4 May - In a nutshell

It has been a couple of months now since I put pen to paper, so to speak, and a lot has happened during the time. It only seems right to bring you up to date, but I will try to make it brief.

Dogwood

Every year this gets coppiced to about eighteen inches high and is generally done in March. This serves a couple of purposes. The first is so that we obtain a different perspective of the garden from the house, as it opens up the view. The second is to retain the winter colour of the stems, which look best on one year old stems. The third reason is to obtain cuttings to go on and produce more plants, although it can be a year before you know if they have taken.

Tomatoes

These have really come along in a short space of time, from small plants that have been potted on a couple of times to now being planted into their final positions in the greenhouse only yesterday. As soon as the weather started to improve they were put in the greenhouse every day for about a week, before then being left in there overnight with a fleece to ward off the cooler overnight temperatures. There was one slightly cooler night when I completely forgot about the fleece and the next morning the tomatoes were found in shock with their leaves slightly curled. With a bit of TLC they soon came around and have recovered well. They now have their first flowers starting to open.

Peas, Beans and Mangetout

These all grew well and soon as they were garden ready, planted out into their final position. Giving the tactics of the sparrows and their taste for peas, all of these have been netted with extra care taken not to leave any gaps, so that birds do not get caught up in the netting.

Flower Seedlings

All these are growing well and have been pricked out and potted on at least once. Some, like the ox-eye daisies are have grown reasonably quickly and are now garden ready. The cosmos are not very far behind and have now been place in the cold frame with the ox-eye daisies. As for the others they are taking up room in the greenhouse now and will soon need potting on again before they are hardened off ready for planting out in the garden.


Vegetable Seed Sowing
During the last month the seed of turnips, swede, spinach beet and beetroot have all been sown direct and the seedlings are now up and growing strong. Parsnips that were sown earlier in the year have also now finally started to grow.

The lawn

Early April saw the grass being given ins annual treatment, first a cut then a weed and  feed. This is then followed a week or two later with the grass be scarified to remove any dead moss and thatch build up. Finally a generous scattering of grass seed, particularly in those areas looking a bit sparse. It looks a bit worse for wear initially, but it soon greens up ready for the summer.

Tulips

Back in December I bought around 100 bulbs from the Manchester Christmas market, there was a dutch bulb stand their from Holland and I managed to get a carrier bag full of bulbs for £5. Anyway, the majority of these bulbs were specialist tulips and were planted out in the garden. They have been flowering for the last couple of weeks and continue to do so. I also purchased some larger tulips for the greenhouse borders and these were to be treated as cut flowers for the house. These have now finished, but they did provide several bunches of flowers.

The Bird Box

The blue-tits have been busy building the next over the period of a few weeks and have now laid their eggs. There are nine eggs again this year and hopefully we will get to see them hatch, especially after last year. It was noticed today that for some reason the top of the box was no longer attached to the tree. We don't know how this has happened, but the box was hanging on by one screw and leaning at an angle. Unable to leave  alone, as it would have fallen if we had, it had to be judged when best to stabilise. Keeping an eye on Mrs Bluetit in the box, my husband managed to climb up to the next, block the entrance and refix to the tree. Whilst Mrs Bluetit new something was going on she did not appear to get stressed and now her and her unborn are safe again.

4 March - An afternoon off work.

Resigned to the fact that the weather was possibly only going to get worse this afternoon, I decided to call it a day and go home. The weather in fact didn't get worse, the snow turned to rain and the roads to mush! This didn't prevent me however from clearing the snow from the bamboo and evergreen shrubs in the garden when I got  home. If  any of the wet stuff froze overnight the weight on any shrubs would increase and potentially could cause some damage. So what to do with a few hours that I didn't have before, I needed no convincing, a spot of gardening. Of the indoor variety of course.

 

I have now managed to pot on the seedlings of Echinacea, Vebenea, and Antirrhinum. I had sown the seed for these a couple of weeks ago indoors. I have also sown the seed for Courgette 'Defender' and Cucumber 'Emily'. Again these have initially been placed in a heated propagator indoors.

 

In the greenhouse we now have the first batch of peas 'Kelvdon Wonder' sown. I normally use root trainers, but I have so many peas to sow that I have started to use empty toilet roll tubes! They do the same job and needs must.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago I also had sown the seed of Aquilegia, a yellow variety with long spurs, the seed was collected from the garden last year, and some ox eye daisies. These are all growing well and will soon need potting on.

 

 

Last week I had sown the seed for Cosmos 'sensation', Rudbeckia 'Prarie Sun' and Rudbeckia 'Sputnik'. Again, these are all growing well.

 

Last year my attempts at growing parsnips were poor. Last week I had sown the first row of parsnips direct, this are of the bed had been covered by a cloche and was recovered again once the parsnip seeds were sown. However, I am not holding out much hope at present, so I have placed some seed onto damp kitchen towel and once there is any indication of germination I will plant the seed outside. Other than that I will sow a row every couple of weeks for the next month and hopefully will hit lucky with the timing.

25 February - Expansion

Looking forward to the new season with plenty of vegetable and flowers seeds purchased ready and waiting. Last year I grew a few flowers for picking and although on a very small scale it was enjoyable and rewarding, having bunches of flowers for the house. I have decided to do the same again this year, but this time I am planning to make better use of the kitchen garden.

Whilst the seed box is full to busting, I have also purchased this year a light box. basically a setup to grow plants indoors with the light they need to prevent them from getting too leggy. It came with capillary matting and seed trays so fingers crossed this will help ensure I grow better plants.

Also, as I am going to need as much space in the greenhouse as I can get for all these plants I am going to be growing, so have also purchased some extra staging. This is different to that already across the back of the greenhouse in  that it is suspended from the wall and roof of the greenhouse and does not take up floor space. This is ideal for me as it maximises space whilst I can still make use of the borders in the greenhouse.

21 February - Tomatoes potted on

Well its been a couple of weeks now since the first tomato seeds were sown and they are coming on a treat. Granted they were getting a little bit leggy, but when potting them on into individual pots I planted them deep! By planting them up to their seedling leaves it encourages the plant to produce more roots up the stem and hopefully produces a stronger root system. They are now growing on in slightly cooler conditions, but it is too early yet for them to be put out in the unheated greenhouse.

19 February - Bees

For the last few  years I have ordered bees for the garden. Sounds a little  weird I know. However, our native bee population is declining and I feel that I am giving nature a helping hand. 

I initially purchased a small hive with bees and each year purchase a new nest. These are not honey bees, will not swarm or stay with the best indefinitely. They are purely pollinators and at the end of the life of the nest the queens produced will go their own separate ways and hopefully produce bees for the following year.

I am upgrading my hive to one which is larger, will produce a bigger colony of bees and hopefully the adaptions made to the larger hive will keep the bees happy.

Roll on May for their arrival.

19 February - Frosty weather

Another frosty morning with clear skies, and where the frost covered flat surfaces it was glistening like diamonds in the sun.

Thankfully any plants that may have succumbed to the cold were tucked away either in the greenhouse or under protective cloches. Whilst I am keen to get the gardening season underway I am still wary of the frosts that can continue until at least May.

The ground is still too cold for direct sowing, but I have been keeping areas covered with black sheeting to keep the soil that little bit warmer and dryer for when the time is right. In the meantime I will just have to make do with a window sill or two indoors.

 

30 January - First daffodils in flower

26 January - Snowdrops

When we moved into the house back in the summer of 2008, the garden was in need of a little imagination. For a plant lover such as myself the garden was showing very little in the way of planting. The one plant we did inherit from previous owners that has slowly grown over time and is welcomed every year, are the snowdrops. These are mainly in the border just outside the back window, and as the ground slopes gentle upwards it means we get a good view from the house. Not content with what is probably hundreds of snowdrops already, a couple of days ago I ordered some more and these arrived in the green today! These are "Elwesii" and these will be planted in large pots either side of the back door. I know that snowdrops don't like to dry out, even in the summer months, but plans assured this should not happed and they will still get their respite from the summer sun.