A bit of sunshine makes all the difference.

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#gdnbloggers, gardening, Spring

I’ve been enjoying the sunshine today, with temperatures up to 19°C it seems to have gone from winter to summer over the weekend.

Peas

I’ve been looking for wow moments, well I did used to work in early years. These are the moments of the year that I really get excited about, peas ready to go outside is one of them.

Sunflowers, cut flower mixed.

The first destruction of seedlings by slugs is not!

Cumin though, last week, nothing, I thought that I’d sown them too early. This week seedlings!

Crown imperials

Ah, the crown imperials, always a key, and therefore wow moment for me. They appear with big buds bursting through the soil in early spring and today they were in flower. There are quite a few in this garden so they make a good display.

One of the main highlights at the moment is all the prunus blossom out in gardens, streets and hedgerows, it looked good last week but the sunshine and blue skies made it look amazing today and humming with bees too.

The other notable new flowers out are the daffodils, en masse in the orchard and by the swimming pond.

Other notable mentions looking good today, the anemones and Brunnera but prize for most spectacular, today, goes to the frothy blossom.

Brunnera maculata

Small changes.

It is mid March, and there is an abundance of primroses and violets. They do make a good combination and good to see because, with the exception of a few days, it’s still cold and blossom is late this year.

A rare sunny lunch break.

1st chilli seedling

When I couldn’t resist the urge any longer, I sowed some chilli seeds in a homemade propagator on the windowsill. All 3 have germinated now. The peppers didn’t do anything so I have tried some aubergines instead.

This is my corn salad and rocket, overwintered in the polytunnel, the pots had some good roots so I have planted them, still in clumps, into the ground within a cold frame.

As there was no frost forecast, lettuces and other salad, under cover and a few broad beans have been planted at the pub.

With a bit of space created, I have been able to sow the spring onions, beetroot and various brassicas. Germination has happened albeit slowly.

This is the beginning of the seed sowing for the pub, in early March. There are a few more now.

Daffodils are beginning to come out and the blossom is nearly there!

I’ve held back on my successional sowing while I wait for it to warm up a bit, I may have mentioned it’s been cold! My village seed swap has gone well, I have sent out about 40 packets of seeds and I’m very proud of the sustainability of all those seeds being put to good use.

Last weeks weather included blue sky, strong winds and rain and the curious Cumulus mammatus cloud.

Cumulus mammatus clouds.

So at the moment, work is picking up and I’m feeling in control of the gardens. It won’t be long before everything starts growing fast, including weeds, and seeds and seedlings will need a lot more care. That’s is when start panicking that I don’t have enough hours in the day. I’m looking forward to it really!

It has taken me so long to write this that at the beginning of another week I have returned to work to find that the cherry plum blossom has finally burst open and the hellebores are getting better and better.

Easter 2020

It is mid April and everything is bursting into life, as it should be, but the reality for us is anything but normal. Across the whole world, countries, including the UK, are in lockdown because of the Covid19 pandemic. With a large percentage of the population confined to home, and a settled spell of fine weather those who are lucky enough to have one have been out in the garden. And I am no exception.

Looking back, the last blog was March 3rd so I’ll try and catch up a bit. This is Berberis Darwinii looking good in early March.

I have been managing to carry on gardening for most of my customers as I tend to be on my own and away from the houses anyway. Here are the daffodils at one of my larger gardens and a new garden structure which I am rather fond of.

The daffodils were followed by a fantastic show of other bulbs in the grass. Muscari, Anemone blanda, Scilla and Chionodoxa. They always are but that doesn’t stop me being excited and taking photos every year!

New Acer leaves.

It stayed cold for so long that I managed to hold off sowing seeds until the very end of March and beginning of April. But the weeds started growing so I weeded, gave  the lawn edges their first trim of the year and divided and moved a few perennials.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and it feels like it has been hot and sunny forever. The tulips are out at the pub which has temporarily morphed into a local shop. I have been sowing seeds in the greenhouse (not mine) to hopefully produce some crops that can be sold to the shop’s customers.

So far the cumin is doing well!

At home, we have moved the polytunnel  back a bit, here it is before and during the move, and put a replacement cover on because the old one was full of holes. This has created a bigger vegetable patch and honestly I have been sorting through my pots and it looks a lot better than this now.

Inside the polytunnel, I have sown most of my seeds now including the more tender vegetables like tomatoes and squashes and the half hardy annuals such as cosmos and zinnia. Dahlia seeds are inside on the window sill. The sunflowers, sown a week ago, have come up already. As you can see it is also used for storing guinea pig supplies which is not ideal.

Just the rest of the garden to do now before everything needs pricking out!

This cuckoo flower has sprung up in the lawn, quite a large patch, as if to emphasise how damp it has been, right near to the house.

Tonight it rained, which has filled up the water butt and hopefully gone down into the soil as far as the potatoes. I am so grateful to have my garden and live in such a nice place so staying hasn’t been such a chore and there is still lots more to do to keep me busy.

 

March Diary 2019.

Ladybird on overwintered parsley enjoying the spring sunshine.

Here we go with my attempt at a gardening diary.  I am making a few notes, on actual paper and on my phone, as I go along and then transferring them to here at the end of the month.  It will include gardening at home and work, mostly work this month and mostly lists of seeds!

Tuesday 4th March.

Autumn sown peas in the foreground, broad beans at the back.

Everything is growing! Pulled up the overwintered rocket to transplant the new lot in the greenhouse.  Also pricked out some into pots. Planted radishes outside!

Sowed Calvalo Nero, butternut squash, maybe, and borage to try and use up packets, bronze fennel to sell and parsley for the pub herb garden.

Saturday 9th March.

Home. Seeds- salad leaves, spring onion, giant sunflower, purple sprouting broccoli, plain parsley, dill, watercress. Put the sweet peas outside after pinching out.

Tuesday 12th March

Another list of seeds! First time I’ve grown Gypsophila. Transplanted sprouts, and had to ditch a few as I really don’t want this many.

Monday 18th/Tuesday 19th March

I keep writing ‘the peas are doing well!’ So here they are.

The radishes have survived. Planted out rocket, mass seed sowing beginning. Outside, parsnip, spring onion and winter density lettuce. Inside, 1st lot of French beans. Cornflowers outside to harden off.

Saturday 23rd March 

Planted potatoes. Some that I got at a potato day in February and some ordered online. Buying them at the potato day means I have 5 tubers of several different varieties.

Potato day at Stonham Barns

 

Planting potatoes on the allotment.

 

Tuesday 26th March

Lots more seeds including some squash and courgette in the greenhouse although it is still cold some nights. Planted out sweet peas.

The daffodils are out in the orchard.

 

Fritillary time.

 

Well that was March, I didn’t put all the lists of seeds in, in the end and it obviously doesn’t include every bit of gardening that I did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early Spring 2019

I am posting this in early March, getting towards mid March now, having intended to do a bit of a diary catch up at the end of February. That month is so short that it caught me unawares! 

So,here is a quick summary of what I have been up to and some flowery pictures of what is out now.

At the end of last year, I was given the opportunity to take over, what I have previously called, the pub garden to use as an allotment. Last year was a difficult one weather wise and I just didn’t get enough paid time to get control of it. I think that all the time that I did get there, I spent watering. I am hoping that I will get to spend more ‘free’ time there, my son has been helping me and it is looking better already.

I have some Autumn sown broad beans, too much kale and I have planted some fruit. This side is pretty much under control the other six beds not so much but I have picked my first rhubarb of the season.

In January, I started keeping a garden journal. I glanced through my previous attempts, there were several January entries for preceding years, all talking about sorting through the seed packets, then nothing else.

This year I have managed to keep a list of what I have sown, I have done this before it usually lasts until about mid April when everything is growing and I can’t keep up. I try to write notes when I have spent a bit of time or done something specific in my garden, as opposed to work.

I have also made a couple of very rough sketches of the vegetable gardens so that I have an idea where everything is supposed to go, it is subject to change!

 

The sowing has begun in the greenhouse at The Hall and in the polytunnel at home. The first lot of seedlings are up, rocket, beetroot, radish and a whole packet of very old Brussels sprouts which have all germinated.

January sown sweet peas have been pinched and put outside although I should protect them from the frost due next week. Later sweet peas are just coming up.

I am picking rocket leaves from the polytunnel, sown in the autumn but only just getting going. As soon as the weather warms up they will flower and be over very quickly.

Now for the photos of all the lovely flowers appearing now.

Sweet violets, scilla and Leucojum (snowflake).

Hellebores, narcissus and dogwood.

This week has been wet and very windy, hoping  for a better one to come with lots more gardening.

 

Pub garden 2018 – March

This will be the third year growing vegetables for The Queen at Brandeston and I am going to try and keep a monthly update, this is the first.

The edible planters at the front are not looking at their most spectacular but the primroses are flowering and the tulips that I planted in the autumn are coming up. Yes you can eat tulips!

Here is one of the tulips and a viola. I don’t seem to have much luck with the violas. I used good, big plants this time. Planted in flower, in the autumn to allow time to get established, but still something eats all the flowers before they are even out.

Out the back, one side is ready to go. There’s a bit of overwintered salad under the mesh, salsify, rhubarb, autumn sown broad beans, wild garlic and empty beds waiting for spring to hurry up.

Winter salad leaves

The broad beans have survived all the cold weather.

The rhubarb will soon be ready to harvest.

Wild garlic planted autumn 2016.

On the other side of the lavender lined pathway, there is still a bit of work to do.

Some of the beds still need to be cleared and the gravel weeded. The nearest bed is for herbs and the chives are doing well but there’s more to add. The furthest has mixed brassicas, the winter kale is coming to and end but there are a couple of broccoli just ready.

Chives ready for picking.

Purple sprouting broccoli protected by mesh.

In the greenhouse, not on site, I have planted a few seeds as I couldn’t wait any longer but I am well behind on my plan. I am now bracing myself for a big rush as soon as it warms up a bit.

In the greenhouse, one beetroot seedling so far!

Freeze – thaw

It had not been a good week for gardening. I couldn’t get out of the village because of the snow but even if I had there wasn’t much that I could have done in the gardens. The persistently low temperatures, maximum of -2°C in the day even colder at night, meant that the ground was frozen and the wind was bitter.

And then, quicker than it arrived, it had all gone, except a few random drifts. On Sunday morning, I woke up to sunshine and 7°C and had a quick tour of the garden. I was pleasantly surprised, lots of things had survived. The hellebores popped back up, the Narcisssus tete-a-tete looked just same as before their few days in the freezer and even the broad beans mostly survived.

Narcisssus tete-a-tete

Broad beans are really hardy

It will soon be time for banks of primroses, and I even found a single daffodil in flower which I didn’t know was there.

 

 

Only one real casualty and that was a cold frame made from secondary double glazing at my Monday garden. It wasn’t up to the weight of snow, so I spent Monday morning picking glass out of the strawberry patch.

The weight of the snow was too much

While the cold weather seems to have preserved the drifts of snowdrops which are still flowering it doesn’t appear to have affected the emergence of the next wave of spring. The rhubarb is shooting well and I am eagerly anticipating the scillas and wood anemones just coming up now.

Can’t wait for the first taste of rhubarb!

The continuing cold weather means that I am much later than usual sowing seeds, although I have chillies in the propagator because everyone else was doing it. I have been stuck indoors more than I would like but my bargain amaryllis bought in the January sales is keeping me going.

 

There is lots beginning to grow in the garden at the moment but the beginning of March must belong to the hellebore. A very difficult flower to photograph with it’s nodding head and oh so beautiful face pointing downwards, I must grow more in pots!

 

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I've been having trouble taking photos recently but this one I like! #helleborefoetidus

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Seeds and weeds

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

March round up

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#gdnbloggers, March

 

Daffodils in the orchard

As March draws to a close, it is still a bit chillier than I would like but things are moving on anyway.  In the borders I am still lifting and dividing perennials, trying to remember what it looks like in full bloom. I know full well that it is all going to grow but I can’t resist filling in gaps.

Peonies doing well

Alliums not so well, pesky rabbits again!

Meanwhile in the veg patch, the kale plants have survived their first week and I can’t see any holes in the fencing! I took the plunge and planted 6 different types of tomato seed in the greenhouse. They have germinated ok in there before but I have brought the chilli seeds home to do on the windowsill.

I am really excited to have some followers and likes so thank-you everyone 💚💚💚

 

Spring – at last!

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#gdnbloggers

 I was so excited when I got to work yesterday and checked in the greenhouse, all my herb seeds are coming up! I am growing these for raised beds outside a pub, together with edible flowers, all for use in the kitchen.

I sowed some in the autumn and the bronze fennel and chervil are thriving although the others haven’t germinated.  I haven’t grown seeds that need a cold spell before (angelica, violet, sweet cicely) so may need a rethink. Two weeks ago it was time for more familiar sowing and today I have thyme, dill, good king Henry,  hyssop and chives all appearing.

 Bronze fennel

Chives

Elsewhere in the veg garden, I have started my war with the rabbits by putting up some new wire where I could see holes. Also put up netting for sweet peas and tried planting out some kale plants which have got too big in the greenhouse. Can’t wait to see what has survived next week!