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