Through the Garden Gate--April 2023

The plants in the garden  have really grown in the last few weeks filling out in the borders. Everything looks fresh, green and bright, thanks to all the rain.  Looking at the flower beds now they have filled out I can see where I need to thin a few plants out. Weeding gets easier now; as the plants spread out more there is less to do. Shoots which were just appearing at the end of last month are now recognizable and I can identify them. There were one or two plants which I nearly got rid of thinking they were weeds, so glad I didn't!

 

The Marsh Marigolds put on a good display down in the damp border, but are going over now as are some of the Pulmonaria.  I can see buds on some of the hardy geraniums ready to open any day now and the Geum 'Totally Tangerine' is flowering.

 The Amelanchier blossomed and went over, it was lovely while it lasted. Now it's the crab apple's turn to flower. It's probably my favourite of our flowering trees.

 I love to grow flowers which I can cut for the house and with more flowers starting to appear I've been cutting a few now and again just for little pots around the house.

I didn't plant any tulips in the autumn, thinking I had enough in pots from the previous year. But they didn't put on a very good display, I think some have rotted. So I bought some ready potted ones and they are starting to flower on the patio. They seem to be mostly orange, which is not a colour I normally go for but I'm liking them a lot.

Our twin daughters had their birthday in April. Sarah lives some distance from us and we didn't get to see her for her birthday, but Helen lives just down the road from us.  She wanted some roses to plant in her front garden so that was her present from all of us. I suggested a visit to a local plant nurseries, Holden Clough which sells David Austin roses and where we often like to visit. Situated in the Ribble Valley on the outskirts of the village of Bolton-by-Bowland it's a lovely place  for an afternoon out. 

When we went they had an Artisan market on--something they do on weekends in Spring, Summer and Christmas.  There's always good quality stuff like, jewelry, candles, toiletries, woodwork, scarves, bags etc. from local craftspeople. The nurseries  also do good food so we had lunch too. 

The plants are very good quality and really well displayed in sections like-- sunny borders, damp shade, cottage garden plants etc. Although a bit more expensive than our usual garden centre, sometimes it's worth paying a bit more for a plant you can't get anywhere else and I've often been able to split a plant into two or three smaller ones. 

So we had a lovely afternoon browsing the stalls and buying a few things, looking round the plants and garden sundries and a nice lunch too. Helen chose two roses and a lupin and I bought myself some pots of tulips and a little Auricula. I have a small collection of Auriculas but have never got around to finding a good place to display them. They are all on the garden table until they finish flowering.

As the garden starts to come back to life I enjoy spending more time outside, either doing garden jobs or just sitting. We still haven't had much decent Spring weather, so I'm hoping for some warmer, sunny days in May. Hope you are all enjoying your gardens.

I am linking this blog post to Sarah's blog at 'Down By the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate'   post

Getting started on the Spring Jobs

We're still getting a lot of rainy weather here and so we've not been getting down to the allotment as much as we would like. Easter weekend though was lovely and we made the most of the sunshine by getting some of the important jobs done. 

I've planted out all the onions now which were started off in cell trays.  There are two varieties, Sturon and Turbo,  I've grown both of these before. They have taken up about half of the bed. The rest of the bed will be planted up with leeks when they are ready. I usually struggle to find room for all of the leeks but this year as I'm not growing  red onions and shallots I should have plenty of space. I will probably grow some salad crops in this empty space until it's time to plant the leeks.

The first early potatoes (Rocket) were planted two weeks ago in potato bags.  This week Richard started planting the second earlies (Charlotte). Unfortunately we have had a visit from a baby rat this week who we think is responsible for nibbling some of the Charlottes which had been left in the shed. This meant we didn't have as many to plant as we'd thought.

I always sow my first lot of broad beans in cardboard tubes. They've been ready for planting for a couple of weeks and were getting quite big, but with the bad weather and trying to get other jobs done this got delayed until the Easter weekend. There was enough to plant a double row with a few left over for another row, the varieties are Super Aquadulce and Witkiem Manika. Once they were in the ground I then sowed another double row directly into the soil, Super Aquadulce again and The Sutton.

The greenhouses are filling up with plants.  I've been starting seeds off at home to grow on the two kitchen windowsills. We don't have many suitable spaces in the house for seed pots and trays so as soon as the seedlings are potted on I take them to the allotment and put in the greenhouses. I cover them with fleece or bubble wrap so they are nice and warm. Seedlings growing in the greenhouses are:

Beetroot (Boltardy)    salad leaves and lettuce (Little Gem)  Cabbage (Kilaton)    Tomatoes (8 varieties)  Sweetcorn (Swift)      Aubergine (Black Beauty)  Basil    Parsley    

Also flowers, Asters, Zinnia, French Marigold and sweet peas at the moment, but others will join them soon.

I made the mistake I always do with sweet peas, they were slow to germinate and I thought they weren't going to grow so I bought a pot of seedlings from the garden centre and within a couple of days the ones I'd sown in pots  were finally coming through. I should have lots of lovely sweet peas this summer then!

The first peas are sown in lengths of guttering in the greenhouse--two varieties, Onward and Meteor.  They are just starting to come through.

    

As well as all this seed sowing and planting, there is much weeding to be done. The beds were all nicely prepared earlier in the year, but we have been plagued with hundreds of sycamore seedlings all over the plot. We have a big sycamore tree at the top of the plot which is to blame. Every year we have this problem but this year there are many more than usual.  Everywhere you look there are these little seedlings. So every time we go to the plot I spend some time hoeing off the weeds a different section at a time. I'm hoping they stop growing soon.

Before

After

Its good to get started on these early jobs and to see vegetables growing in the beds.