Egg shells and tea leaves

For those of us who are unable to have a compost heap (and there are few compelling reasons for this, including laziness), I would recommend the shortcut of saving the egg shells and used tea leaves from your weekly consumption.

My grandma used to crush eggshells into her potted roses and I started to do the same last year. Eggshells are rich in calcium, add valuable nutrients to the soil and improve drainage. Strewn around the base of young plants, the sharp edges of broken egg shells also serve as a deterrent for slugs.

Recently, during a spring clean of my kitchen I found an old ceramic teapot that has a glued-up handle making it rather unsuitable for tea, but certainly could serve as a decorative storage for used tea bags in our pantry. Tea leaves break down to provide humus for the soil and they contain trace minerals that are good for plants.

Over the weekend, my tea pot and the egg-shell container were brimming, so I emptied the crushed egg shells around our roses and tore up the tea bags around the base of our peach tree. It is important to crush egg shells as finely as possible so that it breaks down more easily into the soil. Tea bags should be torn as most tea bags in the UK are not made of degradable material.

This weekend was the definite signal that spring is here. There are daffodils everywhere you look around the country and our garden is kicking into gear as well, with blooms of hyacinth and buds of cherry blossom and peach.

We planted three young climbers against the back wall, two yellow honeysuckle and a passion flower, supported by little tepee shaped stakes which should be adequate till we can create a trellis.

Have made first step towards growing our own veg. Sowed seeds for French beans, courgettes, basil, tomatoes, carrot and kale, and a few sunflower seeds too, and have left them to work their magic in little pots on a warm window sill.

Oh Sweet Pea

Spring makes way for summer and it is the turn of a whole new generation of plants to keep us enthralled.

The best surprise of all was to find the gorgeous red begonia emerge from hibernation. When this plant withered away last year, I wondered whether it was a natural process of over wintering or whether we had left it out on the patio too long and the harsh frost had got to it before we could bring it indoors. Instinct kept me from emptying the pot to house another plant. But the pot remained neglected all the same, propped against a wall near the compost bin. Sheer joy, when nine months later, I find tiny little leaves coming up for some water and fresh air.  The leaves are bigger this week and looks like we will have those beautiful blooms again.

The roses this year have been celebrating something pretty important as they make a spectacular appearance. I helped wire them to the supports and dead heading has been tough to keep up with. The floor of the rose bed is carpeted with petals. I had sprinkled a few leftover wild flower seeds from the rake 'n shake box and they have taken root and are in bloom as well. The bees sure are happy to have them wild flowers around.

The veg that we planted has made great progress and this morning we had very elegant courgette flowers. The beans are doing well too and so are the tomatoes. The carrots  have been less of a survival story and we will be lucky to get one carrot this year.

The strawberries looked fabulous a couple of weeks ago and our neglect meant that they dried up in the high temperatures in recent days. But they have been  rather forgiving and after a drink, have soldiered on.

The other joyful surprise has been utterly exquisite sweet pea in our hanging baskets. Grateful for the beauty these plants bring to our lives.

There are some signs of life from the sedum seeds and hopefully we will have a few robust plants for our front garden. The hostas this year have had very vigorous growth and there are some flowers in bloom there too. Other summer entries are the achillea which looks close to bloom in a range of pastels, the hydrangea which is competing with the lavender for room to grow and the buddleia cones.

There have been a few casualties too, but nothing that a little nurture and nature cannot fix. Clematis is growing well, though I fear for the dry leaves, are they just due to the heat or this clematis wilt? There is blackspot on the roses. And shiny red lily beetles have made a meal of our lilies and stripped them of leaves. The peach tree is full of leaves and a small little peach, with very limited traces of peach leaf curl still evident. The crabtree is now shooting out branches laden with purple berries. One branch in particular leans over the bird bath and the berries seem to make a Ribena of sorts for the birds that want a drink! I did move the branch further away eventually.

After pottering about in the garden we love to come up to the bedroom window and survey our backyard and it is looks like a happy place for all its residents.