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| Looking Northwards |
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| Part way up! |
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| Rockery herb garden |
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Christmas sowing fever!
Its been a quiet Christmas week in Cardiff, very mild and I have itchy fingers! It may not be the right time of year but I just had to sow some seeds :
Packet of lemon grass seeds (out of date but you never know), 20th December
15 Salad Bowl lettuce seeds on 23rd December (a moon day) - these were sprouting by 25th December and out in the greenhouse by the 26th.
A pot full of Leo dried peas in the greenhouse for pea shoots
5 Sutton Broad beans, started on damp paper and potted on
4 Gardener's Delight tomato seeds sown 26th December
39 cloves of Sainsbury's organic garlic planted in modules in greenhouse 27 December
6 white beetroot 28th December
6 root parsley 28th December
Meanwhile, in the greenhouse beds, the rocket, mixed salad leaves and land cress is coming on a treat. There is also a clump of curled parsley.
In the other greenhouse, the oca is still alive and I am reluctant to disturb the tubers as, apparently, they swell after the plants have died back.
The birds have been a delight this week. The usual range of blue, great, coal and longtail tits, robins, chaffinch, blackbird, dunnock, a wren, a green woodpecker on the lawn and a great spotted woodpecker in the trees. A steady procession of field voles have been making their way over the wall and up the kiwi fruit trellis onto the bird table, sitting there under the upturned hanging basket cage and stuffing their little faces, before scuttling off so fast that you could hardly see them go. I also surprised a rabbit amongst the raspberries. Good job they don't climb.
Packet of lemon grass seeds (out of date but you never know), 20th December
15 Salad Bowl lettuce seeds on 23rd December (a moon day) - these were sprouting by 25th December and out in the greenhouse by the 26th.
A pot full of Leo dried peas in the greenhouse for pea shoots
5 Sutton Broad beans, started on damp paper and potted on
4 Gardener's Delight tomato seeds sown 26th December
39 cloves of Sainsbury's organic garlic planted in modules in greenhouse 27 December
6 white beetroot 28th December
6 root parsley 28th December
Meanwhile, in the greenhouse beds, the rocket, mixed salad leaves and land cress is coming on a treat. There is also a clump of curled parsley.
In the other greenhouse, the oca is still alive and I am reluctant to disturb the tubers as, apparently, they swell after the plants have died back.
The birds have been a delight this week. The usual range of blue, great, coal and longtail tits, robins, chaffinch, blackbird, dunnock, a wren, a green woodpecker on the lawn and a great spotted woodpecker in the trees. A steady procession of field voles have been making their way over the wall and up the kiwi fruit trellis onto the bird table, sitting there under the upturned hanging basket cage and stuffing their little faces, before scuttling off so fast that you could hardly see them go. I also surprised a rabbit amongst the raspberries. Good job they don't climb.
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Introducing my gardens
I have two gardens - 75 miles apart! Not for me an allotment just around the corner. Oh no - that would be far too simple! I like a challenge.
Each garden has to be capable of looking after itself for a week or so while I am not in residence. There is a greenhouse in each garden so this can be a problem at the height of summer (maybe a week or so each year!). Seedlings sometimes travel with me in the car between gardens.
One garden is near the coast in Carmarthenshire, the other is on the rural fringe of Cardiff. There are mature trees in each garden which have to be incorporated into the planting scheme - if there is one!
Although the Cardiff garden is relatively level, the Carmarthenshire one is anything but. There are over 100 steps from road level to the top of the garden and there is no road access - so everything that comes in has to be carried up. Even a wheelbarrow is out of the question.
This Blog is my attempt to record what I do in my gardens and act as a warning to anyone else foolish enough to take on similar gardens. Be warned - its not easy!!
Each garden has to be capable of looking after itself for a week or so while I am not in residence. There is a greenhouse in each garden so this can be a problem at the height of summer (maybe a week or so each year!). Seedlings sometimes travel with me in the car between gardens.
One garden is near the coast in Carmarthenshire, the other is on the rural fringe of Cardiff. There are mature trees in each garden which have to be incorporated into the planting scheme - if there is one!
Although the Cardiff garden is relatively level, the Carmarthenshire one is anything but. There are over 100 steps from road level to the top of the garden and there is no road access - so everything that comes in has to be carried up. Even a wheelbarrow is out of the question.
This Blog is my attempt to record what I do in my gardens and act as a warning to anyone else foolish enough to take on similar gardens. Be warned - its not easy!!
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