Spring is in the air

 

As the weather is warming up, I've been in the garden most weekends now and must admit that I've been spoiled! My husband bought me a new 6x8 greenhouse for Mothers Day. It's a polycarbonate one rather than glass. He's built it for me so I'm just beginning make it my own! I've still kept my old one that we inherited when we moved to our house, so that will get a refurb too.

 Anyway, here's what I've been up to so far:

Wildlife

I usually mention wildlife last when I write but there's been so many developments here that I wanted it put first this time. Spines McCoy, our male hedgehog, has woken from his hibernation. He frequents our patio so I've put out two camera traps and am accumulating some fab footage of him. I shall post that here next time. 

The birds have started nesting! I have starlings at the front of the house and blue tits in the nest box at the back. The blue tits have a camera so I've been watching them build a warm nest. We were due to have new guttering put in but the company got delayed (something about manufacturing issues) so we've had to put that on hold because there's no way I'm having the birds disturbed this time of year. It is illegal to destroy bird nest sites and although that's not what the guttering company would do, their work would disturb and probably frighten the birds away. When the company fix the guttering at the front of the house, the hole where the starlings nest will be gone so they have agreed to put up a new starling nest box that I'm making in it's place when they do the work.

I've also started seeing other bird species come to the garden. Finches are making a comeback at long last. I put out a nyjer feeder and now have two gold finches come and feed on a daily basis, but I've also spotted a chaffinch and a green finch. 

Mrs R, my resident robin has been working hard alongside me, picking up any bugs that I uncover. I see her more in the garden now and at weekends she waits for me at the door. I must admit that I do give her live feed occasionally but I try not to make her dependant on me. 

I've also spotted firecrests in the garden. Quite frequently heard but not often seen it was a delight to see two last weekend in my big tree. I think that they were courting. Unfortunately, I haven't got a good camera lens for distance so my pictures are a bit blurry! I did capture some film too - that's yet to be edited but like the camera trap footage, I will post it next time.

Onions and Shallots

These are still in their pots and trays as I want to see how well they do in a very controlled environment this year. They are being grown organically and I'm feeding them with worm tea for the time being. They have been moved out of the polytunnel (as that's about to burst with all the seedlings and cuttings) and are in the veg patch growing on very well. 

Tomatoes

I've got so many varieties growing this year and some will go in my new greenhouse. For now they have been transplanted in to bigger pots but not their permanent homes just yet. There are some still waiting to be moved into the raised beds in the polytunnel. I'll need to arrange room for them all very soon though. Currently most are at a height of 30cm and are looking healthy.

A young tomato plant in a bigger pot. Trialling the new peat free compost variety here.

 

The Wormery

My worms are increasing in numbers and producing so much worm tea. I've been collecting 2-3 litres every week over the winter and they've not slowed down. This is what I've wanted to do for a long time and I'm hoping that the results of feeding my plants with worm tea will be great. I feed the worms every week with leaves, kitchen scraps etc. The best thing recently was that when I lifted the lid up during the warmer weather, I found that the rat tailed maggots had finally become adult hoverflies and they all took off! As promised, I'll be working on a larger wormery this year. I'll also be testing the worm tea to see what nutrients it holds.

Other jobs

Lots of seeds have been sown and continue to be sown. There's a focus in my garden on companion planting and wildlife friendly plants, which should encourage lots of different creatures to benefit wildlife but to also benefit me. 

I'm making other natural feed other than the worm tea. There's plenty of bindweed about so I cut a lot back and place it in tubs with rainwater and cover them. Sometimes I add nettle too, which I've found really affective as a feed.

Not to be ingested by humans! Stacks of worm tea.

I've recently purchased another variety of peat free compost and am loving this one. It's made by Harmony Gardens and I love the crumbly feel of it. I've used it to pot on the tomatoes and for sowing more seeds. This variety is quite fibrous and should have good water retention. I'll let you know how I get on.

This will be the third variety of peat free compost that I've used this year.

The pineberries are starting to produce flowers so I'm counting on a long season with these. The other strawberry varieties won't have any flowers yet. 

Pretty flowers that should turn to tasty pineberries over the next few weeks!

In the meantime I hope you all had a great Easter weekend. Keep gardening x

Get set, sow!

Well, it's been pretty much the same old in my green house and polytunnel. I've been reusing all my old seed trays to continue with sowing seeds in preparation for this year. I've also taken part in the Big Garden Bird Watch, which is something I found enjoyable and relaxing. It was great to catch sight of winter garden visitors such as the Black Cap along with some gregarious bird species like Long Tailed Tits and Blue Tits. 

Sowing

I've finally started seeing some growth in the heated propagators. The tomatoes that I had sown last week have made a good start and I'm pleased that it's going well so far. This time I've carried on with the remaining tomato varieties and have sown some chillies and aubergines. These are all in windowsill style trays that fit neatly on, yes you guessed it, window sills. This means I can have them in the house and the warmth should do the trick. 

Pencils come in handy as little dibbers!

Wildlife

As it's still very cold out there, I'm not touching anything in the garden that could be home to wildlife. It's really important to make sure that you don't disturb anything that may be hibernating and that includes insects as as well as reptiles and mammals. 

I've been cleaning and topping up the water in the bird baths more frequently as they have been freezing over and early mornings I've woken up to see birds struggling to find a drink. As a rule, I always use rainwater for the bird baths. This is because it's free of heavy metals and chlorine, which is not good for wildlife. The same applies to ponds. 

Bird feeders have also been cleaned and topped up. I've got lots of coconut shells with suet and seed mixes. When they are emptied (and the birds pick them clean), I will find another use for them - an experiment closer to summer so look out for that.

I bought some Rosa rugosa for another wildlife hedge. These came bare root, so I will plant them out in a month or so. They should provide food and a home to a variety of creatures.

Wormery

The wormery continues to give me worm tea but at the moment I have stopped filling it. The worms are not as active as they used to be and I'm putting that down to the chilly weather. The wormery is in a sheltered spot, but I will need to move it in spring when I get my new greenhouse. Thanks to Freecycle, I already have paving stones for the flooring. With a wormery, you'll need to place it somewhere where it doesn't get too hot or too cold. I'm still to decide where it'll go.

Further prep

Admittedly, I haven't done much with the no dig patch of late. To be honest it's probably down to a mix of having little time and being a little lazy when I have got time. Around 60% of the patch is completed but I'm also starting to fall short of compost, so a little planning needs to go into what I'll be doing with that.

Well, till next time!

New year, new start

 

Happy new year to all of you!

I cannot believe how quickly 2021 went so I'm going to make the most of my time this year and really work on getting even more from the garden. My focus will be fruit, creating a forage area, homemade plant feed and companion planting. 

For now, my work in the polytunnel has been to start sowing tomatoes. Isn't it too early to sow tomatoes I hear you ask? Well, no because I'm using the aid of heated propagators and lighting to kick start germination. When I worked for a commercial grower, young fruit and vegetable plants would be delivered about now from Europe and they would be about a foot in height already. OK, so I'm not a commercial grower myself but I can cheat seeds into germinating earlier to give me a head start. 

I will also sow aubergines, chillies and some herbs, but I've run out of heated propagators so I'll be using windowsill trays and bring those indoors.

Speeding up seed germination

My seeds stored in a tin, ready to be sown.

There are various ways to spur germination on: 

Soaking

Some seeds, like beans, peas and squashes could benefit from being soaked first. Use hot water from your tap (never use boiling water as not all seeds can tolerate boiling water) and place that in a bowl with your seeds. Leave them for 12-24 hours. That will speed up germination compared to simply sowing seeds directly into the soil.

Chilling

Sometimes a seed needs to feel the seasonal change itself to push on germination. Chilling, or pre chilling as it's better known as, is a way of informing your seeds that they need to prep for germination. You can do this method in a variety of ways, depending on space and equipment. If you have a cold frames you can leave seeds in there. The natural cold will spur in growth. A more common method is to put your seeds in the fridge. Some people may just add the seed packet on a self in their fridge, but you might find that taking the seeds out of the packet and placing them on a damp paper towel which is rolled gives you quicker germination.  Finally, you can also place your seeds in ice cubes and then sow them. As the ice melts it will water your seeds and the change in temperature will wake the seed up. I've only ever tried putting my seeds in the fridge for this method and found that it has worked.

Scarification

This is a method I've never used as I imagine I might be too clumsy (or maybe I'm just not used to trying new methods). This is when you need to work on the outer shell of the seed as some seeds will have tough coats that need some form of abrasion to get the seedling growing. In nature this can be done through temperature changes, natural fires, an animal nibbling the outer shell or the seeds passing through an animal's digestive system. At home though, you can achieve similar results by using sand paper or a sharp knife for weakening the tough outer seed casing. 

More cleaning!

It's really important to make sure that you don't pass on any of last year's pests and diseases to this year's plants. Not completely avoidable but you can make a difference with cleaning. It's not the best bit about gardening for me but necessary. I've been washing seed trays before using them today.

Not my favourite chore!

The wormery

I've been checking my wormery a bit more frequently as the colder weather sets in. The wormery is placed in a sheltered position but I want to make sure that the worms don't freeze anyway. Worm tea is still being collected and I'm storing this in old plastic water bottles. I can't wait to start using it! When I took the layers apart today I was pleased to see rat tailed maggots there too. These are larva of the Drone Fly and they are a pollinator so I'm leaving these guys where I found them. The worms are in good condition too and there's plenty of them so I'm very happy. The wormery is topped up with food for now. Should the weather get colder still I will look at protecting the wormery more.

I now have around 30 litres of worm tea and there's more every week.

The lights are now on in my polytunnel to extend the daylight hours, there's also some warmth but I'll be sowing more seeds and bringing them indoors as I really don't want to get high electricity bills. Thankfully, the heat and lights don't use up much but it is something that's on my mind. My husband is thinking of buying a couple of solar panels for power to the shed and polytunnel (he does a bit of woodwork). I'll keep you posted on that idea.

Disco time again! These lights will only extend the day by a couple more hours. 

And finally...

I've been really exited by the fact that I saw a green finch in the garden a couple of days ago. When I first moved to this property there were lots of green finches and I would grow teasel and sunflowers for them but their numbers started to fall until we stopped seeing them altogether. I still carried on growing finch friendly food but sadly saw none in the last few years. Gold finches are common though. It's only been the one and I haven't seen it back since but there is a niger feeder out there for the finches so fingers crossed!

The snowdrops are coming through now and my photinia is starting to grow new red foliage. I don't have a favourite season as it's always really special to be able to see the changes in the garden and all around me. 

There's be some lovely flowers underneath my shrubs and trees in the garden. 

The Photinia will produce new growth that'll be red in colour.

Keep warm for now. Until next time.