Ceratonia

Cold this weekend - we had a bit of snow when I was out working on Saturday. Put some stakes up for the newly planted plum and cherry trees. Had a good tidy-up of the herbs - pruned the bay tree back into shape, swept up all the fallen bay leaves, cut back the rosemary, sage and lemon balm. Stuck a few of the rosemary prunings into my cuttings bed - they'll probably root when it warms up a bit. The rest went to be eaten by the Guinea Pigs - they like rosemary.  The bay tree was attacked by bay suckers (Trioza alacris)  last year, although they don't seem to have found the smaller bay trees in pots yet. I'm hoping that cleaning up the fallen leaves will be one step towards controlling them this year. Also decided to divide one of the lemon thyme plants - chopped into ten pieces, each of which had some roots, so shouldn't take too long to recover.

Started trimming one of the hedges, but quickly got bored - will take several days to do all of the hedges, I think.  Pruned the conifer, whose name I do not know, which is growing on the edge of the patio - just needed a little tidy to keep its shape.

Potted up the blueberries - 3 for £10 from Scottsdales - Julia, Augusta & something sounding like September. Will need to look for more info on these varieties.

Started on the indoor seed sowing. Basil, lemon basil, naranjilla (Solanum quitoense) dwarf physalis (cape gooseberry), some french marigolds, cosmos and a couple of tomatoes (garden pearl and a yellow one whose name escapes me)

Wasn't feeling too good on Sunday, so not much done. Our new porch entrance was completed, so removed various panes of glass, dismembered front door and started work on the new path to the door - it needs to be lower because the old path was higher than the door frame, causing it to rot. Removed the previous pavers and found they were laid on top of concrete. And the retaining wall for the bed with the holly trees was built on top of the pavers. It's a mess. Have kept some of the smaller panes of glass, as they may come in handy for covering seed trays etc.

Have noted the names of ferns planted out last week, so will record them here for future reference

TDryopteris erythrosora

Dryopteris affinis crispa gracilis

Polypodium vulgare

Phyllitis cristatum

Polystichum tsussimense

Dryopteris affinis cristata 'The King'

One final note - in spite of it being freezing cold (like 4 degrees max), the boys decided to get the tent and paddling pool out. Alexander was out in his vest, while Jamie had his UV protective summer thing on. I have reached the age where I can feel cold looking at them....

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.

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