muddygardenerblog

~ My gardening year at work and home.

muddygardenerblog

Monthly Archives: March 2017

Seeds and weeds

24 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by muddygardenerblog in March, Pub garden, Vegetables

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I started this a few days ago talking about the biting wind, well it hasn’t gone away and the wind chill factor has been very apparent. Bit of a shock after last week.  But gardens still grow and work must be done so a good place to be was in the greenhouse.

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Potted a week ago.

Filled with enthusiasm after seeing how much the first potted up dahlia had grown in a week,  I planted up a load more and even divided some clumps for the first time ever.  I’m hoping for lots of dahlias in the borders and some for the edible planters too.

With things doing well, and the first rather early french bean, all that was required was a bit of watering and then outdoor jobs to be tackled.

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The thistles are back!

With the damp soil and warm sun, everything is growing and that includes the weeds. Having let the rose beds get completely out of hand last year and the thistles seed, big mistake, I am determined not to do the same again. This is one week’s regrowth, a season of regular hoeing beckons.  I have also started the annual battle with ground elder this week and admired the tenacity of bindweed as it’s tendrils emerge from the ground.

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Bindweed tendrils

In the pub vegetable garden, the purple sprouting broccoli is finally sprouting and I got to work sowing the seeds which I ran out of time for last week. In the leaf bed, spinach, rainbow beet (roots deemed not tasty enough) and rocket. In the roots bed, the cloche survived Warming up but the radishes were chomped by slugs. Nothing up yet but more radishes, baby leeks and spring onions sown. In the herb bed sweet fennel, flat leaved parsley and chervil.

In the foraging bed, the wild garlic is up for a small crop this first year.

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The weather forecast for the weekend is good so I am hoping to get out in my own garden, more seed news to follow but meanwhile look at these peonies!

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Warming up

15 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by muddygardenerblog in Uncategorized

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IMG_20170309_220915It’s beginning to feel like spring this week although I am refusing to use the past tense of spring word this year, it’s too obvious! The blossom is out and the trees are positively humming as the bees make the most of the warm weather.

DSCN0352With my early sowings in the greenhouse doing well, radishes, brukale, cavalo, cornflowers, beetroot and pak choi all up, it is time to start thinking about the outside beds.  I am planning do more direct sowing this year to try and reduce the amount of crazy watering and loss of plants when they don’t get watered. On the other hand, I like starting things off under cover as protection from slugs/rabbits/pigeons/frost (but mostly slugs) so I can only wait and see how it goes.

I think that it was Alan Titchmarsh who said that the soil was ready for planting when it felt warm on your behind, well anyway, it felt warm to my bare hand and that will do for me. I have started cautiously with first early potatoes and onion sets, neither planned but when you are given something for free you plant them even if they are not on the list. I also did one row of seeds divided into thirds, radish, beetroot and perpetual spinach.

At the pub garden, I added some cornflower seedlings to the edible flower planters. I have some self sown and overwintered in another garden so I know that they are pretty tough. I have taken a bit of a risk and planted radish seedlings under a poundland cloche which I don’t have a lot of faith in but I have some spares so you never know.

DSCN0372I also managed a row of rainbow carrots and another of beetroot cylindrica before I ran out of time. The rest will have to wait until next week. If we had a little bit of rain to go with this warm weather it would be perfect!

 

 

Gardening Queen, what’s ready now?

05 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by muddygardenerblog in Uncategorized

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It is early March and I am looking forward to a second year tending the gardens of The Queen at Brandeston in rural Suffolk. See the efforts of my first year in an earlier blog Gardening Queen! Lots of vegetable beds out the back, beautiful big planters at the front filled with edible flowers, a collection of mints and strawberries. Oh and a flower border and vines too!

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Sorrel leaves ready for picking

 

In the garden now, things are beginning to move slowly. As you can see above, the sorrel has overwintered well. The rhubarb which has been covered with an upturned dustbin, clean of course, for a few weeks looks like this:

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Which is great, could just do with a bit more!

The perennial edible Alliums are showing signs of life and the chives are romping away, definitely ready to be used.

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Chives

The primroses are flowering in the edible flower planters, the rosemary  has had a severe prune to keep it in check and other things are coming up but not ready to harvest yet.

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Keeping up with the plan so far, in the off site greenhouse I have already sown quite a lot of seeds and things are progressing. If everything grows there should be some surplus plants to sell too.

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Beetroot seedling with the seed still attached

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