Clocks changing, Spring awakening

Tuesday 30 March 2010

When the clocks change and we finally get those longer days I think it is safe to say there is a shift. More people are out and about, there is a new energy in the air and more and more people are up for drinks after work – a sure sign of the spring/summer season.. If there was every a time to get excited about your veg patch, sowing your vegetable seeds and getting started, now is the time.

We haven’t been in town for the past week so when we arrived back in London this weekend it was straight out into the garden. Due to the weather and this and that we have been slightly behind in our direct sowing, but with the raised beds prepped and seeds categorised by month (Stephen’s doing) this was the Sunday that we would sow the majority of our seeds for our summer crop.
You may remember from a previous post that we sowed our peas a few weeks ago, well sadly only two of our peas germinated from this original sowing so we decided to start afresh and sow awhole new set this time round. I am positive they will all germinaed this time and we’ll be popping peas out of thier pods in a couple of months. We also sowed our carrots, radishes, lettuce, spring onions, spinach and some more broad beans.

One final note before I go - we tasted our very first purple sprouting broccoli of the season this weekend. After over a year in the ground I am very happy to report that our plants have started to produce those beautiful purple heads and for the next few weeks we will be enjoying their fabulousness. Yum Yum.

Harlow Carr - 14 March 2010

Our veg patch didn’t receive much hands-on attention during Mother's day weekend as we weren’t in London tending to our seedlings but up in Yorkshire having a weekend away with my family. We were very lucky with the weather and I think Mam had a nice day especially as we took her to the wonderful RHS Harlow Carr on Sunday.

We have heard of Harlow Carr as it has been mentioned on Garden’s Question Time a couple of times so when my mother said she was keen to go we jumped at the chance. Mam is a member of the RHS so for 3 adults and one child it only cost us £9.50 to get in. With our bargain entrance fee we had a few pennies left so spent them initially in Betty’s tea rooms on lots of yummy cakes and pies and then in the fantastic garden shop, where I think all 4 of us managed to loose an hour or so wandering around.

The gardens themselves are beautiful. As the winter has been such a long and cold one up north many of the flowers and spring bulbs weren’t in full bloom yet but we did see a lovely display of crocuses, miniature irises and snowdrops. I had serious envy of their raised vegetable beds in the kitchen garden just waiting to be filled up with seedlings. One day I with have 25 perfectly formed raised beds! They had a huge bed of rhubarb too which looked like ours (nothing to write home about) so that made me feel better that we ours is actually going to be ok. There was a maze for the kids (and us) to get lost in, a bird watching sanctuary and lovely walks. I am very tempted to go back in the summer as I am sure with all their summer flowers out it will be a magical place.

Turning the compost, planting the flower bed and some garden visitors…

Monday 8 March 2010

Even when if it is too cold to sow seed direct there are many useful jobs you can do in the vegetable garden. Turning your compost, adding this to the raised bed, sorting out plants and planning your area is a great way to spend a sunny yet cold day.

What a glorious week of fine beautiful weather we have had. While the temperature has been struggling some mornings to pass freezing, when the sun is shining as fabulous as it has recently who cares if it is a bit chilly.

Saturday was a day of errands, so we didn’t get a ton of stuff done in the garden, but Sunday was a different story altogether. Stephen and I were up at the crack of dawn and straight out into our little oasis.

One job that hadn’t been done for a year was turning the compost. Unfortunately we don’t have one of those posh compost rotating bins so we just emptied the whole thing into the wheel barrow, used what we wanted for the vegetable garden and put the rest back in. One point to note while doing this exercise - those recyclable bags that you can buy from up-market grocery stores that you pop your vegetable peelings in aren’t really that bio degradable, the one I put in a year ago was still there, almost fully intact. A slightly smelly job, but well worth the effort.

As it was a bit too cold to sow some of our seeds direct, such as the radishes and seed potatoes I opted to sow another batch of sweet peas, this time some Mr Fothergill’s Tall Mixed we got free from the Gardeners World magazine. These are not in the study/hot house and should see germination in a couple of weeks.

We bought a vast amount of summer bulbs, tubers and plants a couple of weeks ago from Homebase and took advantage of their money saving offers of 3 for 2 etc, so with a variety of dahlia’s, gladioli, red hot pokers and lupins we set about planning and planting the flower bed. The ground was a bit compact from when we last worked the earth so we dug it over again and loosened the compacted soil, and planted what I hope will be a glorious display of colour. It was lovely to see our little visitor – the robin shoot down into the garden as soon as we started working; they really are a gardeners best friend. While I was digging a hole for some alliums Stephen shouted at me to watch my step as right by my foot was Mrs Frog, who looked like she was full of spawn. We carefully put her back into the pond, but not before taking a picture – great one isn’t it. Sadly the robin didn’t hang around for a photo.