Look who's sprouting!

 OK, so I originally planned to do a lot more this week than I have actually done but unfortunately I've been a bit unwell! Even so, I managed to get out into both the front and back garden to carry on with various jobs. I still feel a bit deflated though - I was hoping to get lots more done. 

The seedlings

So far, so good with most of my sown seeds. There's so many tomatoes growing in the house and the shelves are heaving in the polytunnel with the weight of so many seed trays. The broad beans are coming up, along with the peas (although the peas are much, much slower). Despite being on a downer about my (lack of) achievements outdoors this week, the sprouting seeds have made me smile. That's the beauty of gardening - seeing new life burst out of the soil. 

Peek-a-boo! Here's one of my broad bean seedlings. Although in the polytunnel, I do still add extra protection from frost. 

Take a close look: there's definitely a pea sprouting here!

Moving on from the germinated seeds, I did also sow more flower varieties and some fruit and veg varieties. There's alpine strawberry seeds sown for my new forage garden (next to the new wildlife pond). I did try to grow some from seed a couple of years ago, but alas, it was not a successful event! Hopefully, I'll have better luck this year. If I don't get alpine strawberries from seed again, then I'll take some from my mum's garden as she has plenty (I'm sure she won't miss a few). 

The New Forage Garden and Wildlife Pond

Not much has happened here this week. I've been gathering small logs cut from trees in my garden to pile up around the pond, to try and give it a natural edging. The pond itself is now full of rain water and the next step is to add the stones I purchased and then find some plants to add both in the water and around it. There has been a camera trap set nearby and I do check to see if anything has decided to reside there but so far nothing. It has only been a week though! I will also add wild blueberry plants and wild garlic in the forage garden. 

Just some of the logs I was placing around the new pond today. They may not stay there and I do have stones to and plants to place as well. 

The Front Garden

Not one to enjoy seeing useful items simply being thrown away, I picked up some freebies on a giveaway website (for people who have good items to give away). These were stone garden ornaments, including a small bird bath. The front garden isn't very big and half of it consists of a drive (there when we moved in). I already have a bird bath there with feeders and there's hedging plants, including roses, holly, escalonia and weigela to attract wildlife to the front garden. There's lots of house sparrows that enjoy visiting daily, along with gold finches, blue tits, dunnocks and starlings so I think it's only fair to give them more space with lots of plants and extra water. 

The other stone ornaments were two tortoises - one which could have plants growing from it. Having nipped down to my local nursery, I purchased four small alpine plants to fill the new planter. Here's how it went:

Here's the lovely planter, still needing to have plants.

A few small alpines were purchased to go in.

Here's the new (second hand) bird bath in place.

Here's the filled planter looking good!

And just because I want to share this photo, here's the other ornament.

It's great to be a part of something that doesn't involve throwing too many things away.  There's plenty of websites and apps that you can be a part of to help reuse or recycle something and it can give you the opportunity to have something nice for free. 

I'm aiming to feel much better in the next few days so I'll promise that there'll be more to see next time!

  

Marching on

It's been a busy week and I won't lie to you - I'm glad to finally have a rest! There's always lots to do but I seem to create more and more jobs for myself, despite organising things better this year. So, what have I done? There's been some work for wildlife and plenty of sowing. Here's what's been going on this week:

Wildlife Gardening

The plot of land that  was earmarked for a forage area has now started to take shape. The land for the wildlife pond has been cleared and dug and I've put in a liner (using sand as a base to make sure that the liner is cushioned a little.  To fill it with water I used rain water from the top two water butts, letting gravity do the job for me. It's always a good idea not to use tap water as this contains too many nutrients that can cause algae to grow and upset the natural balance. I also think that chlorine is no good for amphibians and as we get frogs and newts in the garden, it's only really sensible to use rain water. Stones and gravel was bought to place around the pond but at the moment while I'm letting the liner settle in, I won't be adding decoration around the pond for a day or so. What has been added is wire netting on one side in case any wildlife falls in and can't get out. That way they can climb out with the help of the wire. Finally, I placed a camera trap to overlook the pond to see if we get any night time visitors. 

Not very attractive yet but it's a start. 

The blue tits have been checking out the nest box and I've switched the camera on in there to watch their progression. They've been quite noisy in the garden and they're not the only birds around. The other species that are prospecting for nest space are the starlings, great tits and blackbirds. There'll be others too but these are the birds that I've noticed getting ready for breeding season in my garden. 

No Dig

This is coming along really well. I had mentioned before that I might need to buy in some organic compost but so far the veg plot is filling out nicely with just the homemade compost.  

I'll have to dig out some of that grass, but I'm hoping that the cardboard will keep out some weeds.

There's nothing like freshly added compost to get you smiling!

The robin watched me all the time but never came down to look for insects. Instead, as she sang so gently and kept me company, I gave her some mealworms later on. I'm challenging myself to complete the no dig area by next weekend. 

More sowing

Flowers and veg seeds to sow have been on the list of jobs this week. At Christmas I was given a seed advent calendar from my husband and so I've got some lovely insect friendly flowers to grow! So far all my seeds trays are either in the polytunnel or the windowsills at home. As the polytunnel shelves will start to heave, I'm going to clear some space in my green houses and set about adding more seed trays there too. 

This weekend I have sown:

Malope

Rudbeckia

Calendula

Marigolds

Summer Squash Patty Pan

Courgettes

Marrows

Pumpkins

Winter Squash Crown Prince

Sweetcorn  

Marigold seeds are sown on the surface of compost - these ones are seeds that I collected from last year's flowers.

It took less than a week for the tomatoes to start germinating!

Haven't quite got round to all of this just yet!

So now I'm going to have dinner and put my feet up! I hope that you've all had successes with germination this month. Until next time x

Planning and Sowing for 2023

 This year sees me planning a bit differently to other years. I've always liked to experiment, which is something that I will carry on doing, but I will also try to concentrate on getting bigger yields or the fruit and vegetables that I love to eat. There's also a change in how I'm gardening. So what's going to be different?

No dig

Last year, I started a no dig plot in my back garden. Having seen and read what Charles Dowding is doing, I must admit that I'm a fan of no dig for several reasons. Crop yields are better, I like the idea of not having to hurt my back with turning soil and the impact on the environment in a positive way far outnumbers everything else. So, on my plot I've been laying a little straw, then cardboard and homemade compost on top. The only downside is despite having a couple of compost heaps, I don't think I'll have enough so it looks like I'll have to buy organic compost in to top it up. 

Creating a forage area

This will be the big project for this year. I was hoping to do this for some time but never had the opportunity. An area of the garden that used to house my ducks (I have no more ducks now), is empty and in need of sprucing up. I wanted something that was going to encourage wildlife and give me some fruit and veg back, so I'm creating a second wildlife pond for the garden and will be planting native wildflowers along with perennials that I can pick. There's already a hazel tree there, although the local squirrel always beats me to it on picking the nuts, but I aim to add bilberries, wild garlic, alpine strawberries and somewhere for mushrooms. This won't be an easy task I think, but I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Container growing

This year I'll be growing more in containers too. I didn't get the best out of my potatoes in the garden last year, so I'm going to grow them in large bags instead. This way I get more room for other plants in the veg plot. There's also dwarf fruit trees, but these are still very young so I'm not expecting much this year.

                                                 

                          Some more container growing: coriander seed germinating in a hydropod in my conservatory. 

More, more, more

I have to admit to myself that although it's a nice idea to grow lots of different things, I need to be a bit more realistic in my goals. This year, there'll be more tomatoes, onions, beans, sweetcorn, squashes, chillies and soft fruit. I will have other plants too, but there'll be harsh words with myself if I get carried away again! The idea is to be able to grow lots of certain veg to be able to store it. I have some passata, garlic, chutneys and pickled/dried chillies from last year but it soon runs out. Wouldn't it be nice to have enough for the whole year?

Did I say I wanted lots of tomatoes?

This is what I want more of this year

 What I'm already sowing

There's some differences in methods this year. I'm only just starting to sow seeds. In previous years, I've started off as early as January, with the aid of heated propagators and lighting. With energy bills going up, I don't want to pay more for using electricity when I don't really have to. So, I've started sowing tomatoes and chillies into windowsill trays. These trays were bought a few years ago and I got a few more from someone giving away theirs over winter last year. That way I can use the warmth from the house and the lighting too. That should encourage the seeds to germinate. 

I didn't have seed cells in the free window sill trays I got late last year, however I did have some cardboard cells that fitted well into them. A plus for the environment if it weren't for the fact that they came wrapped in single use plastic.

I've also got peas and broad beans sown in pots and loo rolls in the polytunnel. The broad beans are coming up already! I will sow another succession in the next couple of weeks. Broad beans are so easy to store. Once I've picked them, I like to simply store them in containers in the freezer. I also love to grow peas, although not necessarily for cooking with. I find that peas are great to pick at the time that you want to eat them, so that for me is simply a lovely treat, which the rest of my family enjoys too.

My tips for this time of year:

• Start sowing as March is creeping up on us.
• Keep cleaning bird feeders to prevent the spread of disease. Our birds will need all the strength they can get to prepare for their breeding season. The same goes for water too.
• Prune mahonia, winter jasmine and buddleja
• Spread some compost around the beds
• Plan your fruit and veg garden!

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. 

Jobs for December

 

If you think you've got a chance to escape from any further jobs in the garden then you're wrong!

There's still some things that need to get done before the January cold sets in and there's always ongoing jobs. Here's my list of the things that you need to do:

• If you haven't already, clean your greenhouse. Then make sure that if you are using any heating, that it's working properly. 
• Take hardwood cuttings. Perfect timing if you really haven't got anything else to do in the garden as you'll find you have plenty of time to propagate now. Take advantage of getting free plants!
• Keep on cleaning bird feeders. Greenfinches in the UK have seen a huge drop in population over the last 15 years. Part of that is caused by a disease called finch trichomonosis, which can spread where birds frequent feeding stations. Make sure you thoroughly clean your feeders about once a fortnight. The same goes for water/bird baths.
• Look after garden ponds. If you keep fish or have amphibians in your pond, try to prevent the surface from freezing over. Do this using a ball or placing a pan of hot water in one spot. Breaking the ice can shock anything living in your pond. 

I've been continuing with my no dig patch. It's not been easy as I'm running out of organic matter at home so I may have to resort to buying some very soon. 

Indoors:

There's jobs indoors with houseplants too. Popular Christmas flowering plants need care, but if you have other houseplants reduce watering them now. 

Poinsettias: These don't like the cold so make sure when you buy one it has been kept in shelter. They don't even like the cold if you are just making a trip from the shop to the car! Although many treat them as annuals and throw them away in the spring, you can keep them. Try to grow yours on and see if you can get those lovely colourful bracts to appear by giving your poinsettia a stint in darkness.

Christmas Cactus: Cacti don't need much care over winter, so be careful not to overwater. If yours hasn't got flower buds, it may be because it's been kept somewhere a little bit too warm.

Cyclamen: These need care when watering. Water from the bottom rather than on the leaves as this can cause fungal infections.

Kalanchoe: These lovely cheerful plants enjoy sunny spots. They also don't like to be overwatered.

The wonderful colours of Poinsettias. I'll keep these for next year and hopefully get some more colour varieties then too.

I've also been working on creating some colourful pots and pot holders for my home as the days get dark too early. My houseplants needed an attractive pot boost!

A couple of small attempts at getting arty. Am favouring the green and gold theme at the moment!

And finally...

I had previously sown some broad beans and I'm happy to say that they are growing on quite well. The onion and shallot sets I've also planted have done well so far too. I'll be planning to sow seeds next. In preparation for that I'll be dusting off the heated propagators and window sill trays for tomatoes, chillis and aubergines to get a head start.

Most of my broad bean seeds have germinated. Looking forward to harvesting these as they are a variety that's new to me.

Keep busy but keep warm if you're going to work outdoors.

Have a lovely Christmas x