Growing salad

I've been wanting to make a  start sowing vegetable seeds recently, but I know that it's too early to start doing that here in East Lancashire. Especially as I don't have a heated greenhouse, or even any greenhouse for that matter.

So when I came across the 52 Week Salad Challenge I felt inspired to have a go at growing some early salad leaves. I'm a bit late getting into this challenge as I only started last week.  I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up with the challenge all year, but I'm finding it really helpful so far reading all the different posts and getting ideas on what I can grow so early in the year on a warm windowsill indoors. I especially like Fennel and Fern , Carl Legge   and Veg plotting  for really useful information and growing tips.

I started by looking through my collection of seeds and found plenty of lettuce and salad leaves, some beetroot and spinach beet. I'm hoping I can grow these for micro leaves.  I went to the garden centre and bought a packet of sprouting seeds of red cabbage.  Then I got started sowing seeds.  We don't have much space on our kitchen windowsill for seed trays, so some of them are on the spare bedroom windowsill. I just have to remember to check them and water regularly and keep sowing more seeds.

So far I have cut some of the red cabbage seedlings to sprinkle over a tomato and cucumber salad.

salad leaves

beetroot seedlings

spinach beet

I also looked around the garden to see if there was anything growing in the veg beds, not really expecting to find anything. But lo and behold I'd forgotten I have kale and red cabbage growing both in the garden and down at the allotment. I've never used kale in salads, but I know the young leaves can be used in this way, so I'll probably give it a try.

Are you sowing any salad seeds at the moment?

A little bit of gardening

I've been longing to get out and do some gardening, but every time I do go outside I wonder why I bothered because it's so cold and the ground is muddy and really there's not very much I can do.  But it is good to get outside in the fresh air, wander around the garden and see what's growing, even if I don't do much actual gardening.

Saturday was a lovely sunny day although very cold and frosty.   I wrapped myself up in several layers of clothes, put on 3 pairs of socks and my wellies. I took a mug of hot tea and a buttered scone with me. Sounds cosy? Well yes it was.

The ground was frozen  and  you can do a lot of damage to young growth if you try to dig or hoe the flower borders at this time of year so I just did some tidying up.   There were still lots of leaves on the borders from the autumn which needed clearing up and putting in the leaf bin. Also the dead plant debris which I had left in the autumn for the wildlife needed cutting back. Clearing up the borders of all the leaves revealed some surprises. I found a clump of snowdrops nestling under the weigela bush.

 

I also found primroses

cyclamen under the laburnum tree

and crocus in the woodland garden

Happy birds

There's a blackbird in our garden who is very brave and hops onto the bird table as I'm putting the bird food out every morning. I always say 'hello' to him and then he gets a bit scared and shoots off into the hedge. There's a robin too who follows me around when I'm gardening. I see him perching on the wheelbarrow or pecking away at the newly weeded soil and he makes me feel quite happy, like he's looking after me.

The robin and the blackbird are just two of the many birds who visit our garden every day.  There are some collared doves  who arrive as a group, they're fairly calm and quiet. Unlike the very greedy starlings who seem always to be squabbling. The  magpies are like bovver boys, strutting across the lawn, wobetide anyone who gets in their way!  The  woodpigeon is another scary bird who will perch on the nearby garden chair or table surveying the scene as if he owns the place.  There are blue tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, sparrows, dunnets, a chaffinch and the robin, who wait until the big birds have gone before they come to feed on the remaining food.  Then there are the occasional visits we get from a thrush, a couple of nuthatches, a jay and some goldfinches ( I wish they would stay, I really do).

I suppose I feel like all these birds are part of our family, because I know them so well. They seem to be very happy, as my daughter commented the other day when she heard the noise of twittering birds coming from the holly tree. Because they seem so happy and because there are so many of them  makes me think that I must be doing all the right things. Well I spend a lot of money on food for them. My husband says they are better fed than we are!

We have feeders in various places around the garden.  Some are in the apple tree at the top end of the garden. There is a bird table with feeders on nearer the house and another feeding area, a stone platform which was originally intended to be a seat for us but the birds took it over (sigh).

The garden itself has plenty of mature trees, shrubs, and a hedge where the birds can hide, nest and feel secure.  The apple tree provides enough apples for us to share, we leave a lot of the fruit where they fall. There are plenty of perennial plants in the borders which I don't cut back in the autumn.  I leave them until late winter, so that the birds can find food in the winter from the seedheads and insects.

I put out sunflower hearts ( not the black sunflower seeds which make a lot of mess), dried mealworms, suet pellets and the 'no mess' bird seed. There are feeders filled with peanuts, mixed seed, niger seed (for the goldfinches) and fat balls. Feeding areas need to be kept clean because birds can get all sorts of disease, so I clean the feeders and feeding areas with disinfectant every so often.

We get a really good view of the birds from our dining room window and I love to sit there with a cup of tea watching them.  There are squirrels too, their antics are quite amusing, but we could do without them really, they eat a lot of the birds' food and dig up the garden.

Next weekend I am taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch. If you want to take part just click on this link   http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

For more information about feeding the birds in your garden click on this link
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/feeding/

or  :http://www.wildaboutgardens.org/thingstodo/allyearround/feed-the-birds.aspx

Pots of spring cheer

One of my favourite plants at this time of year is the dwarf daffodil, Narcissus Tete-a Tete.  They are available now in pots to buy from garden centres and florists. I have them in the garden and in containers with spring bedding and will probably be planting out more in the next few weeks.  They are so colourful and will brighten up any dull spot in the garden.

They can also be grown indoors and that's what I have been buying them for this week. At this time of year when the days can be really dull and dreary they are great for bringing a bit of spring cheer to the house.
I re pot them into clear glass vases, pretty pots or even jam jars and they look lovely.

When they've finished flowering I just plant them out in the garden and they'll flower again next year.

A sadness

At this time of year around  January and February I start to feel a little bit sad.  Each year when I start to feel this way I wonder why.  And then at some point I remember.  I don't know why that every year, and it's now after 30 years, I should forget and then remember.  

But when I realise why I am feeling so down I always start to feel a little bit better in myself.  And I do something to make me feel better. I buy some flowers, because she loved flowers. I buy  not just any flowers but  flowers that she would have liked.  She wanted garden flowers at her funeral, but she died in February a time when there was little in the garden except snowdrops. So I buy or cut from the garden snowdrops and early daffodils and they remind me of her.