Planning time!

Glorious sunshine today. Weather forecast for the weekend is mixture of sunshine and cloud with potential for rain overnight on Saturday.

The local garden centre has one of it's regular 10% off days next week. I missed the one in February so must make sure I make this one to get all the seeds I need for the year at a reduced price. So a pleasurable task for an evening over the weekend is to work out what I will be planting in the vegetable plot for the year so I have my list ready for a lunchtime outing!

Corkscrew rush - 'Juncus effusus spiralis'

This evergreen rush is meant to be grown in a boggy area. In my garden it is happy at the bottom of the pond wall even though it gets semi baked by the paving during the summer. There are 3 of these plants in this planting pocket. They are on their own in the winter when their quirky form is admired from the kitchen window. This spring I have dwarf wallflowers planted amongst them (you can just see them in the photo) and I will probably repeat the summer planting of trailing Bidens from last year. Normally a plant for hanging baskets, Bidens is a delicate yellow flowering plant that scrambled through the stems of the Juncus to great effect, flowering well into autumn.

Crop rotation and Winter crops

In general I plant vegetables in rotation to avoid build up of diseases in the soil. I base it on three groupings (a fourth grouping would include potatoes):

- Roots and Onions
- Brassicas
- Others (beans, courgettes, beetroot, leaf crops such as lettuces and spinach ...)


Lettuces are one of the exceptions as they are quick to mature so fill in gaps, when the slugs don't get to them first of course!

Autumn sown Broad Beans

The main part of the vegetable patch is one long bed which runs along the south side of the house.


Last year the planting (from West to East) was

- Roots: mainly parsnips of which I still have some to dig up
- Brassicas: Purple Sprouting which would have still been going if the Cabbage White caterpillars hadn't beaten me
-Others: dwarf French beans, climbing flat beans and runner beans. I planted broad bean 'Bunyards Exhibition' at the start of November (my grandfather always planted them on November 5th) once I had cleared the last of the dwarf beans. As you can see from the photo they have come through the frosts and snow well and should crop in May/June before the blackfly hit, and before I plant out the brassicas. Note to self - remember to pinch out the tips when in full flower to deter any early blackfly


So this year the order will be Others, Roots, Brassicas.
Task for this weekend is to dig up the remaining parsnips and incorporate a load of compost into this area ready for the beans. The Brassicas area will get an organic fertiliser added prior to planting. The Roots area has nothing added to it, just a thorough digging over to ensure the parsnips and carrots roots are straight.



Another smaller bed, new last year, follows a similar 3 year pattern. Last year it had courgette and Swiss Chard in it ('others' group). Overwinter I planted it with a red onion 'Electric', which will have matured in Apr/May, and will continue with the 'Roots and Onions' group. The red onion variety is meant to be a heavy cropper.


The planned new bed for the year will have a goodly quantity of compost in it so will be perfect for courgettes and maybe a squash or pumpkin for a change.

In the greenhouse I always grow tomatoes ensuring that they are never planted in the same soil to avoid diseases. I tried to grow winter salad crops in the greenhouse but suspect I left the sowing too late as the 'lambs' lettuce is only just beginning to germinate! Must sow winter salads mid September this year

Spring Fauna and Cover Ups

Fauna: The first bumble bee of the year bumping up against the kitchen window.

Cover Ups: ended the day yesterday putting the cloches (metal hoops covered with plastic to make a tunnel) onto the middle section of the vegetable patch. This will allow me to make an early sowing of, at least, lettuces and radishes in a few weeks time.

Rhubarb forcer (put in place early Feb)

Peaked inside the rhubarb forcer. Although I couldn't actually hear the rhubarb growing, as you can if you go to the growing sheds in Lincolnshire, the pink stems are developing nicely. Haven't a clue what variety it is. My clump is from a root division from one my parents had many many years ago.

Will order the main 'cover up' this week. This is compost created by the local recycling company from garden waste. It makes an excellent mulch as well as soil improver and remarkably cheap, as well as eco-friendly. My own compost will be dug into the part of the vegetable patch designated as bean growing area this year (once I have dug up the remaining parsnips) and mulch the base of the fruit bushes/canes.

Unseasonable weather

.. both from general February temperatures and the fact that it is a weekend and the sun has been shining. Believe me, as someone who works Monday to Friday the latter is more of a surprise (very pleasant of course) than the former!

Naturalised Crocuses enjoying the early spring sunshine

Copyright © C Brode 2009. All rights reserved. Please ask first.

A weekend of further clearing of creeping buttercup in the flower borders. The cold winter appears to have encouraged them rather than the hoped for natural cull. It has been slow work as the borders tackled have a number of plants that need moving and/or gaps to be filled. Many an excuse to stop and ponder on the scheme of things!

Winter smells

What a glorious day! The winter sunshine and no wind meant that the air by the front door was heavily perfumed by the Christmas Box .

Christmas Box (Sarcococca hookeriana humilis) Feb 2009

Copyright © C Brode 2009. All rights reserved. Please ask first.

Small, evergreen and shade tolerant shrub: my one specimen thrives in a pot. I am going to take cuttings from it this and year and, assuming they take, plant an informal edging or hedge of them next year. Subsequent amendment - by the path by the oil tank for at least 2 plants.

Good few hours in the garden following the sun mainly tackling clumps of creeping buttercup before new growth makes it tricky. Spent the last hour digging over where the brassicas were. 'Roots' will be in this patch this year.

2009 garden projects

Main projects for the year are:

• Additional raised vegetable bed where the fruit bushes were. By the time this is done it will be for veg in 'Others' group ie courgettes, sweetcorn....
• Associated with this is the remaking of the 'wall' for the main vegetable bed. Ideally including removal of concrete path this runs alongside of and replacing with a mix of paving slabs as per 'patio' and gravel. Would love to see if can also include a slim border to make the most of the south facing house end wall.
• Doing something with the grass/weed patch between us and neighbours. This gets the very last of the sun of an evening so a 'bench' (made of slab of something on top of blocks?) incorporated would be nice.

Ideally would also like to get the area under the front window of the sitting room sorted - but that could, and probably will, wait until next year.

Plants in need of TLC. List probably to be added to as damage caused by coldest winter for 20 years becomes apparent.

• Camelia in tub by garage. Didn't flower last year doesn't look like it will this year
• Standard Bay. Looking better from tlc last year but needs more

Not going to list border by border projects - they are ongoing year on year after all!

2008 highlights and lowlights

As the new garden year starts now is a good time to look back and record the successes and failures in the garden last year.

Start with the good bits:
Fruit and Veg
- The vegetable patch was more productive than in 2007 despite the downsides listed below.
- Currants moved successfully to new fruit bed.
- 'Italian' tomatoes in the greenhouse. They look ugly but taste glorious!
Ornamental Borders
- spring in the bed under the Silver Birch outside the front door. Hellebores, spurge and daffodils made a stunning display.
- Dorinichum flourished. It needed the right place - I have been through a couple of plants in the wrong place. At time of writing new growth is looking good!
- ... number of other areas of the beds that worked very well. Will highlight as we go through this year.
Pond
Deep water and bog plants (latter had a thorough overhaul early in 2008) with a particularly splendid display over months from the water lily. Lots of wild life enjoyed both the water and the bog garden.
General
- The construction of permanent location for the bbq so I don't have to put up with it being in way of the view - let alone me!
- Compost. Succesful composting of ALL lawn clippings without creating a general sludge. Have created enough compost (from lawn clippings, kitchen waste and chicken coop bedding) for the veg and fruit patch at least.

Bad bits
Fruit and Veg
- Slugs slugs and more slugs. Second and subsequent sowings of lettuce all munched. Beetroot, perpetual spinach and chard demolished whether sown directly or planted after growing to reasonable size in greenhouse. What I tried and what I plan to do will be in a later post.
- Cabbage white butterflies. So much for the brassicas. Constant rubbing off of eggs didn't work; neither did regular squashing of caterpillars. Scraggy plants is the most I can say I was left with.
- Fruit cage allowed in a blackbird just when the currants were close to cropping. One very fat blackbird released and very few currants picked. Strawberries another victim of slugs.
Ornamental Borders
- In the battle against couch grass I probably came out slightly ahead. Against creeping buttercup slightly behind. First year of having bindweed - we're equal I would say.
- Ostrich grass didn't 'plume'. Didn't manage to find out how to split or otherwise invigorate
Pond
- Heron loves it. Pity it takes as many fish as it can. We now have a semi permanant cover over the pond to stop it.
- Marginal plants not as good as last year

Post snow clear up

Snow has all but disappeared. Weather is overcast but no wind and above freezing for a change (6 degrees just outside back door).

Hellebore buds at the corner of the pond - February 2009

Copyright © C Brode 2009. All rights reserved. Please ask first.

The beds are too wet to do any digging which has the benefit that I was focused on cutting back the old stems of perennials left for ‘winter interest’ but now way past their best. Have left the sedum heads for now as they are still upright and we do have frost forecast.

Chickens had one of their last outings into the garden pre the start of spring growth. They will be banned from then on. I hasten to add that they do have a very large run under the hedge along the back of the garden (the theory was that they would keep all weeds from moving from the field into the garden – works well apart from the nettles which they do not like). As well as general scratching around they did a good job at attacking the 'goose grass' shoots. Am sure that I will still be, carefully to get the roots as well, pulling up the actual plants out later in the season.

Assuming the weather is similar tomorrow I must cut back the Autumn Raspberry, Japanese wineberry stems and hellebores (last years leaves) prior to getting out the shredder for all stems not put straight on the compost.

Must also work out how to store the chunks produced by the shredder for adding to grass clippings later in the year. (Composting will be covered at some point later!)

Snow is melting

... and oh boy does it expose both new growth and old. Snowdrops are beginning to bloom but some of them are hidden by old leaves I should have removed at the end of last year. One of the 'must do jobs' for the next non work day that is fine must include cutting all of last years leaves from the hellibores various around the garden.

Snowdrops

Copyright © C Brode 2009. All rights reserved. Please ask first.

Blog entries to follow will include:

• Compost - in particular how I manage to compost lawn clippings


• Bird life in the garden (including pond usage)


• Pond life – pros and cons of having fish


• Each ornamental bed – planting plans current and future thoughts


• Plans for vegetable plot for the year


• Greenhouse


• Propagation including cuttings