Dad's been gardening again

Our garden (how can I put it) usually fluctuates between wild meadow and wilder meadow. However recently I have been able to strim the grass down, and keep it down, which suddenly makes planting out veggies a more likely option.

Over the past few weeks we have been growing the following from seed:

Basil
Chives
Rhubarb
Courgettes
Cauliflower
Mint
Swedes

We have also been kibbling some spuds to plant and today I cleared a corner of the garden of nettles and couch grass and got to plant out 6 the Courgette plants and about 13 spuds (the swedes were already out).

Regarding the other things, the chives and basil are doing well on the window sill, the Rhubarb seedlings are about 95% successful, the mint is 0% successful and the cauliflower seedlings are about 5% successful (only 2 made it to the surface but those 2 are doing well).

To balance the loss a kind freecycler donated an aubergine plant and a pepper plant which need planting into 5 litre pots but which look healthy. We also were given a crown of Rhubarb from a freecycler 2 years ago which has really settled in and this year has a good yield.

The swedes which were sown directly into the growing position a couple of weeks ago have already been thinned for me by over enthusiastic gastropods (slugs and snails). I have now resorted to Slug Pellets (die vermin, die).

Now if you are anything like me as a gardener, you work more on faith than know-how. Because of this I find the BBC website (so diverse in its usefulness) very helpful:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_index.shtml

Even as a novice, and in spite of having to clear ground every time I want to plant something, it's fun to do and see things growing. Now just have to keep things ticking over. Gardens are natural systems, there is no rushing it at the end, it takes consistent application of effort.

Frost

"Overnight, a giant spilt icing sugar on the ground,

He spilt it on the hedgerows, and the trees without a sound,"

(Valerie Bloom)

The frost was very heavy on Friday night, so much so that on Saturday afternoon it was still thick on the ground and in the trees. I judged up to 10mm deep on the twigs. It is not often the place looks so magical, so I took some photo's around the neighbouring villages.