February 25, 2008
We checked the weather report for the next ten days and no frost was forecast so we decided to plant the alpines on Sunday afternoon as it had finally stopped raining. If you squint really hard you can just about see the plants.
Okay, I admit it’s not quite there yet but all it needs is a few more bags of alpine mix and a lot of patience as the plants settle into their new home. I’m sure it’ll look great in five years’ time!
Whilst Jon planted and spread gravel, my conscience got the better of me so I decided to fork the lawn to aerate it. Fortunately, we’re not lawn-proud, we have come to accept the moss that has colonised parts, but some of it was looking far too muddy and suffering from soil compaction. As I was monotonously forking the ground – even the dogs thought it was boring and they think weeding is good fun – I noticed we weren’t the only active ones. There were various hikers on the path alongside the river, canoeists heading down the river and a herd of about twenty pony-trekkers wending their way up the side of the valley. Meanwhile, I was getting sore hands and feet, wishing I was indoors watching the Carling Cup Final.
Not so good news on the mushroom front. Naughty Megan found the box this morning, along with the fish food pellets. She’s already ate two watch straps this weekend (she carefully spat out the metal bits) and chewed a Swatch in half, so she is not in the good books. Hopefully some of the mushroom box is salvageable but we’ll have to cross our fingers and wait to see what emerges.
Almost forgot! (Because I didn’t do it.) We have planted our first new potatoes of the season. They are a second early, blue-skinned variety called Edzell Blue, which should make for an interesting looking salad when we begin to harvest them in July.
February 22, 2008
Today we - I say we, I mean he - started the mushrooms off. I’ve got to remember to do something with them in ten days time; I think he said he put them in the guest bedroom. This is probably where we have gone wrong in the past as, we pat ourselves on the backs for opening the packaging, then stick the box somewhere ’safe’ and forget all about them until the flies give away their hiding place.
On a completely different note, we bought three fish yesterday for the Bi-orb after we killed the previous inhabitants by accidentally overfeeding them last year. So what’s this got to do with a gardening blog? Because we have replaced the old silk plants (I was concerned they were harbouring harmful bacteria) with ‘proper’ plants, so I now have a mini underwater garden on the table next to the sofa.
February 18, 2008
It seems that ever since I put forward an argument for inaction during the winter months, I’ve been out in the garden almost every day as we’ve had such beautiful weather. Yesterday, we cancelled our planned walk into the village - and pub lunch - in order to do… yes… more gardening. After the previous day’s cycling exploits, a six mile round trek seemed a little too strenuous for saddle-sore bodies so we decided to start clearing back the site for our alpine patch.
We had an arsenal of tools at our disposal, an assortment of rakes, trowels, spades, secateurs and loppers, as we fought back against weeds, brambles and overgrown honeysuckle. A couple of hours later the battle was won: we were down to bare earth and the ‘wildlife area’ (i.e. the compost patch by the side of the drive where we dump anything too large to go into the compost bins) had grown by a foot or so. It wasn’t until we finished that we realized the potential of the plot. The area in question is roughly 5m x 6m / (17ft x 20 ft), approximately the size of my first court-yard garden, a.k.a. backyard, so it was a waste to leave it to go untended.
The final thing we did was to move the ‘annoying’ heather that I had pruned last week to a more suitable spot, between the trees next to the wall. Hopefully, pruning it will increase its chance of survival as the root system will have less mass on top to support whilst it is trying to re-establish itself. That’s the theory anyway.
Initially, we had gone out dressed in fleeces but were soon down to t-shirts in the warmth of the sun and the exertion of gardening. Meanwhile, a glance across the other side of the valley reminded us that it was still winter; the bare, black branches outlined against the frosty, white fields looked like a black and white photograph. I think we’ve completed as much preparatory work as we can for the moment and we’ll just have to be patient before we start sowing or planting outdoors.
February 16, 2008
Friday 15th: Instead of stocking up on designer jackets and boots in New York, I’m buying alpines and gravel in Glan Conwy for our next garden project. To be honest, the weather has been so good at home we would have been kicking ourselves if we had gone away.
Above is the next part of the garden we aim to rescue from its current feral state. Although we have now had the cottage for over nine years, we’ve never really tackled this area before, apart from removing the odd beech sapling, so it has been overtaken by scruffy grass, brambles and a huge honeysuckle. We’ve already made a start by removing grass and a bush from the boulder at the front. The natural hollow left will make an ideal basin for one of the Saxifraga we bought that bears blood red flowers. Next task is to remove the brambles and strip off the grass to expose the rock underneath. We’ll then prepare the bed to provide drainage, fill with compost (using home-made compost where possible) and plant the Saxifraga, Helianthemum and Lithodora we bought from the specialist alpine garden centre. Finally, we will top off with the ornamental gravel that should help to conserve moisture and suppress weeds until the plants have established themselves and spread.
Saturday 16th: Another glorious day, perfect for getting stuck into our new project. Actually, the weather is far too good to stay at home, so we head off to the Mawddach Estuary for a cycle ride instead.
I haven’t been on a bike for over three years, and then it was limited to thirty minutes round the park, twice a week. My reintroduction to cycling was a fifteen mile trek that took us almost three hours, including a picnic break and a well earned drink at the King George at the end of our ride.
P.S. I was just about to throw the croissant packaging into the plastic recycling bin when I realized what a great propagator it would make. Last year I experimented with the plastic trays that soft fruit are delivered in but they were too shallow. This is deep enough for four Finest all butter croissants, i.e. there is plenty of room for developing seedlings. If I was buying it in a shop I would easily expect to pay £1 for it so, depending on which way you look at it, I’ve either acquired a free propagator, or four free, delicious croissants. Isn’t recycling great?
February 14, 2008
Earlier this year, I thought I would be spending February 14th in Central Park, New York, praising the skill of the park planners, waxing lyrical of their use of form, balance and colour to create an oasis in the metropolis of the Big Apple etc. Instead, we spent the day at home awaiting the delivery of out replacement dishwasher but believe me, after a month of washing dishes by hand, this is the best Valentine’s present I could wish for.
The weather wasn’t too good today, dry but overcast, however I’ve been preparing the vegetable patch over the past two days and I wanted to finish the last quarter. Although I was keen to avoid a complete ‘digging over’ I was concerned that there was still a fair amount of stones in the soil which contributed to some of the stunted roots I had observed in last season’s crop. So I used a golden claw which, as well as aerating the soil and exposing the clods to overnight frost, brought up hard matter to the surface. I’ve painstakingly removed every stone and sticks, accompanied of course by the dogs who tried equally hard to put them back from whence they came, and then raked the beds to as fine a tilth as I could. I now ache in places I didn’t know I had!
As part of the veg patch prep, I finally gave in and dug up the remaining leeks. After almost a year in the ground they still only resembled spring onions - at best - but sautéed in butter they tasted fine with new potatoes (sadly, shop bought) and home-made quiche lorraine.
February 12, 2008
Another glorious day and it’s meant to stay this way until the weekend. I had no intention of writing a blog entry today, but madness overtook and I got the urge to do a spot of gardening. I must have sunstroke. Or frostbite. Even Georgie Girl left the sanctuary of the conservatory and she hasn’t set foot outdoors since last October. As you can see, Megan was shocked.
So, at what point does a plant become a weed? The definition of a weed is a plant that isn’t where you want it, but what about plants that are in the right location, just the wrong size? Does that make them “weedish” without actually being technically weeds? Anyway, one of the heathers in the rockery by the front door was really doing my head in so I had to hack it down. I wouldn’t normally consider such action if there is the remotest danger of frost (an excuse I frequently use) but it’s been irritating me for ages.
Then, one thing led to another and I couldn’t stop myself. All the brambles that I had successfully managed to turn a blind eye to since autumn started grabbing my attention. And you know what brambles are like… find one and it just leads to another. It got worse. As if my hands had a mind of their own, I picked up the rake and the garden claw and, before I knew what I was doing, I was tackling the vegetable patch. I thought it may be still quite hard after the overnight frost but as it’s south-facing on a slight slope with good drainage it was actually quite easy to work considering it is fairly clay-rich. I only did half of it so – oh, lucky me! – I’ve got something to do later in the week.
The good news is that the rhubarb is starting to sprout leaves so The Strimmer Man didn’t totally destroy them. They are now covered with a pot (if Megan hasn’t run off with it) to force the shoots so hopefully we’ll be enjoying home-made rhubarb crumble in a few months time without having to pay the exorbitant prices that the supermarkets charge.
February 11, 2008
Sunday was beautiful; sunny, blue skies but the ground was carpeted in a layer of frost. Jon took Sami up our local mountain, Moel Siabod – his own walking blog is in the pipeline – whilst I stayed behind to do housework (just call me Cinders) and practise retrieval training with the pup, before walking down into the village to meet the mountaineers.
The weather was so good I had lunch outdoors, ideal for planning my strategy for preparing the vegetable patch. The soil was still too frosty to work with so I felt no guilt just sitting there, surveying the garden, without lifting a tool.
The patch needs a good hoe, before we apply a dressing of a compound fertilizer rich in phosphates. We’re then going to add another layer of top soil of sterilized compost to give our seeds and seedlings a good start. I’ve been reading up on the benefits of the no-dig method as practised by organic gardeners. It was originally promoted by Esther Dean, an Australian gardener, who influenced the Permaculture Movement, “an ecologically friendly and self-sustaining system of agriculture” (Chambers Dictionary). There is a lot to be said for it, especially for the reluctant gardener, although that doesn’t mean that you adopt an entirely laissez-faire approach. Traditional horticultural wisdom argues that digging improves soil texture by improving drainage, aerating the soil and burying weeds, and of course it has its merits. However, I do think some gardeners are masochists who don’t believe they have done a good day’s work unless they need a Radox bath and the services of a chiropractor. Ultimately, it is the state of your soil, and what you wish to grow in it, which dictates your course of action.
February 4, 2008
I almost read a good gardening article in The Independent Magazine on Saturday. It started off well; Anna Pavord admitted that the garden is a pretty miserable place at this time of year … ‘I had decided that the pleasures of the winter garden were only for masochists.’ and ‘The thought of getting my hands in [the ground] is as appetising as dallying in cold porridge.’ Hear, hear! Then she had to go and spoil it by suggesting a planting scheme that you could gaze upon from the comfort of your house, simple to set up at ‘relatively little expense’. It included several Hellebores foetidus grouped together, at £6 a throw, surrounded by some bulbs which she quotes as ranging from £3.65 to £64, i.e. a case of wine in ‘real money’. Why bother? If you look out of the window at this time of year you just see storm clouds approaching - if it isn’t actually bucketing down - and no amount of pretty planting is going to improve that vision. Instead, why can’t we let our gardens have a breather? Why do we expect them to perform all year round? Leave them be and let nature give them the equivalent of a horticultural spa treat: rain seeps into the soil ready to nourish the coming season’s growth; high winds act like a vacuum cleaner in reverse, cleansing the trees and hedges of their remaining dead twigs and leaves before new leaves emerge; leaves and other dead matter continue to break down into nutritious mulch; frost helps to improve soil structure; lightning energises the soil by increasing its nitrate content. Have I convinced you to put that trowel down yet?
So close the curtains, light the fire (or switch on the central heating if you’re city folk), pour yourself a cuppa and watch some TV, perhaps The Constant Gardener, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies or, my favourite, Rosemary & Thyme. Leave your garden in the capable hands of Mother Nature, after all, she’s been doing it a lot longer than you.
January 31, 2008
Action in the garden of late has been mainly restricted to pruning perennials such as Fuschia. Although we’re not at direct risk from flooding, the ground is utterly saturated; merely standing on it runs the risk of compacting the soil and damaging the soil structure. The only other thing we’ve done is to re-assemble one of the compost bins which collapsed. It was pretty disgusting but we’re going to have to replace it soon which will be an even more unpleasant job.
My idea of growing nasturtiums with the broad beans has not gone down too well with the other half. Nasturtiums produce pretty, edible flowers, extremely vigorously, and therein lies the problem. They can become invasive to the point where the merest sight of a nasturtium-like flower induces rage in the most laidback of gardeners. He thinks the only place he can tolerate them is at the top of the drive, in poor soil with insufficient light under the constant threat of being run over. I, on the other hand, have a vision of cascading orange flowers against a backdrop of the cottage’s white walls, with the added bonus of pretty, peppery-tasting petals to garnish our home-grown salads. I suspect this won’t be the last debate we have as to what we grow and where this year, but that’s half the fun of gardening.
Snow is forecast for tomorrow so we may wake up to a stunning landscape, although MSN says sleet which is an unpleasant prospect. Hopefully, the emerging bulbs won’t be damaged too much by the weather but I suppose that’s one of the hazards of being an early-starter when you’re a flower!
