10th April, 2012

I feel that I should be busier in the garden than I am but I'm relatively up to date with the chores.  I've plant the potatoes in what I call the middle bed where the soil is still very sticky and stony.  But this year digging the trench was much easier, so all that compost I've been adding is slowly but surely working to improve the soil structure.  This time I added a nice layer of compost to the bottom of the trench, sprinkled on some potato fertiliser and then placed the chitted spuds about 18" apart.  This is a bigger gap than I usually give but I seem to have more space this year.  I may regret saying that.

The tomatoes, basil, aubergines and peppers have germinated nicely on the windowsill.  When the first true leaves appear I'll pot them on into their own pots.  I've already done that for the Tigerella tomatoes and they are in the greenhouse.

My lemon tree did not survive the winter.  It dropped all its leaves and I hoped that new ones might sprout but no.  I'm not very successful at overwintering tender trees in the conservatory.  I lost a peach tree too.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong as I thought the lemon tree I had was tolerant to -5C.  I was really looking forward to eating home grown lemons too.  All that I can get to survive are cacti and Venus fly traps.

The Aloe cacti produced lots of side shoots which I potted up for friends.

The Swiss chard is getting bigger after over wintering.  I had nearly given up on these but maybe there will be a meal or two there.

I added a nice compost mulch around the base of the greengage and plum trees.

Now it's time to mow the lawns but this year I'm going to experiment with leaving areas uncut to generate a meadow effect.  Well that's my excuse for not mowing it.

2nd April, 2012

Nice weather again with plenty of signs of spring.

The fruit trees are coming into blossom.  The picture shows the greengage in front with the plum tree behind.

The flowers are very pretty.

and there are lots of them.  I should remember this year to thin the fruit so that the branches don't break as they did last year.  The good thing is that the trees are still in good health it seems.













The blueberries are also flowering.

I removed some more of the Leylandii hedge to allow the redcurrants more space to grow into.

Next weekend will be the first meal of asparagus!

I have been harvesting more PSB

and leeks.

The seeds are sprouting in the greenhouse.  These are the radish and kohlrabi.

I also sowed some chillies, the seeds were taken from last year's harvest which I dry out and can use throughout the year.

The tomatoes and basil I sowed have germinated nicely on the windowsill but I'll leave them there until they show the true leaves.

I planted the onion sets (golden ball) and potted up some strawberry runners that had rooted and I had missed.  I can give these away to friends.

I replaced the sieve with a coarser mesh in my home made compost sieving contraption.  I don't need it to be so fine and I ended up returning much of it to the compost bin.  Maybe I don 't need to sieve it at all but it does improve the soil nicely.

26th March 2012

A lovely weekend and with the clocks going forward, the evenings are also available to carry on in the garden.  The veg growing now takes on an exciting tone filled with anticipation of what's to come.  I did some more sowing of:

kohlrabi and beetroot in seed trays and peas in a rain gutter which I like to start off in the greenhouse.

I grow peas in the gutter to try and minimise and losses by mice/squirrels.

I also sowed some turnips, rocket and coriander directly in drills outside.

We had visitors round on Sunday and I cooked rhubarb crumble using of course, the forced rhubarb which had lovely pink stems.  Most of it got eaten and I finished it off tonight.

For the main course, I made some more leek pie for the vegetarians amongst us and I roasted the last of the parsnips that had started to sprout new green shoots; so time for them to go.  Do you like the T rex and half a brontosaurus?

 

20th March, 2012

I managed to get some seed sowing underway at last.

So I have sown some aubergine (moneymaker), tomato (cristal and tigerella), pepper (gypsy) and sweet basil which are on a windowsill indoors.

In the greenhouse I have got spring onions, radish and lettuce.

The leeks I sowed three weeks ago are starting to germinate.

There will be more sowing next weekend when I have can dedicate two days to the garden.

12th March, 2012

Another busy weekend with my son's swimming club; it was the second weekend of the County Championships which meant sitting in a swimming pool and anxiously watching his times.  He came away with a gold and 3 bronzes.  Not too bad.  I did manage to enjoy the weather and take some photos.  This church is very distinctive of where I was. Anyone care to guess?

I did have some time on Sunday morning for a quick tour of the garden to take some pictures for this blog. The purple sprouting broccoli is ready!

The blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes have fresh green leaves breaking out.

The overwintered onions look puny at this time.

The broad beans have started to throw up new shoots from the base to compensate for the floppy main stem.

Next weekend I have Sunday free to start sowing and probably take more time over taking the photos to check that they are in focus!