Second border and perennial sweet peas

20th and 21st May 2018

 Before I started on the big border I planted the lettuce, radish and water cress.  I decided against successional sowing as it is isn't a 'serious' veggie growing session and the beans will have romped up and swamped the salads pretty soon - ever the optimist; not doing any romping yet.

the seed mat for the lettuce - does save on thinning out later

 I weighted the two mats down on a scrabbled up surface and then covered them lightly with potting compost and watered well.  The radish and water cress are planted round the edges of the border in a similar way.  The third mat is nestled in a pot for my grandson to take home when it starts to grow.

discs ready to be buried

 The second border got planted up like the first one did, using canes and sticks for markers

one aching body later

 On a trip into Dobbies for some agricultural 'gravel' because we had a 20% voucher, we bought two perrenial sweet peas.  They had them in pale pink and white - both of which I have owned at some time and then this one, described as red, so I thought I would go for a change.

The discount wasn't valid for the gravel but it did mean that the £20 worth of sweet peas were discounted by £4, so a bit of a win that day.

love a discount

It was a challenge grubbing down under the gravel and membrane to get the plants planted.  More worryingly they have their feet in a swamp.  The water, sitting on the clay pad, is actually visible as soon as you dig down six inches or so.  We over dug the hole and filled it with compost to give them a decent start but I have no idea how they will survive the wet - now and, even worse, over the winter.  This is going to be a garden of challenges.

After planting them and struggling to get the gravel back in place neatly I decided the gravel needed edging up away from them.  I got Ken to build me a frame to shove round them to keep the gravel back.  As always the old decking came into play - incidentally we have never had a deck!!

just needs a lick of paint

So our gravel area now looks like this

one step at a time

At the top end of the garden the seating is being used during this lovely hot spell

the place for a cuppa