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Here we are in early May 2017 - with a shot of my recently restocked wine closet. When I recycle, I recycle a lot more than most people would. Here is one example -

- Liz gave me some flowers for my birthday and I snipped the stalks off before placing them in a vase, as most people do. Unlike most people however, I did not discard the chopped off stalks - but grew them! I now have 3-4 brand new rose bushes for the side fence!

This is the toilet seat I inherited. I was thinking of changing it soon after inheriting the house, asIi was not too keen on wood, but my son persuaded me not to as it was still in good condition. However, it did not stay in good condition - and the small crack on the underside became a big crack top and bottom...

So, off I trotted to Dunhelm Mill to grab a new toilet seat. I made sure it was a white one and plastic, and also not too flimsy and 'cheap' - and that it did come with all the bits and bots you need to fix it on properly.

I studied the pieces, instructions, and toilet...

...ew! The hardest part of replacing the toilet seat was in fact unscrewing the old one - that must have been in situ for some 15-20 years. The white plasticy hubs shown were almost worn out by the pliers in my effort - but I finally managed to take the old seat off!

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May brings us a dry cool start but plenty of pretty flowers. My back yard has gone into 3 separated sections, with a rim. The far section is woodland wild, the middle section a wild frog pond, and the closer section shown above my wild meadowland housing wild flowers along with bird seed growings, aquilegias, and flowering onions. You can also see the grassy pathline that separates it from the rim-border.

Here we can see that late May/early June has arrived - and with it the crops are coming. Earlier in the year it was mostly rhubarb, but now other fruit and veg are in the crops I bring home everytime I trot to the plot. Gooseberries are doing well this year as well as the rhubarb - and there is a strawberry, spinach and a few broad beans.

In the poly tunnel, my cauliflowers are growing well. I kept a few in there, as well as planting many down the allotment. I was quite pleased, as they are apparently difficult veggies to grow - and I had never tried before. I think they may become a regular crop for me though.

Here you can see the lefthand side of the tunnel - mostly cauliflowers, one onion or leek or garlic, and some pots ready for the tomatoes. The next shot shows the other half of the tunnel - where my leek seedlings were until I took them down the plot to plant out, along with one cucumber, one chili and a couple tomatoes that will be staying here.

And the crops kept on coming. Here we see an early June harvest of strawberries, spinach, broad beans and gooseberries.

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To start today's post, one last shot of the fence-side pathway border. This shot shows the view looking from poly tunnel towards the house. It is a good showing of the white bluebells. Next, we are off to the allotment plot again. These photographs were snapped in the first half of April 2017.

In the first, you can see the garlic, shallots, onions, broad beans area along with a giant rocket plant that overwintered. I actually pulled the rocket out today as it was finally past being its best. Behind is one of the strawberry beds.

This photo shows the two strawberry beds - now full of flowers. The third raised bed has nasturtiums and squash in. The squash are under bottles to save them from pigeons and slugs. It appears I may need to fix the raised beds at the end of this season as they are beginning to fall apart.

This shot shows my next veggie area - where I planted seed already and covered it in a net. I am not going to water them up though, but am waiting til the rain naturally brings them to growth - then I can adjust the netting. I have all sorts of radish, beans, and lettuce going on in there. To the right I have another netting covering my cauliflowers to save whats left of them from pigeons. I sowed a few beans and spinach in the row in front, which shows better in my next picture.

The far right back corner is filled with massive stems of rhubarb, dwarfing my compost bin. next to them is a 'space' which is where my spuds are beginning to peep through. Today, I was alerted to the fact that frost is coming this week, so I have now earthed them over in preparation, a little in advance of plan. The great big green clumpy shrub is my biggest and best gooseberry bush. Flowers and tiny fruits are beginning to form, so I am having to water it regularly now to ensure I get decent fruit this season.

This is a my smaller rhubarb plant - that I cut from the main one last season. Once established, I will eat the old one to the bone and dig it out. You can also see new growth on my other gooseberry bushes, most of the raspberry canes, and my 2 remaining blackcurrants.

I am currently cropping rhubarb at a rate of 6 stems a week with no stopping it. I pulled the last two of my leeks out this morning, after coffee with Liz. With new ones coming on in the poly tunnel, leeks appear to be something I can grow successfully and enjoy. I aim to be 80-90% self sufficient in fruit and veg by the close of 2018.

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My fence-border was coming along well as April entered the center of the month. This is the spot closest to the kitchen window, beyond the waste patch and prickly tree with yellow berries. As well as the now established box privet hedge-lump, you can spot a camellia transplant, geranium or two, wild strawberries, and a few weeds.

Moving slightly further along, you will note more wild strawberries along with the two white strawberry plants my son gave me from the nursery he worked at as a volunteer until it closed down. A cyclamen, mini daffodil, snowdrop and couple of alliums fill the space.

Next up, a cutting of box privet ends the strawberry area. Along with the Lychnis plant Liz gave me and her purple plant donation, you can see what was mint. Going along further, Liz's primrose and lemon balm are in view, along with the former neighbors' yellow thing - either a winter jasmine or a forsythia. Down in the bottom right corner you might spot a violet.

Going towards the back of the yard a step or two more, you can see the remains of one of 3 red and white tulips, along with a yew cutting, another rose, another camellia, a few random bulbs and a yellowish shrub, which you can see better in the next picture. There are also some olde fashioned roses, the start of the bluebells, and a couple of other plants I have transferred from other spots in the yards.

This photo depicts the view from bird bath to poly tunnel - and includes the about to re-spurt fern, pond shrub, main bluebells, small holly sapling, moved fuchsia and seedum, white bluebells, and coltsfoot. You might also spot the removed palm tree dying in happiness to provide bugs with a home along the fence beyond.

My final picture for today's post is a closer view of the patch beyond the bird bath. You can see where the path has been trodden into submission and where the spotty leaved pinky-purple flowered plants have been established and more of the coltsfoot - which is the thicker white clusters to the dandelions nearby.

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Here is a shot taken in early April showing how I have replanted some of the fuchsias from the front yard behind the bird bath. The next photo is a blurry failure of a shot, but shows the position of the ornate tulips and primrose - red splodges and yellow/green splodge.

Above is a reminder of what I have so far done on the patio. Below was my view from the kitchen window until this morning, when I removed the laurel seedling to the back fence area along with some seedums. The patch of 'weeds' is purposeful - it is going to remain wild flowers/weeds mixed - along with bird seeds that grow - a sort of bee-butterfly-bird meadow. I will cut back the ivy, brambles, and bindweed from that area, but all else can grow onward!

Alas, indoors is also outdoors - lol. My kitchen windowsill depicted above is home to an over wintered chocolate habanero, a newly emerged eggplant seedling, chili seeds, and was also home to a sweet potato (attempt #3 to make slips) til I moved that to the poly tunnel this morning. It got to 32 degrees in there yesterday, so I am thinking they may have more luck there than on the sill where they just go mouldy.

These were my two over wintered hot lemon chili plants, now safely planted at the allotment plot, as of yesterday!

My final shot for today is of a task I will get around to shortly. I had hoped to do it over Easter, but twice I went out and twice I had sinus issues, so it has yet to be done. This is what I encounter when going into the back yard - a great big tower of variegated ivy. I don't want to walk into ivy, but the yard - so it is going to go - soon!

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To begin today's blog, I will share a photograph taken during March of the fence-hedge border area in front of the kitchen window. In the shot, you can see the primrose Liz recently gave me along with 2 of the 3 tulips I bought this year, camellia cuttings, rose transplants, cyclamen transfers and a few bulbs. At the far left you can see the bluebells - or what will be bluebells, as they are only foliage at present.

This is the straw bale Liz picked up for me in early March - after 2 strawings, the strawberries are more or less secured from slugs and slaters, leaving me half a bale to top up and increase straw protection once the winds have died down and plants expanded. In the final week of the month I took the next shot -

- and you can see one of the raised strawberry beds all strawed up. You can also view the front edge where I was working and de-turfing into the weed bag, also the garlic/shallot/onion/broad bean bed, as well as the spare raised bed to contain squashes and nasturtiums. You can see my first harvest of rhubarb for the year, too!

Also taken on the last weekend of the month, you can see various other areas of my plot. On the left, the former onion bed with a half dozen or so leeks still growing. beyond that, my compost bin resiting and fruit area. My potatoes are behind the raspberry canes at the back, and coming back down past the other fruits, you can see where I planted beans, spinach and brussels sprouts, then my second strawberry bed. I am pleased with the rhubarb - it's as tall as the compost bin!!!!

We now jump forward to April, and here is a shot of the patio, which I have done a little work with during the first week of the month. Still to do, is the removal of the unwanted green garden chairs, tidying up the broken glass/debris, and securing the edges - but the other things I wanted to do have now been done.

Here you can see the azalea from the front yard repositioned underneath the kitchen window. It fits perfectly where the rose arch and pink rose used to be - before the arch collapsed and the rose was moved to the fence. You should also be able to spot that the pots on the patio have now been weeded, refilled, and have become a herb garden - sort of.

At least, there is parsley and chives in there, but the other herbs still need to grow!

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Down the allotment plot, as March commenced, much of the fall planting of garlic, onion, and broad bean had surfaced and was growing - although not as avidly as last season. I planted another 2 bulbs of garlic, 25 shallots/50 onion sets. I filled the patch in view above, apart from the small clump of last years rocket, which is still pickable - just. I also planted some further back, beside the raspberry canes, in front of the cauliflower seedlings that I brought along from the poly tunnel.

As you can see above, my old rhubarb plant is doing well - with plenty of nice thick red stalks shooting out. I have contemplated the possibility of entering a few stalks in the local garden show this year, just for fun, if they continue to grow so well. Regular readers may recall I transferred a lump of the plant to the other corner of my plot - and this too is sprouting out now, though not as strongly. I will leave it this year and pick only from the old plant, which I aim to remove at the end of the season.

The day after I planted all my garlic/broad beans/shallots/onions for spring, I went back and planted my potatoes. I am not doing as many as last year, as I hope to purchase some sweet potato slips and grow these this coming season.

As you can see in the photo, I positioned the spuds where my former fruit patch had been situated. I do not use the traditional method of rows and ridges, but my own personally preferred method as shown above. I dig a deep hole - at least a foot down and pop the spud in the hole, covering it with just a little soil. As it grows, I fill in the hole to level the ground. If I run short of soil, I use compost from my bin or horse muck to top things up. I find this method breaks the soil up better for the next crop when the spuds are grown and harvested, than the normal 'ridge n row' method.

This is a primrose. Liz and I trade plants from time to time and a primrose is a plant I did not have in the yard and she does - so, it was just a case of time and interest before I was offered one and popped it in place along the back yard fence. You can see its position in the next photo...

...compared to the roses, yew, bulbs, and other bits n bots. My plan is that as the hedge grows thicker and wider, the other plants will be in front of it or peeping through it. I aim to chop back about a foot off the path over the coming year as I reshape the garden. So the primrose that is now on the edge will have around 12-14 inches in front and space to spread.

Here is the view from the other end, as seen from the house.