What a Sow and Sow - February.

Hello there, before I begin here is my usual greeting at the start of all my posts, just incase this is your first visit, so best wishes to everybody as we are once again in lockdown and hope you are coping well physically and mentally.

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Right it's January 18th today and, as is the norm, I'm not getting up to much outside in the garden. Having said that I have begun some work in the polytunnel which is adding fresh compost in a couple of places. I also gave my compost 'daleks' a bit of a turning but if you have seen my recent super professional, 🤣 ,YouTube video you'll know I explained my plan of making two compost bays out of pallets. I really would like to get these made as soon as possible; Jon has access to as many pallets as we need so we can hopefully get this done by the beginning of next month.

Ok, seeds. These are the things we like to eat and that I hope to grow this year!

I may sow some Early Nantes carrots in the polytunnel in a container this month. However next month will begin the main sowing dates. As I said in my last post I'll be following advice from Charles Dowding and my polytunnel book; I've decided to keep sowing, keep sowing this year to make sure I have no gaps in the polytunnel or outside in the beds. I'm sometimes worried about wasting seeds but I often put things outside the front door in our egg house for people to help themselves to and hopefully I'll still be able to do that again should I still have some spare seedlings. During the first lockdown I enjoyed swapping lots of things, including plants, via our community Facebook page. 

Right February will begin with the following: (MS stands for multi-sow)

Turnips (MS) Purple Top Milan, the classic variety.

Spring Onions (MS) Ishikura, a mild flavoured bunching variety.

Khol Rabi Delicacy Purple tasting similar to stems of broccoli which I love in soups or stir fry.

Cabbage Greyhound, an early variety with pointy heads to harvest  from June/July.

Cauliflower All The Year Round, such a versatile seed.

Broccoli Matsuri F1 which is a compact variety, may be easier to protect from pests.

Aubergines Black Beauty which I'm trying really hard with as never been successful and so want my own ratatouille!

Salad leaves of various sorts, whatever takes my fancy really and these will go direct into the polytunnel near the door again so they don't get to hot.

Peppers including a Romano red one and one called Etiuda Orange, possibly a third that I may have ordered - more of that later.

Basil Red Leaved which is so very tasty and Sweet Green as it never fails.

I have some herbs in pots in the polytunnel ready to plant out when the weather is right.

Tomatoes are something I'm determined to keep improving on after last year's better efforts - 

Maskotka a bush variety to grow in pots, some outside and in the polytunnel.

ILDI F1 a lovely, small yellow plum type needing some support.

Marmande which are a large, fleshy, late maturing bush variety.

Big Mama Plum Large are good for soups, sauce and salsa - these I hope to have a go at bottling if I get enough!

Tumbling Toms which are not frost hardy so will be in hanging containers in the polytunnel.

Maghrebi are a fleshy, blight resistant variety.

Should be something to suit everybody out of that little lot.

In pots, not sure of the name but red, I have 60 sets in the poly house. Of those 20 are looking good but not so sure about the others. Here comes the order issues, I received an email the other day saying my order of Vulcan Spring planting onions are on their way! I don't remember ordering them but they may be a replacement as I've had a few issues with orders recently! Some space will have to be found for them along with something else. My seed spud order came but only half of it was right. I expected a 1st and 2nd early order but got the first and then some maincrop ones. I'd decided not to grow the latter as I just don't have room for the plants when they get to the full size and they are the only things I really like to rotate and that doesn't work well for me - where they'll go I don't know, probably growing bags as I do luckily have some of those in the poly house.

The MS items are the only things I will have tried this method with so far along with the leeks I'm still harvesting and we're really enjoying those in soups and pies just now.

Still on the subject of orders, I have coming in the next month or two Rhubarb crowns of  Temperley, an early harvesting variety and I'm also very excited about establishing an asparagus bed so have three crowns of Mondeo variety arriving in March - work to be done on the bed for those.

Flower wise I'll sow some marigolds to pop in between the tomatoes plus they look pretty. I have annuals outside the poly house and various perenials and others in the planters outside the Airbnb rooms.(Funny describing them as such seeing as we're not intending to take any guests throughout 2021.)

So that is my plan for February so far, quite a lot of work but I'm really looking forward to it. The weather here in Wales is quite wet and miz right now and I'm only inclined to get outside if the sun is shining a little bit, guilting me to get my wellies on and so something! I love it when I get out there, though, and here's why.

I'll keep you up to date when I get started but would also love to know if you are growing something for the first time and how you get on with it.

Bye for now, 

Lou.xx

 

Phew! What Didn't We Get Done?

Good evening.

Today is Mothers' Day and I've had a couple of lovely pressies.

We are big fans of Meet The Goldberg's!

Also got these!

and we went for coffee and cake in town.

Today's post is a catch up of a number of days which I've really enjoyed. I hope I'm not think repeating myself, which happens now and again at my age! Settle in with a brew as this could take some time!

Ok, been quite busy outside and so far I've planted out:
- sweet peas Mixed Old Spice in the bed outside the poly house, after topping it up with some of my compost, and a few in a container, too
- 5 strawberry plants including Elsanta in various containers (all plants on now on the outside bench where the greenhouse was)

1st early spuds Swift

Potting on consisted of:
1 sunflower Pacino
6 Sweet Romano Peppers (very pleased and hopeful these do a lot better this year.

I've been quite busy sowing edibles including herbs, too:
8 All Year Round cauliflower
spring onions Evergreen Bunching plus All The Year Round lettuce in the sink
4 courgette Buckingham F1
4 courgette Tondo di Piacnenza
4 tomato Ailsa Craig
8 cabbage Golden Acre

Thought I'd pop in a photo showing how some of my cabbages are currently growing.

garlic chives and red basil
re-sowed lemon balm in a pot and sunk into herb sink
radishes between 1st early spuds
4 tomato Red Alert
12 dwarf bean Ferrari
dwarf pea Hurst Green Shaft direct into bed outside the poly house (sweet peas at the top)

carrots Autumn King 2 in the main bed next to the onions so hope this will help 

4 tomato Red Pear

I don't do flowers that much but this year I'm making an effort so I currently have sown:
- Nigella Persian Jewels in the small rose bed at the front of the house
- Mr Fothergill free trial seeds of Marigold Alumia
- Field Poppies, Nigella and Cornflowers in two small beds I've created near the veg beds and some poppies near the wild garlic and rhubarb.
- Freesias in two planters and a few in the new beds with the wild flowers - I love freesias and can't wait to be able to cut them for inside the house.

So the poly house is starting to look really busy.

I've been having a really good tidy up, too, along with other jobs around the place.
- put slow release compost on the beds ready for the tomatoes
- top dressed my lilac, which will probably need re-homing next year in a bigger container as I've had it for a good 10 years or more
- finally pruned the front climbing rose, the other wall climber, weeded all along the front        wall, cleared the rose bed, top dressed it with compost AND weeded inside the front wall...

....and put down chippings as weed deterrent. Much tidier.

All the greenhouse glass and bags of garden waste have been removed which I'm sooo pleased as it looked super untidy, and I discovered these left over wool shearings and hope to remember to use it as a barrier against slugs!

I've covered the rhubarb to hopefully force it on a bit and it seems to be working.

Phew, that has been a busy 10 days or so!

As the chicken and duck enclosures have now been finished, super super happy with these,

one job I did on Friday was to give the hen house a good going over because yesterday the new chooks arrived! Yay!!! I just love hearing them in the background as I go about doing stuff outside or in the house. We put them away to bed and this morning took a look at them and very gratefully today collected 9, yes you read that correct, 9 eggs. They seem happy.

On Friday after school Alf and I went to check on the sheep and I took this photo of him yomping down the hill and this lovely one of some of the lambs in dappled light.

On Saturday morning Jon was busy chopping logs and he had also acquired something which is now Alf's favourite toy - a log splitter!

Jon and I have had various conversations about what to use the space for since the demise of the greenhouse. We've thought about building a bigger poly house over the main veg bed but now we are set on making the base of the greenhouse into another raised bed and have moved the beds off that base and placed them at the side.

This already has membrane down so we'll just add more compost...

then the ground here will have to be leveled a bit, new membrane in to line them (bought today), filled with compost and we are good to go; these are still going to be for the outside tomatoes.

Right, that is me DONE, and you probably. Well done if you sat through all of that. Its a good record for me as well as letting you know where we are up to.

Look forward to seeing what everybody gets up to in the coming week. Weather is supposed to be a little wetter and colder at times.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

A Big Old Catch Up.

Hi! Well, how good has this weather been, although I did see somebody on social media saying it wasn't right to be this warm in February, meaning that the planet was warming up, I think....

On Thursday it was my youngest's Ysgol Eisteddfod, school Eisteddfod. He recited a poem, in Welsh, for of the categories and came 2nd; he also won places in two writing classes. Very proud of him.

On Friday I had a delivery of my bare root fruit canes and some blueberry plants and seeds from Thompson & Morgan.

Sorry about the last photo being a bit scew!

At the weekend our Airbnb guests enjoyed the sun. We were really very busy with that as well as jobs around the house and outside.

Jon was doing the first cutting back of trees near to the roadside. 

There is more to do but with help as we'll have to take care of the passing traffic. 

In the afternoon he took the boys down to the river for the first try out in the kayak we bought them for Christmas.

On Sunday I manged to get into the garden. Yay!!! I sowed my February onions, variety Sturton in one of the large tyres. After it being suggested to me I've planted 5 of my existing strawberry plants in a drainpipe.

I may suspend this from the rafters of the poly house. I still have a couple more along with the 12 that came in the fruit order.....!

Last Friday I sowed the following: 

Sweet Romano peppers x 4 pots of 2 seeds
Sunflower Pacino (pots as above), these have been put in the conservatory, one of the Sunflower seeds is showing its face.

I've sown a couple of other things which are in my homemade propagator again, but I'll spare you the details as its early days yet. 

Cornflowers and Field flowers in the chimney outside the poly house and I'm looking forward to those coming up as they were lovely last year.

Yesterday, after the two sets of guests left,  I got myself outside. I discovered the other day that one of my rhubarb crowns have survived when I thought it had been flattened following some work in the garden. This morning I saw signs of the second one; they are very small!

I decided to clear the space properly, which included exposing the Wild Garlic I could smell as I was working, and to build something to protect said rhubarb. The area was a BIT over grown....the crowns were planted somewhere in the bottom left of the photo so was a little tricky to find them.

This is how it looked after a bit of work.

And here is what I am chuffed with. I used branches left from Jon's tree job on Saturday and made pegs to twine them around.

I am ridiculously pleased with myself. I just really hope after all my hard work that the crowns survive. If anybody has any advice for me it would be really appreciated.

The boys were busy too, one helping our elderly neighbour with some logging and the other sorting out some kindling for the store.

That's about it, apart from since I began planning this post I now have three Airbnb bookings for this week, and it is not quite the end of February!

Weather gorgeous again today so after getting both rooms ready this morning I'm having some lunch then going out into the poly house where, about 2 hours ago, it was 29 degrees. I plan on taking up the blueberry bushes from the garden and putting them in planters along with the cranberry I was given at Christmas. I bought ericaceous compost yesterday for this job.

Bye for now.

Warming Weather And More To Come?...

Hi!

The weather is definitely improving. (Hope my sunflowers grow this well!)

Even though in Wales we're still getting rain showers, of course, the mercury is still rising. 

No more so than in the conservatory which, you probably know, is standing in as my Poly House until such time as the storm damage to the latter is mended.

Outside I can see the tops of the first early spuds from the Poly House, such is the rate of growth just now. 

On the fruit patch the apple blossom and other fruit trees are flowering and the blackcurrant bushes and raspberry canes are coming on a pace, too. 

The rasps have re-seeded themselves in a couple of places, which I'm very pleased about, but I'll wait until they're a bit bigger then tidy them up with bamboo canes and string as I did with the biggest of them this morning. 

Ooh, today my neighbour who works at the local nursery brought me another rhubarb crown; I've planted this with the first one and I'm looking forward to having quite a sizeable patch eventually; just grateful that rhubarb is not too fussy where it grows as the area I've chosen is a bit stony but it doesn't seem to be bothering it.

The wild garlic is getting huge so I MUST do something with it very soon!

Today I've sown carrot seeds in the same bed as the parsnips and radishes. 

Whilst doing that I've, hopefully, sufficiently bunged up a hole where a mole or rabbit got through into the bed at the end of last year's growing season. Not that much damage was done then and hope to minimise it this year.

I also sowed some spinach beet, perpetual spinach, among the 2nd early spuds in the main patch; this is another of my efforts at a bit of mixed planting; it is described like this:

- A delicious spinach substitute but easier to grow. High yields of nutritious greens and resists bolting in Summer. 

I'm getting very excited about how things are coming on and feel really positive for the coming weeks and months. I'm sure the good weather forecast for the weekend will help towards us all catching up after a very poor start to Spring.

That's all for now with my ramblings.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Floral Fun, Sowing and Growing.

Good morning. A bit miz here today so pleased I got some outdoors jobs done yesterday.

In our garden we don't really do flowers, however we are very lucky that the previous owners planted so many daffodils which seem to increase in numbers each year. These are accompanied by a carpet of snowdrops which is further creeping its way up from the bottom fence line. Both the daffs and snowdrops have pretty much died off but are always followed by these lovelies. They're alongside the picket fence near the veg beds but it's so wonderful that nature replaces one thing after another.  

On the other side of the garden you'll find my Magnolia Stellata. 

When we first came to Bronllan I really hoped there was a Magnoia in the garden and not a cherry blossom and hey presto! This usually flowers between March and April but only came into flower last weekend, late like a lot of things just now. It is hardy so of course survived the recent bad weather no problem; I do hope it flowers into May because of it taking some time to bloom.

I've already had some of my wild garlic and it was, as usual, delicious. 

Its not quite in flower yet but it has re-seeded itself after last year so is really substantial now - can't wait for those edibles to put on salad; I'm going to make pesto and freeze it so I make the most of this wonderful herb.

The rhubarb, which is planted in the vicinity of the wild garlic, has been terrorised by the chooks when they went free range but I do hope it is resilient enough and recuperates; apologies for the chicken reference!

Now this is a tree I think which has come back after being cut back when the chicken enclosure was built.

Not sure what it is but I just like the colour.

Outside the kitchen window is my lilac bush which flowers when it feels like it to be honest! Looks like we are on this year; in the background across from the house is a flowering blackcurrant which I love.

The conservatory has definitely come into its own standing in as my poly house for now, but could do with a little of that warmer weather coming back... Anyhow, between the homemade propagator and in there I'm getting on with some seed sowing and growing. 

So far I have sown: 

Dwarf Bean Ferrari

Tomato Golden Sunrise

Climbing pea Colossus outside and in

Auberine Black Beauty

Tomato Costoluto Fiorentino 

Tomato Moneymaker

Tomato Red Peas

Turnips

American Cress and lettuce

Beetroot inside and out

Sweet peas

Rocket

Coriander and parsely outside

French Marigolds (for around the tomatoes)

They are all in various states of growth but most have some ways to go yet! 

I also have two containers of strawberries indoors - which I spotted yesterday are flowering!

Now, I've been making the best of the good weather this week doing a bit of garden prep. I've put a top layer of compost on the smaller raised bed and also the one outside the poly house. After being covered over for the winter there were hardly any weeds at all and now they look just lovely and healthy, ready for something very soon. Eeeek!

The larger one I think will have a mix of carrots, parsnips and shallots as the soil is much more well drained than the main bed. Have to keep an eye on the rabbits or moles that took a liking to the smaller patch late in the summer last year. 

The smaller one will have cabbage in I think; had that there last year but not too bothered that I should rotate such a small space. I'm going to put sunflowers in there, too, as it'll give a bit of height and colour, plus I should be able to see them from the top kitchen window when in full flower, then the chooks will get the heads at the end of the summer. Win win!

Ok, that is my update done for now.

As ever, look forward to see how your sowing and growing is coming along.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx