3 March
Lots of seed and plant companies send us catalogues throughout the year and usually I am quite strict with myself and resist any impulse buying but today I succumbed. I am already waiting for a collection of penstemons from Unwins and so I rang them and added a collection of dark leaved dahlias to my order. I'm hoping some will grow well in the banana border to add a bit of colour to what is really a very green looking area.
6 March
The seeds that were planted under the grow light have grown really well. The lettuces are coming on a treat and have been left under the lights to grow on, the basil too. The spring cabbage and coriander have been potted on and have been popped in the cold greenhouse. Not only had they grown well above compost level but had developed really good root systems. More spring cabbage seeds have been sown and put under the grow light.
All the plants in the cold greenhouse seem to be thriving. The garlic is growing well and the shallots and onions are shooting so this will hopefully mean that they will be off to a good start when we finally can manage to plant them out. Unfortunately it also means that last year’s shallots, garlic and onion in storage are also beginning to produce shoots so may soon be unfit for kitchen use. The perennials that were potted on are also growing well as are the strawberries and fruit bushes all waiting for outdoor soil conditions to improve.
Out in the garden the snowdrops are now fading although the conditions have meant that this year they didn’t give the best show. Other plants are moving to centre stage especially the pieris which is now in full flower and the hellebores too starting to provide much welcome colour
The tree fern on the other hand is looking very sorry for itself – will last winter have been the one to much for it! I do hope not!
12 – 19 March
We spent this week on holiday in Cumbria
19 March
One of the collections that we ordered from Hayloft Plants had arrived this morning and was waiting at our back door to greet us back from our holiday. Fortunately the parcel only arrived this morning as I had asked for our holiday dates to be avoided. The plant was bare rooted young plants and so needed potting up straight away. They are more expensive and much smaller than the plants that we bought from Beth Chatto Nurseries but all have visible shoots so I am hoping they will grow away well.
In the greenhouse everything looked to have managed really well without us – onions, chives and garlic are growing well. The strawberry plants and the perennials bought from Beth Chatto nurseries have developed into good sized healthy plants. Some of the perennials are even flowering. Most of the fruit plants are leafing – even the raspberries which are healed in ready for planting on the plot as soon as we can. The cobnut has a few female flowers so I will be on the lookout for some hazel catkins with which to pollinate them.
In the grow light garden the second lot of spring cabbage have germinated and have produced some healthy looking seedlings.
In the garden it really does look like spring now with lots of miniature daffodils and the hellebores in full flower. The pansies too are responding well to the improved conditions and have lots of flowers. Other plants to be starting into flower are the native primroses which are behind those on the plot, cowslips and one of our camellias. Species tulips are beginning the open in a couple of flower tubs too.
Whilst we were away some of our bird feeders ran out which is hardly surprising as the goldfinches were especially making short work of the sunflower hearts. At times they were dining four at a time and hardly a minute of the day passed without at least one sitting on the feeder munching away. Hopefully they won’t have completely deserted us and will return now the feeders have been replenished.
21 March
The first day of spring was the day for the action to be turned up a notch in many ways. As the lawns were less muddy I decided to cut back some of the plants that had been waiting far too long for treatment. Clematis were cut back hard as was one of our buddleias – another will have to wait as the long tailed tits use its branches to access what we are hoping is their nesting site.
We can almost watch other shrubs and trees in the garden, (camellia, magnolia and crab apple), opening their flower buds as things seem to be progressing so quickly.
Strange sounds were heard as I walked by the pond which turned out to be the chorus of frogs trying to woo a mate. Males sometimes hibernate in the mud at the bottom of ponds so maybe these have been in the pond all winter. Read more about frogs here.
We had a full afternoon on the plot mainly catching up on work that should have been carried out ages ago. Shrub roses, sambucus nigra, tayberry and blackberry were pruned and beds still containing the remnants of last year’s crops or this year’s failed over wintering crops were cleared. Read more about pruning tayberries and blackberries here.
We harvested Timperley Early the first rhubarb of the season
Activity increased in or web cam nest box – their was activity throughout most of the day with some token bits of nesting material carried in and arranged and for the very first night one blue tit roosted in the box all night so maybe we are going to be lucky and a pair are moving in! Visit our nest cam photos and film clips for this month here.
22 March
More tidying, a bit of digging or should I say rotovating of the plot today and a bonfire to get rid of lots of the rubbish. We may have dug up the last of last season’s over-wintered carrots as some that we tried to dig up today had gone very mushy. Our last carrot was however a big one weighing in at over half a kilogramme.
23 March
A lovely day again so the lawns had their first mowing of the season.
More plants arrived from Hayloft Plants – this time bare rooted hardy geraniums which have been potted up and have joined the other perennials in the greenhouse.
The afternoon was spent on the plot – more tidying up mainly of the permanently planted fruit beds which also enabled us to plant out the new raspberries that had been waiting in the greenhouse. During tidying the opportunity was also taken to feed the pear trees with chicken manure pellets. The buddleias have also been cut back hard.
24 March
Another lovely day so we managed another half day of tidying up and preparing beds at the plot. Lots of dry dead plant material has been cut back and left in a pile ready for burning. Much of had been left so that birds could browse seed heads over winter.
The autumn raspberries – All Gold – have been cut down to ground level, already new shots are forming at the base which will hopefully produce this year’s berries. Our raspberry pruning techniques are explained here. As the fruit beds are tidied the bushes and trees are being fed with chicken manure.
As I was removing the straw that had protected the carrots over winter there was a bonus surprise – more carrots had survived in good condition.
Clumps of frog spawn are now appearing in the pond much to the delighted interest of our fish – no wonder the frogs produce so much.
25 March
Our tidying had created a massive pile of dry material which was very quickly burned.
27 March
Our first sowing of broad beans – Witkiem Manita, this really marks the beginning of serious seed sowing for us. The beans have bean sown in pots and will be planted out as small plants.
28 March
Two varieties of tomato seeds – Moneymaker and Amish Gold – have been sown in multi cells and placed in the Indoor Growing Garden.
We also had another good afternoon on the plot. The bed containing the newly pruned autumn raspberries has been cleared of as many weeds as possible only the grass growing right in the centre of the clumps of canes proved impossible to remove without digging up the raspberries. I guess raspberries and grass is better than no grass and no raspberries.
The heat treated onion sets – Fen Early, Hytech and Hyred have been planted. We still have some sets left as the bed allocated to plant them out was filled leaving some sets homeless; these will be planted elsewhere along with the non-heat treated onion sets, the shallots, the garlic and elephant garlic currently shooting in pots in the greenhouse. We prefer to use heat treated onion sets but not all varieties are able to withstand the process and so we bought Stuttgarter Stanfield as normal sets. It will be interesting to see whether these are more prone to bolting.
29 March
Today the plot greenhouse was cleared and new weed suppressant fabric laid. The idea was to plant up potato sacks which will be kept in the greenhouse to provide an early crop. They will be removed from the greenhouse after danger of frost passes to make way for tomatoes and other indoor crops. Best laid plans don’t allows come to fruition – the bags have remained empty as we forgot to take the seed potatoes to the plot!
30 March
More tomato seeds have been sown – Blondkopfchen, Gardener's Delight, German Red Strawberry, Maizol Gold, Red Cherry, Yellow Perfection, Tumbling Tom Red and Tumbling Tom Yellow. These have joined the early sown seeds in the Indoor Growing Garden.
It also looks as though mice have had a party in the greenhouse as all that is left of the cabbage and coriander seedlings are stems!
