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!