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04/19/2006
Easter Eggs
Got a fair bit done in the garden over the easter weekend.
Started off by having a good tidy of the front garden - weeded the borders, cut the lawn, brushed the paths, chopped various perennials back and divided and replanted a couple of them. Lightly pruned the tree peony, which had a couple of branches which needed taking out. Also took all the non-variegated shoots out of the variegated ivy which is growing up the telegraph pole. Tulips and daffodils and various other bulbs in flower. Made a start on trimming the conifer hedge, but got bored part way through. Still got the beech hedge on the other side to do, but this is full of birds, so may have to wait now.
Tided up the winter jasmines in the back garden, which have finished flowering. Also did the 'insect' bed - cleared out all of the fallen leaves & weeds and cut the perennials down. Certainly plenty of insects about - lots of ladybirds, some bees and butterflies too. Had a bit of a tidy up in the boys den and trained in the brambles slightly. Lots of cow parsley and nettles growing round there. Pulled up the cow parsley - will leave the nettles for a bit for wildlife purposes.
Had a quick weed of some of the vegetable beds and in the fruit cage. No sign of any bindweed so far - fingers crossed. First asparagus shoots - at least 2 weeks earlier than normal. Still a few parsnips left, which have started growing again. With Alexander, sowed carrots, swiss chard & mexican hat flowers.
Partial cut of the back lawn - got fed up after half an hour or so. Was diverted to making a new floor to the guinea pigs hutch - increased their living area by putting in a second floor and a ramp leading up to it, for them to use as a sleeping area. Seems quite well received.
Converted Alexander's little patch into a tunnel, constructed from canes and lengths of old hosepipe. Tied plantpots to all cane ends in an attempt to protect eyes. The plan is to grow runner beans to cover the tunnel. A4A posters have suggested climbing beans, peas, tomatoes, squashes, cucumbers and nasturtiums as other possibiliities.
Lots of stuff germinated now; will be spending the next couple of weeks pricking things out, I think.
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04/11/2006
Embroidery?
Not that kind of sewing.
Very little garden time at the weekend - did manage to complete the paving near the front door and a bit of tidying in the front garden, though.
Used a spare half hour to sow some more lettuce, some parsley and some more broad beans (Bunyard's exhibition). Also did outdoor cucumbers (marketmore) - sown indoors. Also two kinds of pea - Reuzensuiker (mangetout) and sugar bon (sugar snap).
Quite a lot of things have germinated and need to be pricked out now - artichokes, poppies, eucalyptus, tomatoes, sprouts, for example. Have to start thinking about where to fit everything in, too.
Am toying with the idea of converting the boys' garden into a runner bean & mangetout tunnel - make a tunnel using bamboo canes and old lengths of hose and then let the runner beans cover it - imagine the boys would like sitting inside there (and they could pick the beans each day, too!)
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04/05/2006
Lots and lots of seeds
Well, stung into action by seeing Liesbeth's windowsills, I have spent a couple of hours sowing all of the seeds I have, except those which specifically say to sow in situ, or not to sow in April! No special attention, or following of packet instructions - just direct into pots or trays in each case. They're more likely to grow in wet soil than in the packet!
So, for the veg garden (with some help from the boys, as these were mostly things with nice big seeds to handle), we did the following - all indoors:
Butternut 'ponca'
Dwarf French Bean 'Royalty' (the purple one)
Dwarf French Bean 'Sungold' (the yellow one) - had these packets 3-4 years, so we'll see what happens.
Runner bean 'Prizetaker'
Sunflower 'Giant Single'
Watermelon 'Sugar baby' - no previous success with this - more water seems to be the key.
Pumpkin 'Jack-o-lantern' - for halloween
Sweetcorn 'Kelvedon glory'
Nasturtium 'Gleam hybrids' - blackfly attractors
Courgette 'All green bush'
Dill (organic - from Alan Romans)
Plus (outdoor) some more 'meteor' peas and some zinnias for cutting.
Then, turning to the non-edible part of the garden, I had around 50 packets of seeds from various sources.
Achillea millefolium 'Summer pastels', Reseda odorota grandiflora, Deschampsia cespitosa, Carex comans, Armeria pseudoarmeria 'Joystick' lilac shades, Zaluzianskya capensis 'Midnight Candy', Carex testacea, Dianthus superbus var speciosus, Matthiola bicornis, Agastache 'Liquorice Blue', Verbena bonariensis, Reseda luteola, Pulsatilla vulgaris, Polemonium caeruleum, Campanula lactiflora, Pulsatilla zimmermannii, Asclepias incarnata, Verbascum olympiacum, Oenothera biennis, Lychnis chalcedonica, Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii, Nicandra physalodes, Amaranthus tricolor, Stipa capillata, Phormium tenax, Mahonia japonica, Physostegia virginia, Dodonaea viscosa, Arthropodium cirratum, Eucalyptus coccifera, Leptospermum scoparium, Dianthus barbatus, Eccremocarpus scaber (a nice climber - had one of these from dad last year), Callistemon citrinus (have a greenhouse full of these already), Callistemon rugulosus, Sollya heterophylla, Amaranthus caudatus and Festuca glauca.
Other than the fact that we had a couple of frosty nights (and I left the cassia out one night - it has dropped all its leaves in protest), not much else to record. Two new guinea pigs from the dozens at the animal rescue centre, too.
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04/03/2006
Sweet peas are made of this
Tppical spring day on Saturday, bright sunshine, heavy showers, quite windy. Made a start on planting stuff out. Bit risky because there is a frost forecast for Monday, but I need the space indoors now, so some things will have to take their chances.
Tidied up the border behind the twisted hazel tree, which was full of couch and n
o doubt will be again soon. Planted six sweet peas up against the canes which had the convolvulus tricolor last year. Gave the penstemons a little trim at the same time - they have overwintered well - I thought they may not be hardy. Also planted out various narcissii that had been in the house and which had finished flowering - they'll go well under the hazel tree. Potted up some hyacinths and tulips that were in flower and took them inside - looking very nice. Potted up some more winter aconites, too, lots of them in the wrong place!
Also put some sweet peas in the veg patch, growing up a wigwam. They've been outside for a couple of weeks, so should've hardened off a bit. There are still a few spares should anything go wrong. Planted out the broad beans and peas also and constructed a nice forest of pea sticks from the hazel prunings.
Planted out the remaining potatoes (Sarpo Mira or Axona, not sure which) and Desiree (red maincrop). Pulled up the sprouts, fed the tops to the guinea pig and disposed of the stems. Read somewhere that having a few weeks with no brassicas in the garden helps break the lifecycle of brassica pests. Not sure that will help much given that we are surrounded by farmers growing rapeseed. Checked on a few of the Dahlias, too, which I left in the ground during the winter. They look OK - no sign of frost damage or rotting.
Potted on the tomatoes, chilli peppers and aubergines into bigger pots, also a couple of pumpkins. Realised I have dozens of packets of seed to sow - need to get cracking. Globe artichokes have germinated, as have many of the other seeds, so they will need some attention, too.
Was extremely impressed on visiting Liesbeth's house (she is the chairperson of her local allotment society) to see that she has her window-sills, small greenhouse and patio covered in hundreds of pots of different seedlings - not too many of each. She also produced a wonderful meal, with literally a dozen or more different things from the allotment - no hungry gap there!
To finish, a picture of the tulip bed, used for cut flowers in the house at this time of year.
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