Busy as bees in a raspberry patch

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It’s been a while since I posted an update! But I have been busy in the garden so there’s lots to tell:

The children “help” by transporting compost and soil from one end of the garden to the other. Or by filling and emptying different containers. I leave them to it then rescue my precious compost later when they’ve gone to bed :)

Firstly peas and beans:

I’m growing scarlet runner beans (which seem to be doing quite well although no beans yet) and sugarsnap peas which aren’t doing all that great. I’m not sure why but they seem to be surviving nonetheless. Just growing very slowly! I have a feeling it might be something to do with the toddler pulling at them when they were seedlings. I lost a few spring onions that way 😆 There’s lettuce in there too which was an afterthought when someone gave me free seeds. They’re baby gems and they’re delicious!
You can see the raspberry/rhubarb jungle in the background :D But my goodness the bees and hover flies love the raspberries! The kids are fascinated with the insects in that area as i generally leave it to do its own thing so there always something buzzing about ☺️

Also growing French runner beans. They’re in a pot of their own because only 1 seed germinated! I think perhaps the seeds were old. Either that or the mice got them like the garden peas :(

Some lovely carrots and potatoes:

Joseph has an interest in food that is not a “normal“ colour! So we’ve grown blue salad potatoes (which are actually blue! Never would have believed that), Red Duke of York and Shetland Black. We have both purple carrots and orange ones because he doesn’t believe that the purple are actually the “normal” ones haha

In the greenhouse we have sweet peppers:

I grew these a few years ago and it did not turn out well. One small pepper and something ate the insides of it :( But now that I’ve got a greenhouse I thought I’d try again. Something has been chomping at the leaves. I’ve dealt with the aphids and now spray them regularly but I’m thinking the slugs are enjoying a bite or 2 as well.

I’ve been experimenting. I’ve got spring onions and lettuce in the greenhouse as well as outside. At the moment it doesn’t seem to be making too much difference. If anything the spring onions are probably doing better outside!

I’m also growing kale but the area is needing weeded so I’m too embarrassed to post a photo 😬 It’s doing well though. I had to give a load of the seedlings away because more germinated than I was expecting and I really don’t have enough space!

Last but by no means least, “The Stick” (see a previous blog post for the story):

I think he might be on his last legs as we’re not getting as many blueberries as we used to. In fact the last 2 years we’ve had none because the birds got there first!!! So one of Joseph’s home schooling tasks was to construct a “cage”. I helped and guided but he strives with this sort of thing so I knew he would enjoy it. And now we have a “Stick Protector” 🤣

• 5 Jul, 2020
• 4 likes

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