Recycled Again!

Hiya folks!

Been a while since I blogged here, so about time I got on and let you all catch up. The weather has been a bit up and down here in North East Scotland. Lovely and warm for a couple of days with loads of sun, then cold and wet and windy. Now it is just grey and dull. So much for 'Flaming June'! It is gorgeous when the sun does come out though, in between the clouds.

I have now managed to get mostly caught up out in the garden. I tackled the weeds that were threatening to take over, and have planted out most of my plants at last! All I have left in the mini greenhouse are a few seedlings, a few 'pottings on' and the Squash, Courgette and Cucumber plants which I potted on the other day.

OK, time for a photo roundup. First a couple of flowers, the Alliums have finally decided to flower. These are normally over by now here in my garden!

Next, my Himalayan Poppy seems to be quite happy. This is the third time I have tried to keep one of these plants alive, and so far it seems to be OK.

Here we have a wee container I planted up a couple of weeks ago. Spinach doing really well, Calendula next to that, and Chard on the right also doing OK.

Now for a disappointment. Is anyone else have trouble with their Beetroot seeds? (Bolthardy) Last year I put some in the ground, loads of leaves came up and I thought all was well. I came to pull a couple and there was only a long root and no decent ball. This year I put some in a container thinking the decent compost would make a difference. But things are looking a bit naff here too. Yes, I know the snails had a bit of a nibble. These were very slow to germinate and don't seem to be developing very quickly either. My Mum is having the same problem with hers, and she lives down in Gloucestershire, so it can't be the temperature!

On a happier not, here is my trial of an Egyptian Pea Bean, courtesy of a swap between myself (Snowdrops) and John (the Beans). Thanks John!! These are doing OK so far. A slow germinator, even inside the house. But they seem to be happy enough just now. Flipping birds had the wool away though for their nests, so I'm going to have to fix that. Ran out of twine so had to resort to wool, LOL. Mind you the sparrows like to tug at the twine too!

And now the reason for my title. Remember a while back when I was ripping the garden to bits, and moaned about all the bits of broken patio slabs I had stashed under the hedge? Well, I finally came up with a plan to use some of them! I have been growing some Squash, Courgette and Cucumber in the mini greenhouse, and these seem desperate to get planted out. Trouble is, it is nowhere near warm enough for them in my opinion, so I decided to build a raised bed where I can add some muck and straw and have this as the bed to put them in. This piccy shows the work in progress:

I have completed it now, but haven't taken a photo yet! That green coldframe on the left is now on the right with the Squash planted under it. I will put the other coldframe on the left with the cucumber under that, then the Courgette will go in the middle where the greenhouse is.

Another little trial I am conducting is with some carrots. I watched 'superscrimpers' on the telly a few months ago, and they had a bloke on there who raised his carrots in old toilet rolls, then planted out in the garden later, so I decided to give it a try! Well, they grew quite well in their rolls (one seed per roll) only a few non-germinators, and here they are now planted out (minus the rolls, although they would rot down) Next to them are some Parsnips, Garlic and more carrots planted in the dirt.

And finally a view down the garden with most of the planting out done. A few bits are left in the mini greenhouse, namely some Basil, Tomatoes, Celery, and the Cucumber and Courgette that are still to go out. But they will go out soon, weather permitting that is. Not a good forecast for the next few days so it will probably be next week now. Lets just hope we get some summer stuff to allow all these goodies to grow, flower, and produce crops!!