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!