Focus on veg

Most of my gardening week has involved veg this week and I have been pretty happy with that! I just love working with the stuff.

I spent some time at a clients veg plot, marking out lines, planting and weeding. Celeriac, Salads, Broad beans, Spinach. I couldn't be happier. I also planted out from a piece of guttering - the client had sown this way and it is a good way of planting with little disturbance to the roots.

At Heale this week we had to try and keep on top of the Greenhouses and all the work that goes into sowing, pricking out and hardening off before we plant out. Salad that we had sown a few weeks ago was ready for the final push and we planted out rows, 6 inches apart, 6 inches between leaves. Very smart.

 Taking no chances though HG put cloches on the little babies and they survived the night. The Broad beans meanwhile had their protection removed and a string up for support. They too survived the night!

Lots of flowers are sown and planted up at Heale too. The owner likes a cutting garden and also uses the plants for pots amongst other uses. We worked with Cosmos and Zinnia today. Gorgeous little seedlings that were sown a couple of weeks ago got their individual pots today.

Lots of other jobs to continue with in the garden - never two days the same - we weeded and edged some borders, cut back and tied in Clematis, prepared more Willow supports for Sweet pea wigwams, (gave the pigs a pat or two whilst doing this), oh and tried a Rotavator to dig over a renewed border. Scary stuff, those machines are powerful and can run away with you. Practice is required me thinks!

A potter about the garden and there is so much to come. The Japanese garden has been out of our reach for a while - no time! but when you stop to look you find all manner of jewels : Caltha palustris, big and bold with a buttercup yellow flower. Rheum unfurling from a big bright red bud which will end up as huge Rhubarb like leaves. Prunus incisa 'Kojo Nomai', a delicate pink flowered Japanese blossom with zig zag wood. Corylopsis 'Spicata', a Hazel which is just coming out with lovely yellow hanging flowers.

In a wild area near our compost heaps, subtle flower spikes appear amongst the nettles, poking through the grass and finding their way - our native Petasites or Butterbur. Research suggests it is used to treat Migraine and one of its common names is Bogshorns; got to love it for just that alone.

HG has introduced me to all of these and I am lucky enough to learn every day.

I find this gardening malarkey tiring and am usually snoring early on when I have been working but I also know that I feel so alive being outdoors all day, I urge you all to get out there, listen to the birds, feel the wind and get stuck in the mud.

Good practice

I have been in three gardens this week, each with veg just starting (and I even made it to my allotment so that makes four!) and each time I get to remind myself of good veg garden practice.

Read up on the plant you are trying to grow, make sure the plant has enough room for its specific requirements, allow space for tending to the plant and if it is likely to be yummy and attractive to birds, net it!

I planted some Potatoes out and some direct sown Broad Beans on Monday amongst other jobs.

In another garden I focused on herbaceous borders, dead heading, cutting back and tidying; pimping it for visitors to come in and love it. I learnt to cut back Epimedium so as to show off the beautiful flowers that are emerging.

At Heale, veg gardening as I know it, notches up a level. Measuring, lines in, soil perfectly prepared and plants in peak condition to thrive. We planted out Peas - Hurst Green Shaft - which we had sown a couple of weeks ago in a five 'dice formation' so as they plop straight out of the pot and into a row. We protected the beauties with Willow sticks and netting. Nothing will break through that barrier.

We planted some more Peas directly, a different variety this time ; 'Boogie' and some more Broad beans 'Bunyards Exhibition' with the aim of a successional crop to keep picking. A row of Beetroot went in too, pre soaked to give the seed a flying start. Rhubarb is really coming on now and with the warmth of Spring, it all feels very much like we are on the way now.

In the Greenhouses, I sowed some more Leeks, 'Nipper' and 'Below Zero'. Nipper as you might imagine, should give a small, quick crop of tasty Leeks. Pricking out has gone stellar now so I worked with Sunflower and Nicotiana sylvestris. More pots, more pot jenga!

Out in the garden the owner wanted some Quince trees transplanting so we spent most of one day doing just that, root balling the plants and making sure we re-housed them in a large enough hole with a stake. Cydonia 'Vranja' and 'Serbian Gold'.  Heavy work.

In the Japanese garden we have life returning in the form of Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris) which has a bright gold flower. The Skunk Cabbages are on the rise and Petasites are pushing up the soil. HG introduces me to our native Summer Snowflake - Leucojum aestivum - which looks like a giant Snow drop.

Some visitors this week including a Twitter friend - @madcatwood - who came to the garden for the first time - great to see him and how the mad world of Twitter really does connect people!

Coming on now

Lots happening this week on my gardening travels. The sun has been shining and I have been potting on, pricking out and sowing away to keep plants flowing on the production line. One of my gardens has some of its pots coming out of hibernation from the greenhouse and back out into view, so I planted some Sedums to fill out and refresh.

I volunteered at Horatio's garden this week, the garden attached to Salisbury Hospital Spinal Injury Unit. I met James Sinclair who is designing a new Horatio's garden for Glasgow Hospital and I helped to prick out some plants for the Plant Fair coming up in a few months time. A lovely place to visit, always friendly faces about and a variety of jobs to help out with. The garden has different pieces of sculpture from time to time and lights under Birch trees for when it gets dark. Lots of interest for the patients.

My time at Heale saw me building wig wams with Willow for plants to climb up in the veg garden. HG had prepared the wood and I really enjoyed putting the structures in place. The wood is such a fantastic orangey/pink colour and I love the way they are adding to the shape and structure of the veg garden as you walk through the Box parterres.

We have been working in the greenhouse pricking out Aubergine, Chilli, Broccoli and Lupinus and sowing more flowers, Delphiniums and veggies, Cabbage and Cauliflower. HG keeps playing plant Jenga with everything, making enough room for yet more pots and trays!

We had time to plant out our first earlies, the red Duke of York and we used a spoonful of bonemeal for each potato to help them along nicely to produce more tubers.

We planted out Broad beans too. We had sown them in Root trainers, which I just LOVE and they look like premium plants with strong, healthy root systems ready to roll.

Cloches and slug pellets and fingers crossed all will be well.

Looking around the garden all is ready to pop! Heale has quite a few Magnolia trees and the one first to come out looks like 'Star Wars'. Across the river Avon sits Magnolia 'Apollo' and 'Felix Jury'. The shell of the flowers heads are just splitting and peeling off, ready for the bloom to follow.

In the Japanese garden, in shade, sits a clump of delicate, tiny flower heads which HG told me was Puschkinia scilloides variety 'Libanotica'. It looks like a wild garlic plant, lots of green foliage and delicate little flowers, except these flowers have a fine blue stripe. Very pretty.

There is also a weeping plant towards the rivers edge, a Cercidiphyllum japonicum f. pendulum. The stems are rather sweet, a red wood arching in habit. Researching it online, it looks like it has beautiful heart shaped leaves to look forward to as well.

More river work has been carried out, willow has been coppiced and used to repair eroded banks and it looks really good. The Willow is a striking colour. 

Still a wintery feel in the garden some days, a cold wind and still a fire is made every week but now the first veggies are out and about, I am excited about the months ahead and all that lovely produce to come!

Mothers Day today and I was taken to Furzey Gardens in the New Forest. A wonderfully charming and secretive garden with fairy doors in the trees. So much to see on the way, Skunk Cabbages brightly pushing up through the soil, Heather abundant in purple and white flowers, Rhododendrons, Camellias, Skimmias. What a treat.

Late Winter sun

It has been a busy week and varied. I have been in three gardens, each at different stages due to their size. I planted Onions out in one. The sun has been out and birds have been chirping, bees buzzing, life is returning to the garden.

At Heale we are trying to stagger sowing to ease the process of sowing, pricking out, potting on, transplanting and as everyone does we struggle for space if we sow everything at the same time! I worked with some flowers this week, Cosmos, Zinnia, Stock, Centaura and Tithonia (new to me, research says it is a member of Sunflower family, this variety is 'Torch', an orange flower).

We continued with the ongoing process of preparing the veg garden. We are now at the stage of feeding the soil and warming it up with cloches. We are all ready now for Broad beans, Courgettes and Cucumbers. It is looking really smart and I love getting to the stage of almost planting out. Once everything begins to grow, you can sense time speeding up ahead of you, like a roller coaster you can't get off!

The sun was glorious yesterday, plants are beginning to bud, ladybirds and bees are waking up.

We took some time to collect some plants yesterday and look closely at some of the amazing things that are around us every week. Eyes down and getting on with it, means that most of the time you do not actually stop and consider the incredible structure or make up of some plants!