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! 

Wordless Wednesday ~ In The Pink

Soothing

If feet could purr mine would be doing so now after a visit to my lovely podiatrist. Hopefully the niggling pain that has been making me draw sharp breaths for a couple of weeks or more is sorted. I've definitely been feeling rather out of sorts, even grumpy you might say, but I positively bounded home this afternoon in time to catch television coverage of the RHS Chelsea Show and then to do some potting up in the greenhouse. All most soothing.

At long last the state of affairs is moving to that crescendo of the greenhouse shuttle. Sowing started late here this year, it has been staggered and there has been less of it. This was a deliberate decision which I thought would cause me some regrets. Strangely enough I've found it rather liberating, as for the first time in twenty five years or so I feel that I have a measure of control rather than pots of seedlings shouting the odds. The greenhouse may be untidy but there are no unlabelled pots or a queue of seedlings screaming at me to move to them to a bigger home ..... well not yet anyway. I'm not sure what will happen next year yet but will decide come the autumn and the new batches of seed catalogues.

There have been the odd disappointments - four lots of seeds that have failed to germinate at all. Two lots of perennials from the same supplier and two lots of vegetable seedlings from the same source (but different to the perennials). I've come to the conclusion though that I've sowed lettuce long enough to know what I'm doing. I'm watching a tray of lunaria rediviva keeping fingers crossed that the one solitary seedling in there has some companions to keep it company soon. I'm taking some comfort in the fact that they can be slow to germinate.

I'm most excited about the appearance of hablitzia tamnoides or the Caucasian spinach vine. I've been searching for seeds since I heard a talk by Alys Fowler on unusual edibles at the 2012 Southport Flower Show. This is a shade loving deciduous climbing perennial. It can be used as an ornamental plant to cover a pergola, has heart shaped leaves and produces small green flowers. The young shoots are edible. Alys advised at the time that it could be a difficult plant to get hold of and she was quite correct.  My seed came from Thomas Etty Esq. The seedlings are much to small yet to move to the big outdoor world of the allotment and will probably stay closer to home for a year or so, before I expose them to that environment. Maybe next year I will be able to have a nibble and report back. Is there anything that you are particularly pleased to have sown from seed so far this year?

Seedy Business

Some plants stop you in your tracks and this is one of them. In the depths of winter last year himself and I went on an outing to London to visit the RHS show. Now whilst there were plenty of snowdrops that dazzled me with their markings, the one plant that held me spellbound was not a snowdrop. It was a plant that had been planted amongst a display of snowdrops on the Avon Bulbs display stand, where its contrasting foliage was so effective. The plant in question was lunaria annua'Chedglow' and it was one of those cases where I wanted to get my paws on the plant immediately. There were none for sale that day so on arrival home I did some online research but met with a brick wall the search went on hold. However when my Avon Bulbs catalogue arrived at the end of the year I noticed with great joy that there were seeds for sale! Loud whoops of joy greeted this discovery, seeds were ordered and duly sown this summer.

Germination was successful, a friend kindly cared the teeniest baby seedlings when we were on holiday, they returned home where they grew bigger. Yet my plants are looking decidedly ugly at the moment - they seem to have the plant equivalent of measles. I'm hoping that this is a temporary feature and that as the weather gets colder that the foliage will develop an even purple/chocolate hue. If this doesn't happen they will not be the perfect companions for snowdrops or any other winter flowers and could well end up on the compost heap. Never mind the lilac flowers that will follow and subsequent shimmering translucent seed cases. Has anybody else grown this plant from seed and if so have you had the same experience with your seedlings? If my memory serves me well Caro from The Urban Veg Patch was also bewitched by 'Chedglow' and there may also be other bloggers too who have obtained seed.

In other seedy news I've noticed on the RHS website that members can now now order from their seed scheme. I've not made use of this membership perk before but thought that I would try it out this year.  Pen and paper will be the order of the day later when darkness falls. I'm one of those wimps who does not put their nose out of the door on Guy Fawkes Night. What about you when it comes to fireworks -  frit or fan?

All Sown Up

- well not quite. This weekend was blessed with ideal weather for outdoor work. A full day out at the allotment on Saturday whilst yesterday was devoted to the garden. On a blissfully sunny October afternoon it is hard to get your head around how much earlier darkness falls and to realise that that you have not got that seemingly eternity of a June evening stretching ahead of you. There seems to be a mad rush to try to accomplish all you want to. I was however intent on sowing some sweet peas this weekend which I have done using my discovery of the year - root trainers! I ordered a couple of these earlier in the year from Sara Raven, making use of a free packing and post offer. They were used to sow sweet peas in the spring as well as for climbing French bean and pea seeds. When you get to the stage of releasing them from their cells to plant each plant has such sturdy, well developed root balls so planting them out is so much easier and with far less risk of root damage. I'm kicking myself for not trying them sooner. Although they are not made of the most sturdy of materials and will probably will not last much more than a couple of seasons, I'm so pleased with them that I will be ordering a couple more packs before next spring.  My spring sown sweet peas flourished and I'm still picking small bunches now.



So far lathyrus 'Fire and Ice' and lathyrus odaratus 'Almost Black' have been sown. I never soak my sweet peas seeds as is sometimes recommended but have rarely had any problems with germination. I've sown them one to a cell with the hope of seeing some green shoots later this month. Plans to also sow my favourite lathyrus 'Matucana' were thwarted as I could not find the seed packet that I thought I had. Will have to have a thorough search today. If unable to find them I will just have about enough time to locate another packet to sow by the middle of the month, which is the latest time recommended for sowing in the north of the country.

I've also spent some time preparing for the colder nights that are predicted for later this week. I doubt that we will have frost but just in case tender plants, that have been sitting out for the summer, are now near to the greenhouse in readiness for a quick move indoors. I also made a start on the task of sorting out plants that will be overwintering in the cold frames - pots have been emptied of their contents which have in turn been throughly inspected before being popped back in. I discovered a number of glistening slug eggs in the process so was pleased to nip these in the bud before they had the chance to become fully grown molluscs. Have you finished putting the garden to bed yet or are you like me still dashing round to fit it all in? I've still got perennials to plant and as for planting bulbs there's another story ......

P.S The bulbs were conveniently out of sight therefore out of mind but a box of bulbs from Peter Nyssen has just arrived this morning - the pressure is on!

The Heat Is On

It's so hot that the heat from our ageing laptop is making me glow in a most ladylike manner. So a short post singing the praises of  the flowers of nicotiana mutablis which you can see above. This has most cool and elegant flowers and is a half hardy annual which makes an ideal plant for container growing. I have grown it for several years now but sadly have only seen plants come through one winter, so have started from seed again each year. The plants that are flowering now were sown some time late last summer or early autumn and overwintered in the greenhouse. I kept them dry and this year for the first time my greenhouse had heat when the temperature fell below 3 degrees fahrenheit. I potted the plants on in March and had a one in flower for our garden club plant sale at the end of May. It sold the  other plants I had taken. For an early start seed can also be sown in February if you have a heated propagator.Otherwise they can be sown in March and April.

What I find fascinating about this plant is the way the flowers change colour - opening as white before fading into light pink then a deep dusky pink. The 'mutablis' part of the name is the clue being the Latin word for changing. Hopefully the above photo conveys all three stages. The flowers are oh so subtly scented  and the plants will flower until those first frosts. I hope that if you have not come across them before that you decide to give them a go. You will be enchanted.

'Plants For A Future'

Arriving in the post this week some allium ampeloprasum var babingtonii seeds or rather I should say little bulbils. I read about 'Babington's Leeks' earlier this year and have since been on a mission to get some to plant at the lottie. This is a perennial leek which not only produces bulbs but also produces leaves which can apparently be picked when young to eat as salad leaves, apparently as early as January.  The bulbils develop on the flower heads - it could take a couple of years for them to flower from sowing.

I must admit that after reading the instructions on the packet I was slightly bemused as to when to sow them so this led to some late night research. My books threw no light on the matter so I then had a play on the web. I was delighted to come across this most informative new to me site, where I am sure that I am going to spend much more time in the future :

'Plants For A Future' holds a database of some 7000 plants with edible, medicinal and other uses. Here I found all the information I was looking for - not only germination details but cultivation and use too. Ideally I should have sown the seed as soon as it ripe but there you go. I plan to sow some as soon as the compost in my greenhouse thaws out and my fingers too but will also hedge my bets by sowing some in spring. There is a lot of information on the site about lesser well known edible plants as well as the more familiar. I have only skimmed the surface but think that I will be using this resource regularly. Do have a peek.

'On Tip -Toe For A Flight'

"Here are sweet peas, on tip- toe for a flight:

With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white

And taper fingers catching at all things

To bind them all about with tiny rings"

~ John Keats,1795-1821 

Earlier this week I sowed some sweet peas in the greenhouse. I have once again decided to grow the highly scented 'Matucana' which I have grown ever since I got my allotment plot. They give me as much pleasure as any edible crop and their arrival always signifies the sure arrival of summer. A wigwam of seven plants is more than enough to keep me supplied with bunches to pick for vases from early June to mid September. This year I decided on another introduction ~ 'Albutt Blue' which you can pick out in the photos below ~ 

In the sniff stakes these were not a patch on 'Matucana' and although attractive I do not think I will grow them again. I would still like to try another variety preferably a pastel mix. I have been stopped in my tracks a couple of times at the allotment this year by shows of sweet peas, including a display of mixed pastel shades interwoven with scarlet runner beans. Any suggestions of good and preferably highly scented mixes would be most welcome from any other sweet pea fans out there. Earlier today there were some comprehensive instructions for sowing sweet peas in the autumn as well as advice on their aftercare on BBC's 'Gardener's Question Time', which is now available on BBC IPlayer.

St Patrick's Day Plans

I IS FOR?



IMAGINE!

I always find it hard to imagine that these rather innocuous shriveled seeds will turn into lush and green plants, hopefully producing oh most tender and sweet peas this summer ~



Tomorrow is St.Patrick's Day which is the traditional day for sowing peas and I will be making a start in the greenhouse with 'Kelvedon Wonder'. I will sow them in cells and will take them down to the allotment to plant when it is a bit warmer.



Other varieties I plan to sow this year include 'Carouby de Maussane' (mange tout) and 'Hurst Green Shaft'. Meanwhile an autumn sowing of 'Douce Provenance' has overwintered in the greenhouse. Some have perished during this cold winter but there are enough survivors for a small and an early crop, which will be most appreciated ~



As well as pea sowing St.Patrick's Day always sticks in my mind as it is also the anniversary of my first 'date' with himself :) You can find lots more posts on the letter I to inspire you over at ABC Wednesday.

"What's The Story Morning Glory?"

I was going to sow my morning glory seeds this weekend until I read Helen Yemm's recent and most pertinent article when catching up with last weekend's papers. I am always behind with the weekend papers especially at this time of year.

I have always held back with sowing morning glories until what I thought was quite late but I have had mixed success. Sometimes the leaves have gone that anaemic shade of bleach white as night time temperatures have dipped and so have failed to flourish. Helen wrote about the year in which she thought she might have missed the boat when she could not find her seeds until mid May. In summary she attributes her success to following this method : "The ''knack'', therefore, would seem to be this: ''lose'' the seeds until very late in the spring. Moisten the seeds to quick-start germination and plant them in house-warm compost. Finally grow them in a huge pot, transplanting them with as little root disturbance as possible. Keep this pot indoors, too, until even night time temperatures are reliably warm – well into June in some parts"

I have always pre-soaked the seeds but must admit have deprived my seeds of the pots of "house- warm compost". My pots have gone onto a heated sandbench but it must still take a while for the compost to warm up. So this year I am going to wait another couple of weeks before I sow my seed. This year as well as sowing 'Heavenly Blue' I am trying 'Kniola's Black'. I hope that the resulting plants are as sturdy and attractive as those in the photo above from a Dutch seed company's website.

So Victoria from Victoria's Backyard, in answer to one of your SOS questions you're spot on holding back from sowing your seeds :)

Springing Forward!

'You may trace my step o'er the wakening earth,
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,
By the primrose - stars in the shadowy grass
By the green leaves opening as I pass'

- Felicia Hemans

What happen when you turn your back on the garden for a few days ? Braving the cold wind and with one eye on the sky in case more hail should descend on my uncovered head, I had a thorough tour of the garden this afternoon.

The last ten days since my last diary entry have passed in a flash and I have been away for some of that time. So I was surprised to see what has been happening - a corydalis coming in flower nestling close the house, more pulmonarias and primroses in flower, lily of the valley poking their heads through the ground and the biggest surprise of all brunnera 'Jack Frost' has flowers in waiting - yaaaaaaaay ! I am not sure for definite but this plant must have gone in three years ago or so and has never flowered. I was thinking about moving it but it has come good in the end. Funnily enough I nearly bought one that was in flower at the garden club on Thursday night, but resisted as I had already bought two other plants.



It's not all good new though - Mrs Betty Ranicar, the most frilly white hellebore (top photo) has not flourished this spring unlike the other hellebores. She has fewer flowers this year and some of them have dropped off when still in bud. I wonder if somebody has been nibbling them but other hellebores close by do not seem have suffered. The other potential woe is that there is still no sign of clematis texensis 'Princess Diana'. I waited for an eternity for her to bloom, writing about my vigil here. After her first flowers in 2007 she really strutted her stuff last summer so where is she ? So far I have resisted the temptation to have a little poke around the area where she is planted, but may well have a closer inspection this week.



More sowings made in the greenhouse and lots more to do still in the next two to three weeks. Another mystery - two batches of peppers sown on the same day and placed in the heated propagator - one lot has germinated the other has not. Today I have bought more seeds of pepper 'Corno di Torro' and hope that they will germinate. The nicotiana mutablis I sowed on February 15th is ready to prick out along with the first tomatoes. Will make a start on that tomorrow to celebrate the first day of British Summer Time :)

The Pigtailed One

The last ten days or so has seen some warmer weather and much increased activity in the greenhouse, garden and allotment. Various seeds have been sown including various lettuces, mixed salad leaves, chard, beetroot, leeks, tomatoes,celeriac,cosmos (starting earlier this year) and a perennial white stock. The latter is gloriously scented, but my plant became rather scraggy after a while. Luckily my sister saved some seeds last year from the plant that I gave her. Peppers sown towards the end of February have germinated. Still lots more seeds to sow but I am going for the little and often principle this year. I have divided more plants for the garden club plant sale. Hopefully astrantias and campanula persificolia will be added to the haul next week.

I have managed a few trips to the allotment now so it is looking neater and tidier. This afternoon I picked the last of my sprouts and decided not to bother growing them again. Never mind their miniscule size and the long wait for a nibble. The deciding factor in striking them off the to grow list is that they seem to have been a magnet for all the local whitefly population and then some more. Clouds and clouds of them flew off them into my face every time I touched the plants even in December. Never again! I have now pulled out the plants which were going to feature on the menu for D's chickens last night.



On Saturday evening we toddled off to our local arts centre where the pigtailed one aka Bob Flowerdew was appearing. I have nothing against men with long hair, but I have always felt that I would like to cut Bob's pigtail off. I resisted the urge to put a pair of scissors in my bag. For those of you who have not heard of Bob Flowerdew is he is an organic gardener who is on the panel of the long running Gardener's Question Time radio series. He has also appeared in a number of television gardening programmes in the past. He is known for being somewhat unorthodox and has some quite forthright views. The evening was split into two sections. The format of the evening was a talk which was followed by a question and answer session. An interesting evening although himself briefly nodded off at one point and sadly there were empty seats in the auditorium. I have sent off for some seeds of 'Yellowstone' carrots following Bob's recommendation. Tomorrow I shall try another suggestion - I will be scrubbing a shop bought sweet potato, planting in a pot of compost and then placing it on the heated sandbench in the greenhouse. Hopefully this will eventually produce shoots which I can than take off and plant up individually to grow on. He also suggested giving ginger bottom heat so I will be trying this too. Advice for allotmenteers from Bob - get yourself a fruit cage, veg are labour intensive. Don't I know !

NB - I can't take credit for either of the above photos. Forgot to take my camera with me.

Itchy Fingers

Well, I know it's much too early and way too cold to start seed sowing but how could I resist ? Today I had an appointment with the Slimming World scales. Having been conspicuously absent during the festive season, I was feeling rather apprehensive about stepping on to the scales of reckoning. I had a bit of time to kill before the session started, so decided to have a browse round Wilkinsons or Wilkos as it is usually known in these parts. I have a feeling that this chain of stores may be more prevalent in the north of England rather than the south, but with the sad demise of Woolworths there are rumours that Wilkos may expand. Oh joy of joys - gone was a lot of the post Christmas stuff and its place the gardening section had remorphed. Much to my delight there were three seed ranges to chose from - an increase on last year. I wonder if this a reflection of the fact that more people are growing from seed especially vegetables. As well as their own brand of seeds which are fine but a bit limited variety wise both Johnsons Seeds and Mr. Fothergills were available.

After some dithering I came away with the above packets. The red leaved lettuce 'Delicato' will be heading for the allotment. I grew 'Bijou' last year which I will grow again but I fancy trying another red leaved lettuce. I do not know whether it's is my imagination but I am sure that the molluscs do not find these as appetising. Also for the allotment I am going to try an early purple sprouting broccoli by the name of 'Rudoph' as seen looking most appetising here

My final choice presented me with the biggest dilemma. I chose
echinacea pallida but was also tempted by echinacea 'Dreamcoat'. The latter is a new variety this year and promises a range of colours. I am a bit dubious and think that there will be a predominant colour. I like the shape and the soft pink shade of pallida so it won the day. I have not previously had any success with echinaceas. I think that the garden is too damp so instead when big enough, I will plant some of these down at my much sunnier allotment to see how they fare.

Seed browsing was a real tonic on a grey and cold January day and I am sure that I will be nipping into Wilkos regularly as the season progresses. The feel good factor continued when I leapt on the scales, to be told that I have only put on a pound over Christmas !

Crumble

Spring seems a case of one step forwards and two back at the moment. Woke up this morning to sparkling blue skies and a blanket of snow. It melted during the morning. I missed the spring plant sale at Arley Hall today as my beloved was working. I imagine that the stallholders must have been frozen by the end of the day. Oh well I suppose I saved some pennies ! Quite a few seedlings in the greenhouse now. I will try and list them soon so I can keep a record of what I have sown this year. I need to start pricking out the first tomatoes but it is much too cold today. On Friday I picked the first rhubarb from the lottie - enough for us and for our next door neighbours. Crumble here we come!

Shiver me timbers

Well so much for being a diligent blogger ! Here we are a good few few weeks later and a lot has happened in the garden. The snowdrops are nearly all over now - only one or two late stragglers. The hellebores are still thriving and I have a lovely new one which is a very deep plummy colour. Pulmonarias and primroses are in bloom. I had a shock yesterday to see a geranium phaeum in flower.

The weather has been mild on the whole but a cold snap just now. A very windy night and hail,sleet etc.this morning. The forecast for the rest of the week is for some wintry weather and frosts at night. My camellia 'Jury's Yellow' is just opening its first flowers so I hope that these are not damaged by the frosts.

I spent a couple of hours at the lottie on Friday morning and could see a visible difference after my stint. Sadly the dividing fence between us and next door is all but down. I imagine that last night's winds could have done more damage but it will be a few days before I get up there to see what may have happened.

Seeds sown so far include tomatoes 'Ildi','Black Cherry' and 'Gardener's Delight', nicotiana mutablis, rhodochition, sweet peppers, celeriac, mixed salad leaves, 'Bijou' lettuce, brussel sprouts 'Red Bull' and sweet pea 'Zorija Rose'. I think that all these babies will need some nurturing this week. Only a week though to go to summer time.

Germination

We have germination - indoors both rhodochiton and clematis 'Korean Beauty' and outdoors on the sand bench the perennial white stock has come through. Sowed tomatoes today - 'Ildi' and 'Purple Calabash' as well as some nicotiona mutablis. It is snowing as I write and if the weather forecast is right there will be more to come during the night.

Of snowdrops and seedsowing

Ooooops - what happened to those new year resolutions ! Well I suppose there has not been that much happening in the garden and I have neglectd my poor lottie. All that is about to change ! The propagator is on and the first batch of seeds have been sown. Last weekend - verbena bonariensis now in fridge, rhodichiton and something else that I have forgotten inside. This weekend the perennial white stock and orlaya grandiflora on the heated sandbench.

I have some new snowdrops including 'Anglesey Abbey' and 'Modern Art' - both Ebay purchases. We had quite a bit of snow on Thursday night into Friday morning and then some severe frosts. We made it to March with only a flurry of the white stuff in November and then all of a sudden winter arrived. The snowdrops were absolutely flattened by this and have only just perked up. Still some snow on the ground now. The day has been a mixture of sunny spells and scattered wintry showers which plummeted down on my head and finally drove me inside. Off to study veg planting schedules now.

Where is summer ?

Summer slowly seems to be arriving and some time has been spent working on the allotment. Tomatoes and lettuce planted. I have cheated on both ! Lettuce purchased from the nursery near the Dorothy Clive Gardens and tomatoes from R. at the WI market. Have a couple of home grown 'Black from Tulsa' grown from last year's seeds. The strawberry plants are smothered with fruits and I have temporarily netted them. I nipped into the pet shop today and they hope to have some straw in on Friday. We have another plant sale at the lottie on Saturday.

First post

My first blog entry

"Oh give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year"

- Robert Frost 'A Prayer For Spring '

A beautiful spring day of the like that gives rise to such poems being penned. The temperature in the greenhouse crept up and was nudging 70 degrees but not enough for the automatic vent to open. I always get really excited when that happens as apart from demonstrating that it is still working it means that spring has really and finally sprung. I sowed climbing French beans 'Blauhilde', chard and zinnia elegans 'Envy' all of which are destined for the lottie. We went there after lunch. Just a quick visit to open greenhouse door and to give the grapevine a drink. I picked the third lot of rhubarb. Back home potted up some astrantia divisions. Took some photos in the garden including one of the 'Mount Tacoma' tulip which is just showing its first bloom. Will post a photo soon once I have mastered how to do so. I have just come to grips with links and what a challenge that was to the old grey matter. One thing at a time !