How does your garden grow?

It has been a long time since I posted about my garden and since several of you have asked me recently to show you some photos I thought it was about time I did a tour again.  I live in a terraced house which means my garden is long and thin.  We have a very large wild rabbit population living in the railway embankment that runs along the back of our garden.  The first thing we had to do when we moved in was to fence of the entire garden and rabbit proof the fencing to ensure that anything we planted would grow.  We were amazed when we did this to discover that what we thought was a dead twig in the ground was a Holly tree which has now grown to a healthy height.  It seems that rabbits will eat anything!

So come up the steps and through the gate, which my husband made, and I will show you round.  (The words will refer to the photo below throughout this post):

Once we are through the gate, we are looking down the side of the garage/workshop building which is behind our house.  We have an access strip behind all the houses in the terrace which enables all the houses to drive their cars round the back of the houses should they so wish.  We are not allowed to build on this strip of land and it has remain accessible to everyone at all times.  It is a great safe place for children to play.  Sorry where was I.  So, down the side of the garage and workshop we have a narrow path with a wood store on the right and a long narrow bed on the left.  My lupins are still doing well and continuing to flower, beyond them I have some heather plants, nasturtiums and a lemon balm mint which I make a pot of tea with daily.

At the end of the path we come to a paved area and the garden opens out to its full width.  There is another wood shed on the right here (we have three in total), on the roof of which are some of solar panels providing power to the garage and workshop.  This is also where I hang our laundry outside, providing it is not raining - we get a lot of rain!  The lowest bed is my herbs, the chives grow rather well as you can see and are taking over the paved area too,  I love the flowers, they are really tasty to eat in salads, as do the bees so I leave them on for as long as possible but as you can see I have not managed that every time as they have spread rather a lot!  I also have marjoram, sage, salad burnet, comfrey, yarrow and plantain in this bed.  The right hand pot has a horseradish plant in it, I was told when I bought it to leave it in a pot as it can take over so that is where it has stayed.  To the left of the photo is a step up to a path which winds its way to the top of the garden.  The ferns arrived from I know not where and do get rather large if I don't keep them in check.  The higher bed has a fruit cage with a blackcurrant and white currant bush.  We have had to rebuild this this year, we often get strong winds and despite us using lines to hold it down it had not survived.  We have used metal joints on it now and made it a bit smaller, hopefully it will be able to withstand the battering it gets!  Reducing it in size has meant that I have a bit more space for growing vegetables.  I have planted sunflowers and green beans in front of the cage and sown carrot seeds to the side.

As we walk up the shallow steps of the path there is a large unruly honeysuckle growing along the fence.  We inherited this with the garden.  It has had a very severe haircut this winter, not that you would know.......there is also a Rowan tree and behind it a Hawthorn.  We didn't plant either of these trees, we suspect that the birds bought them to us by sitting on the fence and pooping out the seeds.

At the top of the shallow steps is a trellis.  There is a lovely climbing plant growing on this trellis, its leaves change colour in the sun.  I think the recent dry weather has not been to its liking, it doesn't seem to be doing as well this year.  There is some aquilegia growing in front of the trellis, another plant that 'arrived' in our garden.

On the other side of the trellis is a very small wildlife pond.  The birds love to come here to bathe and drink.  We also have a couple of resident toads in the garden.  The large yellow float, a buoy we found washed up on a beach, is to stop the pond freezing over in the winter.  Just out of view is a nest box which is used every year by blue tits, if you are quiet, when passing, you can hear the chicks.  Alice and Daddy made the small wattle fence round the pond, replacing a rather old rotten wooden fence.

From the trellis the path bends to the right round the back of the fruit cage.   To the left is another wattle fence also made by Alice.  Ahead are three large rhubarb plants and a hedge of rosehips, when we bought the house these plants were down both sides of the garden, we have left this one small section which is now about 7ft tall!

As we walk along the path the bed to the left has purple sprouting broccoli plants that I planted last year and are just starting to run to seed.  Next to them is my broad bean frame, the plants are growing well despite the fact that it has turned cool again, they grow well here as I think they must like the cooler temperatures.  Next to them are onions and then Jerusalem artichokes.  The three light stems next to the fence are the holly tree I mentioned before.

As you come round the bend in the path you are facing the polytunnel.  On the left is the purple sprouting broccoli on the right the rhubarb and next to them a large patch of wild strawberries, another plant that has arrived in our garden and grows just about everywhere!  We have just planted a small apple tree in this bed, a tree that I grafted by hand.  It will be a few years before it is producing fruit for us but we are looking forward to the day it does.

It is impossible to take a photo of the whole of the inside of the polytunnel so I have taken a few.  We use it to extend our growing season and to grow plants that would not thrive outside.  I have a mixture of beds and pots in here to make as much use of the space as possible, last year it was very full at the height of the growing season.  Currently I have courgette, cucumber and lettuce plants in the beds and tomatoes in pots on the floor.  The large plastic bottles are full of water which heat up during the day, they help to keep the temperatures raised slightly as they release their heat at night.

I have a small amount of staging where I keep all my pots and seed trays on a lower shelf and those that are in use on the top.  It is full at the moment....

...so full that I have lots of pots on a bed that is not yet in use.  I shall be planting out two squash plants in here when they are a little bigger.

Back out of the polytunnel and round to the left we are facing another trellis covered in another unruly honeysuckle.  This is where we hang the hammock, you can see that here, using the orange krab to the right of the photo.  Below the krab is a wormery.

The path swings round to the right again through the trellis.  On the left are the wormery and three compost bins, one is full of horse manure, one is maturing and the third we are using on the garden this year.  On the right is a bed that is mostly covered for now, in the farthest end I have recently sown turnip seeds.

At the top of the garden is a raised bed, this was a patio when we moved in, the pavers on the path came from here.  We have removed the patio and made it into a productive space.  This is the left hand side which is my garlic plants.  To the left are some raspberry canes another arrival in the garden, we are good at that kind of gardening!  To the right of them is some very large, run to seed kale and cabbages, I am leaving them for now and hope to collect the seeds from some of them soon.  The flowers are rather delicious to eat, I have been adding them to our meals.  The wooden slats are where we are in the process of building supports for an espaliered Apple tree we recently have planted in the bed behind the kale and hope to train it over the wall using wires attached to the slats.  It is another tree that I have hand grafted so it is not very big at the moment.

That is my garden!  I hope you have enjoyed the tour.  I shall try and remember to do one next month when I hope that things will have grown a little bigger!  Just need the temperatures to go up a little......