Sunbathing Ramshorn snails?

I don't know why all the ramshorn snails were sitting on top of the water lily leaves but they were, lots of them, looking as though they were basking in the sun. I wouldn't have thought it was something snails do. It wasn't just the ones in the photo - this was a close-up so you could see them clearly. The whole pond was covered in them. Very strange.

They are all the progeny of ten that I paid for in the garden centre years ago, when I bought the plants to stock the pond. Imagine a gardener paying for snails! They've done their job very well though. What with the rampant water lily (triffid) and a few oxygenating weeds, our pond doesn't suffer from that annoying filamental algae or blanket weed that spoils the appearance of so many ponds at this time of year.

We're having a busy week at the allotment. Last night I tucked a bed of straw all round the strawberries to help keep the ripening berries away from slugs and damp earth and then J and I started netting them, but the net has turned into a tangled muddle so we were only able to do a small strip. I need to sort out the netting soon though. We found a big bit and draped it across the jostaberries. I'll shut the fruit cage door soon too. I only close it when the fruit is ripening because the birds do quite a lot of good picking insects off the bushes, so I don't mind them in there most of the year.

There's always such a lot to do in May, planting out, watering, weeding, feeding the growing plants and continuing to sow as much as I can fit in so that we have a succession of harvests. I put in another six runner bean plants today, sown in pots seven weeks after the first batch. the theory is that we have runners over a longer period - however, I've done this before and what actually happens is that they all catch up! A second row of courgettes also went in today. I planted far too many seeds this year and I'm left with more plants than I can use. I'll hang onto them until I'm sure the ones I've planted out are established and then I'll give them away.
Courgettes anyone?

Happy gardening

Windchimes

Here is an entirely gratuitous picture of my wind chimes hanging in the apple tree. It was windy, so they were moving and have a bit of a blur to them, it's not your eyesight.

When I go to the allotment, one of the first things I do after I've offloaded my rucksack is to get out the three hanging things I keep in the shed. There's a long string of red suns and moons, a clear glass icicle and this pretty blue wind chime. I don't think I've got enough hanging decorations yet so I expect some more will find their way into my collection. I did have the idea of making some stained glass ones, but so far, they haven't made it up to the allotment, although there's one in the garden at home.

They give me pleasure just because they're pretty. I think it's very much a female thing though, I don't suppose J even notices them!

Happy girly gardening!

Strimmer man

A lot of hard work was done today. Mostly by J who strimmed the lower part of the allotment, all round the fruit cage and the pond, and then re-strimmed the bits he did last weekend, while I cut round the edges and put in some more potatoes.

I know I said I wasn't going to plant potatoes this year but most of them have gone into big pots at home.I've got three big pots of them outside the front door (I know most people prefer rambling roses or honeysuckle but we've got potatoes) I took a horrible ugly plastic tub up to the allotment today and put even more potatoes in it. There are just a few left over and they've got to go somewhere so there will be a few on the allotment, but not many. I can't spare the space.

I've been digging on and off all day too. I'm feeling completely shattered and now I've got to go and take a shower and get ready to go out to a party and what I really feel like doing is crawling off into bed. Why do I always do too much all at once? I know it's stupid! Duh! Right, I really must go and get cleaned up. Oh, I know, I'll just cut the lawn first......

Happy gardening (and grass cutting)

Mixed pleasure and pain

Some of the broad beans are looking healthy but most of them are still very small. I got right down next to this one, using the macro setting on the camera and the scent from the flowers was absolutely gorgeous. They should bring out a perfume of it. Eau de Bean.

I was only up there for an hour this evening, until it was too dark to do anything useful but if the weather's nice tomorrow I need to carry on weeding. It's a never ending job really, like painting the Forth Road Bridge (so I'm told)

While I was having a look around tonight I noticed footprints all across the raised bed where I've planted carrots and salad onions. Great big welly prints. They've even snapped the plant label saying "carrots". This is NOT ON! Stick to the paths! Grrr.


Happy (grumpy) gardening ...and keep your feet off my seedlings!

Cute newt

There were lots of newts, all very busy - but my camera has quite a delay so I kept missing them by about thirty seconds. This is the only photo that I managed to get with a newt in shot. The others were all of random pieces of plant and empty stretches of water.

I only went up to pick a bit of spinach really!

Happy gardening (and newt sighting)

Cutting the grass

I keep forgetting to take the camera. Today it was a real shame, the sun was out and half of the allotment looks pretty good. The other half is a work in progress! Talking of the other half, J should be arriving back from Amsterdam in about an hour but I don't suppose he'll make it home until eightish so I'm in a quandary about making him any supper. Or not. Hmm.

We did our first grass cutting of the year at the weekend. J on the strimmer and me with the shears. Teamwork. We've got a lot of grass on our allotment, a large patch around the old tree where nothing much grows, all round the edge of the pond and all the paths between the beds - and they all have to be strimmed. The ground is far too uneven to mow with the push mower that I keep at home for the pocket handkerchief sized lawn, so some years ago we bought a petrol strimmer. It's hard work using it but the results are great. Maybe we'll be able to have a barbecue round the tree for my birthday again this year. I love decorating the tree and putting up bunting for when all my friends come to enjoy the party. I do hope I remember the camera then.

The weather's certainly looking up. 21 C with a light warm breeze and I ended up in just a vest (well, not just a vest) as I put in two more rows of carrots and another of spring onions. I'm putting them next to each other to confuse the carrot fly. I also put in a tiddly little row of beetroot and made a bird scarer with canes, string and old CD's to put over the newly planted out broad beans. Useful things, old CD's, lovely and shiny, the light bounces off them and dances around over the patch you're protecting. I think the light moving around scares the birds better than the actual CD's.

When I leave to go home, it's always with the thought of the next thing I want to do. Next time I must find a space for the parsnip seeds. I nearly put some in the other day but it was so windy that when I poured my tea from my flask to my cup it missed because it flew out horizontally, so I didn't think it was a good day to sow parsnip seeds which weigh virtually nothing. They'd have gone everywhere! I've used up that space now, with the carrots and onions so I'll have to find another one.

Happy gardening (and grass cutting)

Invisible gardening

I planted another tray of beans today, in brilliant sunshine again. They’ve got ever so slightly too leggy waiting for me to get them into the ground so I hope they’ll be ok. It’s quite windy tonight (I can hear my garden wind chimes clanging away like anything) and I don’t want them to break.

I also applied the manure compost round the raspberries as I’d planned and even had time to take the black plastic off the strawberries, put lots of compost and Growmore around the roots and the put all the plastic back again. It’s one of those jobs that actually take quite a long time and when you’ve finished everything looks the same as before you started, so J wasn’t terribly impressed when he arrived and found me swigging tea having apparently not started yet!

I was tempted to stay longer than a few hours but I’m really busy this weekend and anyway, I didn’t want to miss Dr Who! How sad is that? Maybe I’ll have an hour tomorrow too. First, I’ve got to finish painting Roo’s ceiling and make sure his curtain pole goes up again. It’s taken a week to redecorate his room and we need to get it finished so he can get on and do some revision. He’s been having a very lazy time of it, sifting slowly through all his old stuff deciding what to take to the charity shop and what to keep, but the holiday’s nearly over now. Back to the AS level grindstone!

Happy gardening (and revising)