Month: February 2009

I planted the two packs of Lidl Anemones that had been soaking in a bowl in my kitchen for two days. There were rather a lot of them so I had to use five large pots. I put the unsightly pots outside to keep my tulips company. The soil level for the Anemones is low as I don’t intend to leave them in the pots – just to get them going.

I was sworn off Anemone corms until one year when my son, Sammy, saw the photo in Lidl and begged me to get them. I told him that I had bought them before and planted them out but had never gotten any plants. He said he was sure it would be different this time.

So I bought a packet of corms and planted them in a pot indoors.  Sure enough they flowered and I then transplanted them outdoors. They have come up again ever since. They are such a good plant because, when they are finished, they leave no wilting foliage hanging around for half the summer – like tulips do, for example.

 

I have bought quite a few mixed Sweet Pea this year. The advantage of the mixed one is that you can afford to have lots. Named Sweet Pea are lovely but I never have enough of them.

I started off the first 17 seeds today, using a pack of bio-degradable pots that I found at the back of the shed. I’m saving my toilet rolls for the rest of the Sweet Pea!

I’m thinking along the lines of a Sweet Pea "wall" somewhere in the garden…

This plant first caught my eye at a stand in ‘Bloom’ 2006. After I bought it today I went for a cup of tea and bumped into a new found friend from the aqua aerobics class. I showed her the plant and we had a laugh as her name is ‘Elsie’ !

If you want me I’ll be in the greenhouse – with all my family!

The paving slabs went down today and some of the staging was assembled. I moved my first four plants out to the greenhouse – they look so lost. The greenhouse looks so big. I can’t imagine ever filling a quarter of it!

Incidentally, I also cleared and weeded most of the cresent-shaped bed in the West Garden but that pales into insignificance now.

I was digging over the veg patch today. I was amazed at the parsnips and turnips still in it, only small but I had some turnips for this evenings dinner and they were lovely and tender. Parsnip tomorrow! The old carpet and black plastic have been down since October they are the next veg patches.

Got to sow some more veg and annuals shortly after 5 o clock this evening.The most of them kept in a warm room inside the house for another while. Another job done was to give the other few flowerpots a quick wash to have them ready when needed.I also noticed some new buds appearing on some of the shrubs in the garden in the past while,only getting nicer each day.Hopefully if all goes well i will get to give the garden its first light trim at the weekend. 

I got two little hedgehog holly plants a while ago with the plan to make an unusual archway out of them.  They are very slow growing so I’m still waiting for my arch but the leaves offer great amusement in the meantime with all the spikes, and I really like the variegated leaves.

I planted this hoping to be blown away by the scent as it is supposed to have a powerful fragrance.  But so far I am only getting a faint sweet smell when I am up very close. It is nice to see flowers at this time of year though and they are quite delicate. Maybe when it matures it will have more flowers and the scent will be more obvious – fingers crossed.

The snowdrops that I thought hadn’t taken at all are now putting on a good show and have actually increased in number.  Hopefully they will continue to bulk up and I can spread them around the garden. 

There was lovely bright sunshine today, it felt like spring is really here.  The white crocus look so delightful.

Very happy to have my pictures up.Had to get the young lad to help me with the technology.

I dug the garden over in late november and thank God I did,for you would want to see the beautiful soil I have after the heavy frosts and snow.Its hard work in the back end of the year but it saves a lot of work in march. The frost does all the back-breaking work for me.

The greenhouse is my pride and joy and I got a great deal on it when I purchased it. Its 12 x 10, a good size for my needs. Its my haven from the world.

Finally I got out in the garden yesterday.  I dragged myself out, knowing the mountain of work that has to be done.  When I got stuck in I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I weeded the asparagus and artichoke bed and Bob planted some new asparagus.  Then I weeded the disastrous brussel sprouts – I think the chickens ate all the leaves off them.  Bob sowed some onions.

I watered down the tunnel and am getting ready to sow onions, lettuce, peas and carrots there today.

I was looking at the white bed yesterday and discovered that the hellebores that I bought as white hellebores are actually purple.  I should know better than to trust plant labels!  Any way the purple ones can go in the purple and orange avenue beds. I retrieved some white ones from the front garden that I can plant in the white bed.

After spraying the front garden over the winter alot of the couch grass has died but it does need another spray.  I notice some tulips and crocus popping their heads above the parapet. I’ll wait another week so that I can see them all and either dig them up with plenty of soil or avoid them with the spray.

I’ve been avoiding discussing the lavender garden because it looked terrible last year. I planted lavender at the front where the garden is very steep.  It used to be a lawn that was very dangerous to mow.  It is planted in rows but there is no mulch so you can see the plastic ground cover.  The last rows were planted in Feb so we should be able to get the mulch now.

 

I dug half the greenhouse border yesterday evening. It is very strange but pleasant to do this task indoors, in the warmth, at a time when I would normally be helping with homework in the house.

I also potted on my Datura, 3 Amaryllis (or whatever the new name for them is) and an Agapanthus. What a joy and delight to do this in the greenhouse!

I decided to experiment and leave a tray of seedling in the greenhouse, including overnight. Temperatures have been frost-free but obviously I will need to monitor that on a daily basis.

I put a tray of HA Cornflowers out yesterday. As I have plenty more seed and these are probably planted too early anyway, I was prepared to offer them up to the dark gods of the garden, if need be.

They seem fine so far. Minimum temperture was 5+ last night.

Its dull and drizzly today, I wonder is this the cause of the crocus being all closed up.

I thought I would go in search of the double snowdrops, these weren’t  up when I photographed  the last clump of snowdrops  on the 6th February.

Had fun yesterday sowing seeds with the kids.  The 3 of them planted their own sunflower seeds so we can have a competition to see who can grow the tallest one.  The youngest just turned 2 and got a nice wheelbarrow, shovel, rake and watering can as a present so he will be a big help! He liked sowing seeds but wanted to put them all in the same pot. He also liked pulling out the lables so we’ll probably have a bit of rearranging to do once things begin to sprout!

I collected my bare root Copper Beech and Lonicera today.

I plantd most of them but got slightly distracted by a neighbouring Rosa Rugosa hedge, in desperate need of weeding. I have five Lonicera plants left to go down tomorrow.

The Lonicera hedge looks great already – almost ready made. Thanks for all your help and advice about this last autumn, Alison.

Had a quick look around this evening to see how the seeds were coming along.Not to bad a day today,a little nippy but getting better each day.Great to see the lovely daffodils in bloom along with some other bulbs.Some more veg all ready to be planted tomorrow, all going to plan.Hopefully having some  pots ready to enter the greenhouse as well, now that all is ok there.My leeks did not seem to take off to well when i started some inside on a tray.Maybe get to have another go at them tomorrow.Time to have one last glimse to see all is well with the seed trays. 

I potted on my tomatoes and aubergines into 4" pots.

I now have the 15 tomato plants and 6 aubergine plants which I will plant in my greenhouse for crops this summer. I have selected three plants of each of the five types of tomato and, as I only have one type of aubergine, I selected 6 of these plants. I will get around to potting up the remaining plants eventually as back-up in case something happens to one of these 15 tomato or 6 aubergine plants.

I also remembered to put down slug pellets around my Ligularia. The slugs haven’t started on the new leaves yet so maybe I’ll beat them this year. I also put down pellets around my arums as I recently observed slug damage there already.

 

I potted on the three types of sweet peppers that I have grown – Jumbo Sweet, Sweet Chocolate and Big Banana. I selected the four strongest plants of each type and they are currently on my windowsill.

I decided to experiment with some of the back-up pepper plants and potted up one of each type, leaving it outside in the greenhouse. I have two trays of hardy annuals and some potted-on biannuals out there now but, of course, I can’t see if these seedlings are growing more slowly then they might have if they had been indoors. They certainly aren’t dying and, indeed, minimum temperature is now 7+. I hope to gauge whether or not growth has been stunted with my pepper experiment because I will be able to directly compare the house-pampered peppers with their banished brothers.

I also potted up 6 Hostas , 6 Phlox Paniculata roots that I bought in Lidl and a Chocolate Cosmos tuber,  I repotted one of my big Banana plants, Hibiscus and I also finished planting the Lonicera Hedge.