Gardening Club - April

This month's talk was on colour for all seasons, and although our guest speaker seemed to have an enormous garden and budget to match, I wrote down some of his suggestions but on double checking on the internet with other people's pictures the ones I most liked were:

• Wintersweet (Chimonanthus)
• Witchhazel (hamamelis) for the great flowers in winter
• Pseudowintera colorata, a plant with NZ origins, also called Horopito
• Species tulips were recommended over other types as they last longer
• Acer auroa, a japanese maple with yellow autumn leaves
• Delphiniums
• Leucanthemum (daisies) - he recommended shaggy but I've just seen one called Goldrausch which is yellow and shaggy
• Hedychium (ginger!) which I didn't know you could grow here but he seems to be doing so. The varieties I noted were Carnival, Pink Flame, Spicatum and densifloram Assam Orange. I'd love to grow ginger so will look into this.
• Colletia cruciata, an amazing looking plant that's more like an art collage. Look it up.
• Astrantia major
• Eryngium which I like the look of but am not sure I would want to grow them as they look a little too much like thistles
• Verbena
• Helenium which seems to come in attractive bright yellow/orange/red combinations

11 April

Today I got stuck into a few areas that I've let get away, namely, the corner near the pond where the strawberries and weeds have gone mad, and the patch down near the gooseberry which has been taken over by the carnation.

The carnation has been there for several years and all it does is sprawl and produce flower buds that rot and fall off. Probably I could improve its situation by moving it, but I was fed up with it so just ripped it out. I dug in some compost to improve the moss situation and planted up some seeds: nasturtiums, calendula, larkspur and marigold. I also cut back the cineraria in the same area to get rid of some of the woody stems.

We gave Sigmund a thorough pruning - there were a lot of dead vines which we were able to chop out, leaving Sigmund much smaller than before. But Sigmund always comes back and there are leaf buds on the bare stems already so there will be leaves by next weekend.

The patch by the pond was thick with creeping buttercup and grass. I cleared some of it but will need to go back another day. I planted some seeds on the sunny side of the garden: two types of beetroot (one from Mr Fothergill, one from Morissons bought who knows how long ago) and some miscellaneous larkspur seeds also from who knows how long ago.

Blueberries have lots of flower buds so they should be very productive when it's berry season, just to be generous I put some new soil in the pots. None of the other berries are at that stage yet, although I got rid of 21 baby strawberry plants to people at work this week.

Fruit trees: the Cox has leaves on it and the new Beurre Hardy almost has leaves. The Red Williams and the James Grieve are falling behind. In fact I'm worried something go into the Red Williams as it looks like the new shoots are just producing flowers, no leaves. And I saw ants on it the other day which makes me fear the sap sucking insects are in there sucking the goodness out of the new shoots.

Greenhouse: this year's winner is the Kailaan, going great guns. But there has been germination amongst some of the sunflowers, the kale, the tomatoes and some of the basil. I'll have to remember to water more often now the temperature is picking up, don't want to encounter wilting plants like I did the other day. Some of the Kailaan is big enough that I might try planting a few out next weekend.

Daffodils are still in flower and tulips are coming out. Most common is the deep pink colour but there are one each of a cream-tipped pink and a yellow-tipped red as well. I'm tagging them this year to know which bulb is which when I'm sorting them at season end as I promised some to Amanda.

Easter

Leaf report: there are leaves on the gooseberry, the redcurrant and the raspberry bushes. The Cox Orange Pippin apple tree has leaves but the other fruit trees and the blueberries aren't there yet.


Things to eat: the kale survived the winter well and is in good eating condition, and will probably remain so until the insects wake up or it goes to seed.


Flowers: daffodils are coming out and there are buds on the tulips. The winter flowering heathers are still flowering.


Seeds : planted up a big load of seeds today.

• A whole tray of zinnias using the last of the seeds in the open packet
• Beans: fasold and opera (in toilet paper tubes since I have no peas it seems)
• Chillis: wenks hot yellow and pretty in purple (from http://www.realseeds.co.uk/)
• Waltham Squash (also Real seeds)
• Musk Melon (Real seeds again)
• Cabbage: savoy and red although there were not many seeds left in the packet

Seeds growing:

There seems to be quite a bit of stuff growing in the greenhouse. The kailaan are going great guns, I just hope when they make it out into the garden they don't get eaten by bugs. The basils are hatching and growing slowly as are some of the flowers. The yellow tomatoes are doing well and the kale is showing promise.

In the beds:

No sign of the oca yet (probably too early and not been warm enough). There could be signs that the yellow beets and spring onions are coming up but I'm not being too optimistic.

If we get any more good weather this weekend (in between the heavy rain showers) I might try and plant up some rows of beetroot in situ but where?

I've had some offers from colleagues at work to take the baby strawberry plants which would give some extra space on what was a greenhouse last year and is just shelves this year since the cover ripped itself to pieces (well it was a cheapo from Lidl).

Waiting for three sunny days in a row so the yard dries out enough for me to mow the lawn.

First sunny Sunday

Today is the first sunny Sunday of the year, or at least it seems that way.

A new year, a new greenhouse (since last year's greenhouse cover suffered some damage), two new fruit trees and some new seeds.

My Lidl pear tree (the Beurre Hardy) didn't seem to have survived the winter so I ordered two new trees from Blackmoor Nurseries. Another Beurre Hardy and a James Grieve apple tree. These are both cordons which I think means they are older than the usual and will perhaps bear fruit earlier. We'll have to wait and see on that but for now, they've been planted and are not dead.

Today I set to with seed planting. Lots of veg (at least I hope there will be lots of veg):

• swiss chard
• roma tomatoes
• scarlet kale
• yellow pear tomatoes (heritage variety: found them in Oxfam ,who are doing gardening stuff)
• tetona spinach
• sweet green basil
• thai basil
• kailaan (chinese broccoli - new this year from Real Seeds)

And some flowers:

• Various sunflowers: Giant single, Autumn Beauty and Teddy bear
• Echinacea

All in pots and all now in the greenhouse.

Out in the garden I threw in a row of Burpees Golden beetroot (notoriously low levels of germination for these so I was generous with the seed distribution) on the sunny side near the redcurrant and a row of White Lisbon spring onions (I have never had any luck at all with spring onion seeds!) by the Lidl raspberries. Over by Sigmund I threw in some cornflower seeds. These are essentially wildflowers so they shouldn't need any coddling to grow.

Already in the garden are three rows of oca: one right by the shed in the vege patch at the back of the garden, one near the spotted laurel and one up by the redcurrant (now near the beetroot and spring onions). When I was digging up some dirt to use for the seed pots today I found a massive oca clump - somehow this missed being harvested last year but has gone back into the ground to grow more oca this year.

Snowdrops and crocuses are already out in the garden. Tulips and daffodils are up but no sign of flower buds yet. The winter heathers are still in flower.

We made some changes to the planting around the pond. We've pulled out the lavender that was on the fence side and planted there "big heather" - a white flowered heather that had been living in a pot for years. And on the path side we dug up the straggly sage bush, some lemon balm plants and some other miscellaneous grassy weeds and put in some of the baby strawberry plants I cultivated from runners last year. There are still loads more in pots which I might give away at gardening club or to people at work.

The fruit trees are swelling and should have leaves visible by the end of the month. The berries are also swelling and should be bursting into leaf as soon as the weather picks up. Glad to see nothing seems to have died during the long cold winter (except the Lidl pear tree). The little heucheras are not doing very well but they are still alive.

Mid Season

This is the hard work time of year. The easy bit (plant seeds and sit back for a week, two weeks while they hatch) is done. Now there is a whole nursery fully of baby plants that are crying for attention.

However some plants are already doing their thing - as the pic of the Honeoye strawberry shows. We've had our second harvest (second ripe strawb) from this plant this morning, and still more to go.

New in town this week, hatchings from the cucumber, squash, sweetcorn mangetout and borlotti bean seeds.

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V borlotti bean triffids

I have been vigourous in my potting on of seedlings... more or less. Chillies, tomatoes, patty pan squash and the asparagus have all been moved into bigger containers to help them develop. The asparagus are doing OK. I should really do something about getting a bed for them but the area I was considering needed a run over with the strimmer (whipper-snipper) and I ran out of strimmer string today.

In the garden bed, there are now only four cabbages remaining. The sweet peas are not dying, but neither are they gaining in size. The peas I so carefully grew in the toilet rolls have been reduced to sticks by evil snails (liberal application of slug pellets seems to have cured that problem.

I need to get on top of the weeding - there are weeds taking over all over, and bindweed coming through the fence from next door. Today I took the unusual step of weeding my plants-in-pots (I'm not usually so diligent) so the poor plants can breathe a bit. (There were all a bit swamped).

It's not too far off raspberry season - the first of the berries is already faintly pink. Looking forward to that. However I think only the old bushes will fruit this year; the Lidl "from stick" canes are growing well but probably not up to fruiting much this year.

And we have blueberries! I did wonder if they were fruiting but while checking the pots today I saw that yes, there are some blueberries. And here is a picture to end on. (Sorry about the fuzzy focus).

Planting out

Last Saturday I planted six Savoy cabbage seedlings out into the garden proper. Today I went to water then and found only five!

I've planted out about 20 sweet pea seedlings in various spots around the garden. Some are doing well, some are looking a bit brown.

The oca are doing well - seven plants up at the back, and at least five up in the other two beds. I didn't earth them up; mostly because I'm not sure what earthing up is?

The leaves on the Williams Red pear are still curled. I hope it doesn't have some sort of "leaf curl" problem.

Four of the purple passion asparagus seeds sprouted. I've potted them on into individual pots but for the sake of preserving them, I had better get an asparagus bed sorted in the garden soon.

The helipterums need to be planted out soon - they are outgrowing the seed tray.

I transplanted some of the beetroot seedlings on advice from a friend. There are about 20 of them in the garden now, they're doing OK. Give them another week to see how many survive.

Last weekend I planted up more seed trays: sweetcorn, cucumbers, borlotti beans and pumpkins/squash. None of the beans I planted earlier have done much. Of the two beans I got from Amanda, one has been eaten to death and the other one is struggling.

The plastic cover on my cheap Lidl greenhouse is splitting (already). When I do up or undo the zips on the plastic roll at the front, the zip splits a bit more from the plastic, so there are huge gaps letting the cool air in.

The Honeoye strawberry has one big fat red strawberry on it. With luck, and if the snails don't get there first, it will be ripe for the weekend!

Good, bad and ugly news

Its great to come back from holiday and see how much things have grown... or not...

My great find the night before flying out was to discover that my cheap Lidl pear tree, the one I had been whinging about, is not dead! I had been studying the woody stalks branching out from the main trunk - and truth be told, I do think they are all dead. What I hadn't been looking at was the trunk itself. And there, lo and behold, is where the leaf buddage has been occuring!

There were several other happy things to return home to.

Tulips! Still in bloom, lots of them, although by now they are starting to look at bit tatty but the black and white (purple and cream) ones looked stunning at their peak. They probably had a name, I may even still have the bag with the name on in the shed, but for now I am not going to bother with names.

Oca! Tough clover-leafed stalks are now poking out of the ground, signalling that my yams are starting to grow under the soil. All three types have sprouted, but I'm only seeing evidence of two or three in each bed. Better than none I suppose.

Asparagus! Not in the trench, but the seeds planted in the greenhouse are starting to sprout. Or at least, two of them are. Only tiny now, but in three years time, they will be featuring heavily on my dinner plate.

Strawberries! It's not quite Wimbledon yet, but by the time it is, I'm sure these Honeoye strawberries will be long gone. Thankfully all the strawberry plants look to be thick with flowers, so lots of yummy red fruit to come....

Now for the bad news: the zinnias all died. I don't know why. They were looking good when I went away, but I came back and they were all shrivelled into brown plant corpses. But I won't be deterred - I will plant more seeds. I will have zinnias!

The ugly news: with the onset of spring proper and the bursting of new growth came the return of the unholy trinity: the gastropods, the bindweed and dandelions. Yes, as fast as the little seedlings are poking their heads up out of the soil, the snails are appearing and chewing them down to ugly stumps. From a relatively bindweed-free garden two weeks ago, the weaving weed is wriggling its way up through the heucheras, the strawberries, the lavender - even appearing in the lawn! Dandelions - while I've had some luck pulling plants out with roots intact while gardening after rain, I can't see I'm ever going to beat this problem while my neighbours yard is awash with dandelion puffballs and yellow flowers.

As predicted, the chard has gone to seed and been removed. This is all part of the plan, because the chard was growing over one of the oca beds, so now the oca can grow freely.

I have savoy cabbage seedlings and peas and sweet peas all ready to plant out. I think I have the tallest savoy seedlings in the world - not sure how they will heart up but we'll give it a go. Some of the tomato and chilli seeds have sprouted, and there is evidence that at least some teasel seed was still good.

It's a long weekend ahead, I hope for lots of sun so I can get lots of weeding and seed planting done.