Time to nurture

Seed sowing time and a Gardener needs their inner Mamma/Papa coming through every step of the way. One false move and it can all be over. Too much heat/too little. Too much water/too little. Glass on/glass off. In the cold frame or not? the days can be really warm in March and the nights still below zero. This week at Heale, we lost power to the greenhouses for about half an hour and the temp dropped 5 degrees (not much but in a frosty morning quite a lot!). HG is on the case but with no Gardener in at the weekend, it is a testing time. Still we have lots on the go. Salads, Celeriac, Peas, Sweet peas, Brassicas, Leeks. We did some flower sowing this week, lots to come, Cobea, Clitoria, Zinnia, Cosmos, Ipomoea and more.

One sunny blue sky day this week, I was reminded why we all stick to Gardening and what pulls us through the long Winter. We had a warm bright day, Daffodils arching their necks to the sun, birds flitting about my head, Swans on the river and soil *just* warm enough to get planting. We got our first Broad beans in and made some Hazel supports for them. 

We are pretty much ready to go in the veg garden. We spent time mucking the wigwams, which will provide support for climbing flowers and possibly some extra Runners (along side our productive Bean plot). I can picture it all now.

In the bigger picture the garden is undergoing some changes and HG has been busy preparing a new seated area. The Japanese tea house has been released from its Winter shutters and has come back to life. It is such a treat to see it peeking out of the trees from the Veg Garden. The weather has been strange though this year and wandering through past some of the early Magnolias, the buds have been damaged. They came too early and got frosted which is so upsetting because they are such beautiful blooms when they are at their best.

I got to explore the wider picture last week. A quad bike trip into the fields and woods high above the valley. We went collecting Pea sticks and supports. Certainly gives you some perspective. Returning into the garden down the drive, you realize how small it is really and if the Leeks don't work perfectly, well there is always next year ;)

Veg prep and hedging

My week in gardens this week involved a variety of tasks. Always the unexpected, which is why I love being outdoors.

When I arrived at my Tuesday garden, over 100 Yew plants were in front of me. Myself and three others set to planting up a new hedge in the rain and sticky mud! Heavy and relentless work but great plants and instant hedging. Worth the result. Much more to do, each hole needed to be dug through old hedging roots and stones so it was slow going.

At Heale, both days involved an awful lot of Bamboo canes! Much preparation was done in the veg garden and it is looking good. We erected the 8 foot canes for our single corden Sweet peas. The soil has been double dug, the canes tied up and all that is left is to plant out early April and get the plants past the Slugs, Mice, Voles, anything that might fancy eating the tenders shoots. That is the time I dislike the most. Willing tiny seedlings and tender young plants on trying to avoid every possible problem along the way. Not to mention THE WEATHER!

We also marked out where we want to plant our Runner beans, French Beans, Dwarf beans, Peas, Broad beans, Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Cucamelons.

We dig a 1 foot deep pit for compost for each Cucumber/Tom/Courgette plant and this saves double digging the entire bed over. Nobody needs to be digging for no reason! Certainly my back tells me that often.

Th Cucamelons we tried to save seem to have rotted. A bit like a Dahlia tuber, we decided to dig up the plant from last year and store in just moist compost. When we went to check on the beauties they appeared to have shriveled up and left all their moisture in the soil. We will have to start again.

The weather was fairly kind this week, into March now and we had cold air, bit of rain, warm sunshine, hail, wind but man that warm sunshine seems to make up for a lot of Winter. What a lovely feeling, when the cloud pulls away and you get SUN! the joy.......

Country life is still keeping me on my toes. The Geese in the field with our Kune Kune pigs are feeling feisty and come at you like mad men in the morning. I am still startled and in awe of the Barn Owl that comes by early in the morning. So graceful. Sheep cross my path as I drive into work and look at my car as if to say "who are you?", not what my commute would involve in London town. I never thought I would get used to driving a quad bike around but somehow it all seems terribly normal now. Looking forward to the season.