1 February
The very first seeds of the year – Cut and Come Again lettuce – have been sown and placed under our new Indoor Gardening Kit. The seeds have been sowed in modules so that if necessary they can be planted out into larger containers. Until the seeds begin to germinate the light will not be switched on.
3 February
After scouring the Internet in search of plants to use in a new flower bed at the front of the house I ended up ordering plants from three different suppliers. One supplier that I just stumbled upon was Beth Chatto Garden Nursery. I almost found this site too late as I has just about decided where I was going to order my plants from and was just having one last look. Beth Chatto had a huge selection of plants and to my surprise these were about half the price of the ones I had decided to buy, As with any first time order I was a bit undecided but in the end I felt that Beth Chatto was a reputable name and if the plants were small they would grow. Today the plants arrived and to my delight were brilliant. As we don’t want to plant out until later the plants were potted on into 6” pots (they were by no means small) and will stay in our cold greenhouse until we are ready to plant them. They all had well-developed root systems and also were producing shoots. There are more photos of the plants here.
4 February
Another delivery – it’s that exciting time of the year when knocks on the door often mean that there is another parcel to open. Today our shallot sets – Pikant & Picasso, elephant garlic and onion sets – Autumn Gold arrived. We have ordered three other varieties of onion sets but don’t expect them for a while as they will be heated treated and will so delivered later. As the conditions aren’t really suitable for planting in the ground this lot is likely to be started in pots and left in the cold greenhouse to make a start of growing.
5 February
We are having our share of extreme weather this winter – overnight the winds were horrendous. This morning our bird feeder was in bits and our old bird table had disappeared into the shrubbery. Once retrieved it was revealed to be in a very sorry state.
On a positive note throughout the day more and more of our cut and come again lettuce seeds germinated and pushed their way through the compost. By the end of the day seedlings had pushed through in every cell. The light is now being controlled by a timer. The length of time that the seedlings are subjected to light also has an effect on their growth and so the day length in our spare room is longer than the natural day length.
6 February
Today I sowed some coriander and basil seeds in small trays. On the packets it recommends sowing in March or April but I want to try and grow some early herbs using the Indoor Garden. It’s just an experiment but if it works we may be having some fresh herbs before too long! If it doesn’t work I can always try again later.
8 February - signs of spring?
9 February
The soil is still far to wet to plant anything and so today we have planted the elephant garlic, most of the shallots and some of the onion sets into pots in the greenhouse. This way they can have a head start before being planted in the ground when conditions improve.
The spring cabbage plants that have been over-wintering on the plot are in a bit of a sorry state after the battering they have received so we have sown some more seeds to see if we can succeed in getting some substitutes to grow. It may not work but if it doesn’t, nothing has been lost.
12 February
The basil that I sowed six days ago is just beginning to germinate.
13 February
The basil is continuing to germinate really well and the spring cabbage sown four days ago is now germinating. So far the grow light is working well as the lettuce leaves are not appearing to be drawn.
15 February
The coriander seeds sown nine days ago is now beginning to germinate.
16 February
Another two plants that I ordered from Beth Chatto’s Nursery Gardens arrived and were just as good as the ones that I had received earlier. The two new plants - Omphalodes cappadocica 'Cherry Ingram' (goodness knows how that is pronounced) and Brunnera – ‘Jack Frost’ are intended for the shady area under the crab apple tree. These have been potted up for the time being as the conditions are still not right for planting.
The cobnut, kiwi and Japanese wineberry that I bought form Victoriana Garden Nursery are now beginning to shoot. The cob nut will be fine as we had already potted it into a large pot but the kiwi and wineberry were still in the small pots that they arrived in and so have been potted on.
Birds in our garden were already busy checking out nest boxes and so the new nestbox with the spy camera has been put into position – knowing our birds they will probably ignore it and nest in one of the old boxes!
18 February
A blue tit checked out the bird cam nest but didn't venture right inside just stayed in the entrance and poked its head through the hole for a quick look around, pictures here
19 February
Our new strawberry plants arrived from Marshalls but as it was snowing AGAIN we couldn't even pot them up in the greenhouse so they were popped in a bowl of water for the day but will need potting up soon. We bought four varieties Marshmarvel - early, Marshmello - main, Amelia - late and Flamenco - everbearing. Hopefully these will give us an extended picking season. We already are familiar with Marshmello and Flamenco but the other two will be new to us.
22 February
The strawberry plants were potted up. We are due to create a new strawberry bed and so the plants will need to stay in the pots for a while until we can sort out the area that has been earmarked for them. More information is available here
23 February
No sooner were the strawberries potted up but a delivery of raspberries arrived. Last year we bought bundles of three new raspberries Glen Moy an early variety, Glen Ample a mid season variety and Glen Magna a late summer variety. Along with our autumn fruiting raspberries the intention was to crop fresh raspberries for as long a season as possible. Unfortunately none of the Glen Moy canes grew so I contacted the supplier who promised to replace them this year. True to their word another batch of Glen Moy raspberries arrived today. By the way the Glen Ample raspberries that we gathered were delicious as despite being newly planted this variety produced quite a few berries. The old canes were cut out at the end of last season leaving the newly produced canes to hopefully bear fruit this year. The autumn fruiting varieties will be cut back hard next month as they will fruit on canes produced this year. For more information on pruning raspberries click here
26 February
The day was off to a brilliant start when we had our first ever sighting of siskins in our garden. Not just one either but a male and two females. They kept coming back to our feeders throughout the day.
We also paid a rare (for the moment) visit to the plot. There wasn’t much chance of doing much there as the ground was soaked with water standing on the beds. Just to emphasise that things weren’t going to change any time soon we had a downpour of rain that sent us running off to hide in the shed.
Despite the conditions the conditions most of the fruit bushes and trees are beginning to bud and the rhubarb is at various stages of production depending on the variety. Some will soon be ready to add to a crumble whereas others are just bursting from the fat buds. Splashes of colour are being provided by the primroses and snowdrops although the primroses don’t stand in to too close an inspection. The flowers have been subject to a battering and it shows.
Our most mature rosemary has also suffered with much of the growth having been killed off – I hope I can rescue some of the bush.
Even though little could be achieved gardening-wise our visit was successful in that we came home with carrots, parsnips and leeks which would replenish our vegetable stock.
