Messy bench

Wanting my blog to be honest showing both my successes and failures .This is one of the benches in the Plant House with all the pots and trays that should have been washed and put away.I may just have shamed myself into clearing it up 

Ferns

I have spent this evening trying to identify these ferns, but this one so far has evaded me. I have been growing these for 5 years .I must admit I have found them a challenge and have lost some along the way.  I think I kept them too wet leaving them standing in water all the time . I have now re potted them in a peat and perlite mix and they seem to be happier ,also less water.I hope to find a suitable spot outside for them to show them off at their best

First Tulips

These are the first of this years flowers. I bought these tulips as rooted bulbs way back in January.
I brought them into the kitchen on Sunday . The combination of the central heating and the extra heat from the oven from cooking they have grown leaps and bounds the stems are at least 8 inches longer and the tulip flowers are like tea cups.
I love the smell of tulips, you have to put your nose into the flower but the scent is delicious. For me its the scent of spring.
When I bought the pots they were colour coded the labels and pots were supposed to show the colour of the flower. The red pot are red, the purple ones are red, goodness knows what colour the yellow pots will be . I won't mind though I'll enjoy them whatever their colour.

Sowing tomatoes and peppers

Today I have sown the tomatoes, peppers and chillies.The varieties of tomato are Moneymaker , Mr Stripy and Pearson. The Pearson are from self saved seed. I first grew this variety about 10 years ago. My brother bought these seeds for me from Al Paso Texas. They are a beef steak tomato that is a heavy cropper and starts producing fruit from about 10inches  high on the main stem. The flavour is excellent, it doesn’t have a thick skin yet it does not split.I have not been able to buy these seed in the U.K.

The peppers are yellow red and orange. I used to buy packets of seed for my peppers and I was always disappointed with the germination. One year after my seeds failed to germinate yet again I sowed some pepper seeds out of the fridge from a supermarket pepper they were up in a few days and grew into excellent peppers plants that produced huge Fruits.. So that is what I now do ,e ery year I buy one pepper of each colour eat the pepper and sow the seed .The same for chillies. This year I am growing Jalapenos and Cayenne.

The tomatoes I will be growing in bottomless pots on the soil due to vole infestation last year which devastated the crop. The chillies and peppers I grow in pots on the bench in the plant house as the higher temperatures produce better peppers .The green house soil is colder  

18th February 2011

All of a sudden everything starts happening at once .The first of the seeds that were sown only last week are up and get moved to a cooler bench to slow them down a bit.

My first plant order arrived ,4 Angel Pelargoniums they are lovely reasonable size plants so I will be able to take cuttings off them in a few weeks ready for bedding out in tubs latter.

The seed potatoes arrived two weeks ago and shame on me I had not undone the box so they were already sprouting when I put them into the trays. They aren’t too bad and should be o.k.
More Hellebores are opening ,this is the first one I bought about 10 years ago and is now a huge plant

When visiting the supermarket for my weekly shop I could not resist these pretty polyanthus. Just the thing to lift your spirits on a dull drizzly day in the greenhouse. I called at the garden centre to buy plants for the hanging baskets, Fuchsias, Million Bells and Surfinias . I buy these as soon as they are available so I can propagate them myself this way I just need to buy one of each colour.

The bulbs are coming on at a fare rate of knots now and its going to be a race between the Hyacinths  and Tulips to see which will give me the first flowers.

I noticed the hens today are looking very red in the face and their combs are red a sure sign laying is soon to follow .We are getting one egg every other day but as the days lengthen this will go up to about 6 a day

 

The Plant House

This is the largest greenhouse we call The Plant House. It is where I start all my seeds both vegetables and plants for the garden and ornamentals

Cc

This little Ployanthus really cheered me up today although its a sad little plant it has struggled to make it through the winter and produce a few        little flowers. Its the only little bit of colour the Plant House at the moment.     

Seeds started off in the propagator the thermostat is set at 20degrees centigrade and the humidity is high so germination should be quite quick .          

Add caption

Re-potted the ferns into their final pots. Its taken five years to get them to this stage .I'm looking forward to seeing them in their final position when the weather warms up.

Snowdrops,first of the Hellebores and Polyanthus

The Snowdrops are looking so clean and pristine you would not believe that they had been battered by 6 days of constant gale force winds .It leaves you wondering how can something that looks so delicate can in fact be so robust.

The Hellebores are nearer the house in quite a sheltered border . 

The first of my self pollinated and and self sown seedlings are flowering for the first time. I am really pleased with this two toned one showing almost stripes of pink and white.

The pale lemon one I bought last year also the white with red markings.

This poor little polyanthus was covered by 6inches of snow  six weeks ago and as I pushed the snow off it I really thought it was dead , but no its still fighting .

Snowdrops

Self Sown Seedling Cross between
 White and Deep Maroon

White Hellebore
with Red Spots

Pale Lemon
Hellebore

Polyanthus

Tthe first flowers of 2011

With all the nasty snow and frost I had missed this lovely little shrub flowering away in a sheltered corner.  The strong perfume in cold sunshire soon reminded me that  the  Sweet Box Sarcococca  is flowering

This little flower is the first  Erysimum plantworld
rainbows . This plant has been in flower constantly for 12 months the long stems continually producing new  buts at their tips.as soon as the weather warms up I'll cut it back again . I have 6 plants more coming on from seed hopefully more colours.

 The cabbage and cauliflowers in the front greenhouse are doing well The first ones to produce heads have been damages by the frost .These will go to feed the hens but there are plenty more to come.
These will have to be used or frozen by the beginning of March to enable the potatoes and broad beans to be planted

Let the battle comence

I have had terrible trouble with rats this winter. Maybe due to the excessive cold .Here in the field they have nice warm compost heap and hay pile for nesting and as much hen food as they can stuff themselves with. Despite having five  poison bate boxes I was just not winning large holes being dug around the hen pen. So in desperation on Monday I sent to Amazon for an electric rat trap and six snap traps .As I said in the title let the battle commence. I will post if it works

the History of the garden

The garden has been grown along organic lines since 1975.

The fruit and vegetable garden at the side of the house consists of seven raised beds. These have been fertilized with compost and seaweed for the last 36 years and are now 3 feet higher than the paths.

Here I grow Raspberries, Gooseberries, Strawberries and  Blackcurrants.

One bed is  devoted solely to herbs, which are used both  culinary  and medicinally .

The vegetable patch  is very productive for a small space. Here I grow autumn planted Onion sets , Carrots, Beetroot, Lettuce, Cabbage,  Cauliflower, followed later by Purple Sprouting Broccoli  and Brussel Sprouts.

The garden has three Greenhouses a 24 x 12 ,8 x 10 and 20 x 30 .

The 20 x 30 is used mainly for the raising of plants for the garden and greenhouse ornamentals, 2 of the benches are used in the summer for growing Peppers and Chilies in pots.

The 8 x 10 usually produces 3 crops a year.

The first crop  is early potatoes planted in February so that we have New Potatoes from mid May.

The second crop is Sweet Corn it doesn’t grow well in the garden as here it is so windy. In the greenhouse it flourishes and produces masses of cobs.

The  third crop is Kale and winter lettuce .

The 12 x 24 also produces 3 crops a year

The first crop  also being potatoes in 2 beds and broad beans in the third bed.

The second crop is Tomatoes and Cucumbers under planted with Parsley and French Marigolds in two beds and climbing French beans Runner beans and French beans in the third bed.Not forgetting a small patch of Sweet Peas just for the scent

The third crop is Cabbages, Cauliflowers,  Lettuce, and Chicory  which  hopefully make it through the winter.

February 1st

Looked in vain for my lemon pink and blue Hellebores I just hope they are underground waiting to come up . Fifteen large snails on the wall just 4 inches away from where my special Hellebores should be .Never the less these got squashed and added to the food on the bird table

The garden looks so dead and miserable after all that snow and frost. I'm sure so much of it won't be back.
Even the base of the Cordyline  Australis is looking so damaged I think I will have to cut it all down around the base

The buds on this pink  hellibore are a lovely promise of things to come

The sprays of buds on this Flame of the Forest are almost ready to burst open

Looks like the white Hellebore Lenten Rose looks like its going to be the first to open

With the Deep Red Hellebore a couple of weeks later

ithw