mint that I thought was dead has sprung into life again and has some new bright green leaves...

Out of nowhere these lillies have suddenly grown. I can't wait to see their pretty pink flowers again for the third year in a row...

The hyacinths are still in flower too...

and this hosta has started to make an appearance after dying back over the winter...

Over the past week or so I've noticed, what we think is a type of clematis, ready to flower again. Every year during April buds appear and by the end of April or early May we are lucky to see a fabulous display of white flowers hanging into our courtyard.

Stepping out of the flat I look up to the tall walls surrounding our sunken garden and can see so many buds waiting to pop open.

The buds look so delicate and elegant...

I can't wait to see these in bloom...

There's quite a bit of garden activity happening at the moment following the warm spell of weather, some sunshine and April showers. I'll keep you posted on how things are looking over the next few weeks.