Finding motivation

Hellebores in the sunshine.

I have been struggling to get motivated in the garden this year, it’s not been the weather, although the last few days with two storms have been pretty grim. In January we had quite a bit of sunshine and some nice crisp days with lots of beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Sunset

I have been busy being creative for my customers with new borders and new vistas but my garden hasn’t changed and I have only ordered my seeds for the allotment today. Unfortunately my polytunnel blew over in storm Eunice so I don’t have anywhere to sow them yet, but it’s a start.

New vista so you can see across the two borders from the top of the steps, I’ll come back to this another time.

Before

I have cleared this bed to create a herb garden near the kitchen door.

I despair when I look at my own patch, there is so much to do, but today I sowed some vegetable seeds in a customer’s, only slightly broken, greenhouse and did a bit more to the allotment.

Strawberry runners growing in the gravel.

I have decided to dig up my strawberry bed because strawberry plants don’t really have a very long productive life and they are really diseased as you can see. They came up more easily than I had expected as it turns out they are also suffering with vine weevil grubs eating the roots. I will replace with some new stock somewhere else, probably not as many.

Compost heap

Lines of compost, dug soil and old strawberry plants.

One of my many jobs to do is make compost bins but meanwhile I am combining digging over and turning the compost pile and topping up the raised bed with the good stuff.

There was even a bit of sunshine today!

It’s getting lighter – end Feb 21

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gardening, seedswap, snow, Spring, Vegetables

That’s what we are all saying at the moment! The days are really drawing out, I was outside until past 5.00 at the weekend, and sunset is after 17.20.

Berberis in the supermarket carpark, while I was queuing to get in.

Since the last post, we have had the predicted cold snap. Lots of snow, drifts, icicles, bitterly cold wind and near or below freezing temperatures for a week. We were snowed in for a couple of days and I couldn’t work for the whole week. Really it was nothing compared to countries that have proper cold winter with snow for much longer but I did get fed up with being cold.

Snowy pictures.

And then just like that, it got warmer and melted, leaving everywhere wet again. But things are looking up, I got given some garlic bulbs that hadn’t sold so I have planted some in pots to use as leaves, some in the garden and some at the pub garden. They are not proper treated bulbs for planting but it’s worth a try.

And my seed potatoes arrived from Pennards Plants . I usually go to my local potato day and have great fun choosing lots of different varieties but it isn’t on this year. Pennards do have a good selection, it just doesn’t have the same buzz as a gathering of lots of people all interested in buying and selling potatoes and other horticultural supplies.

I always grow Charlotte as that’s my name, there are some more underneath, some are for the pub.

I won’t be planting them until at least April so I will have to keep them cool, I don’t do chitting but they may sprout a bit anyway by then.

Then this weekend, it got a lot warmer, up to 13°C. It felt properly spring like although we mustn’t get too excited, there are probably many more cold and grey days to come. Nevertheless I went grocery shopping and came back with dahlia corms, something else which will have to wait, and peonies in those boxes which are usually full of shrivelled up plants. This time I got lucky, bits of peony roots just starting to grow which I have potted up and put in the polytunnel. No pictures but I might go and get some more while they are still in good condition.

Seed swap ready to go.

The other thing I have been doing, with the new season in mind, is creating a village seed swap. We are only a small village so it has been easy enough to gather the seeds, make a list, sent out on the village email, and now I am starting to distribute seeds to people that want them. I am charging a small amount, 20p -50p per packet in aid of the woodland see the blog here, if there are no swaps, but it is really to promote sustainability rather than make money. Next year a proper event hopefully.

The salad in the polytunnel survived the snow and I have had the first picking of mustard wasabi leaves.

The broad beans went back inside for the cold snap and are mostly ok.

The overwintering peas have been a failure, this was even before the cold.

The flower seeds have also mostly grown well and I have started pricking out Ammi. I have rather a lot.

The hellebores have popped back up

Always an exciting moment, the re-appearance of the crown imperials. There was no sign of them last week.

It has been so nice to have some warmer weather, just to have a few less layers on and get the washing on the line. There will be a few more frosty nights to look out for but there is hope for summer and getting out and about again

Still January – 2021

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January

This picture of of my vegetable garden planning was shown on BBC Look East!

It seems to have been a long month, we’ve had lots of rain, snow, fog and more recently, Storm Christoph. I have had a few more days off since the last blog post, due to the weather rather than the pandemic. Today was a beautiful sunny day but I was at home because Friday’s garden is still flooded.

Snow in the back field a week ago.

Since the last post I have been rose pruning and general tidying of the borders, trying to make the best of the emerging spring flowers.

Weeded and compost added, ready for spring.

I have also started spreading a nice thick layer of muck on my vegetable beds at the pub.

Ready for the vegetable beds.

The rectangular planter has a good crop of wasabi mustard, not thinned, the round pots are my newly transplanted salad leaves.

Salad leaves in the polytunnel.

In the polytunnel, I have transplanted my salad leaves, sown in the autumn. Winter lettuce, corn salad, rocket and beetroot, for the red leaves. Not ideal when it is going to be frosty but they were getting too big and starting to rot off.

The snowdrops came out!

At home today so no excuse for not getting on with my own garden. Always first is to clean out the animals. I can’t let the chickens out of their run at the moment so they like to get in on the action.

As soon as I take the side off to clean out the hen house they are in to have a look.

Beautiful blues skies and I found ladybirds on the yucca as I was cutting off the dead flowers.

I have made a start on my, rather neglected, front garden.

Mr Robin at the top of a tall conifer, singing to the moon.

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First time flower patch

Nigella Persian Jewels

This year, I finally grew myself a cut flower patch, something I have wanted to have a go at for a while. It’s in one of the beds at my allotment garden.

It actually started in September 2019 with an offer of a hardy annual collection of seeds, suitable for autumn sowing, from Ben at Higgledy Garden .

I managed to direct sow all the seeds while the soil was still warm and they germinated quickly, some better than others.

October 2019, the seedlings are just visible coming up between the canes.

So the seedlings overwintered, with a bit of weed hoeing in between, but not changing much until the weather got warmer. I laid the canes on the ground so that I would know where to expect the lines of seedlings to come up, and so I could tell if they didn’t!

This is the plot in March, the nigella and escholtzia, Californian poppies, at the front and big Phacelia seedlings at the back.

At this point, I should have thinned out the rather crowded seedlings but it’s also the time of year when the rest of the veg patch and all my other gardens are springing into life. I was probably busy trying to prepare beds, sow seeds and control weeds, anyway, I didn’t get round to it before they were too big to transplant.

April, dahlia tubers waiting to be planted.

Fast forward to early June and we have flowers ready for picking! Lots of Nigella, Californian poppies and the wonderful smelling Phacelia. Also cornflowers and a few Calendula, pot marigolds.

I really enjoyed picking posies to give to people.

Nigella Oxford Blue

Calendula ice maiden, with the orange Californian poppies, Escholtzia, and a very few larkspur.

By August the flowers are fading a bit but I am still picking cornflowers, marigolds and Nigella seedheads. The yellow are Anthemis, a perennial I added, and the greenery from around the plot. The pink is Godetia which turned out to be big sturdy plants. I also had lots of self seeded Verbena bonariensis which was useful.

September, Antirhinum sown later and dahlias at the back.

October, lots and lots of self seeding.

October, and the dahlias are still going along with self sown marigolds and poppies which I cut back and have given a second flush. There has been lots of self seeding all over the bed, the neighbouring bed and the surrounding gravel.

Since then I have cut back and mulched the dahlias, hoping they survive the winter in the ground. I have transplanted as many seedlings as I can to various locations but also removed a lot where I don’t want them. I have also ordered another collection of hardy annual seeds!

On reflection, I have really enjoyed having flowers which I can pick without having to worry about leaving gaps in the border.

I have also liked having the space to grow annuals, it reminds me of the packets of mixed annuals that I used to grow as a child. It is quite magical the impact that a few tiny seeds can have in just one season of growth and I am planning to use more in my customer’s gardens, well I do have quite a few seeds now.

To have a longer flowering season in 2021, I have sown a few in my polytunnel to overwinter, mostly because I didn’t have enough space in the bed and I left it a bit late. I then intend to sow more successionally in the spring, and more thinly!

Ammi and Nigella in the polytunnel at home, sown rather late in the autumn but they will be ready to flower next summer.

May 2020

 

I can’t believe that it is the end of May already. I don’t know how other people fit in blogging with everything else going on in the garden, there’s still lots of sowing and pricking out to do but here is a quick look at, what has been a very dry May.

The lockdown has gradually been lifted and this weekend has seen lots of people making day trips. You can now visit RHS and National Trust gardens, if you book first. Meanwhile at work and home, the borders are filling up. The tulips have come and gone and the may blossom, hawthorn, has been spectacular.

It has been the month that the roses start performing, filling the gardens with their  beautiful scents and lots of other flowers too, and it’s still exciting waiting to see what is coming out next, year after year.

Really enjoyed sniffing this lilac!

Mine is always the first peony, left, I am afraid that I don’t know the variety as it came with the garden. There are so many different peonies, from dark red to pure white and from simple flowers to really frothy blooms.

These white ones are just coming out at the end of May.

Now a bit of real gardening where things go wrong. When I worked at a garden centre, I used to warn people not to plant out bedding too early because there is always a chance of frost until the end of May. This year I didn’t listen to my own advice and we had several frosty nights during one week in mid May. The dahlias suffered and it also caught my beans and squashes in the poly tunnel. Mostly they have  recovered but it has been a bit of a setback.

Apart from looking after the seeds and lots of watering, I  seemed to have pulled forget-me-nots up in all of my gardens throughout the month. Here is a quick before and after. They come up easily so it’s quite a quick fix job.

 

Towards the end of the month, there are bean pods forming on the overwintered broad beans and the climbing French beans are beginning to climb. I have now planted out all the squashes and courgettes.

The lack of rain has meant flower petals, like this poppy, have lasted well and having the family at home during lockdown, and in the garden more seems to have improved the chances of the alliums which usually get eaten by rabbits.  Here’s hoping the dahlias benefit too.

Just finishing off with this field of daisies in my village.

 

April 2020-Lockdown

Here we are in week 5 of the lockdown and life is not the same as usual. Following the government guidelines, I clearly can’t do my job from home and as I work on my own in my customers’ gardens I have mostly carried on. I know some people in the garden industry have been forced to give up because they need access through the house and others have received abuse for working when they are not key workers.

I am feeling so lucky to be living in a friendly village in a rural environment. Sometimes it feels different with no children to get to school and driving along empty roads to work, quite nice actually, and sometimes it’s just the same as I sow seeds, and pull out weeds with just the birds for company.

At home, with my family it feels normal, then I realise that I can’t  go anywhere. I would like to be able to visit open gardens, bluebell woods and the sea.  I don’t know if it is a coincidence, but since the lockdown began we have nearly endless blue skies and sunshine. This has no doubt helped the fantastic show of blossom this year, hence all the pictures! Apple, cherry and pear so far.

Lots more cherry blossom pictures to come.

With the endless rain earlier in the year and now the endless sunshine, the weeds are really growing fast now. It is difficult to balance the time spent sowing seeds, planting out (I’ve risked some beans this week) watering and keeping on top of the weeding.

Beetroot, lettuce, chard and broad, runner and French beans are in the ground, with a few in reserve just in case. I’ve got courgettes, squashes, cosmos and ammi in the polytunnel and dahlia seedlings inside on the windowsill. No show yet for the tomatoes, chillies and giant pumpkins. Maybe I should stop poking them!

I’m very excited because I have a delivery of compost coming this weekend, so I really must get on with potting up the new dahlias that I ordered this year.

Enough cherry blossom! This week I have been harvesting herbs and rocket from the garden and purple sprouting broccoli from the allotment.

It still feels like a strange juxtaposition that that normal life has ground to a halt for us but the plants are still growing, the potatoes are showing today, and the birds are busy feeding the next generation.

Mr blackbird has been very busy.

We have no idea of and end in sight at the moment so we just have to keep going and keep growing!

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.

 

Homework

This weekend I have made a bit of progress in my own garden. As it has been such a cold spring I held off sowing seeds until we had a bit of milder weather at the beginning of April, then it went cold again with little sunshine. The result has been that seeds haven’t germinated, and some have rotted in the pot, the sudden heatwave finished them off.

Now, the polytunnel is full of sprouting dahlia tubers, successfully overwintered despite the low temperatures, and newly sown seeds just emerging. I started chilli seeds in the heated propagator, then they moved to the windowsill and now in the polytunnel.  The free ones from Mr Fothergills are doing well, the Razzmatazz didn’t germinate very well so I have re-sown, fingers crossed for a good summer so that I get some chillies. With frost forecast for this week, I am glad that I didn’t put the fleece away.

I have also taken over my Dad’s plot at my parents house. He loved growing vegetables, long rows of runner beans which he shared with the village as there were always too many for the two of them. It’s good to carry on, although he wouldn’t think much of my wiggly lines, but hard too. The asparagus that I bought him a few years ago are just coming up.

 

On Sunday, sweltering in the heat, I sowed french beans, radish, carrot, beetroot and parsnips which won’t come up because they are last year’s seeds but I can’t just throw them away. There is still a bit of broccoli from last year under the netting. I am using his mesh which is the stuff used for plastering but works well.

At home, in the polytunnel, I sowed my giant pumpkin seeds from Matthew Oliver at RHS Hyde Hall. I have been too nervous to sow them in case they don’t come up, now I just have to stop myself rooting around in the pot to see if they germinate. I will post updates as hopefully they get bigger and bigger.

Giant pumpkin seeds, with normal one for comparison

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

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Mar 10, 2018 at 2:51pm PST

New year, same old garden.

A wander around my own garden in early January to see if I can find signs of life. It has been seriously neglected for the winter and I mean that genuinely, I haven’t been out there, except to do the chickens and hang washing for a couple of months. I  have actually been enjoying the standing stalks but it is probably time to do some cutting back and give the new growth a chance. Because if you look hard enough, things are moving!

Lots of work to do!

Cheered by the sight of some hellebore buds I have managed to get a bit done in the front garden as it’s more on view, including planting the tulip bulbs, very late, into pots. I also found the first aconite in bud.

Hellebore – nearly there!

 

I have some violas in pots which I can see from the window. I know that I’ve said it before but I always concentrate my early spring flowers where I will walk past or can enjoy them from inside, because I am not going to linger when it’s murky and 4°C like today. The hellebores are next to the drive and every day when I see them will bring a little bit of gladness to my soul.

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Violas #smallthings

A post shared by Charlotte (@cjbee827) on Jan 8, 2018 at 2:48pm PST

 

Deeper into the mess, I can find primroses, from a friends garden so extra important, and a perennial candytuft, Iberis Sempervirens. It is just coming into bud and will carry on flowering for at least the next 3 months. It likes a well drained, open spot but really doesn’t need much care at all, a good doer as they say.

 

Just to prove that I wasn’t totally idle in the autumn, here are my broad beans, surviving perfectly well in the garden with no protection. That mesh you can see is an old fire guard to keep the birds off when I first planted them out. I had quite some battle with mice to get these to grow, I had to weigh down the propagator lid and make sure that there were no gaps. Fortunately I have a lot of saved seed.

 

In the polytunnel I have salad leaves and some overwintering bits and pieces too messy to show! One of the door zips is broken so the protection is not quite as good as it could be but it’s slightly warmer that outside especially if the sun shines. Also what’s left of the second sowing of broad beans.

 

Unable to wait for the weather to get warmer, I have just sown some salad bowl lettuce in pots on the windowsill indoors. Something to enjoy while I look through the seed catalogues and plan this year’s excitement.