A lovely big package arrived on my doorstep the other day, with those magical words “Live Plants” on the side. This never fails to make me go all quivery with anticipation. Inside was a twig, with some roots on the bottom. Not something to get many people excited, unless they’re fanatical kitchen gardeners and they [...]
Archive for January, 2010
Forcing the issue
Posted in Container veg growing, Greenhouse growing, sowing, tagged forcing, frost, potatoes, seed, winter on January 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Still confined to the greenhouse but too soon to sow seeds – what’s a girl to do? I need something to keep me going through the gardening doldrums, so I’ve decided to use a little force. By which I mean using the relative warmth of the greenhouse to persuade things to get going a bit [...]
Introducing some variety
Posted in sowing, tagged seed on January 21, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Gardeners are incurable optimists. We’ve been through the worst winter in 30 years, the snow has only just departed, and all it’s taken is one little glimpse of sunshine and a degree or two rise in temperature to make me come over all anticipatory about seeds. I won’t be sowing my first until a week or two’s [...]
A (very) little salad
Posted in Greenhouse growing, sowing, tagged baby leaf salads, seed, time management, winter on January 17, 2010 | 3 Comments »
It’s not very impressive, is it? I usually do a bit better with my winter salads than this sorry lot. I’m a keen greenhouse gardener in winter: there’s nothing quite like sitting in a cosy frost-free greenhouse listening to the icy rain pattering on the roof. I particularly hate to see the greenhouse borders sitting empty [...]
Bird feed
Posted in Other stuff, tagged birds, chickens, pests, weather, wildlife, winter on January 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Poor old Blossom. She does hate the snow. All her favourite scratching spots have disappeared, and dust baths are out of the question. Little wriggly insects are tucked away out of reach and she can’t even peck at the grass as we haven’t seen that since before Christmas. Blossom is the last of a long [...]
Rogues’ Gallery: Rats
Posted in Allotments, Harvesting, Rogues' Gallery, tagged pests, rats, sweetcorn on January 11, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Shhh – say it quietly. Nobody ever mentions the r-word: but every vegetable garden has them. They say no-one, anywhere, is more than six metres from the nearest Rattus norvegicus (that’s the brown rat – the black rat, Rattus rattus, is apparently almost extinct nowadays despite its notoriety as the cause of the Black Plague. Black rats have pink, hairless [...]
Southern exposure
Posted in Allotments, Soil care, tagged frost, pests, weather, weeds, winter on January 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »
If you’re going to have this much freezing weather, you might as well make the most of it. So I’ve been turning it to my advantage this week with a shivery sort of visit up to the allotment to recruit the sub-zero temperatures onto my side in the on-going battle against pests. In carefully covering up [...]
Going for gold
Posted in Greenhouse growing, sowing, tagged exhibition growing, heritage varieties, onions, sowing, winter on January 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »
So, that was officially the coldest December for 13 years. Actually I think it might be a bit longer than that – I can just about remember 1996 and I’m sure four weeks solid of ice, sleet and snow would have registered. But anyway…. it’s cold. Very, very cold. Gardening outside is more or less off [...]
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Blackcurrants, calabrese, cauliflower, courgettes, French beans, garlic, globe artichokes, gooseberries, kale, onions, peas, potatoes (new and second early), raspberries (summer), redcurrants, runner beans, salad leaves, shallots, strawberries, tomatoes, whitecurrantsSowing Now
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