Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Gardeners’ Diaries. We have all been very busy in our Gardens or Allotments. It’s my favourite time of year as everything is growing and it’s exciting to see the flowers & fruit and vegetables starting to grow!
Nikki Gardener : @gardenernikki on Instagram
It’s been a very busy few weeks for me , i have been given a new plot in a polytunnel in a allotment close to my house where I can walk to it. This is a new challenge for me and I have been busy setting it up over the last few weeks.
I have a variety of herbs , flowers and vegetables growing at my new polytunnel plot. I was gifted some Purple rain broccoli which is growing brilliant! I am loving having a growing space closer to home and although it’s sad I have to give up my outdoor space in Glasgow, I know it’s for the best.
I have been asked to speak on a radio station of my fellow Instagrammers @beardedgrowers radio show! On Monday 19th July at 9pm. I will be speaking about gardening and mental health and the benefits of gardening. I am so grateful and excited to be asked to speak on the radio and just so blessed to be given such amazing opportunities in 2021! Check out out you can listen again by looking up this link https://nccr.co.uk/listen-again/ oe look up northcotswold community radio and look for beardedgrowers!
I have also been busy starting my own podcast about gardening tips and my stairs of why I started gardening. My first podcast is about gardening and mental health , the benefits of gardening and about why I started to garden! 👩🏻🌾🪴💚 check out my podcast Gardening with Nikki on Anchor :
Lastly this past few weeks I have been busy setting up my mini allotment area in my garden. This has been a dream of mine for the past few years to have my own fruit & vegetables in the garden to cook and eat. It is a work in progress! But it’s taking shape and I have already been able to harvest some vegetables for my rabbits!
Until next time you will find me either in the garden or my mini allotment or my new growing space at my polytunnel 👩🏻🌾🪴💚!
Kelly : (kelz_veggies_plot9) Instagram
This week in the Allotment:
The plot and garden is coming along! Finally! After what seemed like forever and nothing really growing, oh my, it is blooming now! The sweet peas, roses, even a few dahlias are making an appearance too! It's all looking so good! The last few weeks have been tough, mentally but I am pushing through. The garden, planting and plot have given me time to recharge, and relax
And gather my thoughts about things. I re-joined the gym, have a new P.T. plan and a food plan and this is helping me shift whatever fog seems to be clouding me currently. I'm really excited to pick my first ever broccoli - nearly ready! A few strawbs have ripened too... although slugs seem to get to them before I have a chance, damn buggers! Can't wait to be seeing everyone else's stories to show off their gardens and plots. It really is beginning to feel... great!
Laura ; @laura_at_plot_10a (instagram) In case you weren’t aware, this week was Mental Health Awareness Week, and the theme this year was #ConnectWithNature. As someone who suffers from bouts of depression and anxiety, I have definitely found that gardening and being outdoors helps to ground me and calm my mind. Before we bought our home, we lived in a one-bedroom flat with no outdoor space and (being incredibly unfit) I decided to try out Couch to 5k. Running, slow as I am, really helped me to stabilise myself mentally and became a coping mechanism for me. After we got the house, the front and back gardens were spaces I really wanted to tackle so that they could become somewhere I could be proud of. Working on the gardens, and now the allotment, has helped me get through rough patches in my mental health and I am eternally grateful to have access to these outdoor spaces.
Throughout 2020’s Great British Lockdown (how amazing was the weather!) I completely transformed the back garden and this year’s project is completing the front garden! I plan to put in a flower bed under the window, and put my cherry tree into the centre of the gravel area - once the weather allows. I’ll also be painting the front door and painting a Victorian stencil onto the door steps.
Of course, my biggest project is my new allotment! I haven’t been able to spend more time there at the moment, but last weekend I managed to level and slab the area where my shed will be going! My dad is going to be building me an 8 x 6 ft shed, and inside I plan to have a potting table and shelving, and space to sit and listen to the rain (I’m sure that there will be plenty!). I also managed to get my first veg in the ground there - potatoes and peas! They’re doing brilliantly, and loving the mix of warmer temperatures and rain. I’ve also been working on levelling the rest of the plot, as in places it’s pretty uneven.
Next opportunity I have to spend some quality time at the plot, I am planning to finish levelling and turning the soil, and pulling up the clumps of weeds. There are also a couple of berry bushes growing where I plan to have veggie beds so I need to pull them up (I’ll save them if I can). In the meantime, I have been busy sowing seeds - in fact, my greenhouse (and house) is now at full capacity! Luckily, my dad has a couple of smaller ones he said I can have.
ArmadilloBlue on Twitter :
So it’s been a quite few weeks on the Armadillo plot, with the weather, the football and a new job taking over ( sometimes real life just gets in the way) , I have managed to get my 2nd large frame up for broccoli and sprouts and today before the game I set myself the task of spending some much needed time on the plot with my chickens, it was a great weeding season and made me feel good about myself and then I started my first real harvest of the year, I picked my first lot of potatoes that I got reduced from Wilkos, onions, garlic, dill and mint from the herb bed, french beans, spring onions, rhubarb and courgette. The only produce I didn’t grow from seed was the spring onions and the rhubarb. I came home with a massive smile on my face and a real feeling of accomplishment, this is what grow your own is all about. 💙💙
Until next time you can find me in the allotment 🧑🏼🌾🏡
Audrey Rose : @mrsARose1 Twitter
This weeks jobs in my garden in Carmarthenshire @ MrsARose1
Training my Climbing Rose ‘James Galway’
This Rose grows in pretty much full shade and has doubled in size over the past year. To ensure the Rose fills the entire fence full of flowers you need to train it every year.
I used a strong , rustproof galvanised wire with vine eyes before I planted the Rose to train it along. Then when you have a tall growth stem it needs to be tied in horizontally using a flexible Soft stretchy tie that expands as the stem grows.
The main canes are the structural part of the plant and won't produce many flowers, If the canes are trained horizontally they will send out more shoots producing more flowers.
Below is photos of a before and after example along with the tie that I use. It really is such an important process and needs doing regularly to make sure your Rose is full of flowers.
Thank you for reading our blog and until next time , we will all be busy in the garden or the plot! #gardenersdiaries #growyourownfood #gardenernikki👩🏻🌾🪴💚
Sent from my iPad
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