Planting Out and Planting Up

All the wood chipping we have done recently in the woods has revealed quite a few large areas which are clear of grass and weeds. These are the places where we really want to try to create some spring colour we can enjoy before the deciduous trees begin to explode into leaf.

We started with a few bargain wild primroses (ie a bit pot bound and not flowering) along with bunches of bluebells and grape hyacinths relocated from the garden to try to naturalise this little spot. I'm not sure they'll all flower this year but next year they should be established and produce a beautiful spring display.

These are the acorns I collected before we moved house about 18 months ago. They look a bit mossy as they've been in these pots since the autumn but are now ready to go to their permanent homes. I know they are really slow growing but they seem to be doing well so far and I hope they will thrive and eventually grow into sturdy trees.

The seeds have been germinating and starting to grow well and the time has come to start pricking out and potting up. Above is a picture of the second lot of seedlings in the smallest pots I use. These were a little fiddly at first, some look so small and delicate that I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that they survive.

These little flower seedlings were the first lot in the tiny pots, I grew them on for a couple of weeks before potting up to these slightly larger and deeper pots, they're starting to look almost like proper plants. Pondering over these pictures makes me wonder where on earth we're going to position all these flowers if they manage to grow into full size plants. I may have got a little bit carried away with the seed sowing - oops. I keep telling M that it's ok because lots of them will be going in the cut flower bed!

I've never grow Nasturtiums before so I decided to try by making 2 sowings about 2 weeks apart. They didn't all germinate but there are 8 from the first sowing and 5 from the second. The small ones are 2 weeks old with the larger ones about 4 weeks old.

I have 22 tomato plants so far but have been really disappointed that my Sungold and Gardeners' Delight didn't germinate and so only have one of each of them. The angle of the sun is giving them a rather washed out appearance but despite my poor photography skills they are pretty healthy. I have done a second sowing of Sungold and Gardeners' Delight so we'll have to wait and see how they do. Likewise the jalapeno and sweet pepper seeds have suffered from erratic germination so I'm not sure how many of these we'll have this year.

I'm not quite sure why I've taken this at a rather strange angle but this is our collection of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower growing on a bit before being planted outside.

This is my lemon tree, well actually my second lemon tree as the first one only lasted a couple of years before giving up the ghost. This one was beginning to head the same way (with no leaves or fruit) until last year when it took up residence in the corner of the greenhouse. Fresh compost and a better watering regime seems to have saved it and I'm delighted to see new leaves starting to unfurl already. You never know we may even get some fruit again.

I always enjoy this part of the year as the seedlings are growing and the greenhouse is gradually filling up before the risk of frost passes and they can be moved/planted outside. The peas and beans are getting quite tall (middle shelf right) and it won't be long until they go to the raised veg bed. That may be a few weeks yet as we are in a period of sunny days combined with very cold nights. As always it is the anticipation of summer, a kaleidoscope of colour in the garden accompanied by a harvest of fresh fruit and veg which drives us on to make the most of each and every day.

Easter Holidays

Easter holidays are normally a time for us to relax around the house and garden, a time for reflection and recharging. Not this year! We had a big job to tackle but I'm hoping that this is not going to become an annual activity.

The woods had become covered with fallen branches and twigs and although we collected a lot last year for fire wood there was too much for us to use. So, after a little searching, we hired a wood chipper in the hope that we could have a mass tidy up. We found a wonderful local hire store who let us have the chipper for an extra few days over the Easter weekend for free. A few days before the chipper arrived we started to gather the sticks and branches into piles, hoping this would speed things along.

There have been lots of little seedlings appearing around the woods and we thought we'd try to rescue some before we started trampling all over them. Having no idea what they are it could be interesting to see what they grow into, M was joking that they are probably weeds we have just rescued.

And so it began, I was amazed by the speed we were able to work through the piles of wood, the chipper could take up to 7mm diameter sticks so pretty much everything we had went in. The time consuming part was raking up the little twigs and getting them lifted up without spilling everywhere.

After 2 days work we had completed the smallest area and were pretty pleased with the results. Unfortunately the chipper was really noisy so Jess and Finn had to spend the majority of the time inside but obviously came out to check our progress. Although the little piles of wood chip seem disappointingly small given how much wood we gathered, we're hoping all the seedlings and bluebells will now be able to get some light to grow up big and strong.

I'm not sure if we had underestimated the magnitude of the task but on we pushed, literally dragging the chipper through to the next bit of the woods. M was in charge of operating the chipper and I made piles and piles of wood. Our Fitbits were definitely working overtime as we walked an average of about 12km each day.

By the time we got Easter Saturday (day 5) it was clear that we would not be able to drag the chipper any further into the woods. Thankfully we were able to use the quad and trailer to move the wood bundles out to the chipper at the edge of the trees.

This is just one of many many trailer loads. Again, I was in charge of collecting and M was driving the quad and master machine operator.

Slowly the wood chippings started to grow and we could see a little bit of progress. The sun is shining here and after a couple of days we were starting to get a bit of a suntan, if not windburn, but only from the neck up.

This has got to be one of the worst photos of me ever, pretty much done in at the end of day 3 (only half way through) then. Each day we were completely exhausted, I remember how sore my feet were when I removed my boots and put on my supposedly soft slippers and tried to walk into the kitchen - ouch! It sounds like such a simple job of wondering around picking up sticks and putting them together to get collected in the trailer. But then you realised that you are bending over every other step and because of the long unwieldy shapes you can only carry a few at a time, negotiating the trees to get to the piles. Anyway, we're not complaining, it was physically tiring but very satisfying work. Thankfully Easter Sunday arrived at just the right time for us to take a day off.

Easter Monday was the last day we had set aside for chipping as the chipper needed to be cleaned before collection on the Tuesday. We didn't quite manage to clear the whole lot but concentrated on the biggest branches, leaving some sticks for the wildlife and hedgehogs and some for collection next year for firewood.

Not a bad few days work. An added bonus has been that all this exercise has completely cured my 2 frozen shoulders which have been causing me a lot of pain for about 8 months. We're hoping for a rest now but the days are getting longer, weather is slowly improving, the seedlings are growing and there is just so much to get on with. Where ever you are I hope you all had a lovely and hopefully relaxing Easter break.

Onions Galore

I thought I'd give you a little update on how our early veg planting is progressing by starting with the onions.

I have always planted my onion sets straight outside and have had mixed success depending on the weather and how long they have had to mature.

Well, this year was no different, you may remember my post back in March when I described planting onion sets in the baths. I had quite a few onions left over and decided it was time to follow my brother-in-law's advice and pop them into cells in the greenhouse to get going. This was also a good excuse to give us time to work out when they would eventually be planted out.

Just to compare: the photo above is the direct sown onions, planted on 9 March and below are the onions in cells in the greenhouse, planted on 16 March. (Oops, except for the middle right tray which was onion seed sown last autumn and which didn't really cope with winter.)

I don't claim to be much of an expert when it comes to onions but I think my brother-in-law definitely has the right idea by starting them off in cells.

 

As we don't like to hang around too much (and their roots were starting to get quite long) we thought we'd hurry on and get the onions in the ground. Two rows of onions planted and then cloched for protection until they are established. Another (almost) 2 rows with the tiddly little leftovers at the end, all cloched awaiting summer. I did say we had a lot of onions. All we have to do is hope they grow big and strong over the summer, then we need to learn how to store them properly!

Playing Catch Up Pt3

It's the last instalment in the Catch Up series which I really must finish before I get further behind again; now we have made it to the beginning of April.

Following all my seed sowing in March it was time to prick out the little seedlings and get them into small pots with a bit more compost and room for growth. I used quite a variety of small seed trays and cells or basically anything I have to hand but these little pots have proved really useful for the second phase of growing.

I pricked out these Nasturtiums into slightly bigger pots as although they look tiny here they had a bigger root system than the other seedlings. I've never grow these before so I'm on a steep learning curve and sometimes it feels like I'm making it up as I go along. We'll see how they get on.

For years now I have always sown my tomato, pepper and Jalapeno seeds in this neat little heated windowsill Super 7 propagator. It means I can give then a little more care and attention in the early days and then prick out the seedlings when they are ready.

So that's the first lot of tomato plants potted up. They look really small here but they've been buried deeper in the compost to help produce a stronger and more fruitful plant. They also seem to huff for a few days after re-potting but they'll soon pick up again. I have 7 different varieties here but am still waiting for my stalwart Sungold and Gardeners' Delight to germinate.

I was really dismayed to find that my pea and bean seeds had not survived the damp winter particularly well but as I hate waste I thought I'd give them a go and have been pleasantly surprised by the results. Three varieties of peas and one of broad beans with a few more still germinating.

Yet another willow to add to our collection, another cheapy supermarket buy and this time a twisted willow. You may guess by now that we have a lot of wet/marshy areas and so willow is the plant of choice. We also bought 3 final fruit trees for the orchard, an apple, pear and plum; if they become established then I think that's it for fruit trees.

We were blessed with some lovely warm and sunny days at the start of April and as the ground dried out it was time for M to get on the mower and check it still worked. After a quick zoom around with the mower and grass clippers the orchard looked so much better after it's winter sleep.

As the sun has started to shine so the salad crop has started to grow, the lettuce and rocket will take quite a few more weeks to mature but the radish should be ready soon-ish.

Last year M decided to revamp this area of the garden. We have no idea what was here before but the whole area was covered in stones with 3 Silver Birch trees planted to the right hand side. After much hard work (by M) there were larger rocks in place and a flowerbed dug over. With the good weather the flowerbed had a top dressing of compost and we (finally) planted out some of the perennials we got last year.

This was another of M's projects last year, the new flowerbed in the garden. The sunshine persuaded me to get out there and weed it, preparing it for new arrivals. It looks really empty just now as the bulbs are only starting to appear. Some of the plants (Lavender and Pelargonium) didn't survive the winter and will have to go, hopefully we will have lots of new plants to replace them soon.

It nice to finish on such a happy note, enjoying the sunshine and the garden when it's time to put your feet up and relax, just for a minute or two of course!

Playing Catch Up Pt2

Still playing catch up, I'm taking you back to the last couple of weeks of March and after the snow, the sun returned. I forgot to mention in the last post (Pt1) about the latest instalment in the orchard. We made an order last year for a mix of fruit trees to fill up the orchard, they arrived in the middle of March and we managed to get them in the ground about 10 days before the snow. So, fingers crossed, they will survive. If you fancy a look there is a guide to the orchard in the Plans tab at the top of the page.

The bright dry days (not a very exciting photo) were perfect to get on with some planting and sowing but more about that in a minute.

Despite the beautiful weather lifting our spirits we had a very sad day when we had to say farewell to Morag, our little brown hen. She was the friendliest of our 3 chickens, always keen to say hello, feed from your hand and she didn't mind Jess and Finn at all. Following illness we decided that she should not have to suffer any longer and M took care of her. Unfortunately I was not so brave and said my goodbyes before he took her away. They say if you have livestock then you'll have dead stock but to be honest that doesn't really make it any easier.

Surprisingly, Maisie and Wilma don't seem to be at all bothered by the disappearance of their friend. It was best to keep busy and so we returned to some planting and sowing making the most of the sun.

The garlic and onions survived the snow under their temporary compost bags and it was time to break out the salad and carrot seeds. We inherited these plastic cloches from the previous owners, they are great as they fit the baths quite well and allow an early sowing of salad when there is still a risk of frost. So that's 2 types of Radish (French Breakfast & Mooli), mixed Rocket, Red Sorrel and 3 types of lettuce (Salad Frilly, Mixed Leaf and Little Gem). Having had such great success with our carrots last year we have sown Flyaway and Nandor in the baths. The height of the container is thought to prevent carrot fly, we had no sign of carrot fly last year so hopefully it's true.

One of the major disappointments has been our daffodils, despite planting loads the flower display has been rubbish to say the least. We have an abundance of slugs and snails and they seem to love the foliage and flower heads and so we have had a less than 50% success rate. Hopefully the hedgehogs are still around and will soon get stuck into the slugs and snails for us. We may even see if we can go and get some more hedgehogs from the rescue centre.

 

More Rhododendron plants to add to our collection, having learnt our lesson last year we opted for the cheaper alternatives again and got some chicken wire in place to protect them from the rabbits and deer.

 

We already have a couple of small holly plants and as they are evergreen they are a great addition to the woods. So, another trip to the supermarket and hey presto 2 new Holly plants, only £2 each, another bargain.

One of the first signs of spring in the woods is the arrival of catkins on the willow. Once they have opened out they sparkle in the sunshine and are truly beautiful, however, I'm not sure my limited photography skills really do them justice.

When we first arrived here we thought we had lots of dead/nearly dead trees but at the start of spring they produce little bright green pines with cerise flowers, we think they're European Larch. Although they are not my favourite trees, they do look ok at this time of year.

Yay, it's potato planting time, this is not a phrase I ever imagined saying! Having lost nearly half our crop to wire worms and wasps last year we decided to vary our planting and hedge our bets to try to produce a decent crop. So M has built 3 stacking potato planters, one for Charlotte, one for Cara and the last for the Casablanca. Unfortunately at present they look a little like tiny graves but when the next stack is on top we can earth up the spuds without disturbing them.

Having had some seed potatoes left over well a lot left over actually, we planted some in plastic tubs and the rest into the ground. It's hard to believe this whole bed is dedicated to potatoes. Oops, it's a good job we like spuds.

I have always concentrated on growing fruit and veg with the occasional flower seeds, if there was room. At the end of last season I bought lots of flower seeds in the sale and picked flowers I liked the look of with a mix of annuals and perennials for use as cut flowers, in borders or in baskets. I can't list them all (I got a bit carried away) but during the last week of March I sowed 30 varieties in a mixture of cells and seed trays. I will let you know more about the successes and failures during the summer.

While in the mood for sowing I got my tomatoes (9 varieties), peppers, Jalapenos, Cucamelon (I have no idea what this will be like), Gherkins (another new trial), sweetcorn and runner beans into propagators.

March ended with some more planting of willow, a mix of large weeping willows, scarlet willow and a few more Poplar setts. I thought I'd finish off with a picture of the orchard taking shape although there's not much blossom or green growth about just yet. The polytunnel area has been marked out to the right of the veg beds but we need a day or 2 with no wind to erect it. (Obligatory dog in the photo - again) Well, we're nearly up to date, only one more Catch up I promise.

Playing Catch Up Pt 1

It's been a while since my last post but we have had wifi issues resulting in no Internet or house phone. Having no wi-fi for 2½ weeks has been a test of patience but it has also been a surprisingly pleasant respite from the daily onslaught of digital information and social media distractions. But now we are back up and running, I feel a bit behind the drag curve. As this is such a busy time of year in the garden I have a lot to catch up on in blogland so I think I'll break it down into a few separate posts.

So, Pt 1, going back to before the wi-fi nightmare takes us to about the middle of March when there were some lovely dry days and we decided to seize the opportunity to get on with some necessary and long avoided jobs.

I had been procrastinating for quite some time about cleaning the greenhouse. I had built it up in my mind to being a dull and time consuming chore but I knew it had to be done while it was quite empty and before I started sowing seeds. Emptying it was easy and to be honest (with M's help) it only took a couple of hours to clean the staging, frame and glass.

It did take ages though to wash all the trays and sort out the remaining plants, deciding which had made it through the winter and which would never, regardless of copious amounts TLC, be revived. Still, at the end of the day it was all done; we were pretty tired but chuffed with a real sense of achievement. My main reason for feeling so pleased was that I could now start sowing my veg seeds-thankfully.

First things first, I had to get the remaining onion sets into cells to get them started off before planting outside or in the polytunnel (yet to be decided).

We're still getting used to the cooler climate and different growing seasons and so I had planned to start my seed sowing approximately 3 weeks later this year. It was so cold last spring that they took ages to germinate and I'm not sure it is beneficial for the seeds to spend so much time in cool compost. It tested my patience but we got there in the end.

I'd seen these Rootrainers on the market for some time but as they seemed quite expensive I had resisted the temptation to buy - until last year when I found a deal online and decided to invest a few pounds. They're supposed to be good for sowing peas and beans etc and are designed to encourage strong roots through a process called 'air-pruning'.

They have plenty of room for the roots to grow and have a clear propagator lid, although they don't come with a tray they they seem to fit a standard seed tray. There are 32 cells in each pack with 8 'books' of 4 cells. Last year we were pretty impressed with how easy it was to open out the 'book' to remove the plant without disturbing the roots. The root systems were strong and the plants were really sturdy when we planted them out.

I got a bit carried away but that's the peas (Little Marvel, Onward and Kelvedon Wonder) and broad beans (Aquadulce) sown. We've nearly finished our final bag of frozen peas from last season so we need to grow lots more this year.

We have lots of different willows around the woods but unfortunately no weeping willows. We bought 3 of these little trees (cheap at a local supermarket) which should grow to about 6' high. We got 3 Echinaceas, a Peonie and an Astilbe at the same shop (pretty cheap too) but they've been potted up in the greenhouse before being planted out later in the year.

We also got this bargain (oh I do love to get a bargain!!) Morello Cherry tree for the orchard. You can see a plan of the orchard in the Plans tab at the top of the page.

The greenhouse is already starting to fill up with onions, seeds, overwintering Dahlias and my 8 Oaks grown from acorns, although we're hoping to plant the Oaks out in the next few weeks.

Just as we were getting used to drier and slightly warmer days and had planted out the willows, we had rain and lots of it. This is the farmers field opposite which seemed to fill up quickly overnight and drained away really slowly.

And, as if that wasn't enough we had a downfall of snow!! It's amazing how quickly the weather can change here and it has certainly kept us on our toes.

Thankfully we had some warning and managed to cover the onions and garlic with some old compost bags to keep out the worst of the frost and snow.

The gardening had to be put on hold for a day or 2 until all this had melted away.

As I lit the fire and snuggled inside with Jess and Finn, M was slightly less patient to get outside and off he went to the barn to build a duck house for the midden. We had a duck and ducklings last year but we don't think any of the ducklings survived and so M planned on making them a little safe house in preparation for this year.

It is resting on the reed bed and is tilted slightly towards the water, with the ramp easily accessible. Fingers crossed Mr and Mrs Duck reappear this year.

As the snow disappeared and the sun reappeared the sowing and planting continued but I'll leave that to the next instalment as there are photos aplenty to peruse in Pt 2.