March Garden Diary

A quick recap of the month before it goes sailing over the horizon. March 2022  has been dry and mild in the main and we have recently enjoyed a fool's spring, basking in a most settled long spell of above average temperatures, blue skies and sunshine. That came to an abrupt end with some dramatic torrential rain on Tuesday evening since when the temperature has absolutely plummeted. The month is ending with a cold but most seasonal snap.

Various distractions have meant that I've not achieved a lot in the garden other than seed sowing in the greenhouse and continuing to plant up the dedicated snowdrop border, where I'm beginning to run out out of room for further snowdrops.  I have been making sure to regularly water new additions and the established bulbs have had a seaweed feed.

A few more new plants have arrived in the shape of yet another pulmonaria 'Miss Elly', phlox 'Blue Paradise', epimediums 'Domino' and youngianum  'Niveum' and viola odorata 'Konigen Charlotte'. I'm looking forward to seeing all of these in flower. I've also had a delivery of dahlia tubers which now need starting off.

I've not sown any vegetable seeds yet but there is plenty of time left to do that. Shallot bulbs 'Red Sun' have been planted in cells in the greenhouse and will be transferred to the ground when they have made some growth.

I've made the difficult decision to sow fewer seeds this year but whether I stick to that remains to be seen.  It's a decision largely influenced by the fact that I have developed osteoarthritis in my left hand, which ironically is not the hand that sustained two breaks a couple of years ago or so. I think that I need to ease the burden on my hands as I get older and sadly lugging seed trays back and forth adds to the workload. The special snowdrop pots have been turfed out of the greenhouse into the outer world, the sand bench has been turned on and seed sowing has been going on since the start of March. 

To date I've sown panicum capillare 'Sparkling Fountain', lagurus ovatus (my own saved seed for these first two), larkspur 'Misty Lavender' (all of eight seedlings as of today), salvia viridis 'Blue Monday', two batches of sweet peas, ' papaver rhoeas 'Amazing Grey', more rudbeckia 'Sahara', phlox paniculata 'Isabellina' and 'Cherry Caramel', amaranthus caudatus 'viridis', cosmos 'Apricotta' and scabious 'Fata Morgana'. I've been mostly happy with germination rates with the exception of the poppy, larkspur (although the packet carried a warning that germination had been low in tests so there was a larger quantity of seeds included in the packet to compensate) and the phlox 'Cherry Caramel', which hasn't germinated at all so a second sowing has been made from a different packet. I will also sow more larkspur and poppy. The only perennial sown to date is heliopsis 'Bleeding Hearts' which is a new one on me. The seedlings from September sowings - orlaya grandiflora, ammi visnaga, perennial scabious, calendula and daucus carrota have been pricked out and potted up. Sadly all the puny snapdragons went by the wayside over the winter. April will see a few further flower sowings. 

Anemone 'Mr Fokker' is now in flower from November planting but those that were planted this February have gone mouldy in their pots. However I'm delighted that six of ten ranunculus 'Champagne' planted in a tray in February have healthy green shoots and need potting up soon.

So that in a nutshell was March in my garden. A month especially memorable for it's unexpected weather and an unbelievable sudden woooooosh of growth, the return of our resident ducks and for the pleasure gained from sticking my head over the stream to to gaze upon  labours of my guerilla gardening. When we moved here there were already clumps of snowdrops and some native daffodils growing on the other bank, which is nor owned by us but isn't maintained by anybody. I have slowly lobbed bulbs over to that side over the years. Numbers have depended on my finances and Wilko's sales at the end of the planting season. More yellow patches and the odd white are spreading slowly but surely with each passing year, with no attention from human hand whatsoever.

Garden Diary ~ Looking Back

A mention if February before March is well underway. It certainly lived up to its reputation of being a wet month. As well as what seemed vast volumes of the wet stuff it was an extremely stormy month. Three named storms - 'Dudley', 'Eunice' and 'Franklin' battered us within the span of just over a week. Fortunately there was no real damage in the garden although there was a lot of garden debris to clear up. We had battened down the hatches beforehand which was just as well. It was a month when doing anything in the garden would sometimes have been to akin to taking part in an extreme sport. However there was little in the way of really cold weather and only a handful of light frosts. I haven't seen any February weather statistics so will be looking out for them.

Seed sowing started in the heated propagator starting with the tender cobaea scandens at the beginning of the month. I've sown the purple flowering one. This climber takes a long time to come into flower so an early start is advised. The seedlings are already like triffids but it will be May before they can be planted in the big wide world outside. They have moved out of the propagator and are now on the kitchen windowsill. I hope to prick the most well advanced ones out into individual pots next week. From there they will need a lot of tender loving care and mollycoddling if it is cold. Another early sowing was some rudbeckia 'Sahara' which were sown during half term week here, again in the heated propagator. They have germinated but fortunately grow slowly and caring for them is not as demanding. They have now become a must sow each year. That was the extent of my February seed sowing although my fingers were itching to sow more seeds.

I have indulged in some online horticultural retail therapy treating myself to some spring treasures. First to arrive were a trio of pulmonarias - 'Spring Awakening', 'Stillingfleet Meg' and 'Blake's Silver.' I have a vague inkling that I may have purchased the last one in the past but have no idea what happened to it. In the same box was a diminutive almost invisible epimedium 'Purple Pixie'. I'm relieved to say that it eventually showed signs of life and continues to grow. A trio of hellebores have also descended, a pink from the excellent 'Ashwood Nurseries' and two much smaller but sturdy plants from 'Twelve Nunns Nursery' - both Harvington doubles. All three hellebores were very well packed. You can photos of two of them in this post.

The one remaining pear tree has been pruned. We had two but one has never flourished so the decision was made to remove it. The Charlotte potatoes have now moved from shed to the spare bedroom where they are now chitting on the windowsill.

The snowdrops continued to sing throughout February, along with crocus, iris reticulata, hellebores, cardamine quinquefolia, cyclamen coum, muscari and towards the end of the month little daffies showed their colour. Towards the end of the month the green garden waste bin was emptied for the first time this year, always a welcome sign that spring is really on the way.

Diary Update - Late January 2021

January is all but over so a diary update is called for. I can't say that I've done that much in the way of actual gardening. A combination of days of grey grim weather and other matters have been responsible but there has been some behind the scenes activity. A January birthday called for a garden centre visit. Here unlike most of the other customers I resisted the compulsion to make a beeline for the bargain price festive paraphernalia. We headed straight for the outside and plants and it was so sad to see that just after 11.00am we were the only people out there for a while. Still it was pleasant to be able to browse comfortably. I came home with the above helleborus 'Lily' which in fact was not the one I intended to purchase. I was guilty of not checking the label as it was a flowering helleborus 'Tutu' which had grabbed my attention. I was guilty of just seeing colour and not looking carefully enough. Still it's a pleasant enough plant. A couple of witch hazels also landed in my trolley - 'Ruby Glow' and 'Jelena' thanks to a garden gift voucher from my dear sister. I also bought a modest amount of half price seeds. In the last couple of weeks or so more packets of seeds have arrived in the post mainly of sweet peas. I think that I'm more or less done now on the seed purchasing front but I've said that before. Shallots 'Red Sun' and seed potatoes in the shape of the salad potato 'Charlotte' have also arrived. 

The greatest source of pleasure this month for me this month has been my collection of special snowdrops both those grown in pots under cover as well as in the garden. Below are a couple of newcomers. The first is 'Hans Guck' In die luft (which translates as 'Johnny-Head-In -The-Air') - new arrival this year whilst the second' Green Of Hearts' is a 2021 arrival.

During the  past week we had a couple of blissful hours when it almost seemed like spring and the greenhouse temperature warmed up encourage a couple of pots of iris reticulata 'Pauline' and a 

pot of crocus 'Firefly' to show colour. Magical! 

Garden Diary ~ New Year's Day 2021

Illustration by Lena Anderson.

What a pleasure it has been to spend time in New Year's Day in the garden. The temperature was warm enough to venture out without a coat! Yesterday was perhaps slightly warmer and sunnier but both days provided unexpected bonuses. The first gardening task of 2022 was to snip off the old hellebore foliage and bin it. It was interesting to see that there was evidence of aphids on the back of a few leaves. I than disposed of some soggy tat. Tomorrow the weather is predicted to be cooler but still warm enough I think to get out again and mulch the hellebore plants with some well rotted leaf mould. In the garden there are signs of activity with bulbs beginning to emerge. The first snowdrops are opening which is such a heartwarming event. Some clumps are now quite sizeable but others are taking time to establish. 

Time soon to plan next year's vegetable garden. There are seed potatoes to order. I think that I will stick with my favourite 'Charlotte' which is a great salad potato. Without the allotment I grew potatoes in bags last year for the very first time. It proved successful and I think that a further bag might be purchased. This year's sowing definites include the usual suspects of salad leaves, shallots, French beans, beetroot, courgettes and chard but I will have to consider carefully whether to add on top of this list. It was good to notice yesterday that the garlic cloves of 'Purple Early Wight' planted on the 17th November have started to come through.

After my outside pottering an inspection of the greenhouse and my potted special snowdrops followed. One big change since last year is that I've bought a smaller number of pots in to overwinter. A good number will take their chance in pots outside. A lot of them are now planted in the garden so a few casualties in event of a tough winter will not be the end of the world. In the greenhouse are my favourites and newest additions will I can gaze at a close quarters during the winter months. If necessary I can put a heater on overnight to fend off the worst of any bitterly cold snaps. There are three trays which each hold two dozen bulbs and some dozen or so loose pots too.Some bulbs are duplicates. My two newest purchases are showing mixed promise - galanthus nivalis 'Prague Spring' which was a small bulb on planting will not flower this year whereas galanthus plicatus 'Sophie North' is thriving. Both were bought as dormant bulbs in the summer.

In flower today are the following galanthus elwesii ' Fenstead End', galanthus plicatus 'The Pearl', galanthus plicatus 'Trimmer', 'galanthus Sutton Courtney' and galanthus 'Betty Hansell' and galanthus 'Ding Dong'. Sadly the also early flowering 'Three Ships' has decided not to flower this year. Other 'drops are nearly there but not quite so I shall check again next weekend. 

Also in the greenhouse I was pleased to spot that the first anemone 'Mr Fokker' is sprouting. I planted six in November in dry compost which has been watered yet.

My gardening day is not yet complete as tonight I plan to order some dahlia tubers. some difficult decisions ensue! On this and my new seed packet storage container more to come hopefully next weekend. Happy New Year and happy gardening to all my blogging friends - I hope that 2022 treats you, your loved ones and your gardens most kindly. Thank you for all your kind comments and encouragement last year.

November Notes - Garden Diary

Time to catch up with my somewhat neglected virtual garden diary. It has been a really beautiful weekend here. Calm, blue skies and sunshine throughout. It has also been a most pleasant temperature - yesterday was so mild that I was able to potter about in the garden wearing a t-shirt rather a warm fleece which is my normal November gardening attire. We have still to experience our first hard frost although there was a slight trace of white on our neighbour's roof one morning last week. It soon evaporated though. My priority this weekend was filling the green waste bin which will be wheeled up our lane on Monday ready for the last collection of the year so of course I just had to cram in as much as possible. The service resumes in the third week of February and by then the bin will no doubt be full to the brim again. Earlier this week the monthly speaker at my local u3a gave a talk on the subject of waste disposal which after a dry start turned out to be more interesting than I had anticipated. It was fascinating to find out out what happens to the contents of each bin once it is emptied.

There was time though after the hard work for exploration. The most exciting discovery was to see some seedlings of arum mamoratum italicum poking through the ground. I wasn't sure what they were at first until I saw the distinctive black spotting on the leaves. Funnily enough I recently saw an episode of Carol Klein's great television series on autumnal gardening, in which she sowed fresh seeds of this striking foliage plant. The next day I collected the bright red berries from my plant to sow. Obviously nothing has happened as yet but was I most delighted to see these self-seeders. Funnily enough I had been talking to a friend about sowing these the seeds and she mentioned that she found them self-seeding in her garden but this is the first time I have had the pleasure. I will have to extract them sooner and later as they are in a place where they could easily be accidentally trodden on and somebody in this household does have rather large feet. 

On the subject of Carol Klein one excellent series has finished but a continuation of the programmes where she visits one garden over the course of a year has replaced it. This is on Channel 5 on Thursdays at 7.00 pm and well worth watching whenever you can.

 

In the same border another surprise was waiting for me - the not unexpected signs of snowdrop snouts poking through the ground. The first to reveal themselves this year are the early flowering 'Fieldgate Prelude' and 'Philippe Andre Meyer which I thought flowered later. Of course there is always the possibility that the squirrels might have been switching the labels for fun so I will just have to be patient and wait to see what happens. I have previously noted that my pots of special snowdrops had snouts coming through but these are the first to come through in the garden. 

Another bulb that is showing and is not far off from flowering is the diminutive and early flowering narcissus 'Cedric Morris'. The flower buds are very much in evidence but no sign of colour yet.

In other news the pile of bulbs to be planted is I'm glad to report slowly diminishing. The containers that were virtually emptied over the weekend and contents snipped for the green bin can now be planted with the tulips that have been patiently waiting in the shed. In the meantime I'm tempted to order one or two more packets of bulbs at half price and then of course it will soon be time to seriously start to study seed catalogues in earnest. First and foremost plans are afoot to sow some sweet peas next month - a first for me so the supplies need restocking. I wonder what everyone is else is up to in their gardens at the moment.

Diary Update ~ September 2021.

Well my using my diary keeping attempts using this blog are proving haphazard to say the least. A couple of months have elapsed since I last wrote a post. August came and went but maybe the least said about it the better. It was a dull and depressingly not at all like summer month.

September however has by and large been a warm, sunny and quite beautiful month although the temperatures have dramatically dropped over the last week when there have also been winds and heavy rainfall. Autumn is well and truly here. We enjoyed the first week of the month on holiday by the sea in South Wales.  The weather was a mixture of sun at the start and end, overcast in the middle but most fortunately dry throughout. Sadly there were no opportunities for any garden visiting but plenty of coastal footpath walks, unsuccessful dolphin spotting and sitting out in the garden of where we were staying reading and enjoying the beautiful view of the sea as well as bat watching each evening. We usually see bats in the summer at home but not a single one this summer. There was also time for the obligatory seaside fish and chips meal sitting on a bench overlooking the bay and of course an ice cream (not at the same time!)

The two new raised beds in the garden have been largely cleared. The sweet pea and bean wigwams have been cleared and will be dismantled soon. The pattypan squash 'Sunburst' remains along with some beetroot. Calendulas have been torn out but all the herbs planted there are designed to be permanent occupants with perhaps more to be added to their numbers in the future. The potato bags have been shaken out and cleaned in readiness for next year. We didn't grow the same volume of potatoes that the allotment allowed us to but the 'Charlotte' salad potato crop was much enjoyed and the potatoes were cleaner than those grown at the plot. We are now eating the last of the tomatoes the plants having been consigned into the green bin. The majority of the tomatoes were the variety 'Romello' which is a bush plant with delicious small red plum tomatoes and it produces in quantity. 

I missed my 'Sunset' apple tree at the allotment as well as it's two companions and of course all the soft fruit I had there especially the raspberries. Still the stick of a spring planted 'Sunset' apple tree has taken and grown better than expected and our wonky apple tree has produced more fruits than ever. This might be down to having removed a large autumn flowering cherry in it's vicinity. The pear tree is covered with fruit and harvesting will be done in the immediate future before the squirrels get there. At the moment their attention is focused on scurrying about with conkers in their mouths bound for a secret hide and forget all about spot but that diversion will not last forever. 

In the flower garden there has been some pruning and tidying. The battle against the marestail in the Lockdown Border runs it's infinite course whilst plans have been drawn in my head to remove some of the perennials in there. I'm planning on planting some new additions but still have to locate them. The new roses planted round the geodesic dome were doing well until I spotted some rose sawfly larvae munching them with relish. Some spraying and squishing seems to have done the trick but they did some damage. Their presence was restricted to one side of the dome so fortunately only three plants were affected. I've never come across these beasties on other roses in the garden and certainly didn't expect pests like that in September.

A few hardy annual seeds were sown as soon as we returned from our holiday - calendulas 'Sunset Buff' and 'Snow Princess', orlaya grandiflora, daucus carota 'Purple Kisses Mix', ammi visnaga 'Green Mist' and 'Antirrhinum 'Chantilly Bronze'. Most have germinated well except for the ammi and calendula 'Snow Princess' so second sowings have been made. A couple of days later I remembered the larkspur packet that I had left in the freezer before we left and a possibly too late sowing of these was made today. A perennial scabious has also been sown and cuttings of salvia 'Nachtvlinder' have been taken. 

I've made a few plant purchases for planting up a big container at the front of the house - white flowering cyclamens, white violas, a small skimmia, Christmas box and an ivy. My bulb order was sent off and should have arrived this week but because of the shortage of hgv drivers/ fuel it is still with the carriers. I'm not in a hurry for the tulip bulbs as I will not plant them until November but would like to get my hands on the other bulbs as soon as possible.

Finally we made one garden visit as such to Abbeywood Gardens in Cheshire, a few weeks later after blogging friend Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' was there. You can see her post here. This was my first there since last August and we had a most enjoyable morning walking around finishing with lunch outside. The photos you can see on this post were all taken there apart from the seaside holiday snap. We also visited Chester Zoo last week where some of the planting there grabbed my attention away from the animals much to my niece's bewilderment. So on to a new month tomorrow and wishing you all happy gardening in October. 

Garden Diary

Once again time is running away with me as it is coming up to a month since my last diary post. The weather was disappointing during the second half of June and first half of July - cool and showery. However it has been slowly perking up for the last few days and today is an almost perfect summer's day. If anything it is too hot for me and venturing out to potter is limited to early mornings and evenings. Apart from the sun the pollen is high and all the biting insects seem to be homing in on me as soon as I set foot outside. Oh well you have to take the highs with the lows and the sun is certainly welcome.

It doesn't seem that much has been happening as far as gardening jobs are concerned apart from weeding, weeding and more weeding.

We have had our first strawberries which were delicious but sadly a good number went mouldy in the rain. After weeks of looking pristine the French bean leaves are now looking rather tatty and mollusc shredded. The beans themselves are in flower and a few are now morphing into discernible beans. The beetroot are plumping out rather nicely, shallots will be ready to pull soon but the 'Sunburst' pattypan squash so far seems all leaf and very little in the way of pattypans. I've grown these for several years now and they are usually prolific. However this is the first time I've grown them in the garden. 

We've had the first crop from the 'Charlotte' salad potatoes which were delicious with some bacon and broad beans. This is the first time that I have grown them in a potato planter bag and I made the mistake of planting too many in each bag. I think that the two bags I planted are too congested to produce a good number of potatoes but those that were harvested were in an immaculate condition and looked better than some of those grown at the allotment over the years.

The lockdown border has come to a bit of a standstill. I think that I'm dispirited by seeing the marestail taking off again after my initial culling. However I must grit my teeth and continue to suppress it the best I can. I have bought three more 'Totally Tangerine' plants to go in there and need to get them in soon especially as new flowers will soon be opening on them. Now I'm in search of penstemons and phloxes in purple or lilac shades. I had quite liked the look of penstemon 'Plum Jerkum' when I saw it online but I came across it accidentally yesterday afternoon in a local garden centre and decided it was much too dark so that was a useful discovery. No I didn't buy anything for once - the main purpose was meeting up with two old friends and very pleasant it was too sitting in the sunshine under a canopy and chatting.

In other news the new 'Bathsheba' roses looked beautiful when they flowered but didn't seem to last long or look good when they went over in the wet spell. Their fragrance wasn't as strong as I had hoped for so the jury is still out. It is described as being repeat flowering though so I'm keeping my eyes peeled for new buds. 

A rest from seed sowing apart from another batch of lunaria 'Chedglow' of late but I'll soon be checking the seed tin to see if I need to order anything for September sowing and then of course the bulb order needs to go in imminently.

Finally for the first time ever I've managed to grow sunflowers at least as tall as me! Sunflowers are one of those plants I've sowed many a time usually to see them gobbled up by molluscs when they are still tender young plants but this year sees a trio of sunflower 'Procut Plum' about to open. I'm most excited indeed. 

Catching Up - Diary Update

Ooooooops - almost a month has lapsed since my last diary update. I'm not sure where that time has gone but needless to say I've been busy. June seems to have been quite a dry month so far and we could really do with some of the wet stuff at the moment. Whilst parts of the south of the country received more than a month's rainfall yesterday there were just a few spots here and looking at the forecast no sign of any on the horizon in the immediate future. It has been cooler during the last few days though which has made it easier on watering duties.

The new raised beds are beginning to fill out. One is planted with a wigwam of 'Cobra' climbing French beans, a wigwam of about to come into flower sweet peas and 'Sunburst' patty pans. I sowed some 'Romanesco' courgettes for a bit of contrast but not one germinated. The seed was past it's sow by date though but still worth a try and note has been made to order some afresh. In the other bed there are herbs, calendula, shallots, enough for a meal or two of dwarf French beans, beetroots, a trio of sunflower 'Procut Plum' anemone coronaria 'Mr Fokker' and some strawberries. There are plans to put up a third bed but where remains to be decided.  The new apples tree which looked like a mere stick when it arrived has grown but I expect that it will be a few years before it produces a decent crop so I will treat us to a mature specimen before the year is out.

Work on the ongoing 'Lockdown' border also known as the 'Border Of Doom' continues. This like a lot of the garden has suffered whilst there were not really enough hours in the day to tend to garden and allotment. It is about thirty feet t long by four feet and is sadly riddled with marestail. I've come to the conclusion after years of battling with the stuff that there's no way to get rid of it so it's a case of living with it. However I was dismayed to see it also raising it's ugly head in the new raised beds which were filled with a newly delivered vegetable growing medium this spring. Grrrrrrrrr! 

Meanwhile the 'Lockdown Border' in search of a new name is slowly being replanted. I have planted a few annuals in it this year but in future the plan is that is filled with perhaps two or three roses, mainly perennials as well as some annuals/biennials that can either either be sown in early summer September or sown directly in the ground. The colour scheme is purples, mauves, orange, burgundy, plums and perhaps some bronze shades. It is going to take some time to sort out and is still very much a work in progress. Giving me most pleasure there at the moment is papaver 'Patty's Plum' (photo above) who although planted last spring didn't flower last year.

More seed sowing took place in late May and this month of hesperis both mauve and white, lunaria annua 'Chedglow', calendula and foxglove and I hope to sow some sweet william this weekend. I planned to sow some wallflowers but so far haven't been able to track down the desired colour. Then a bit of a rest from seed sowing until the September sown annuals when another year starts. 

There have been some most enjoyable garden visits squeezed in too - one to a local beautifully maintained and planted NGS open garden and the other to a famous garden which we had not visited for some years. More of the latter visit very soon. Needless to say plant purchases were made at both but I'm pleased to report that especially when it came to the first garden my purchases were on my wish list rather than falling into the spontaneous buy now and think where I'm going to plant it later category. Another diary update soon hopefully.

P.S. Although there wasn't a single hint of rain on the last Met. Office weather forecast I saw before going to bed yesterday there was some considerate rainfall in the night. Even though the sound woke me up at some unearthly hour it made me smile.

Diary Update

 

Well almost a fortnight since my last diary post so I'm not doing brilliantly so far. I would love to say that I've spent a lot of time in the garden of late but that is sadly not the case. The weather has often been cool, windy and very, very wet and almost unlike May. It will be interesting to see what the weather statistics are at the end of the month. 

The table of plants in the photo is my haul from a plant sale last Sunday. This was far less chaotic than our first in ages plant fair visit in April and it was comfortable to browse. I came home with astrantias, thalictrums, a geum, a couple of pulmonarias, an actaea and a veronicastrum 'Fascination'. I have never grown a veronicastrum before. Three of them are plants that I have had before and lost. Astrantias 'Gill Richardson' and 'Burgundy Manor' both got suffocated by too many plants surrounding them and my lack of care whilst the lovely dainty thalictrum 'Hewitt's Double' has lived here before on at least one occasion and slowly fizzled out.

Planting out the September hardy annuals is still underway. I hoped to get them in by now but the weather gods have conspired against me. The foliage on some of them is looking slightly anaemic but hopefully they will perk up once their feet are in the ground. I will also treat them to some seaweed feed. It will be the turn of the half hardys next which are still in the process of being hardened off.

The French beans - both the climbing 'Cobra' and the smaller 'Ferrari' have been sown as well as 'Sweet Basil and 'Mrs Burn's Lemon Basil'. My little courgette plants look quite sturdy. March sown sweet pea plants are in now in the ground planted at the base of a wigwam.

I want to sow one or two more annuals before the end of the month so need to sit down before the weekend is out and make a list. I'm also thinking of splitting some of my biennial seed sowing over May and June so better add them to the list too. Only a handful of varieties though.

In other news a lovely blogging friend - you know who you are, sent me a couple of dahlia cuttings as well as a cutting of salvia 'Phyllis Fancy'. I've also welcomed half a dozen little bit healthy and happy scented pelargoniums from 'Fibrex Nurseries' a company which specialises in pelargoniums. Finally all this wet suff means that the weeds are growing! 

Dear Diary

When I started my blog many moons ago I had some notion that I would be able to make use of it to track gardening and allotment activities. I thought of it perhaps developing into regular diary type entries which would enable me to record the plannings, plantings and general going ons in the garden and what was then an allotment too. Well I was never brilliant at keeping a diary even when I was much younger and in the way of all my previous chronicle keeping attempts entries slowly but surely fell by the wayside. I have decided to have another attempt at a weekly or thereabouts diary type post. I'm sure that some weeks I will have more to say than others.

After the cool and dry April we experienced the first week of May has been decidely chilly too with some dramatic wintry precipitation. What has been remarkable though has been the amount of rain we've had over this time which has been welcomed by the garden, although perhaps not as much by the gardener whose attempts to get out there have been thwarted. Everything though looks so refreshed and the air smells better. We are promised warmer days in the week ahead starting with a prediction a temperature in double figures tonight! For the first time this spring a mollusc patrol will be mounted when darkness falls.

Plans for this week include planting out some of the September sown hardy annuals later than I would have preferred. These include orlaya, ammi visnaga, scabious and calendula. There should have been snapdragons too but only one germinated. Mind you it's a fine specimen if I say so myself but it is destined to be a lonely only. There are also some February planted on the heated sand bench 'Galilee Pastel' mix anemones to be planted. Once I have freed up a number of three inch pots there will be more pricking out and hardening off of various greenhouse residents. I reckon that everything is behind this year because of the combination of cold and dry. The first batch of March sown sweet peas are also ready to be planted. There is a wigwam already in place awaiting them.

Seed sowing plans for the week include zinnia, French beans, and direct sowing sowing some nigella. There is something else too but it is evading me just now. No garden centre, plant fairs or garden visits planned for this week but hopefully there will be more soon.

Giving me great pleasure in the cold and often damp gone past week have been my zingy pots of tulips. One filled with 'Ballerina' tulips, whilst the other two have a mixture of 'Ballerina', 'Jan Reus' and 'Purple Dream'. Although I love the colour combination 'Purple Dream' is much taller than the others and is rather wayward. I will tweak the combination next year. Apologies for the quality of the photo but it was a lightening snap with my phone on a chilly evening. It still conveys the colours. I feel so smug to have three containers of flourishing tulips as I have a love hate relationship with them, the leaves leaving me stone cold. The secret might be that himself planted them for me under my supervision. What has given you pleasure gardening wise this week?

EOMV March 2016 - Warm Fuzzies

March began with great excitement when we caught sight of a bird in our bird box, which you can see to the side of 'Is it Bill or Is It Ben?' It was only almost five years to the day since himself set up the box complete with camera. We have in theory been able to watch live streams from Bird TV in our living room since instalment but it has never been high up the ratings until now. After a couple of years of emptiness himself moved the box. The beginnings of a nest were constructed the following spring but then something must have gone amiss as it was abandoned. So when we saw the first appearance of what looked like a leaf, followed by more nesting material and then a glimpse of bird's legs you can imagine the euphoria. However it looks as if this was the first and only glimpse of Mama Bird that we will glimpse. What was a reasonably clear picture has disintegrated into a fuzzy morass. We think that the nesting material has been pushed up right against the camera thus blocking the picture. We can hear sounds including though so we know that the box is occupied. There are no babies as yet but when they hatch we will certainly hear them tweet although we will not see any open wide beaks.

March continued with some gentle gardening activities including dividing and seed sowing. The heated sand bench in the greenhouse has gone into operation. A batch of sweet peas went in on the first of the month and then a second on Easter Day. Other sowings include achillea ptarmica 'The Pearl', aquilegia 'Miss M.I. Huish', snapdragons, cornflowers, grasses, scabious, orlaya visigna, limonium suworowii, amaranthus caudatus and cobaea scandens. The only vegetable seed sown to date are 'Onward' peas sown on St. Patrick's Day but there will be a flurry of activity in this department once we are well and truly into April. Some dahlia tubers have gone into pots but there is still a pile waiting for me to plant up. I have some concerns about the quality of the dahlia tubers I received but only time will tell. I've made a mental note though to order early this year rather than leave it to last minute.

The greenhouse is still quite full with pots of special snowdrops which need shifting out into the outer world. I've put the bigger pots out and will probably move the smaller ones out next week. They are in crates so can be shifted back under cover if any really cold weather is predicted.

March ended with a sunshine, big bumblebees afloat, a delivery of two new special snowdrops, chestnut leaves unfurling and the flowers of geranium phaeum sneaking up on me. You can catch up with other versions of March over at 'The Patient Gardener's Weblog'. Many thanks for hosting each month Helen. Now it's back to Bird TV for me and the rustling and chirping soundtrack.

The Memory Keeper

I've been scrabbling about in the back of kitchen cupboards today in search of jars. Not a case of efficient forward planning for marmalade making or potential jammy goodness or even the perfect pickle, but in search of just one suitable jar for a new project. I eventually came across a jar that has been decorated by either my mother or my sister - as well as the butterfly, a dragonfly and a bee are flying round its periphery. I'm not sure yet whether this jar will be big enough but I am hoping to use it to collect a year's worth of written reminders of what has made me feel happy - not necessarily big events but the little everyday happenings, that make you smile at the time. The idea comes from a friend who empties her jar out at the end of the year and reflects on all the positive things that have happened even in bleak years. I've already got one or two snippets to put in - a rainbow on New Year's Day, two robins feeding together at the bird feeding station again on the same day, as well as the fact that  yesterday afternoon I solved the identity of whodunit in Susan Hill's latest book 'A Question Of Identity', a hundred pages or so before the end! Time now to find some paper to jot these down before they slip away like dreams into the forgotten zone. How will you be recording 2013?

'Double Dipping'

This 'double dip' autumn continues broken only briefly by the first frost last Sunday. Any thoughts of lifting the dahlias had to be put on hold as I was heading south for a few days. I have come back to find frazzled leaves but still need to lift them and find them a des res for the winter. Other than that most other things escaped damage and it has turned mild again. Before I went there was time to sow a few pots of sweet peas. The sowing I made in October was most disappointing as only seven seeds germinated out of fifteen. I am not sure how old the seed was but I picked up a packet of a new introduction 'Prima Ballerina' and hope that they fare better. I have never sown sweet peas so late in the year so yesterday I switched the heated sand bench on in the greenhouse. Maybe some bottom heat will encourage them to get going. I must order some more sweet pea seeds for spring sowing - definitely 'Matucana' but also want to try some different varieties. The catalogues have been arriving in dribs and drabs including the arrival this week of Elizabeth MacGregor's new catalogue which I am really looking forward to browsing through. Somehow online catalogues are never quite as satisfying. I have had a quick flick and am tempted by a few plants.

Himself has been busy this weekend relocating the bird box that we fitted with a camera earlier this year. We were hoping to be able to watch 24/7 live action from the nest but it was not to be. We were initially encouraged to see leaves and twiggy bits arrive and held our breath in vain for some time. Our most exciting moment was when we saw a wood louse scuttle across the floor of the box. So we have decided to try another venue next year and have finally decided on its location. The box will be spring cleaned next spring and a few starter leaves added for encouragement. Maybe there will be fledgelings to report on then.

Meanwhile the leaf sweeping goes on and on. I have been wondering when the leaves in the photo are going to relinquish their hold and where they will land. The tree - a cherry blossom belongs to our next door neighbour - it had lost all its foliage on the same date in 2009. So for all the talk of a premature start autumn is still going strong.

Catch Me If You Can!

It seems that all of a sudden that the traffic lights have turned to green and that everything has accelerated at once. No time to press the pause button now.  At the allotment the newly planted apple trees are settling in - more leaves have unfurled each time I visit. I think that I could see blushes of potential blossom today. The garlic is shooting up and the green tops of shallots have now broken through the soil. The raspberries and white berry are already showing their first sprigs of potential fruit. I have planted the first lot of potatoes - one row of Nicola, whilst the rest of the bed is planted with the most unromantically named BF15, which I am hoping tastes better than its name. The rest of the beds are cleared and are awaiting planting up as spring progresses. In the greenhouse I have pricked out the tomatoes this week. Cucumbers and courgettes are through, whilst beans and basil are sown but have still to show signs of life. Time for a full inventory soon just to remind myself where I am up to. For once I have managed to keep up with labeling until this afternoon, when a rather loud buzzing near my ear distracted me from the task in hand.  Result : I now have two different types of tomatoes suffering from an either or identity crisis. Now that I've gone off the straight and narrow there are bound to be more incidents.

There has been a similar spurt of growth in the garden too at ground level and above as the trees are flushed with that delicate magical growth of early spring. So much happening all at once and this weekend the first plant sale and garden visit of the season. Before I disappear into a veritable all consuming haze of green, I would like to point you all in the direction of Allotment Heaven, where the lovely Maureen has a great giveaway on offer. This would be of particular interest to any rose lovers as it is a copy of David Austins new book 'The English Roses'. Good luck!

Lurking With Intent

Spring has definitely been lurking with intent for some time but this weekend I felt that it is definitely knocking loudly on the door. The snowdrops are now going over and hellebores, irises, little daffs, pulmonarias and primroses are now stealing the show. The ducks are paddling and quacking on the little surface water stream that borders the side of the garden. I have spied bee and ladybird. At long last the autumn flowering cherry ~ prunus subhirtella autumnalis has a sprinkling of flowers. This has never failed before to blossom both in autumn and then again in the following spring. This autumn ~ zilch! The bitter early cold snap in November cruelly frosted the flowers just as they were emerging, so they are even more of a welcome sight than usual.

I had my first proper session of the year at the allotment. I know that it's nearly the middle of March but I must confess to being a fair weather allotmenteer. The site lacks basic facilities which I can put up with during the summer months but not in the depths of winter. Hopefully this situation might be rectified in the future, as the allotment association intends to apply for funding to install a composting toilet. With a growing number of women and young families with children on the site achieving this has become an important priority. My first task was to do some much needed tidying up. Hopefully I will return later in the week to plant my garlic which I have started of in modules at home and also to plant shallots. The perimeter fencing is still to be completed. Although I am not keen on its appearance it has dawned on me that it has potential as support for climbing plants which could be a blessing in disguise.

This year I am making a deliberate effort to try to reduce the volume of seeds that I grow. I do not really need thirty plus tomato plants. So far tomatoes, sweet peppers, nicotiana mutablis and dahlia 'Bishops Children' have germinated. These firstlings are now spending their days outside in the greenhouse but are stil resident in the house at night. I have sown broad beans, 'Kelvedon Wonder' peas and beetroot in modules in the greenhouse. I plan to sow leeks, parsnips, chard and spinach later this week and something else which escapes my memory.

I have been fiddling about with my blog this week and would welcome feedback about the size of photos. Are they now too big? I am undecided.

Finally a big  thank you to everyone for their ideas and hints on looking after my reptilian like hands. There were some excellent suggestions, which I think that I will try to knit together in a separate post at some time in the future. I was surprised to find out how many of you are fellow eczema sufferers so I would like relate this information back to you.

'Walk Like An Egyptian'

Well this week my little 'Egyptian Walking' onion also known as a 'Tree Onion' made the long journey from Devon up north to the banks of the Mersey. It is now catching its breath in the greenhouse. As I am not sure whether it has come from being under cover or from the great outdoors, I am erring on the side of caution and will gently reintroduce it to the elements. In case you are wondering about the name the plant sets forth air born bulbils, each one which having the capacity to root and produce another plant ~ hence the walking. Along with it arrived a Japanese wineberry, some shallots and seed potatoes with the most romantic name of BF15. Now if one picked potatoes by name only this surely would remain on the shelf. However it is meant to be a tasty morsel - its parents being Belle de Fontenay and Flava . All these goodies will be making their way to the allotment sooner or later. We paddled our way down there this morning but it is much to wet to do anything other than observe the progress of the new fencing.

The cuttings which have overwintered in the greenhouse seem to have put on a spurt of growth in the last fortnight and are ready repotting. Some of the penstemon cuttings look a bit leggy and in need of pinching out. A task for the forthcoming week.

It still seems as if we are very much in between the seasons here. Some of the snowdrops are now going over and giving way to irises, little daffs and hellebores. I was pleased to see this hellebore open for the very first time earlier this week ~

It is one of the hellebores I bought via Ebay a couple of years ago as a plug plant. It's perhaps more spotty than I would prefer but considering it cost relatively little in hellebore terms, I am more than happy with it. Weather wise though apart from a beautiful mild day on Thursday, which I had the misfortune to observe from a train window, it is still more like winter than spring. There has been a good deal of rain and wind this week but it has been possible though at times to get out and do. Tomorrow there will be the grand ceremony of the switching on of the heated propagator and then all systems go!

The title of this post was inspired by the most catchy ditty of the same name by 'The Bangles', which I will be singing regularly to my onion to encourage it to grow, go forth and walk.

P.S. For Mey who commented on my last post wanting to contact me by email I am unable to reply to you directly. You can contact me at thegreentapestry@googlemail.com
Look forward to hearing from you.

'Follow The Yellow Brick Road'

Events outside the garden and lottie are taking up much of my time at the moment so no time for a diary post last weekend. I have been away for almost a week and on returning home I had a good wonder round the garden yesterday. Although it is still early in the year so much had happened in a short spell, no doubt prompted by a spell of warmer weather. The snowdrop clumps in the garden are now at their best, although the 'national collection of snowdrops' is in a sad state. I wrote about their frail state here. Since then there has been further wailing and gnashing teeth of as many of the survivors are not showing any signs of flowers this year. Oh what a to do. I can only hope that they revive but now face another twelve months to find out. More hellebores have opened and I am waiting for some to show their true colours for the first time this year. Iris 'Katharine Hodgkin' have opened and crocuses have croaked. All this colour out of nowhere in the space of a few days. It is too wet to be outside taking photos today so here is one of this exquisitely marked  iris that I took at my one and only visit to an RHS London winter show back in January 2006. Such show visits are a great way to dispel the winter blues but week day train fares from London make it too much of an expensive proposition these days.

I have not had a chance to visit the allotment but my trusted deputy himself has been down for a reccie. The work with the new fencing continues. Himself spoke to the contractors as some top soil is needed and they have agreed to drop some off onto the plot in the next week. Then I must get down to some work myself to get things into shape ready for the first inspection of the year in early April.

New to my bookshelves this week is the new edition of 'The Yellow Book,' the purchase of which always gives me a delicious tingle as it makes me think that spring is really on the horizon. I imagine that many of you are familiar with 'The Yellow Book' but just in case any introduction is needed, the book lists and describes  all the gardens in England and Wales, which open to visitors to raise funds for charity under the National Gardens Scheme. Although the information that the book contains is available online, I still get a lot of pleasure from dipping into pages full of descriptions of gardens both great and small. I have already penciled in a snowdrop garden to visit soon and an allotment site in June. Later on in the year I plan to cross the border over to North Wales, to be inspired by some colourful late summer planting here in Karen's, 'An Artists Garden's real life garden.

Going,Going,Gone!

My gardening week started on a slightly sad note but has ended on a high. I will do sad first. On Monday we visited the allotment for the first time this year. We went to shift some odds and ends as work was due to start on removing out current perimeter fencing and replacing it with a 1.8 metre high steel fence. This is not by choice ~  the local council have decided that all the plots on our site will have standard fencing onto communal pathways. The council are paying for materials and all the labour involved. Whilst I can understand the logic behind this decision and think that the plots will be more secure, I think that the site will lose in terms of individuality and character. Maybe it's just me but I like the higglety pigglety appearance that exists now. There are all sorts of wooden fences - both brand new and old, recycled from pallets and planks ~ they are different heights and thicknesses and different colours. Other folk including myself have chain - link fences. Many plots have hand crafted signs with their plot numbers or names including gems such as 'Backacres'. You can see one such example in the photo at the top of the page ~ this artwork was created by my lovely plot neighbours. There will be less scope for such charm once we are all fitted with the same fencing and there will be no more passing plants and seeds over the fence quite so easily.

In the garden the snowdrops have made great strides in the last week and just need a bit more warmth to open fully. Some perennials are showing signs of new growth which is always encouraging. Meanwhile it's a waiting game to see what's happening with the contents of the cold frame - its occupants having the misfortune to have chosen the wrong year to overwinter in pots. In the greenhouse there are still no signs of the January sown batch (replacement for November sown losses) of sweet peas germinating but the 'Solent White' garlic I planted in pots is now showing green tips.

Now for the good news. This morning I had fun taking part in the RSPB Big Birdwatch ~ most of the usual suspects turned up and a little goldcrest sneaked in an appearance at the very last minute. Then this afternoon I was delighted to discover that I was a prizewinner in the Irish Times Christmas Gardening quiz which I entered at the very last minute. I have won a year's subscription to 'The Irish Garden' magazine  - what a surprise. My thanks must go to Jane over at 'One Bean Row' - the brains behind a most enjoyable quiz. What a good way to end the week.

At The Starting Line

It's almost two years to the day when I posted here the first of what I hoped would be a regular diary type entry, enabling me to keep track of plannings, plantings and generally of goings on in the garden and at the allotment. Well I did quite well at first, then in the way of all previous diary attempts I slowly stuttered before finally fizzling out.
So I am going to have another crack at a hopefully a weekly or thereabouts diary type post. The weather has been on the cool frosty side with some frosts including a couple of rather murky foggy days - decidedly not fit for venturing out. As the third week of January came to an end I am almost all sorted in the seed buying stakes. My seed boxes had a ruthless cull over the Christmas season and I established that there was not much that I needed for the new season. One or two small orders have gone off and have been delivered. I was pleased to come across Mark Diacono's newly opened 'Otter Farm' internet shop on Friday. An order has been placed for a Japanese wineberry and an Egyptian walking onion. I only hope that they will settle into the Cheshire Plain without any great degree of homesickness.

I am not sure what is happening at the allotment but a trip there is on the cards in the next few days. Meanwhile in the garden the snowdrops are showing shimmers of white - just a few more days. Out of my diminished special snowdrops the early flowering 'Faringdon's Double' is in flower. Lots of promise on the hellebore front and pulmonaria rubra 'Redstart' is now showing colour - this usually flowers in late autumn but not this time around.

I made my first trip of the year to a garden centre  today -  two to be precise - they are within a mile or so of each other so you can't visit one and not the other - well that is what I tell himself. There seemed to be fewer winter interest plants on sale than there usually are - a result of the cold winter I wonder.  I was looking out for seed potatoes but was disappointed that the range available did not seem as varied as last year. I looked for 'Lady Christl','Belle De Fontenay' and 'Ratte' in vain but did come home with 'Pink Fir Apple'. A new ornamental pot also slipped into my basket along with a packet of pak choi 'Rubi'. One of the garden centres had a sale and I could not resist a half price cornus sanguinea 'MidWinter Fire'. This is to replace an old straggly red stemmed cornus, which I have not pruned as ruthlessly as I should have done over many years. I think that I should still be able to take some hardwood cuttings before I dispose of the old shrub. We stopped off at a well known DIY store on the way home and a couple of small deliciously scented sarcococca confusa firmly attached themselves to my personna. So my first garden related retail therapy session of the year ~ I dare say it will not be the last. Has anybody else been indulging so far this year? Do tell.

Just For The Record

Before autumn’s cobwebs well and truly descend time for a recap of what has been happening or not at the allotment. The weather has been challenging to say the least. The long cold winter meant that it was late in the day before any serious seed sowing began but some benign spring weather kick started everything off quite fortuitously.

I think that I have finally got my head round the art of what distance to leave between various crops when I plant them at the lottie. It has only taken five years! I now know that I can fit five French beans in across the raised beds whilst six shallots will rub along nicely head and shoulders together. Tasks that used to be a matter of serious measuring on the whole can now be accomplished by eye.

The year’s successes? Without a doubt it has to be the strawberries. The plants were given to me as runners by my lottie neighbours in the late summer of 2008. I potted them up in a hurry, before we went on holiday that year and planted them in the ground in late spring of 2009. This year they produced more than enough strawberries for us. Throughout June we dined on strawberries most evenings as well as passing them on to neighbours and friends. I almost got to the stage when I never wanted to look another strawberry in the face again and was almost gleefully pleased to turn my back on what was left of them when we went on holiday in July.

The other satisfying crop was the shallots -bought from Wilkos but annoyingly I  have forgotten to record the variety. From less than half a raised bed we now have over a couple of hundred shallots to enhance winter stews, casseroles and soups. I will save some of the smallest ones to plant in the spring. Other successes this year included courgettes - ‘Romanesco’ fared better than ‘Green Bush’, French beans flourished including the new to me dwarf 'Stanley’ and my tomatoes did so much better than last year’s dismal showing. Note to self ~ grow ‘Czech’s Excellent Yellow’ and ‘Ferline’ again but not’ Japanese Black Trifele’.

In the iffy category - garlic - some absolute monsters but also some diminutive heads - quite puzzling as all planted in the same area and no pattern to their final size.

There were of course disappointments - peas and potatoes did not flourish. I have never grown potatoes in the ground before only in containers. Whether it was the dry spring and early summer that did not agree with them I don’t know but the yield was poor. I will try again next year. The other challenge I set myself this year was to master successional cropping but have to admit failure as far as this objective is concerned. Life has been a bit topsy- turvy since May, so sometimes there has been unplanned physical distance between myself, greenhouse and the allotment. Still there’s always next year. In the meantime I will soon be setting down to some serious reading of the new catalogues, as well as a couple of new books which look as if they might be influential and inspirational when it comes to making my plans for a new season.