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!

After Christmas

I had the before Christmas rush around. Made a wreath from hazel twigs cut from the garden, spare bits of foliage cut off the Christmas tree and ivy from a neighbour who was tidying his hedge up. Tied together with Nutscene string so that I can just compost it when I’m finished with it.

We went on a 2 night visit to Wales to see my daughter’s friend, it’s a long way from Suffolk! Managed to have a visit to the sea at Southerndown Beach and visit the walled garden at Dunraven Castle.

Also made my first ever trip to IKEA, in Cardiff, so appalled by the hundreds of plastic plants that I didn’t take a photo!

I received a few gardening related gifts for Christmas. Can’t wait to read ‘Thoughtful Gardening’ by Robin Lane Fox, gardening gloves are always useful and I bought the flask myself so that I can take soup to work on chilly days.

Although I have already had a week off, eek, today, Monday, was the first day that I didn’t have to get up for something. Usually at this point I would spend some time in my own garden and although I looked around, and found some wasabi mustard that I had forgotten about in the polytunnel, it has been relentlessly wet and grey and not really gardening weather even for me.

Wasabi mustard from Sarah Raven seeds.

Another couple of days on and guess what, it is still grey and raining/drizzling. I still haven’t done any gardening but I have been browsing the seed catalogues and sorting out my random home saved seeds.

So while it remains uninviting, we can enjoy the thinking and planning ahead. I am looking forward to the first snowdrops appearing and already excited by the buds forming on the hellebores. And trying to catch up on blog posts of course.

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!

Still January – 2021

Tags

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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Back at work- January 2020

My first week back at work after the Christmas break and it’s been hard.

There have been a few highlights, finding the aconites and first snowdrops and hellebores.

But it has been relentlessly cold, I know it is January, and sometimes wet.

Braving the rain in my 4 hats!

I had 1 day off because the ground was too sodden and a brief glimmer of sun on Thursday afternoon

More Hellebores in the sunshine

I’ve had quite a few chats with resident robins and discovered, through an online thread, that it is common practice for us horticulturists to chat with birds, snails, plants in fact, most living things and sometimes stones too. Very relieved that it isn’t just me!

So to Friday, minus 2°C as I drove to work and only reaching 0° all day, and foggy too. This garden was more flooded than I had expected and I knew that it would be quite damp.

Over full pond and flooded lawn

Flooded flower bed

I managed to find enough to do out of the water but it was really, really cold and I hope it goes down soon. The weather forecast isn’t great for next week!

Keep looking for those signs of spring.

I almost forgot, I harvested the first flower sprouts this week.

New Year Catch Up January 1st 2020

Hello, Happy New Year! It looks like I need a bit of a catch up as I haven’t posted for a while. Writing on my phone proved a bit tricky, I thought that I could write it throughout the month but the photos kept deleting, and it is a very small screen. I’m going to do a quick summary of November and December because I did still take photos.

November

 

November carried on in the same spirit as October being mostly wet and grey. There was a bit of autumn colour creeping in.

I picked the final dahlia flowers and moved the tubers in to the greenhouse to dry off.

I tried to make leaf raking more interesting.

Seedlings and lettuce plants in the poly tunnel, doing well but needing some attention.

On the 19th November we had a frost and some actual sunshine.

The broad beans came up.

It rained again and the river got quite full.

At the end of the month, I saw violets, mahonia and periwinkle flowering in a customers garden.

 

December

Chicory in the vegetable garden.

I took the family to see the Helmingham Hall illuminated garden trail just up the road. It was fantastic!

Did a massive pond clearing job with a customer and man with a chainsaw.

It got really wet in the gardens but I still managed to harvest parsnip and cabbage.

Bulbs coming up. These are Leucojum, spring snowflake.

I can to cancel the last day’s work before my Christmas break because the road was flooded.

Visited the allotment to pick parsley for the stuffing.

 

I had high hopes of getting on in my own garden over the holidays but I have only done a very small amount of potting on in the polytunnel and brought some of the pelagoniums into the house. I haven’t even planted the sack of tulip bu;lbs yet. It is still vey wet underfoot although we have had a few dry days. I have a lot of seeds that I can’t wait to plant and I have flowers to grow for a wedding in the summer which I am most excited about.

 

January 8th 2019

First day with any length of sunshine since Christmas day, and it felt weirdly like March as it was so mild, about 10 degrees.

Garrya elliptica.

 

 Good to be back at work and time to burn off a few of those excess pounds by barrowing muck to spread on the garden, and it was big garden today so good exercise.

Iris unguicularis

After being away for a couple of weeks I like to make a tour and see what has changed. We’ve really only had one or two proper frosts so far this winter so things are getting advanced already.

Always a thrill to see the first snowdrops out, there are a lot more to come.

 

Bergenia and Viburnham tinus putting on a good show.

Nearly but not quite, Pulmonaria and hellebores still in bud.

Even a great tit singing his ‘teacher teacher’ song.

Of course things will change, there is already cold weather in the forecast. I don’t mind a bit of frost or snow, to set the seasons straight, kill a few pests and make everything look photogenic; as long as it doesn’t last too long.

Meanwhile I am enjoying the slightly longer day length and the promise of things to come.

Looking Back

New year seems a good time to look back on the last twelve months of gardening. I started at Kenton Hall in January 2018 so this presents itself as a perfect opportunity to look at the changes over a year of extremes. Unfortunately I don’t have any of the snow as I didn’t go that week! The gardens of Kenton Hall provide a stunning location for weddings in the summer months and my job was to keep them up to standard.

January

 

It seems so long ago! I can remember being very cold and the first day that I did here there was a heavy rainstorm. I could see it coming but it was my first day and I didn’t want to give up until it was raining badly enough. I got soaked through to the skin. So what was here was overgrown shrubs and herbaceous perennials. I love a challenge!

February

 

Getting stuck in. Cutting back everything, perennials, grasses and shrubs, including evergreen ones as much as I dare, just so that I can see what is there.

April

 

Things start greening up. The primroses look fabulous along the moat.

May

The first wedding of the season was in May so lots of weeding in preparation, fortunately the owner does the hedging and grass as there is a lot of it. The house provides a stunning backdrop for photos, and the lupins came out, hurrah!

 

July

 

 

The beginning of the heatwave. The borders are full and the grass is just about hanging on. Flowering now Stipa gigantia, catmint, Achillea cloth of gold.

 

August

 

Still looking green, the main flower here was the almost complete bed of Japanese anemones but also shrubby potentilla and the grasses were looking good. I had been coming regularly, but not that frequently, mainly in the week before each wedding.

October

 

The wedding season had finished now, and I had started to cut back the finished flowers. A lot of plants were just getting to their best, especially the asters (michaelmas daisies) and fuchsia. The leaves were starting to fall off the trees at the back.

 

 

November

 

You can see that whereas mid afternoon in summer is still scorching hot, at the same time in November the shadows are really lengthening and the light is fading.

 

The seedheads did look good in the golden sunlight, they are still there, and there were a few late flowers on the lupins having a second flush. Feeling a bit more in control of the square borders, I got a chance to work in the rose garden and found a Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles in full bloom.

December

Almost full circle and back to a very wintry looking garden and a late flowering rose. January will start with less cutting back and shrub shaping to do than last year so maybe a chance to divide some of the perennials and make the beds more of a mix. At the moment there are big blocks of colour which look effective but then all die back at once.

It goes without saying that I was easily distracted by the beautiful house and trying to get it in the pictures. There are also views over the surrounding countryside.

For wedding venue details and photos I would suggest the website, link in first paragraph, or the Instagram account @kentonhallestate.

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!