Designing a new front garden

When I first moved to my current house, the neither the front garden nor the back garden were anything nice to look at or inspiring at all. I've worked on the back and there's been many changes and although it's not looking it's best, I'm hoping that I've got it right this summer. The front is just awful to be honest with you. There's a concrete drive (why oh why did the previous owner do that, I can't afford to put a new one in), an old low, wooden fence that hasn't really survived the last few days of storms but there are some lovely plants: escallonia (that I put in), roses, a weigela, crocosmia and some more roses growing against the house.

Now, I'm not one for removing plants that have nothing wrong with them so I'm keeping all the plants where they are and I'll be working around them. I'm no garden designer and despite going to a local horticultural meeting recently about designing a small garden I'm non the wiser really. I've taken some inspiration from the internet, creating a mood board with various ideas and here's what Im looking to do:

Remove the old wooden fencing
Clear up the old patch of grass
Add two ornaments and fill with flowers
Add hedging where I can

The main inspiration I got was from striking pictures from the Dubai Miracle Garden's floral clock. It was the peacock with flowers as its tail that made me want something similar but on a much smaller scale of course!

So, I sourced a peacock planter from Dunelm, priced at £18, which I thought was quite reasonable as some ornamental peacocks were priced much higher. In this case I'm not looking for something high quality, just a good start.

I'm looking to keep flowers to a similar colour to the peacock so I've chosen to plant the following in the planter:

Petunia Fanfare Dark Blue
Lobelia Waterfall Blue
Fuchsia Southern Belle Voodoo
Verbena Enchantment Purple

Hopefully you can see the colour of the flowers on the varieties I've picked here. 

My daughter asked if she could help so I got her to fill a clean pot with potting compost and then add the plants in, placing the lobelia on one side, which will be near the neck of the peacock, the fuchsia on the sides to trail over the wings, with the petunia and verbena at the back to trail over the tail. 

I was pleased to see that the plugs didn't have too much plastic by means of a small pot. Although there was still a lot of plastic in use buying this. 

Carefully packing the young plants in the pot.

I've kept the planter in the poly tunnel as it's still too cold for the plants to be outside. Some of them are not hardy so I don't want to lose any.  Just to be doubly sure that I won't see them succumb to frost I've placed protection over the planter until the danger of frost is over. 

Next I'll be working on the front to clear any rubbish and give the roses a clip. After that I'll plan to dig and level the patch of land. I want to add some more dramatic planting as the flower varieties I'm using for the tail will be low plants. I'm hoping that the peacock will stand in a place that looks like a small jungle! 

Until next time x

Bulbs

Just as February is coming to an end, I'm now sowing onion seeds, along with sets to see what comes out best at harvest time.

Originally I always grew my onions (white and red) from seed, however, for ease I started growing onions from sets a few years ago, thus abandoning my seed sowing. So, I can't really compare which is the better method unless I grow onions by both methods at the same time. Aside from onions, I'm also growing shallots and garlic from sets and leeks (a member of the onion family) from seed.

Onions from seed

Back when I first moved into my current house I decided to grow onions, red and white, from seed. I originally purchased Bedfordshire Champion and Red Baron. The seeds were quick to germinate and I transplanted them from seeds trays to prepared beds in my back garden as I didn't have an allotment then. I found them surprisingly easy to grow and enjoyed harvesting them so much that the following year I also purchased Japanese onion seeds to grow in the summer months as I could harvest these a little earlier the following year to give me a succession of onions. Then, when I got my first allotment plot I gave up with seeds and grew from sets. The reason why I did this was because I thought that it would be easier to grow from sets.

Now I'm back to trying with seeds again. I've sown seeds in trays as before and left enough space between each seed, which is around 2cm. Later on, when these have germinated and grown on a little I will transplant them, leaving more of a gap. As of now nothing has germinated so I can't show you any photos of onion seedlings but will keep you updated when that does happen.

Onions from sets

This year I bought the following sets from Wilko:

White onions - Sturon
Red onions - sadly, there wasn't a variety name supplied

Both were priced at £1.50 each and as the deal is buy 3 for 2 I also bought shallots and garlic.

As I haven't yet prepared the soil on my allotment I decided to place the sets in individual small pots to get as many growing on as I can. I don't know if this could cause me problems though as I'm not sure whether moving them again will cause issues with growth (some plants really dislike being moved).

For the pots I just used potting compost for now. As they start to grow I'll transplant them to the allotment, so I'll need to prepare the soil! Onions like a good fertile soil to grow.

Pros and Cons of both

I've always found that when I've grown from seed onions tend not to really bolt (produce a flower and go to seed), whereas onions grown from sets can do. In the past I've cut off any flower stems growing on onions but I've not found the onion particularly good even after doing that.

If you're wanting to find an easy and quick way of growing onions then the best way probably is with sets as you can simply prepare your soil beds and put them in. Keep an eye on them though as birds quite like to pull them out (only to look underneath).

Either way, as I'm fond of using onions in cooking whatever I do get as a crop I'll be happy with!