I thought water snails liked water.

I’ve finally been able to get down to some serious gardening the last couple of weeks.  With the sweet peas gone and the lobelia going over it was all looking a bit too green so I set out to get some colour.

These are Echinacea, with the great name of ‘Purpurea Pow Wow wild berry’.

I love these flowers – not the most exotic looking but they add such a lot of sunshine to the garden and they like it in full sun, which is a priority in picking flowers for the roof. They are called Coreopsis, ‘grandiflora rising sun’.

This is Wild Bergamot ‘fireball’; the bees love this.

I have tried to grow ‘Black-eyed Susan’ over the last couple of years to no real success but I’m not deterred. The only time it really worked was when I grew it in the ground, but this one is called ‘Sunshine Suzy’ and it says on the label it can be grown in window boxes. As of yet it looks pretty weedy (hence the close up photo). So fingers crossed, because I love them.

Now please tell me if I’m wrong, as it’s a wild statement, but we have managed to witness, and I would like to think have a hand in, the speeding up of evolution in water snails.

You can see in the picture above, this little water snail that I found along with a few others. I don’t know how they made their way up here, but I felt terribly sorry for them so I popped them into some water with some lettuce leaves. 

They hated it and climbed straight out. I kept putting them back in but they just wouldn’t stay and now they can only be found on the sides of pots away from any of the little trays of water. It’s very odd.

Now to some very sad news. You may remember my amazing pumpkin plants on my last blog. Well look at them now.

Black fly has struck in biblical proportions and death and disease has set in.

The majority of the leaves are covered. The ladybirds and their larvae were in heaven but so were every type of fly you’ve ever seen and I HATE flies. so we made the sad decision to pull them up.  

We were just left with 2 very small pumpkins.

Our potato plants have become victims of little killers too – I think slugs. There is not a stem or leaf left but amazingly there are potatoes.

They may not the be the biggest and the best, but I’m proud of them just the same.

Happy gardening!

The Tropical Woodland will have to wait.

It’s been a while since my last post, mainly because over the last few weeks the gardening has consisted of pulling up a few weeds in the rare dry patches we’ve had.

Though the plants have seemed to like all this rain and we have had a lot of successes, I’ve learnt some valuable lessons, such as; not to pod your pea harvest into a colander, don’t suddenly stop feeding the pigeons, and just because it’s been constant rain for weeks doesn’t mean that you should stop watering house plants.

My greatest success so far has been my pineapple lilly seedlings that I planted in March and had completely given up on, but just the other day I  found them in a corner of the cold frame. 

These below are the originals that I took the seed from last year.  

I’m trying to keep quite positive about this wet summer (mainly as we are not exactly overrun with produce). Although the fruit is going well, I think we will be eating apples very soon.

I also got these beautiful pink strawberry plants off a friend for my birthday. As well as looking stunning they also taste amazing.

This fantastic white flower is one of last year’s carrots that I left in the ground to see what it would do. I think I’ll be leaving a few more this year.

My two pumpkin plants are adverts for the joy of chicken manure as the soil has been in this pot for about 3 years. Luckily our neighbours have a large empty roof. And the tomato plant below is my advert for the joys what comes from using the worm compost. I also have about 25 other tomato seedlings that I have planted up from all the other pots that it was used in. I had made a conscious effort not to have too many tomato plants this year.

These (above) are great. They are miniature runner bean plants. My mum has some in hanging baskets in her garden, producing loads of beans, and I can see that my plant had at some point, but I reckon they must have been a certain pigeon’s favorite snack. 

For some Gardening inspiration this summer we took a trip to Helligan gardens, while we  Yurting in cornwall. It was fantastic and I managed to come away with a few small plants for the roof. 

Though I would like to recreate their tropical woodland that might have to wait till we at least have a garden with some actual ground.

Happy gardening.

If Bob say's it's ok!

I had forgotten what the sun felt like. I walked out on to the roof with bare feet yesterday, and had to do a kind of hop, skip and jump back inside as my feet melted to the slabs. It’s very exciting.

The Roof has been a hive of activity since my last post. We’ve had sparrows, wagtails and some very noisy duck guests that left a few beak-shaped holes in some pots. I think they were after the vermiculite.

I finally got my tomatoes in. When I uncovered the plastic sheeting I found that my worm compost was obviously full of tomato seeds. You can see them all around the lettuce in the picture below. And I was trying to be so restrained on lettuce this year.

It’s all starting to get quite colourful now. The Antirrhinum is putting on the best show so far.

But also we have some rather confused daffodils, which I can only imagine were as disappointed with the spring as we were.

I was listening to Gardeners’ Question Time the other day and they were talking about growing watercress in containers. So, inspired by all the rain, I thought I give it a go.

It seems pretty straightforward. These seedling containers float so I’ve put a tiny amount of soil in and the seed. So, instead of the water moving, the tray does. If this works (and Bob Flowerdew says it does) it’s going to be amazing. I may even try and get my hands on a tray with 4 sides.

The good thing about being completely surrounded by neighbours is it shames me into be a bit neater – and my pea sticks were in a terrible mess. 

I’m not really known for being neat and tidy so I had to share this. I was very pleased with myself.

The little Swedish peas have started to flower, and are white but with beautiful green veins.

The brilliant new strawberries are also cracking along; I think they sensed that we are shortly due to go on holiday, as that seems to be when they always ripen.

Happy Gardening.

A Rooftop Greenhouse.

It’s been a while since my last blog, the main reason being that my gardening has consisted of staring out the window wondering if the rain will stop. And if it has been sunny I have been at work, staring out the window wondering if it will last till I get home.

But despite that, it’s all looking pretty great up here and the rain has certainly done it good.

I’m just starting to bring things outside to harden off in my miniature greenhouse. This was another little gem I picked up at the tip shop – in a former life it was a scientific weighing device, but I think it looks better like this.

My four tomato plants are all that will fit in as they have got rather too big and are desperate to be planted out. My cold frame has lost a pane of glass but despite this I still keep using it. I don’t know if the missing pane makes any difference, but it’s a lot easier to get pots in and out of now. 

My most exciting construction up on the roof is my second makeshift greenhouse. 

I’ve put ties on so that the plastic sheet can roll up to the top of the rail in the summer (I can’t show pictures of this as the big boulder is a lot heavier than it may look, and I can’t move it). As well as keeping my 3 lettuce plants warm, the sheet also keeps the majority of the rain off, which is needed, as the planter underneath is an old shelving unit that doesn’t have a lot of drainage, and I lined it with plastic. I have made a few holes in it but not enough for the amount of rain that we’ve had.

I stuck loads of chicken manure in ready for the tomato plants and of course some of the finest rooftop worm compost, which looks like it is full of tomato seedlings.

I’ve put some more lettuce seeds in as it was only these three that came up. The big hole in the cold frame didn’t keep out the small amount of unseasonal snow we had, which rudely put a stop to any decent germination. I’ve also had to put in some more marigolds, as the ones that did come up got attacked by slugs.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Lots of things have battled through and are looking amazing.

My little aubergines are doing fantastically well since I moved them into the bathroom.

And the pea shoots will be picked tonight along with the first wild rocket.

I’ve been on potting-up duty today – dealing with my one yellow pear tomato seedling, that I’m very pleased with. I’m not too disappointed that only one came up as space is really tight.

The big leafy seedlings at the back are from some seeds my dad gave me. I’ve got 2 pumpkins and 1 climbing courgette. I thought my little Hooligan pumpkins we’re never going to appear but this week there are signs of life so I’ve popped them back into the cold frame to see what happens.

But most excitingly, I repotted the white viola (you may remember I collected the seed from it off the ground at a National Trust house last summer). It was a long wait for this one but I’m thrilled that one of the two seeds came up.

The most time consuming of jobs up on the roof this year is ‘getting rid’ of unwanted visitors, that find the roof a haven on their way through town. (I actually had a terrible nightmare about carrot root fly the other night.) But this little cricket I found trying not very successfully to jump off the cold frame, is very welcome.  

Happy Gardening.

After The Rains.

The rain hasn’t really been terribly inspiring to get out onto the roof this week, but when the clouds broke on Tuesday I went out and got to work.

I potted up my ‘Roma’ tomatoes; the ‘Yellow Pears’ still aren’t showing much sign of life yet. 

It was also time to pull out some of my spring bulbs that had gone over, to make way for the summer plants.

I just stick all the spring bulbs into pots with some soil and leave them till it’s time to replant them. I have to be be quite economical with space and do quite a lot of moving around through the spring and summer.

Also I had good reason to shift things about as my mum and I went to the garden centre on Monday, to kit ourselves up for summer. I have to say I was the definition of abstemious – I actually counted what pots I had free-ish and stuck to it. What I’m going to do with all the seedlings I have coming was a factor I didn’t really think about till now actually, but I’m sure we’ll find room, otherwise there will be a lot of sunflower gifts being given.

I did stick to plants that I could put in small pots like this Centadenia, ‘Cascade’.

I also bought, Brachycombe, ‘Strawberry Pink’ which look like little pink daisies,

Diascia, ‘Blush White’ which are little white flowers with pink and yellow centres. My favourite is Dahlia Tricoloure, for which I had to break my rules and get another slightly larger pot for.

I also bought some Lobelia and a  Barcopa for my hanging basket. When coming to plant it up I found that the liner was pretty shredded, so I took some of the rather sodden newspaper from the bottom of the wormery to add to the lining, the idea being that all the worm goodness will go into the soil. I’m holding my breath for spectacular results.

Every day now when I go out with my tea to survey the estate as we call it, something new is emerging and changing. Watching My Parrot tulips evolve is a growing hobby, especially as I’m studying flower structure on my course at the moment. Rich thinks they look rather gross, but I love monitoring their changes in colour each morning.

My other joy on the roof at the moment is seeing my Eucalyptus perriniana (or Spinning Gum) coming back to life. What is out of shot in the photo above is the 5ft stick that once was the tree. The plan was to leave it one last summer to grow peas up, It must have sensed me and my lethal secateurs arguing with Rich that he can’t want to keep a bare stick, but he did, luckily. It sounds like this should have a fable ending but I can’t quite think of one.

Happy gardening.

Eyes Down Look In.

I’ve been spending most of my spare time since my last blog with my face firmly fixed in all my seedling pots, waiting with bated breath for the first signs of life. And with a little help from the lovely sunshine, life has arrived.

These are some of my ‘Roma’ tomatoes, which are a really good variety for cooking with. I’m also growing (hopefully if they come up) ‘Yellow Pear’ which are a good salad tomato. Every year they never fail to make me smile as they do look just like little pears – it is truly the simple things in life... .

I’ve also  been busy replanting and swapping round all my plants from last year. My lupins that I sowed last year look like they are going to burst in to life this summer. 

I decided to start again with my strawberry plants that I had been growing in the old wine boxes, they did produce loads of fruit last year but the boxes were full of grass that was sprouting out of every gap. I’ve replanted the boxes with my lavender cuttings and some new little geraniums. I do always line these with newspaper along with my metal pots to help with moisture and insulation, especially as it gets so hot up here.

My pea wall is taking shape, although a slug has found his way up to the roof and into the planters. I think the times of a pest-free roof are gone, and the greenfly on my roses are going to be the first to go. 

To add to my ever growing pea collection, I went and bought a bag of dried Marrowfat Peas from the newsagents. 

These are brilliant for growing just for the pea shoots, to have in salads and soups.

I’ve packed quite a lot into one of the pot holders – as they will be eaten really young, they don’t need a lot of room.

Just in case you’re wondering if my love of peas is overshadowing my love of carrots, it’s not – all the carrots are in, in a lovely new container that I actually bought. 

Happy Gardening.