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02/27/2006
Fruit trees
Managed to get quite a lot done this weekend - cold but dry and I spent most of Saturday and Sunday in the garden.
First job was to apply a few cm of compost as a mulch to the plum and apple trees. Also removed a few weeds that were encroaching around the trees. Watered the plants in the greenhouses and put the 'desiree' maincrop potatoes I'd got from Scotsdales out to chit, also.
Spent most of the rest of Saturday tidying up the area round the patio. Really need to take it up and start again, but it's such a big job, so may do it in sections. Pruned the hedge on the right hand side, cut down all the perennials in the beds, pulled out a load of weeds, pruned the Viburnum tinus (a lot of the branches were resting on the patio and had started rooting into the concrete). Spent at least an hour just brushing up. Very pleased with the results - hasn't looked so tidy in several years. The hypertufa bowl I made last autumn was being used as a birdbath by a blackbird - fun to watch.
Got started on some seed sowing - Bruseel sprouts, lettuce, huckleberry, Eucalyptus gunnii & Coronilla glauca. Lots more to do.
On Sunday, I planted out the cheapo fruit trees that Yasmin had bought from Aldi. The Victoria plum is planted in the veg patch, in the bed next to the gooseberry bushes. The soil there is very chalky, so may not be the best spot for it. I dug over the bed, added a load of compost and planted the tree about a foot from the west-facing fence and watered. The plan is to train it as a fan - not something I've done before but I have three books which give details (all disagreeing with each other, which suggests there is no one right or wrong way). The next bed along (the Iris bed), I did the same thing with the Cherry, which is a Morello. The Apricot tree, from all the books, needs protection from frost and I didn't have a free area of south facing wall to plant it into, so put it into a large pot in the greenhouse. The info that came with the tree says it will be 12-20ft (or something like that), so can only hope the pot restricts its growth in a way that doesn't stop it fruiting. It will have to go in the unheated greenhouse, in any case, so maybe not sufficient protection either. As the tree purchase wasn't planned, had no stakes or ties, so will need to do that this week.
With some help from Alexander, I made some minor repairs to the fruit cage walls and roof. It is all looking a bit heath-robinson, but so long as it's safe and keeps the birds out. The Harrods horticultural catalogue (no connection with Mr. Fayed's shop) has some very nice metal fruit cages but almost a thousand pounds for one the right size, so I'll stick with the homemade approach for now.
Cleared some of the ivy from the long, thin strip. Noticed that one of the trees down there has died, so will need to go and take that down before it falls over. It's held up by the ivy at the moment. Was getting a bit dark for that when I saw it. Had a big tidy up of the blackberry path, too - pruned out last years fruited wood, pulled up a load of weeds (still lots of nettles and cow parsley coming from next door) and trained all the blackberry canes so the path is clear.
Planted six of the ferns I'd propagated, in the shady bed under the larch tree. Hope it's not too dry down there for them. Will have to post which ones they were at a later date, to make sure I don't forget - there's dryopteris, matteucia and a few other (but which species?)
Had a bit of a sort out of the cold frame. Some things growing well, others infested by weed. Found some snowdrops in pots, so put them into nicer pots and brought them inside - nice flowers for the table. Once again, we had sprouts, parsnips and leeks from the garden. Not many sprouts left, only two more leeks, but still a few parsnips. All have done very well this year.
Finally, took some cuttings from the rooted viburnum tinus prunings - should grow on quite easily as they already have leaves and roots.
11:10 Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: allotments4all, a4a, ceratonia, blog, apricot, coronilla
02/24/2006
Routine Maintenance
Not too much exciting stuff to add here. At the weekend, I cut back the ivy down the side of the house, also pruned the adjacent mixed hedge. Cut all the herbaceous perennials in the 'railway beds' next to the patio down to the ground and did a bit of weeding. Moved all the old roof tiles stacked on the patio down to by the shed. Haven't decided what to do with these yet - they just seem like they'll be useful for something.
Acquired two blueberry plants (Bluecrop and Goldtraube 71) and planted these in large pots of ericaceous compost. Also planted a Gaultheria procumbens in the bed that has all the other ericaceous plants. Have two of these already, but it was only 50p at B&Q because it's berries were looking a bit past it! Potted up some aconites - some to give to dad, others dug up and posted to an A4A poster who wanted some. Also potted on some of the bay trees which were in danger of getting potbound in spring. Have about 25 bay trees in pots now, plan is to start training them as standards when they grow some more. Plenty spare plants to let me learn how to do it!
On Sunday, worked in the fruit cage and veg patch. Finished tidying up the strawberries, tied in all the raspberries applied a few cm of compost everywhere and removed all weeds. Quite a satisfying result. Just need a bit of maintenance to the actual cage now. Also put some compost on some of the empty veg beds, removed some old plant material and did a bit of weeding. Cut back the crysanthemums in the veg garden. Quite a few are dead, so will probably put a few spot plants (eg lettuce or chard) in the gaps. Harvested sprouts and leeks for roast dinner.
In the week, got seeds from ready to grow - cape gooseberry, naranjilla, dwarf pomegranate and huckleberry. Looking forward to trying naranjilla for first time. Also got various kinds of potato from kind lady from A4A :-) and started these off chitting.
Bit of snow during the week and frost, too - paraffin heater on a couple of nights in the greenhouse
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02/07/2006
Beans and peas
Quick update for Sunday - Alexander & I sowed Broad beans (masterpiece green longpod) - think there were 25 seeds left in the packer, so we did them all. Then did 18 peas (meteor) - will do a few more of those in a few weeks and hopefully not have them all cropping at the same time. These were in pots in the greenhouse. Also a tray of cress (indoors) :-)
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More tidying up
Didn't get too much done this weekend - we had a visit from a 1 year old, which was more fun than chopping stuff.
Managed to give the Euphorbia a good trim - not sure which species it is, but it's approaching 5 foot high and was shading the greenhouse a fair bit. Cut out all the stems which had flowered last year and generally reduced the ize.
Tidied out the rosebed completely - it was completely covered in fallen leaves and lots of weeds. Put the leaves on the compost heap, pulled out all the weeds, did some pruning of the roses. I keep meaning to remove this bed completely, not really a fan of roses and it's in a place where the boys can potentially get cut by thorns. Need to think about what to replace it with, though. Lots of winter aconites were hiding under the fallen leaves, they look quite nice.
Then set to work on the shady bed under the larch tree. This was in pretty poor condition, with lots of weeds and will need some more planting come spring.
Went to Springfield nursery in Great Chesterford, but didn't buy anything - was on the lookout for some blueberries (they had only 1 variety, at £9.99 each, but you need 2 varieties for pollination). Also want Cape Goosebery seeds, but they had none.
Noticed that Tesco were selling winter jasmine plants for a fiver - I chucked half a dozen of them away last week!
Anyway, our local zoo was selling Tapir & Zebra manure, bagged up. They'll deliver trailerloads locally. Was thinking of posting on allotments4all to see if anyone knew how long Tapir manure had to be composted for before use....
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02/03/2006
Boys' seed sowing
Alexander was given a few packets of seeds for his birthday and as I took the morning off to look after him & jamie while they were off school sick, we sowed them. So, two pots of Mimosa nervosa (the plant that curls up when you touch it, which we've grown before) and two pots of the insectivorous sundew (Drosera). These will have to live indoors.
The boys didn't want to stop there, so they each sowed a couple of Pumpkins (hundredweight is the variety, i think), sunflowers (giant, single says the packet) and a pot each of tomatoes (couldn't work out what variety the packet is). Possibly a bit early for sowing these as they won't be able to go outside until April/May, but I may do some spares in a few weeks, just in case. He's also got cress, but we couldn't see the packet, plus a couple of things which will need to be sown in situ in March.
Trevor at work had a packet of Chilli seeds - 'De Cayenne', so I sowed some of those also. We also picked sprouts, leeks and parsnips, plus cleaned up the remains of last year's carrots to feed to the guinea pigs
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