The Garden Project Week 2

2 CC

Well it's been a week of drama - a brief frost, hail storms, slugs and snails, bright bright sun and torrential rain! However the cutting patch at Coombe Cottages is almost completely planted, and now only awaits the bounteousness of dahlias coming from Parker's Bulbs to complete the plan. (They came today! Slight mistake where E managed to order 20 tubers... but we'll find space!)

We also have cosmos waiting to fill in any bare patches, and some self seeded sunflowers to transplant for gaps. It all looks highly expectant!

Casualties at CC - so far pretty minimal all things considered - a lot of slug and snail munching of sunflowers (particularly the 'Teddy Bears'), 2 wind snapped Russian Giants before we gave them a little more support, and in the veg patch the blue lake climbing French are just toooo cold...

Fab plants of the week at 2CC - the absolutely glorious nodding spires of aquilegia and the blue clouds of forget-me-nots filling every corner of the garden, the Mulberry starting to unfurl her leaves and the huge stalks of rhubarb we've been eating for breakfast.

And at The Orchard Garden:

S's allotment is already well established, having been a cutting garden last year and inspiring 2CC's Sun Bed. It has a wonderful lines of permanent flowers. The anenomes, tulips and narcissi are finished but now are making way for the most beautiful irises! You pick them all tight budded and spiky green, and they burst into vibrant purple and yellow. Plenty more to come thanks to Poundland!

Further down the allotment R is busy with the serious business of growing veg. And the even more serious issue of keeping The Badgers At Bay! Last year, we saw the strawberry fortress and this year S sowed the Carrot Castles (in bins). All are growing happily safe from The Badgers.

S's plot has flowers that are biannual and here come her wonderful Sweet Williams looking healthy in their second year.

Interesting Fact:

Aqualigia Vulgaris, is also called columbine and granny's bonnets. The scientific name comes from eagle, because the spurs on the back of the flower look like eagle's talons. Columbine is because the petals represent five doves, nestled together. It is said to be the symbol of Aphrodite and the Nordic God of the heavens.

Welcome

Welcome to Our Growing Year! We are three women with a passion for flowers: cutting, growing, smelling, having them in the houses and (most importantly) giving them as gifts.

This year we are combining forces to create this blog to document our gardens' stories.

S has an amazing North facing sloping allotment in an old orchard, surrounded by apple trees, competing for space with R's vegetables, badgers, deers, moles, rabbits and killer bees! S has been growing cut flowers on this patch for a whole ten years, building up year on year. There is a Summer Palace at the top, mammoth badger protection works, good water catchers, a little greenhouse, a fire pit and a lot of love.

A and E's patch is in their garden; it is reclaimed soil from old raised beds for vegetables. This is the second year trying to grow flowers. It is completely organic with their own compost heaps at the top of the garden. The main pests are: escaping sheep, badgers (eating the sweetcorn and beetroot in the neighbouring veg patch) and slugs big time. Nothing quite works: coffee grounds, sheep fleece (unfortunately a myth), beer traps and picking them off one by one at night!