A day of variety

They say that variety is the spice of life, well today is one of those days.

I started in the greenhouse, re-jigging the pots around to try and give some of the plants more light. Then I pricked out the Okra into 3 inch pots, not sure how these are going to work as they need lots of sun (keep your fingers crossed we get a better summer this year).

Spent 2 hours logging up the rotten trees we felled over the Easter holidays and stacking them in the wood store, the poor electric chainsaw is struggling, it can’t cope with the large diameter trees, so hoping Dad can work his magic this week and get the petrol chainsaw working again before the bank holiday weekend, then we can clear all the remaining trunks.

A trip to Castlepoint (local shopping centre), new carry all for hubby who has a business trip to London this week, jeggings for daughter and some food bits and bobs from supermarket, can now make Dundee cake, carrot cake and coffee and walnut cake.  The weather is changing, some sunny spells then threatening rain, it can’t make up it’s mind.

I decided to make the carrot cake today, it’s now baked and cooling, I can then ice it tomorrow.  Also popped some dough on in the breadmaker, turned it into some luscious foccacia, I used the pestle and mortar to pound some fresh rosemary with garlic and olive oil, it produced some fantastic herby oil which I squeezed over the dough (I used a swiss roll tin and flattened the finished dough into it), then sprinkled over the rosemary and garlic, plus some chopped black olives and finally some maldon salt crystals. It was so scrummy, over 2/3rds gone with dinner, a definite success and added to the yummy list.

A quiet evening recharging the batteries before a busy week at work.

Spring is sprung, loads of sun

It was a lovely sunny day, temperatures reached 17 C on the forecast and as we are surrounded by trees it must have pushed that higher.

Time to take off the 2 large cloches covering the radishes, turnips, peas, spinach, onions and carrots. Hopefully the forecast is correct and no ground frosts forecast over the next couple of days so that they can properly hard off, I’ve been leaving the cloches open at night, so they are half-way there.  Not too many weeds, but hand weeded amongst the rows, put in the pea sticks (the plants are already 6 inches high) and then watered. Also managed to squeeze in a few pak choi plants next to the onions as there was a larger path than needed due to the cloches.

Herbs are so important, I really miss having the full selection available, so have collected a few different ones over our trips to the garden centres, now I need to prepare a herb bed. Started by getting the edging tool out (Dad is obsessed with crisp cut edges to gardens so he can mow easily, I can’t let anything grow over the edges or they get mowed off), then I started to clear out some more of the bed closest to the back door where Mum can get access to. It’s going to take more than one session, there are brambles and nettles (show’s it’s healthy soil) still to clear out. We’ve worked out where to move our rambling rose to, also going to put flowers and veg amongst the herbs and country garden, it’s amazing how watching Geoff Hamilton’s Ornamental Kitchen Garden always inspires me.

The greenhouse is beginning to show lots of life, I just wish I had more space with maximum light to bring everything on.  Think my cold frame needs moving too, it’s in full sun at the moment and I think it needs to go in a shaded area with good light to bring on strong plants.

Another day in the garden tomorrow. Now, where do I plant the shallots, veg garden or flower bed, think the flower bed may win!!

Flower power

It was the turn of the flower seeds today, it was great to have an extra pair of hands, Laura joined me in the warm greenhouse as the temperature outside wasn’t brilliant, or perhaps the wind was blowing making it feel a little chilly.

Sweet peas like to have deep roots, so the old loo roll inners make brilliant growing tubes. I filled each one in the potting tray and then transferred quickly to a small seed tray, fitting 12 into each tray.  24 tubes later with between 3-5 seeds in each one depending on the variety, I didn’t record each variety this time, as there were lots of ends of packets. The display will always look brilliant and lots of them are highly scented.

I split the seeds into 2 piles this morning, direct sow (straight into the garden) and the greenhouse seeds, then we got busy.

Sown today:-

Flowers
Ageratum
Impatiens
Lobelia
Cineraria
Aubretia ‘Purple cascade’
Aubretia ‘Spring cascade’
Aster ‘Big boy mix’
Mesembryanthemum ‘the livingstone daisy’ (wasn’t I lucky to have someone else writing the labels and my notebook)
Osteospermum ‘Glistening white’
Browallia ‘blue lady’
Antirrhinum ‘Illuminatras mix’
Stock ‘Dwarf 10 week mixed’
Alyssum ‘Easter basket’
Chrysanthemum Parthenium ‘Vanilla’
Viola ‘velvet mix’
Lobelia ‘cascade mix’
Alyssum ‘carpet of snow’
Coleus ‘wizard mix’
Marigold ‘Dwarf Double mixed’
Marigold’yellow boy’
Cup and saucer plant
Nicotiana ‘sylvestris’
Marigold ‘solan’
French marigold
Sunflower ‘moulin rouge’
Sunflower ‘giant single’
Sunflower ‘autumn beauty’
Salvia - ‘Blaze of fire’
Morning Glory - ‘Heavenly Blue’
Morning Glory - ‘Grandpa Otts’
Lavender ‘Hidcot Blue Strain’
Holly hock ‘Chaters Double Mixed’
Lupin ‘Russell Mixed’

Veg
Peashoots (in large trough) – as Laura seems to have got a serious liking for them
Rosemary – lots of cuttings
Lemon Balm
Spring onion ‘White Lisbon’ in modules
Lettuce ‘Little Gem’

Phew – can’t believe how much we’ve sown, it’s brilliant keeping a notebook/blog, then I can see what has been sown and when and keep a note of what is producing well and to grow again, also those seeds that aren’t worth the bother.

I wanted a little flip cutting knife, we ended up looking in 3 different shops, ended up at Golden Acres and they had them, plus picked up a lovely olive tree for only £8.49, a bargain and we are going to try and grow it in the garden as the one in a pot is doing brilliantly.

Back to work tomorrow, but will hopefully still get something done in the garden.

Greenhouse antics

Wow did it get hot today, needed my sunhat to stop my head burning. No need for highlights here, sun is bleaching my hair on it’s own and my natural highlights look fab.

Started to plant the half-hardy and tender seeds today, even got back out the propagators to put them in, to keep the temperature constant during the nights (it’s still very chilly at night with the possibility of frosts). Might need to put some milk containers in the greenhouse filled with water to hold the heat from the day.

Seeds sown today:-

Lemon Grass
Dill
Swiss Chard in modules
Basil “Dark Opal”
Okra
Aubergine “Orlando” & “Properosa”

Tomatoes:-
Moneymaker
Alicante
Plum “San Marzano Lungo”
Beef “Costoluto Genovese”
Tigerella
Gardener’s Delight
Plum “Incas”
Tamina
Garden Pearl – for hanging baskets and patio planters
Organic Red Cherry

Peppers:-
Marco Rosso
Worldbeater
Californian Wonder

Chillies:-
Hot Pepper Fuego
Chilli Pepper Anaheim
Apache
Joe’s Long
Cayenne
Black Pearl

Non edible
Chinese Purple Bell Vine
Glory Vine

I also spotted some rubble bags in Tesco’s, £1.20 for 6 bags. I’m going to try out growing potatoes in them, have 5 different types to go in, so going to have a go with my first earlies tomorry (International Kidney variety), think I should be able to put 3 potatoes in each bag.

A very busy day, but the greenhouse is now packed, still more to go in, but I’ve made brilliant progress after the last 3 days.

A busy day in the greenhouse

It was a beautiful day today, by 7.15am I was in the greenhouse. I decided that it needed rearranging to fit in the pots and seedtrays to get all the seedlings growing.

As I moved some staging, I spotted some little seedlings in the floor, they were from my daughter’s cyclamen that had been kept in there last summer. After carefully potting some of them up, I was then able to finish moving the rest of the staging.

I bought some new seeds at the garden centre yesterday, so put some “Bright & Spicy” mixed salad leaves in both a large pot and hanging basket, I need to make sure grandma can easily pick lots of salad leaves.

The root trainers I bought 3 years ago are still going strong, I planted up 3 different varieties of climbing french beans, Organic “Cobra”, Purple podded “Blauhilde” and “Sultana” normal pencil green.

In modules, dwarf kale, perpetual spinach, green globe artichokes, nasturtiums (sacrificial to be planted with the broad beans), fennel and asparagus peas.

Small pot of self-blanching celery - “Lathom Galaxy”

I also pricked out 41 Webbs’ lettuce seedlings, they are one of the best lettuce varieties around and I haven’t successfully grown any for a couple of years due to either sowing too late, slugs, or the bad weather.

I’m testing out the new type of Brussel Sprout - “Petit Posy”, this is a rufflette variety, which tastes more like spring cabbage.

Runner beans are a mainstay in our garden, so I’ve planted up large pots of Desiree, Lady Di, Polestar and a dwarf variety.

We picked up some Basil and Coriander pots from the supermarket this week, I’ve just repotted these into bigger pots.

Hubby has finished cutting all the trees out and getting rid of the trunks, Grandad has taken charge of the bonfire and has had a brilliant time, it was brilliant seeing the whole family working together, to a common goal.

A very rewarding day, we’re all shattered, but feel so pleased with the results.

What a feller?

A brilliant day in the garden today. There were 3 rotten silver birches in the garden, we’ve been worried about them possibly falling unexpectedly and hurting someone, so planned to clear them today. Good news, daughter was taken horseriding by grandparents, so all 3 of them were out of the way safely whilst we felled the trees.  Wow has hubby been impressive, he’s managed to clear away the trees and the hazel, holly and an old blossom tree that was covered in rust. It wasn’t without excitement, trees getting stuck on the way down, but a well slung rope and towed with the Disco we managed to get them all down safely, just in time for daughter and grandparents to return.

Just a huge pile of twigs to now burn and a couple of hazel boughs to get down before the burning can be done safely.