No stopping her - Mother Earth

Despite the cold wind yesterday and the cold rain today, there's no stopping mother earth as we move towards Bealtaine.

The birds didn't mind the wind yesterday, they still managed to cling on to the feeders

Lily of the Valley growing at the base of the toilet in the salle de fleur, looks set to be in flower for Bealtaine on the 1^st of May

The Pieris is in flower and vibrant red leaves are making an appearance

Aquilegia has self seeded in an old hollow log

As I look out at the gardens from the Farmhouse it continues to rain here in Brittany. 

Until next time
Blessings to all
Vanessa

Another Chance

The old plum tree, one of the few trees that was on the land when we acquired Gaudin Gardens, is bursting with beautiful blossom.  Seeing it come into flower again is a wonderful sight

March 2019

About three years ago it was blown over in strong winds. There was lots of advice given on chopping it up for fire wood etc. It deserved another chance.

March 2019

A single root was still in the ground, so it was propped up on an old log and nurtured back to health with mulching and care

March 2019

Last year it produced about twelve delicious sweet plums, so maybe with all that blossom there will be more this year.

August 2018

Leaving you with a few photos taken at the weekend 

Buds on the Blackcurrant

Buds on the Rowan tree

Dia taking a rest in the shade of the Pieris

Until next time

Blessings to all
Vanessa

Planting continues

As the beginning of April approaches two thirds of spring has already passed and mother earth is very much awake. Everything is coming to life in the gardens.

March 2019

 

Broad Beans

Broad beans that were sown in loo roll tubes and peas sown in recycled yogurt pots in February and kept in the poly tunnel, have been planted out into the vegetable beds.

The vegetable beds were mulched with home made compost and covered with hay in the autumn and left for the worms etc. to turn the garden over ready to plant straight into, so no digging needed.

 

Broad Beans - March 2019

Peas - March 2019

The early potatoes have been planted.  A hole was made, the potato was popped in, then the potato bed is covered in hay. This method of growing potatoes worked well last year, again no digging.

Fine sunny weather is promised for the week end so planting out sweet peas that have been started off in the greenhouse is on the to do list along with mulching the flower beds.

Leaving you with a few photos taken today

Until next time

Blessings to all

Vanessa

Honeysuckle

In yesterdays post I mentioned the honeysuckle growing up the electric pole in the court yard. 

I planted a couple of small cuttings next to the pole in 2016.

April 2017

I remember when I planted it thinking how small it looked against the pole I hoped it would cover one day, and that it wouldn't take too long.

February 2019

 

The honeysuckle has grow leaps and bounds since then, so the recuperated metal arch that I mentioned in yesterday's post, should be covered in a couple of years time with a beautiful fragrant variegated evergreen honeysuckle. 

March 2019

Until next time

Blessings to all

Vanessa

For the love of Arches

The arch survived storm Freya last week although it did have a bit of lean on by the Monday morning.
I repositioned the arch at the weekend as I didn't feel it was in the right place, I moved it over about a meter.
Its windy again today and the arch has a new lean on, so some serious rethinking of stabilisation is needed.

 March 2019

There are five arches around the gardens giving a bit of structure here and there. 

Two metal ones which were destined for the recycling yard that now have new leases of life at Gaudin Gardens. One made from branches of the living willows, my unstable bamboo creation that needs some attention and a new metal arch I purchased on Saturday.

 

March 2019

I have planted honeysuckle cuttings I took last autumn at the base of both sides of this metal arch that Mr O recuperated. Hopefully they will grow quite quickly like the small cuttings I planted around the unsightly electricity pole in the court yard (nothing much we could do about that, EDF wanted an arm and a leg to move it so it stayed where it was)

March 2019

This metal arch belonged to my neighbour and came complete with trunk of a wisteria that got out of hand in her garden which adds to the overall rustic appearance. Its got a wild honeysuckle one side and a white climbing rose the other

July 2018

The living willow arch

March 2019

Newly purchased metal arch not sure what I'll grow up and over it yet something evergreen would be nice.
  
Until next time
Blessings to all
Vanessa

Its been a while

We have had beautiful weather here in Brittany and I've been working in the gardens cutting the grass, potting on cuttings that I had taken last year and just being outside doing jobs and enjoying the sunshine. I felt inspired to photograph the gardens so here are a few that I took this week. 

View from kitchen  looking up to the top gate

View from kitchen

Blossom on the Ribes

 

I have been busy today making an arch out of bamboo. The bamboo grows on the edge of the gardens Mr O brought it home and planted it a few years ago.

I wanted to make the arch today so it can be tested by the elements tomorrow and Monday as its forecast very windy with storm Freya arriving tonight.

I am hoping to grow Clematis up and over the arch.

Until next time
Blessings to all
Vanessa 

Poly Tunnel

We invested in a Poly tunnel at the beginning of the year, which stayed in the packaging until April as it was too wet and windy to put it up.  Its 6m x 3m so 18 square meters in total.
Mr O scraped off the ground with the excavator. We then put down some recuperated paper flour sacs and topped it off with 2 year old compost from one of the compost bins.

April 2018

I had grown tomatoes, aubergines melons cucumbers and lettuce from seed which were started off in the warmth of the lounge. I pricked them out and brought them on in the greenhouse. When the plants were big enough I planted them into the poly tunnel.  Everything was left to its own devices, including all the seeds that were lying dormant in the compost, which all started to come to life in the warmth and humidity of the poly tunnel.

June 2018

In June I found time to work in the tunnel pulling out all the weeds and unwanted plants that were springing up everywhere.

June 2018

That was much better, I could see what was what in the tunnel back in June.  The tomatoes, melons and cucumbers all had flowers on them and I was looking forward to a good harvest.

This is the Poly tunnel today

The weeds have taken over the paths so one of my many jobs is to put down straw to suppress them

Cucumbers July 2018

There is an abundance of cucumbers, everyone that visits takes a couple with them when they leave

Melons 2018

Water Melons 2018

A beautiful visitor came into the tunnel a couple of weekends ago.  The swallowtail butterfly stayed long enough for me to quickly go and get my camera and take a few pictures.

Swallowtail Butterfly Papilio machaon

He/She was about 8cm across and stunning.  Its the first time I've had the pleasure of seeing the Swallowtail butterfly - A feast for the eyes

Mother earth never fails to amaze me, we just need to take time to look and listen to her

" Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better"  -  Albert Einstein

Until next time
Blessings
Vanessa

A Taste of Summer

On Sunday Mr O collected some Elderflowers for me as I wanted to make elderflower cordial again this summer. Its so easy to make and tastes delicious.

I used about 40 elderflower heads, 4 lemons 1lb 8oz of sugar 1oz citric acid and 3 pints of boiling water.  I added the sugar and citric acid to the water. When the sugar had dissolved I thinly peeled the lemons with a potato peeler and sliced the lemons, I added the peel and slices to the liquid along with the elderflower heads. 

This was covered and left to infuse for about 48 hours.  The mixture was then strained through muslin and a sieve and poured into clean bottles. 

It made just under 2 x 1.5 litre bottles.

Next time I will try elderflower and strawberry cordial as this year we have an abundance of strawberries in the garden.

We had thunderstorms on Sunday evening and quite a bit of rain this week so not much has been done in the garden.  I did manage to cut the grass this afternoon as more storms are forecast for this evening and tomorrow.
I'll leave you with a photo of the new arrivals to Gaudin Gardens 

Not that easy to take a picture of baby chicks as they keep darting about.  We had 7 hatch in total.
Until next time  
Blessings to all
Vanessa