Apple tree joins the Garden of Shaz

Welcome to the newest member of the Garden of Shaz. The Cox's apple tree, a Christmas present from Rob and family, was planted into the garden today. It takes pride of place at the top of the right side border.

Over the last few weeks I have been improving the soil, digging in new compost and sand. This weekend brought glorious sunshine and so I could not hold back any longer.

The tree was in a plastic pot and so I treated the planting as such. However, once I tried getting the tree out of the pot I faced a problem removing it with the rootball intact. As I prised the tree out it became a bit messy. In the end the tree came away from the soil and so became a bare root planting. With a stake to keep the tree in place, it should be protected from the wind that will blow towards it.

At 4 ft tall I can not wait to see how well it grows over the next few years. I do hope might attempt at planting it was satisfactory.

Homemade compost

The first weekend of March brings glorious sunshine. Perfect weather for gardening.

The weekend jobs were to carry on improving the area where the apple tree will go and some general tidying before spring really hits.

The apple tree will go near the top of the garden in the left side border. The soil in that area is horrid and needs lots of improvement before the tree goes in. For the last few weekends I have removed the grass, added good soil and dug it over but with any heavy rain it still gets too boggy.

This weekend I started adding sand to improve the drainage.

But how about the compost heap? Since starting work on the garden I have composted as much as I could, with any extra going into the wheelie bin. But for those few years I had not looked to see what was happening below the top level.

After removing the newest material from the top it wasn't long before I found really good decomposed compost, as you can see from the photo. And there was loads of it. Three buckets of this free compost then went in to the border to help improve it.

I hope to be able to have the soil ready for next weekend and get the tree planted before the growing season starts again.

I also dug up the carrots that have been growing since last spring time. I was hoping these would have grown bigger than the previous year but no such luck. As you can see from the photo the average length is only 2-3 inch's and perhaps two meals worth.

The lack of growth may be due to the depth of the container. This year I will plant some carrots direct into one of the borders to see how they do.

New resident in the Garden of Shaz

This Saturday saw my first proper exploration of the garden this year. It was a lovely sunny day, although cold, and the ground was very soggy. So the plan was simply to tidy the garden and make some preparations for the planting of the new apple tree.

As the ground was so wet I abandoned the trainers as normal garden wear and went for the heavy duty work boots kept in the shed. Before putting them on I thought I had better do a quick spider check in case of expected visitors. However, instead of finding spiders I had a bit more of a surprise. Inside both were bits of material, laces and plastic making what looked like a cosy little spot for something slightly bigger. The boots had become winter homes for some mice.

Snowy garden

The garden has been covered in snow and ice for the past week, but yesterday brought a proper covering of snow. I measured 4 inches in my back garden. Thankfully its thawing quickly which should mean that I can get into the the garden and start getting things sorted.

The carrots are still frozen and under snow but if the weather stay warm I may be able to dig them up at the weekend.



Here are a selection of photos. The Robin you can see in one of the photos is a regular visitor. It has very little fear of me and will often sit on the fence watching me breaking up and throwing bread in the garden. Any other bird would fly off as soon as the back door opens. This robin stays and watches.












I have also spotted and Redwing in the garden over the last few days. The first time I saw it I knew it was different but didn't get a good enough look. The next day I saw it again and noticed the red parts under the wings and the white flashes around the eye. If you look closely at the photo of the branches you can see the backside of a bird. That is the redwing. That was the best shot I got before it noticed me and flew away.







The first bird in the garden looks to be the blackbird as the footprints have been captured in the snow. When I first looked out of the window these were the only footprints to disturb the new covering of snow.











I have been putting a lot more food out for the birds these past few weeks. Bread, biscuits, rice and grated cheese. The favourite traditional food seems to be the nuts. With starlings, sparrows, blue tit, coal tit and magpies all having a munch. The seed feeder is less in favour though with very few birds going to it. It may be that the position is not great but during the summer last year it was so popular with the sparrows I was filling it almost every other day.

New year freeze

Its 2010 and the garden is frozen solid. There was a little snow before Christmas but that turned into ice by the next morning and lasted about 3 days. Since then there has been warmer weather and now another cold snap to start the new year.

The carrots in the photo where dug up on the 12th December. Since then the ground has been frozen solid so I am unable to get to the others. I hope the ice is not destroying them but I will not know until it warms up again.

The car thermometer said it was -5 at 08:00 this morning. That's chilly. I have been removing the ice from the bird bath each morning and replacing with hot water. The birds do use it, mostly for drinking but sometimes even to splash about in.

Autumn really has arrived

Its November already, I can't believe how quickly this year has gone. And how long its been since I last reported back on my exploits in the Garden of Shaz.

The last few months has seen a new border in the garden. Just a small area in the right hand corner but it should balance the garden a bit better. I have approached the planting of this border differently that the main one. This time I have concentrated on evergreen shrubs instead of perennials. Once the shrubs are established then perennials will be added. This is to provide colour all year round.

The main border has also been planted with a few shrubs to give a bit more interest. What is more important and something I will tackle next year is height. There are no high plants. I may put an apple tree in the main border.

I had a little tidy up in the garden this weekend and came across two creatures. Firstly a butterfly which landed on the windowsill. The last few weeks have been quite mild and so probably good weather for them. This week is wet, windy and chilly so I hope the butterfly is hibernating happily.

I also came across a frog while digging in a shrub. It hopped along the fence towards the house and then disappeared under the fence and into next doors garden. They have decking which the frog may like. There is a garden two doors away with a pond, so perhaps that is its ultimate destination.

September brings an autumnal chill

There is definitely an autumnal feel to the air now. Time to start planning for the winter and following spring. But before that, what's been going on over the past two months.

Day lilies - The day lilies have done brilliantly in their second summer. A mass of buds and flowers which bloomed for almost two solid months. That is amazing considering each flower is only in full bloom for a day or so.

Tomatoes - I have four plants tied securely to poles to avoid wind damage similar to last year. There are a small number of flowers which are developing into fruits, but I will not overwhelmed this year. Must germinate and look after the seedlings better next time.

Caterpillars - The pest of the summer has been the caterpillar, (with the spring being taken over by greenfly). First to fall foul of these monsters was the carrots. I had noticed the leaves looking a bit dried and put it down to lack of water. On closer inspection though I found lots of horrid green caterpillars (or grub type things) munching away. I cleared them all off (swashing is the best way to deal with them) and every other day check again for other. Thankfully the carrots have been clear for a few weeks now and are looking a lot healthier.