Hydroponicum, the warmest place to be...

Spent my two days mainly in the Hydroponicum this week, the warmest part of the garden! The whole area needed cleaning and flushing out so we started by removing the guttering from the wall brackets and clearing out old plants and old matting from within. We had to wash them out thoroughly and then replace the matting which needs feeding through a small hole.

My first time with this and it is quite exciting thinking about growing in this environment, soilless cultivation, just nutrient rich water and the plants thrive. You keep an eye on nutrient levels and can change them up or down by adding different feeds.

We are planning tumbling cherry Tomatoes, Chilli plants and perhaps small varieties of Cucumber or Pepper. We also want to plant up lots of flowers (approx 112) to give great colour and hopefully starting from when Houghton opens in March.

I also had a go at Scarifying the lawn in the orchard which is quite fun but hard work on the old arms. Loads of moss and thatch came up, 3 wheelbarrow loads and that was a smidgen of the entire lawn! Lots more to do there then. I pruned some of the Rubus Oregon of old fruit shoots and gave bonemeal to the Roses, using a hoe to work it into the soil.

Groundsel has started to come up in earnest along the orchard avenues so I spent some time removing any weeds in flower too.

A mix of heavy rain and sun and it was lovely once the sky cleared. I am pretty sure winter will surprise us soon, it has been so mild we can't be getting away with it.