My Tuesday garden is spic and span, ready to see its first visitors of 2016 next week. The lawns have been mown, every Hellebore leaf removed to leave stunning flowers emerging. Edges immaculate and not a weed in sight. My client is on top of it all and this week I planted her first Broad beans out, along with Spinach and lettuce, undercover. It takes a while for me to remember what I am doing with veg spacing and things as the Winter brings a lull from such work!
I actually started to look out Gardening Apps (of which there are a few) which may be a thing of my future. So much info at the touch of a button on my phone. If you can get any reception of course! A problem for the Gardener who tends to be working in the middle of nowhere.
Another garden with a tiny veg patch required some digging and preparation for their choice of veg, feeding only one or two people, the scale is small.
Then onto Heale later in the week. We began our year of sowing, as we did last year, with Lathyrus odoratus, our Single Cordon Sweet peas. A lovely ritual which kicks off the growing season. Much larger scale, 13 different varieties! Including 'Fragrantissima', 'Erewhon', 'King Size Navy Blue'. Blues and Purples with one small packet of white. Sweet pea is THE flower for me, always has been my absolute fave and so the thought of growing and cropping hundreds of the beauties is just fantastic! I can smell them now.......
Almost finished the digging in the veg garden at Heale. Only one bed to go, which is currently housing the last of our Leeks. The soil was great one day but the next day it had rained and began to get rather claggy and harder to work with. Wearing four layers never helps with movement either. Bring on the Spring.
HG was working in some big borders whilst I was digging. When I had finished I could help and in the corner on the wall was a huge, neglected Fig, Ficus carica, which needed some love in the form of renovation pruning. The branches so overgrown, we found a nest in amongst them. HG showed me the way. I do feel so overwhelmed with jobs like this but once you start and make some decisions to remove old and tangled wood, you get underway and all becomes clear. SO much growth on this one, that even if you chopped more than you intended, it will certainly not die. The aim being, as it always is in pruning, to cut out the dead and diseased and allow for air to circulate. We spur pruned to one or two buds but left some lovely new whippy growth, where appropriate.
What difference! More work to be done next week.
Heale will open to the public on 17th February 2016, primarily for the Snowdrop walk. They truly are a delight and nestle amongst Aconites in a woodland walk along the river. Visit the website for details : http://healegarden.co.uk
In my own gardening world, I visited an independent Garden centre who sell Seed Potatoes loose and what a revelation that is to me! I normally buy varieties I don't REALLY want in large quantity as that is my only choice. Here I think they had around 40 different types, all labelled with cooking information, leaving you to mix and match and buy less of a variety with more choice. I just loved it. Whilst I was like a kid in a sweet shop with the potatoes, my youngest chose whatever seed he wanted for our allotment.
He chose some great stuff, including Turks Turban Squash and some Borlotti Beans he fancied the look of. Brussels Sprouts made the cut (mainly for their fart power) and he wants to grow Chillies for Daddy to cook with. Job done.
It must be super tough fighting your corner as an indie Garden Centre out there during Winter. The biggies filling up their nursery stands with colour and large displays. Whilst this centre didn't have everything for my gardening needs, I would so rather buy some things from them and support them, than do a one stop shop in a large corporate where I am told what to buy. Alongside the loose Potatoes, were loose Broad beans, YES beans. I could choose varieties and the amount that I required. Well done them! http://www.courtensgardencentre.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment