Gardening Diary March

I almost forgot about my monthly gardening update, as I am in town, and have three more weeks until I will be in the country. (Although as I work in a school, perhaps it will be sooner.) My daughter's school is currently closed for a deep clean, and son's university has put all teaching online, so he is heading off to Cornwall tomorrow. It is very strange times, and I do wish we could all be together, and since in the country we barely know anyone, reducing social contact will be no problem. But here in my flat, other flat-owners have been emailing to check if anyone needs help. My hope is that difficult times will bring out the best in people. It is hard not to feel a bit worried at the empty shelves in the shops. Last night I could hear my son coughing in bed, and lay there thinking, oh no we only have about ten teabags, what will we do! But he is fine, and I have bought a box of tea. 

I have digressed a bit, so back to the gardening update, pictures sent by my husband. The one above is where the jerusalem artichokes have been planted. No sign of them yet, and the spreading weeds mean there is work to do. 

Rhubarb looking good. I think this is the first one we planted.

First early potatoes are planted. He said there was a surface frost this morning, but hopefully they  are safe underground.

 

Onion sets, which I planted, seem to be growing.

... and same with the garlic, which he planted.

Is this a lavendar? Husband thinks so, and the leaves look right, but it seems very early.

And finally to finish off, a lovely bank of primroses.

I really can't wait to get there, as I am sure there are other things we should be planting. Hoping for some nice sunny days soon, out planting and weeding.

Just a reminder that there is still plenty of time left to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for March. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

Gardening Diary February

After a lot of rainy days, we have finally managed to get out and do some gardening. And as it looks like the rain will be back soon, we have been gardening all day. 

First I wanted to show you how well the rhubarb is doing. In fact I was so happy we have got another crown from the garden centre. This new one is called Victoria, and has an upturned plant pot covering it.

I spent most of the day working on the herb patch.  I did a lot of clearing of last years growth, and it is encouraging to see a lot of new growth starting underneath. I can recognise quite a few of the herbs: oregano, fennel, sage ... But one of the bushes I did not know, and had to do a but of searching online. This is the bush before, and I think it is cotton lavender. It looked good, but it says that you need to prune back hard, or it will go leggy and shapeless.

So this is what it looks like now.  I do hope I have done the right thing.  We also cleared a lot of ivy in the herb bed, and inside the polytunnel, which now looks all ready for some new plants. Decided to give up on the strawberry plants, as we don't know how old they are, and will get some new ones.

I also did a little bit of actual planting. I bought some onion sets quite a few weeks ago, and they have started to grow in the bag. So I have planted them out. I think it may be a bit early, as we could still have frost or even snow, but will just have to see. They are red onions, called Electric.

The other thing that I was hoping to plant are jerusalem artichokes. They are something that we grew before when we had an allotment, and were very easy, and very tasty. But none of the garden centres seem to have any tubers, so I have bought some on ebay, and hope they may come before I have to go back to London. So not much news, but I think when I report back in March there will be a lot more going on.

Just a reminder that there is still plenty of time left to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for Feburary. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

Gardening Diary

Here is the first of my gardening diaries. All the gardening books I've read seem to say that January is a quiet time of year, when you should really just be planning, but it does seem that there has been quite a lot to do. I am not sure how many will be interested in these gardening posts, but am partly doing this for myself as a record of our first year here. 

Above is our vegetable plot as we inherited it. And at the bottom of this post I am planning to put some pictures of it at the end of the month, where hopefully there will be some nicely dug areas. Perhaps like those house makeover shows I should use filters and camera tricks to enhause the difference!

I have a few areas that I am a bit worried about. The first is the area beside the polytunnel, which I think is full herbs. I can recognise quite a few: bay, sage, some that I call curry plant, as well as some fruit bushes and some rhubarb. At the moment it is just going to be left to see what else might appear in the Spring.

Second concern is the poly-tunnel itself. It is great to have it, but I am not quite sure how to use it. On one side is a vine, which I am hoping will spring into life. The previous owner had some tomato plants, which seem like a good idea. I also thought it might be a good place to grow peppers. So any advice on good ways to use a poly-tunnel would be very welcome. Not quite sure what to do with these strawberries. Are they dead, or will they spring back to life. I may see if I can rescue some of the plants, but think I will start a strawberry bed outdoors.

As it does also contain a chair, I think perhaps the best use for the poly-tunnel might be somewhere to shelter when it is raining.

The middle bed was the hardest to dig, as one end was full of teasel plants.

Jobs we have done so far are: taking down the runner bean wigwams, pruning the raspberry canes, pruning the gooseberry bushes (bit worried I may have overdone this, but it seemed better than doing nothing). And digging, digging digging.  The soil seems quite easy to work, and is full of worms. My husband got a soil testing kit, and tells me it is 7.5, but I am not quite sure what to do with this information.

This is my very rough plan for planting. I may not stick to this, as I quite like the idea of mixing a few flowers in with the vegetable, but it is somewhere to start.

My gardening book says now is the time to start chitting your seed potatoes. So we have bought two types - maris peers and arran pilot, and here they are chitting, which means putting them somewhere cool and light, so they will start sprouting and be ready to plant.

One other thing we did was buy a rhubarb forcer. I was sure I had seen a tiny rhubarb stalk, and after a bit of searching we found it again. As you can see there is quite a bit of clearing to do.

After a bit of weeding it was a bit more obvious ...

... and now with the rhubarb forcer in place

And here as promised are some photos of the plot at the end of the month. Taken from the opposite direction, you can also see see my little helper, and behind the vegetable plot, the fruit trees. Two out of three of the main areas have been dug over, despite the cold weather.

So apologies for the length of this post, and I will keep you updated with what is going on in the garden next month. I will probably post mid-month, as doing it at the end seems a bit of a clash with my link party. I would welcome any advice in the comments column, as I am very new to this and am sure to be making some mistakes.

And to finish off some pictures of other parts of the garden. Just to show that there are a few signs that Spring is on its way. Much of it is quite wild, and I am trying hard to rethink my suburban garden ways. "No need to sweep up all the leaves, and nettles will be good for butterflies next year."

Just a reminder that there is still a little bit of time left to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for February. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.