Preparing garden for winter

Last weekend I have spent almost 1 day clearing our little garden. I had to destroy our tomatoes plants & peas as they got grey mound. Our french beans didn't like September cold nights and started to die and broad beans got thousands of black flies on them.
I had cut all bushes down, weeded the beds and moved the pods in place of tomatoes. That is to stop cats making it their toilet over the winter. :-(
So this is how our winter prepared garden look like now. My Cornish lily is in bloom and my Sedum is beautifully red. :-)

Garden revamp - willow screening finished

Last Sunday early in the morning (because we went after to friends BBQ) we finally put up the rest of the willow screening. It makes so much difference to our garden. It is just nicer and cosier. Also all the plants just pop up! I think that it was worth the cost. What do you think?

This picture is before the new screening.

Willow screening update 2

We got delivery of more screening yesterday! I know not very exciting but the fun is I didn't order it. That even is not the whole story.
Firstly I have ordered 2 rolls of 2m high and 4m long willow screening. Next day I got delivery but the rolls were only 1.5m high. So I have contacted the seller. I have bought it on Amazon (and used voucher from my Amazon credit card) so I taught that all process will be very safe. Seller (Primrose shop) apologised and gave me the small rolls free! So I have been very happy when the mine 2m rolls were delivered on Monday. Yep, I got 4 roll now. 2 days later (on Wednesday) I got another 2 rolls of 2m high rolls. So now I have 6 rolls!
Not sure what is happening but I think that our neighbour is getting a little bit worried what for goodness sake we are going to do to our tiny garden. :-)

Garden revamp + willow screening update 1

I have spent a lots of time in the garden these past few days. Do you remember when we wanted to paint our fences? We decided against it and chosen to install willow screening. But first our fence needed some repairs. It really isn't our fence as our neighbour fence so we can't change it.
Also we at least asked our next door neighbour about doing some small repairs to it. He was fain with it.
I have got some free wood from my work (used for packaging) so I changed a few rotten planks and also screw together our garden gate. It was just falling apart! I have used about 50 screws on it!

Fence & gate before

Slug resistant plants

I had to plant my french dwarf beans again. They got eaten by slugs & snails.  Also a few broad beans too. Due to my cat digging them out.
I used slug pellets (the cat friendly ones) but still slugs manage to eat my plants and veg.
I have a few plants which slugs & snails  and even caterpillars will not touch. I though that I will help fellow gardeners with my experience.

It is growing & revamp of garden

Finally my tomatoes, peas and french beans started looking up. Strawberries are flowering and my irises are beautiful. Our lemon tree is sprouting. I have planted also some garlic this year. Only two big pots. It is garlic from Czech so I hope it will be more resistant. It has for sure stronger taste. We already used that odd one which I couldn't fit in my pot. :-)

Tomato plant

Pea and garlic

Staining garden furniture

I have managed also squeeze some garden furniture update into our busy bank holiday weekend.

We have been given our garden furniture by my husbands parents. I really like it but the table is just too big for our tiny garden.  So I bought some smaller one used one from e-bay and we will sell our bigger one. Everybody happy!

This is the old circular from e-bay. It is made of good wood, it just went black with age & weather. So I have started to sand it down. It took me close to 2 hours to do it (with 4 chairs) of course by hand (+ some sand paper).

Garden time!

Yesterday was another beautiful sunny day here in Surrey. We have spent it as usually tidying and gardening.  I have finally planted some seeds. I have been a little bit late this year but at least with this weather everything will grow very quickly.
This year I am planing to grow, peas,  runner beans, potatoes, tomatoes ( I have 3 different kinds of them) and some french dwarf beans too.

We have given up on radishes ( grow them 3 times last year and they never have any bulb, only really pretty leaves) spring onions (never really did anything) onions (got eaten by slugs), carrots (didn't grow big enough), parsnips ( grow only pretty leaves), and various salads (grow straight into flowers).

This is my window growing so far. I have planted some flowers too.

Enjoy little things in your live

This weekend was the best one in the last 5 months. Spring is finally in UK and here in Surrey was 17C and blue, blue sky!
Of course I was gardening. Planting and weeding and tidying. Always trying to make our little garden look bigger :-)
Is so nice to see our plants and flowers to grow. Even if slugs, snails and caterpillars are having buffet from my garden. I swear I never saw so many of the monsters!
So far I am winning.

Permission from our neighbours for painting fence

Yes, if your fence is not really yours but your neighbours you need permission. In worst scenario it could be criminal damage to paint it without it.

Our lovely little garden has this unpainted "weathered" fence around.

Weekend gardening

After over 2 months of rain, rain and more rain mixed together with some wind and some storms there was one glorious Sunday ( not rain + a little bit of sun).
I have spent it in the garden trying to rescue my plants + fixing some fences.
Our 2 panels between us and our neighbour on the right side are very unstable so I have to prop them. Otherwise they will end up in my little herb garden.

Fighting for my garden

I had a look at my garden (very small little L shape)

Picture from Summer - now it looks too sad for proper photo.

Planting it.

I love gardening. It is relaxing and I like just be outside and see things growing. I can't of course do any gardening at the moment. Winter in UK is not pleasant. We had rain and rain for weeks and also flooding. Our house is in flooding area and 80metres from a small river, so we are keeping our eyes on it.
But that can't stop me from keeping a few plants inside.