Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

We are into Spring and there is a plethora of jobs that we can be getting on with in the garden over the next few weeks. By now you will have begun mowing the lawn and may have noticed some bare or damages patches. Now is a great time to sow grass seed to fill those gaps before summer.    Remember to check your plants for Aphids such as Greenfly and Blackfly and rub off any you find before they become an infestation. There are hundreds of products on the market to deal with Aphids but the easiest, quickest and most environmentally friendly answer to the problem is to squash them by running your finger and thumb along the stem of the plant. On my Runner Beans each year, which will get attacked by Blackfly you can be sure, I find blasting them off with the hose works nicely as well. For wildlife friendly pest control you are actually best to let Mother Nature get on with it as much as possible. By not using sprays you will be amazed by the number of friendly little beasties that will ar

The weather being kind and the forecast mild(ish) I was able to get a good few hours in on the plot this weekend and get some seeds sown and seedlings into the Vegetable Patch.  The Runner Bean seedlings that had been hardening off in the Greenhouse and then the Wood Store are now planted in their bed. Many will say it's too early but they are looking fine and with little threat of frost in the forecast I am confident they will begin to romp away in the warmer days ahead. The second sowing remain in the Conservatory for now but will be moved to the Wood Store to harden off in the near future before joining the others in the Bean Bed.  The Leek seedlings have also been planted out in a couple of rows. A simple task as the seeds were sown in fibre pots so they were just dropped into a dibbed hole, pot and all, before the soil filled in back around them. Being a little old fashioned the lines are plumb line straight and all being well I have have two perfect lines of big fat Leeks c

We had just about every type of weather known to man at my plot on Friday last week. A little snow shower to start the day, wind and rain, a lovely sunny lunchtime followed by a little more snow and then hailstones!  I have held off from sowing any seeds or planting out any seedlings as yet and that decision has proved to be the correct one with temperatures below freezing over the weekend. I have said it before, it is very easy to get caught out by Fools Spring and the last couple of weeks has just confirmed that, beautiful sunny and warm weather for a few days followed by wintery cold conditions almost changing over night. I have seen a few posts on Social Media of young plants decimated by frosts and snow, it so easily done, I have certainly done it in the past, but sometimes you have to fight that desire to plant and sow and wait for Mother Nature.  Space in the Conservatory and Greenhouse is at a premium with so many seedlings waiting to go out onto the plot. The forecast for this

I wrote back on the 23rd August how I planned to sow  White Ishikura Spring Onions  and  Carrot Amsterdam Forcing 3  carrots to grow undercover in the greenhouse through autumn and into winter in the hope of having some crops for the long dark months of winter and perhaps even few carrots for the Christmas Dinner fresh from the garden. I also sowed a line of Carrot Amsterdam Forcing 3 seeds in the veg patch outside to compare with those in the Greenhouse.  Firstly the outside sown Carrots failed, no great surprise as they are not a 'winter hardy' variety and were sown very late. As for the crops in the Greenhouse I didn't manage to have home grown carrots with Christmas Dinner sadly but will be having some this evening, I am very happy to report 😃 Both the  White Ishikura Spring Onions  and  Carrot Amsterdam Forcing 3  are now ready for harvesting; okay a little later than hoped but it's fresh veg off the plot in March that isn't Winter Lettuce or Spring Greens. Th

It had to happen sooner or later I suppose, I have failed a Covid test and find myself somewhat under the weather and stuck at home for a few days. If that in itself isn't annoying enough it was lovely down my neck of the woods on Monday and looks to be set fair for the rest of the week; perfect weather for getting on with all those jobs in the garden, if only I could!  Luckily, I am not suffering anywhere near as much as others I have known and though I am not about to get out on the plot and dig over the veg beds, climbing the stairs wore me out yesterday, there are a few little jobs I can, and will, be getting on with. As room in the conservatory is at a premium I have moved the Runner Bean seedlings down to the greenhouse where they are sheltered, will get plenty of sun during the day, and acclimatise to the colder evenings and harden off somewhat at the same time. The  Leek seedlings have been moved to the woodstore, somewhat more open to the elements but still under cover fro

Following storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin the beginning of March has seen the weather calm down somewhat and at times it has felt distinctly spring like, finally.  A few of the early flowering Daffodils in my garden have taken a bit of a beating, so mush so, and unusually for me, I have had a few in a vase in the house as they had been snapped by the winds whipping round the garden.  The conservatory fills by the day and currently houses Buffalosteak Tomato, Gigantomo Tomato, Runner Beans, Courgette and Leek seedlings along with the Begonia corm that I recently took out of its winter storage (in some old compost in a big pot in the shed) and have placed in said pot but on some new compost. It is covered in the tiniest of little buds and promises a real display again this summer all being well.  I took the opportunity on a quieter Sunday afternoon this weekend to sow some Black Cherry Tomato seeds (a packet received as a Christmas present and that is all it says on the pack) and Limo

Signs that spring is on the way are all around the garden. Crocus are just coming into bloom, Daffodils are popping up all over, the pots filled with bulbs are just days away from the first flowers, it was a lovely place to be this weekend. I also made some time just to sit and enjoy the garden, from the relative warmth of the conservatory, and half-an-hour or so was lost just watching the Sparrows, Starlings and Wood Pigeons squabbling on the bird feeders.  I also spent some time in one of my happy places this weekend, the potting shed, busying myself sowing Leek and Runner Bean seeds into fibre pots. The two seed trays of Beans, eight 8cm pots on each, are currently in the dining room by the French Doors to get as much warmth and light as possible with the two trays of Leeks, fifteen 6cm pots on each, on the table in the conservatory tucked up warm under propagator lids. Spring really is just around the corner.  Cheers 🍺