Ceratonia

Seeds and stuff

2007-03-01T14:34:03+00:00

Spent a few hours on Sunday tidying up the patio area while Jamie & his friend were on the trampoline. Even an afternoon wasn't enough to sweep up the mess, pull out all the weeds, prune the climbing rose on the house, sort out the fig tree etc. The saponaria is particularly vexing - left to its own devices I think it will in a few years destroy the patio from below... Took a nice photo of a clump of violets in flower. About 10 barrowloads of stuff to the compost heap. A lot of green figs in there. I find they compost quite slowly unless you cut them open (or in half).

Started chitting potatoes, in the greenhouse. Can't remember which varieties. Only two this year - a salad first early and a maincrop, 10 of each.

Made a start on the seeds, too. First up is 8ft high perennial, Eremurus robustus, which I really liked at Hyde Hall.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/WhatsOn/gardens/hydehall/archive/hydehallpomjun.asp

These will probably need to go in the fridge for a few weeks at some point.

Also sowed Spring Onion (White Lisbon) and Leek (Musselburgh) in trays, in the greenhouse. Tomatoes (gartenperle and black russian) in the house, along with Palmarosa, (Cymbopogon martinii var. motia) a rose-scented lemongrass relative from Nepal. Calabrese in modules in the greenhouse and some sweet peas in deep pots. Broad beans and lettuce are next on the list.

Weekend update

2007-02-23T17:13:14+00:00

Not too much happening in the garden at the moment, with my chief helper stuck inside with a broken leg. Although he did come out for a spell in the wheelchair and managed to spot a squirrel (not common visitors to us, in spite of all the nut trees). Had a good tidy of the front garden last weekend. Swept up all the fallen leaves, brushed paths, removed moss & squished crab apples on driveway etc.

Did some pruning of the shrubs & trees - cut back the pyracantha (ouch), buddleia, lilac, crab apple & holly. Had a bit of a go at the Beech hedge, but there are already nesting birds (in mid-Feb?) so that will have to wait for the autumn.

Weeded the various flower beds and underneath the shrubs. Lots of holly & cotoneaster seedlings, not so many annual weeds. Cut back the ferns and removed all the dead stuff from perennials and generally tidied up.

Plenty of things in flower in the front garden- crocuses, hellebores & snowdrops making a nice display by the front door. Hyacinths & muscari will be out soon with the first of the daffs & tulips not far behind.

Did my seed order this week; doing much less than last couple of years. A few things I couldn't resist from Chiltern Seeds.

http://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/

but all of the veg order came from Alan Romans, who seems to be busy visiting potato days round the country at the moment

http://www.alanromans.com/

Took quite a few photos - will post some of them up here sometime.

Digging Daphne - sounds like scooby doo?

2007-02-01T17:18:41+00:00

Nice sunny day, not too cold, managed to get a couple of hours in the garden. Dug out the two dead Daphnes; a fairly easy job as there wasn't much of a root system left. Main difficulty was not disturbing the cyclamen growing round them too much. Not sure what the replacments will be.

Also had a go in the fruit cage - pulled up plenty of weeds and hacked back the brambles coming from next door. Also pruned the redcurrant, whitecurrant, blackcurrant and jostaberry and cut back most of the raspberries (didn't quite finish before it was time to go in and cook tea). Not ideal timing for pruning this fruit, but glad it's done. Also added some compost to some of the veg beds.

First new flowers

2007-01-16T14:33:58+00:00

First snowdrops and some fairly early winter aconites were in flower on Saturday. Not much gardening done, but I did do some pruning of the fig tree to get it a bit more under control; still more to do, though. Also pruned the ivy down the side of the house, with some help from Alex. From the garden, we are eating brussel sprouts, chard, parsnips and beetroot (the crop from the summer that I hadn't used up yet - still perfectly edible, even the large ones are not woody yet).

Horse Manure

2007-01-04T16:15:30+00:00

Got a few (very heavy) bags of horse manure today; mixed in with what looks like it was wood shavings and straw. It's partially rotted down, but will mix it into the compost heap rather than applying it direct. Not sure of the name of the farm - it's on Pampisford road in Abington, opposite from the hildersham crossroads.

Also sowed the first seeds of the year - self-collected chive seeds, some palm seeds collected by someone on holiday in Nice (will try to identify species later) and a few heirloom type sweet peas (ie the old-fashioned small-flowered very fragrant ones).

Also pulled up the remaining beetroot; they're a bit woody in some cases, but still edible.

End of year update

2007-01-02T14:18:29+00:00

Well, the blog (like the garden) has been neglected for a few months. Managed to get out in the garden on Sunday for a few hours - windy but a pleasant cold sunny day.

Pulled up the last of the carrots - these will be fed to the guinea pigs I reckon; had a few sprouts and parsnips, too, plus lots of parsley.

Pruned the crab apple trees; both had a lot of vigorous stuff growing up from the roots; I assume from below the graft. Also pruned the gooseberries and took a little off the two minarette apple trees - just took out a couple of crossing branches. Had a general tidy-up and weed of the veg patches - put the old asparagus fern on the compost heap, weeded around the onions & garlic planted in the autumn, cut down the chrysanths, put some compost over the top of the dahlia tubers, which I don't bother to dig-up in the winter any more. Thanks to Alex for helping! There is a great deal of tidying up to be done before spring, though. Yasmin's friend Kate has just taken on an allotment; she has three kids under 5; if she can manage it, so can I!

Summer fair

2006-06-26T15:10:06+01:00

It was the infants school summer fair on Saturday and I ran the plant stall - sold 100+ of my spare plants. Anything in flower went very quickly. Penstemons were very popular and also sold out straightaway, as did the few shrubs I had. Sold a fair number of ornamental grasses too. Herbs didn't sell so well (maybe because I had fairly common ones like lemon balm, mint, thyme etc) - in previous years they have been popular.

Lessons for next year, I think are to have more things in flower (if I was growing specifically for this fair, I would go for things like Campanula, delphiniums, lupins, Alchemilla mollis etc) and also more things for kids to buy - seemed to be a lot of children who spent 50p on a plant for mum or dad - sold a lot of catmint that way!

At home, it's mostly just a job of keeping on top of weeding and harvesting. At the moment, we have dahlias & sweet peas for the house, although Yasmin is cutting a lot of Californian poppies too. We're eating strawberries & raspberries every day, but gooseberry and first of redcurrants available too. Have used elderflower for sorbet a couple of times. Lots of veg from the garden, too - new potatoes, broad beans, peas, swiss chard, lettuce, radish eaten from the garden yesterday. Onions & garlic ready very soon - just need to dry out a bit. First Courgettes will be ready in a day or two, as well.

Last of the seedlings

2006-06-06T15:50:00+01:00

Didn't get a huge amount of time this weekend. Managed to plant out/pot up the remaining seedlings, so things like stocks, amaranthus and poppies planted out around the garden. Earthed up the potatoes a bit. Reckon we'll have a great crop this year - lots of rain in May and now plenty of sunshine too.

Sowed the florence fennel, some more basil and swedes and three Chinese vegetables from a poster on A4A. Still a little bit of space in the garden, too. Picked first strawberries. Yum. Picked some gooseberries too - made them into a sauce and served with fried goats cheese slices. Very posh! Lettuce, lots of swiss chard, asparagus, radishes and rhubarb all from the garden at the moment.

David visited from Portugal and brought a large hammock from Brazil. It's getting on for 10ft long, so will have to think hard about where in the garden to put it. Fixed the boys railway truck (and oiled the wheels) and brushed all the leaves off the track - it goes pretty fast now. Spray painted all the metal to a gold colour; looks pretty good, too.

Busy busy busy

2006-05-26T15:10:00+01:00

Rather a busy few weeks, with not enough time in the garden.

Looks like last frost this year was 3rd week in April.

Current garden status is as follows.

Potatoes growing nicely and started earthing up. Sweetcorn, runner beans, french beans, broad beans, peas (normal, mangetout, sugarsnap), cucumber, courgette,butternut squash, pumpkin, beetroot, carrot, parsnip, radish, globe artichoke, lettuce, chard all growing nicely, outside. Hundreds of plants in pots (far too many) to be sold at school fair. Lots of flowering plants put out into borders (from memory - cosmos, ageratum, antirrhinum, marigolds, verbena, nasturtiums) Tomatoes, chili peppers, aubergines, huckleberry all doing OK indoors. Looks like a big crop on the redcurrant and blueberries is on the way. Strawberries, blackcurrant, apples and pears all blossomed ok and were not troubled by frost.

Other vaguely garden related update is that we got a new trampoline over may bank holiday, which meant re-arranging stuff on the lawn. Also now up to 4 guinea pigs - Joe, Nibbles, Woody and the newcomer who is Buzz (related to Woody - brother although maybe not from same litter?).

Cropping at the moment we have radish, lettuce & chard. Also rhubarb and asparagus. Gooseberries imminent, with recent heavy rain. Irises for cut flowers - am tempted to get rid of these. Easy to grow but don't really justify the space.

Fennel & swede and various successional crops still to do. No sign of any leek seedlings - seems to be the only failure so far. Lots of weeding to be done (bindweed has made a come back through the back hedge). Quite a lot of hedge trimming needed before thinking about bigger longer-term jobs like Alex's den, the thin strip, re-paving patio.

Easter Eggs

2006-04-19T16:17:01+01:00

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.