Pub Kitchen Garden – Re-opening

Tags

#gdnbloggers, Spring, The Queen at Brandeston, Vegetables

As we all know, it has been an unusual and difficult year all round but especially for the hospitality industry. The Queen at Brandeston, where I manage the garden has met each new challenge full on, opening a local shop and serving food and drinks as takeaway, then sitting outside and inside, as permitted, at different times.

Last week I was there on Easter bank holiday, trying to catch up with jobs in the vegetable garden to make sure I was ready for the growing season ahead.

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Rhubarb

Usually the pub would be busy, but this year it was just me and Mr Blackbird feeling the chill of snow showers.

You can just about see the snowflakes!

I was weeding the final beds to be done and he was following me, filling his beak with worms. He must have a family in the hedge.

Every year I hope to keep on top of the weeds with a little bit of regular hoeing but once I spend more time planting, watering and sowing seeds, the weeds take overk. So I will just take this moment to enjoy the vegetable patch being under control before it all goes crazy again.

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Here it is, ready to go. Strawberries in the foreground.

There are already some things coming on. I have winter lettuces and chard under green mesh, which seemed to have survived the recent late frosts.

Chard foreground, lettuces behind.

There are some tiny radish seedlings and peas planted out, having been started off in the the greenhouse in early spring.

Peas

The wild garlic, which I planted a few years ago, is looking well and finally spreading. I just have a bit of a problem in that bed with tiny field maple seedlings.

Wild garlic surrounding my new pinkcurrant bush.

There is lots of self seeded coriander in the herb garden and the chives are romping away as always. The only bed not sorted out yet is the flower patch.

Coriander

The flower patch – still to be sorted.

A week on and the flower patch is still waiting to be brought to order but I have planted 14 kg of pink fir apple seed potatoes to be used in the pub kitchen. A main crop variety, they should be ready, once they have flowered, late summer.

With the tables and outside space restored and and the glamping facilities re-vamped and improved, The Queen is ready to welcome people to sit outside to eat and drink and stay. Visit the website here for opening hours.

The tulips are flowering with perfect timing now customers are allowed to sit in the garden again.

A bit of sunshine makes all the difference.

Tags

#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.

It’s getting lighter – end Feb 21

Tags

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

It’s February, where is spring?

Tags

#gardenblog #wintergarden #snowdrops # gardenersyear #fruitgarden

Snowdrops in the rain

I said that I wasn’t going to take so many snowdrop pictures this year, as I have loads I from previous years, but the drifts are just reaching their peak and I can’t resist. The flowers are opening out now but the cold and wet weather mean that they are lasting well.

Mahonia in flower now.

Well, here we are in February and, apart from a few sunny days, it has still been mostly cold and wet. I am not able to work in some of my gardens due to the waterlogged ground, I am really hoping to get going again this month.

These are borders in two different gardens.

As I write this, I have enjoyed a couple of days of mild weather, with hints of spring, but we are forecast another “beast from the east” bringing snow and freezing conditions; so I have rescued a couple of plants from the floods and fleeced the seedlings in my polytunnel.

Old fruit cage

New fruit cage

On a more positive note, ‘my’ fruit cage is very nearly finished and the new fruit arrived and planted. I ordered it from James McIntyre and Sons and it arrived quickly. I have gooseberries and blackcurrants, saved from the old fruit cage, and a new selection of raspberries, strawberries and a redcurrant. It’s not really my fruit cage but the customer and Trev, who built it, both refer to it as “your” and I’m in charge!!

As well as the snowdrops, the hellebores are also putting on a good show and shoots of the peonies are beginning to show.

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Peony shoots.

I have got on well with the muck spreading at the pub with a bit of help from my son. I have also added to the fruit bushes there with red, white and pink currants and an Aronia. The loganberry from the old fruit cage has also been relocated here where there is more space for it to grow.

In other news, I have enrolled on a distance learning garden design course. I have so far enjoyed the buying of materials and setting myself up with some office space but I am finding the measuring and drawing difficult, which is what I expected. I am looking forward to getting to the plant bit and I will update as I go along.

Meanwhile, here’s some more pictures of a Daphne humming with bees on a warm day and more glistening snowdrops.

Daphne, the scent is amazing!

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.

 

Chippenham Park Gardens – February 8th 2020

Chippenham Park Gardens is in Cambridgeshire, not far from Newmarket, and shouldn’t be confused with the other Chippenham in Wiltshire! I found it in the RHS The Garden magazine and was delighted to find it was open on my birthday and less than an hour from home. It’s not open all the time so check the website before visiting Here

It started with a walled kitchen garden, a bit bare in February, but we were able to peek at the pelagoniums overwintering in the greenhouse and admire the brassicas, then out into trees and grass and the snowdrops begin. You can make your own way round the garden, so we started with the fountain garden at the front.

We meandered past the tennis court to the lake and then over the Japanese bridge into the trees. Here there were lots of snowdrops and they got denser the further we went.

This area is ‘The Wilderness’ and ‘Snowdrops walks’

We took lots of photos!

Walking back to the tearooms we spotted bees in the crocus.

After warming up with lunch we walked along the long border and went through the wall to the Hare Hall gardens.

The leylandii arches from the mound and we enjoyed spinning the seat round to get a panoramic view.

We walked back along ‘Adrians Walk’ which goes round both sides of the top of the lake. It is packed with hellebores and dwarf irises and more bees enjoying the afternoon sun and sweet scents of the  Daphne and Sarcococca.

I will definitely be back, maybe to see the roses in the summer or the Acer walk in the autumn.

May Diary 2019

Saturday May 4th

At home, dodging the hail showers,  planted out my poor sweet peas they have been neglected and needed planting weeks ago. Sowed salad seeds in the raised bed and planted out the watercress.

Weekend 11th/12th May

Reached that point where everything has to be sown or it will be too late. Struggling with salad in the raised bed. Although early sowings are ready to pick, nothing else has come up. There was a lot of heavy rain last week and now it is  supposed to be getting warmer so fingers crossed. Still those chilly nights though. Can’t get runner beans to germinate at all this year but have some French bean plants and more seeds sown. Lots of squashes and courgettes ready to go out soon.

Tuesday 21st May.

Last week we had cold nights and one frost but temperatures of 14°c and above in the day.  Quite a lot of moving plants in and out of the poly tunnel went on. This week is more settled so plants are able to stay out but there is more watering now.

The garden exploded into bloom and I wowed at all the new flowers and all the butterflies.

Today I saw the first few blackfly on the broad beans so I pinched out all the tops. They are doing really well with beans forming now.

Moved a lot of the dahlias from the greenhouse into the beds making space for the tomato plants. Used very sturdy supports this year!

 

End of the month

It’s getting full on now with the Irises, peonies and poppies in bloom. Lupins in full flower ready for the first wedding of the season.

April Diary 2019

Tuesday 9th April

In the greenhouse, the French marigolds are up and the Gypsophila, pricked out last week, are doing well.  Sowed more squash seeds.

Started checking the dahlias. I usually pot them up at this stage but I have decided to water the dry soil that they have overwintered in, and move them from there if they grow.

Outside, pulled up the last of the brassicas and planted the next lot of peas. Put pea sticks in.

Friday 12th May

Planting seedlings in my raised bed

Managed to get the teenage daughter into the polytunnel to re-sow the failed sunflowers and also start the giant pumpkins. Planted spinach and lettuce seedlings into my raised bed. Still a bit cold at night so hoping they survive.

Found vine weevil in pots so tipped out completely in the chicken run.

Easter Holidays

Made use of the light evenings to sow squash, courgettes and beans in the polytunnel while learning Macbeth.

Visited allotment to water, first potato up so starting earthing up. The broccoli are too infested with aphids now to bother eating, so gradually bringing a couple of sticks home at a time for the chickens. Car also has aphids now!

Tuesday 23rd April

After a hot dry Easter break, it is back to grey weather and chilly nights.

Ready to eat, rocket, radish and baby spinach. Broad beans, not really but I can see the little beans forming.

The dahlias, that I bury in the bone dry greenhouse beds over winter, are beginning to shoot. I have been storing them like this for several years and it is really successful but you have to have a large, brick built greenhouse to do it! My customer is very lucky.

In the orchard, the apple blossom is divine, see top photo,  and I love the quince flowers, above, too. Saw my first speckled wood of the year.

Monday 29th April

Not a single potato left at the Hall. Not sure what has eaten them, possibly rats. The squashes are doing well, no germination on cucumbers, maybe the seed is too old now.

Tuesday 30th April

Saw the first damsel flies emerging from the pond. It is still cold though.