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

Autumn harvests

 Autumn has crept up rather more quickly than I hoped it would and even though I've harvested lots of fruit and veg, there's still plenty to gather and plenty more jobs to do! There's tender plants to cover or move indoors, as well as all the jobs I've listed below.

Harvests:

There's fruit to be picked now. There's no more blackberries but I do have Chilean guava and sloes. Unfortunately, there isn't any fruit on my damson tree, so I can't make any tasty damson tarts. The Chilean guava is a hit with the family though - I like a handful with some plain yogurt in the morning. There's only three plants on my patio but they have produced a lot of fruit so I'm hoping I'll be able to propagate these three so I can double my yield next year. 

Chilean Guava - irresistible to everyone in my family!

Sloes can be picked now. We have some in the garden, and have picked enough to make about 1.5ltrs of sloe gin. This is always a Christmas treat for the family!

Sloes on the branches. The frost has touched them, which is the better time to pick them for gin.

500g picked for 1.5ltrs of gin. Yummy!

Pumpkins have been harvested too and I've made some soup out of one. They are such a versatile vegetable - I love them in a sweet or savoury pie or just roasted too. They store very well, which is an advantage as I don't ever have the time to do something with all of them in one go. I can just pop them somewhere cool and dry. 

OK, so I lost one pumpkin as my daughter wanted to carve one for Halloween, but I still have about five to serve up in various dishes.

No dig:

I'm planning to improve the soil for the veg patch next year and have been reading up on the no dig theory. To me it makes sense and I'm hoping that it will help produce a bigger yield in everything I grow. It should introduce more nutrients in the soil and make it a better texture, thus making weeds easier to pull out. I've been storing a lot of cardboard and been composting as much as possible although I find myself limited on manure at the moment. I'll be preparing the soil over the next few weeks and hopefully it'll be of a good condition by March/April time next year.

Worm, worms, worms:

The one thing that has been a great success this year is the free wormery I got locally (from someone who didn't want theirs). It's produced a lot of worm tea and currently I have twelve litres of the stuff in storage. I do check it regularly and make sure I empty it of the liquid content at least once a week. There were some modifications that it needed though - I have to add a net curtain to try and stop the worms from falling in to the bottom shelf as they would drown. The tap also needed a little filter as it got clogged quite often. Now it's a dream and I would be without it! It's become another job for me as next year I want to build more wormeries out of things I have at home.

Sowing for next year:

Well, despite all the work I've created for myself already, I've also sown some broad beans, onion and shallot sets, plus get some garlic in. This time I've purchased the following varieties:

Broad Beans Superaguadulce

Onions Electric and Radar

Shallots Jermor

Garlic Topadrome

I'll be producing a video very soon on sowing the broad beans, onions and shallots, so watch out for this! 

Wildlife: 

This time of year we all tend to tidy up out gardens. While this is something I do, I still make sure that I leave some quiet corners for wildlife. There needs to be places were insects and mammals can hibernate so there's a few hiding places right at the back of my garden, away from where I'm working to avoid disturbing anything. It's a good time to put out feed for the birds. I have quite a few species visit my garden and they have a mix of berries as well as the suet and seeds on offer from feeders. I also regularly clean and top up water for the birds and any visiting mammals (we do get mice, foxes and badgers). Mrs R, the local robin, likes to visit me for a handful of meal worms but she also accompanies me when I'm working on my no dig patch and it's always lovely seeing her.

Possibly the worst video I've ever taken of any bird. This is Mrs R helping herself to a mealworm. Blink and you'll miss her!

Keep prepping your gardens! Till next time. 

Harvesting already

It's been a funny year for weather so far - very dry early on and now quite wet, it's hardly a surprise that a lot of things haven't done very well so far or are just growing too slow. There are, despite this, lots of successes too. My flower garden is growing very well (although somewhat munched by slugs and snails) and I've managed to start harvesting. There's been lots of chores to do in the garden, which have kept me busy and I'm happy that things are moving on.

Edible wall

This year I decided to use some old pallets that I got from local builders to make a wall where my pergola once stood. Severe weather took down my neighbour's fence and did a bit of damage to our garden, the cherry tree getting the worst of it, so I wanted to upgrade that side to include an edible wall as I have a grape vine and the not so very well cherry tree. 

It was an easy construction - a bit of paint and some liner and with my husband's help to create feet so that it would stand, I planted nasturtiums, strawberries and cucamelons to create a colourful, trailing mix. 

Coming along quite nicely. I originally chose a blue paint, which I hated so immediately swapped to this cool, green, which I think fits better.

Filling out: The nasturtiums have filled out the best, with the strawberries ripening up. The cucamelons have just started to grow on a bit more but it'll be a few weeks before we see any fruit on those.

Harvest

I was kept busy by harvesting rhubarb, garlic and broad beans today. My rhubarb normally does very well, but it didn't seem to like this year and I've not managed to pick much there. The broad beans were a different story - I've only just started picking them today. There's already 400g in the freezer and there's still plenty more to be picked over the next 2-3 weeks. This year the garlic has done well too. We seem to have enough for about 9 months of the year, so I should really take note and grow more as we love using garlic in our home cooking!

Garlic drying out in the sun before I tie them up and store them.

The broad beans take a long time removing from their pods but well worth it when you eat them!

Just some of the broad beans and rhubarb I harvested today.

Moving on

Now that my broad beans are coming to an end and the garlic bed is clear, I will need to find something to fill those gaps. A couple of months ago I sowed French beans and out of about 30 seeds, I only got one plant! The reason behind the poor germination is unknown but I can guess that maybe it could be because the packets I used (I tried 2 varieties) were getting old. So, I purchased 2 more varieties: Ferrari and Polka, which are dwarf French beans. Fingers crossed these will germinate this time as my family love French beans.

I've also been looking at making the garden more self sufficient in itself, examining the science behind soil, invertebrates and plant nutrition and I'll share my ideas and work in my next blog. Until then, keep enjoying you outdoor space!