scrawlings & scratchings, murmurings and mumblings

So I seem to be having the worst luck when it comes to this garden... first I plant stuff out after long w/e only to have the crap weather turn up late... I rush out the night the snow comes to cover everything up with gardening tunnels & manage to save most of everything but not all... this w/e I uncovered everything so the plants could make the most of the sun & rain... then today it hailed so hard it decimated pretty much everything... if I'd left the tunnels on they'd probably be ok :( I think I'm most upset about the blackberry plant I found... took me ages to find a really nice healthy looking one... had it tucked in by the deck to shelter it from the wind... moved it yesterday to paint the deck & never moved it back... it probably would have missed the worst of the hail were it was ... now its leaves are tatters.

I am most unhappy! :(

( Pictures! )

I just went online to West Coast Seeds a bought myself a mixture of veggie & flower seeds... man is that a dangerous site... once I have my new place it's going to be tough to choose what to buy... or rather, what not to buy!

Yes I might have sold the house by the time all the veggies are harvested... so why am I bothering? I have two 8'x4' raised beds that will look very odd with nothing in them! So I'll fill them with (I hope) tasty veggies & maybe that'll help sell the place... "Free Vegetables With Every House Purchase"!

Planned edibles for this year:
Carrots
Beets
Summer squash
Zucchini/Courgette
Swiss chard
Leeks (if I can find any started at the garden centre)
Beans
Sugar snap peas
Radishes
Parsley root (never tried this but it intrigued me, the packet says it looks like parsnip but has a mild parsley flavour & is good in soups & stews)
Strawberries (if they survived the winter)

I have a number of (mismatched) containers that I will plant the flowers in to put around the rest of the "sitting area" I will create near the raised bed once we have ripped out the second half of the rotting lower deck. Originally I was going to put in more raised beds but there's no point now.

I'm hoping the perennials and the violets will come back at the front of the house, if not I'll have to plant something there. I also want to put a hanging basket full of sweet peas at the front door so it smells nice as you arrive :)

I also bought Mason Bees... I'm still looking at the possibility of getting honey bees in the future but not until the new garden is up & running. I noticed last year that I had a distinct lack of bees pollenating my garden so I thought I'd give these girls a try! Oh & I hope having bees will keep the (rather large) wasp population down!

I decided that we'd better eat this leek as it is about to flower:


Mutant carrot #2:

I doubt many of you will get the Bill & Ben reference but oh well!

Yesterday I harvested beans from the garden... lots left, this is just the first pickings:



We had them for dinner last night... nom nom nom!