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Notes of what to do!

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

have been in active for the last two weeks.  This is due to tearing a calf muscle while clearing leaves. It was such a lovely day with bright blue sky and I had a million and one things to do indoors but I just had to get outside.

It was the third wheelbarrow of leaves that did it.  I pushed the wheelbarrow full of leaves to the appointed leaf drop position and ping.  I heard a sound like an elastic band breaking and felt like I had been shot in the back of the leg. As I tried to put my foot down a dreadful pain shot through my leg and I realised that something was very wrong.  I was up a slight slope and on the lane outside my garden so I hopped 200m to the house in order to get my husband to help. He sat me down found me an ice pack and we decided to visit casualty.

The upshot is that I am now on crutches and having physio.  It is very difficult and tiring trying to walk let alone garden on crutches, although I have managed to reach the green house and pot up some spring bulbs that were buried under some fleece in the potting shed.  I have become quite inventive in the ways that I have transported things around when no one is there to help.  A small rucksack is a must to carry everyday bits that you might need mobile phone, pad and pencil, tissues, lip salve and the must have these days glasses!

The other must is somewhere that you can plonk yourself when your arms tire. My family have been positioning chairs and stalls for me all over the place and they have been very good at looking after me but I am not a good patient!

Anyway….

On the gardening front I have made copious notes about what I need to do A) when I can move unaided and B) the weather brightens up. Here they are:-

Green House:

Remember to open on brighter days for ventilation and to close in case of a frost.

Pick off dying leaves to prevent mould.

Take out old tomato plants and compost.

Keep checking for slugs and snails and other undesirable bugs.

Water plants.

Vegetable garden:

Clear up the soggy Rhubarb leaves and Borage plants.

Bring in some leeks and the last of the carrots (family to pick).

Continue to harvest kale and cabbage (again remind family).

Collect leaves (putting them into jute sacks) and lift the boards I walk on.

Tidy beetroot plants and cover to enable me to harvest baby beetroot leaves for salads.

Flower garden:

Pick up fallen branches from silver birch and keep for supports.

Re-tie in climbing roses and other climbers that have been battered by the strong winds.

Cover the pots I have missed with potato sacks or move into the potting shed.

Continue to dead head flowers that won’t stop flowering, great for the bees that I have still seen in the garden.


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Garden Tips

Friday, December 11th, 2009

With masses of autumn leaves finally stowed away in chicken wire cages where, in around 18 months time they will have become useful humus-rich leafmould, thoughts turn at last to another important December job: Roses.

Although bush roses that need winter attention don’t get a look in until February, I generally aim to prune my climbing roses by Christmas.  Mine are fairly young, so pruning is mainly a question of tying in some of the best new long growth (that I steered in the right direction while still sappy and pliable) to add to the permanent framework, and cutting back the shorter side shoots that bore flowers to within two or three ‘eyes’ – leaf scars – of their ‘mother’ branches.  Next spring, the dormant eyes will sprout and eventually become shoots that will in turn bear flowers on their tips.  Mature climbing roses need slightly more radical surgery: Some of the older, browner parts of the basic framework should be cut out each year, to encourage the rose to make some new framework growth that will flower with more ‘oomph’ than the old.

Ramblers, identifiable by their single, showy flush of flowers in July and massive unruly growth thereafter, are a different kettle of fish.  In restricted spaces, some of the excessive growth may now need to be cut away completely.  But care must be taken to save some of the long new shoots and tie them down, since they will carry the best of next year’s flowers.  If ramblers are cut back and disciplined (by the ‘neat and tidy’ brigade…) as if they are climbers, flowering next summer may be a bit pathetic.


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Garden Tips

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Alarm bells should be ringing this month if you still have not planted your spring-flowering bulbs.

Tulips should definitely go in this month.  Plant them a few inches apart in rough, slightly disorganized groups and bury them really deeply – 6 inches down if you can.  This will put off all but the most energetic of squirrels, but if you have had a major problem in the past, bury a small piece of chicken wire between the bulbs and the soil surface.  They really, really don’t like that.

I absolutely adore tulips.  These are some combinations that work for me:  ‘Ballerina’ tulips with emerging shoots of Euphorbia griffithii ‘Dixter’.  ‘Spring Green’ tulips around the base of a white-barked Himalayan birch (Betula utilis ‘Jacquemontii).  Tall, white-and-green-flowered Allium nigrum with ‘White Triumphator’ tulips.

Daffodil, crocus and allium bulbs do better the earlier they are planted – September or October are ideal times, I have to say – but better late than never and they can still go in now.  Plant them all with at least twice their height’s worth of soil over their heads.

If bulbs are to be left alone to naturalize, sprinkle a little grit and slow-acting, long-lasting bonemeal under their bottoms at planting time for good measure.  And remember to mark where you have planted them.  I stick a few slim wooden kebab sticks in the ground around each ‘drift’ – quicker to do than write labels, and just visible enough for long enough to remind me not to plant anything else in what may seem, for the next few months, like a tantalizingly vacant spot.  You may think you will remember where everything is, but how many times have we all stuck our spades through our bulbs, I wonder?


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Autumnal Leaves

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

The trees have been an absolute picture driving through the country lanes near my house but since the heavy rain most have fallen to make a colourful carpet on the ground and with this in mind, it’s leaf collecting time again. Before the grass is too wet I use my lawn mower set on high for this task.  It’s good to use the mower because it cuts the leaves up into tiny pieces, which in turn speeds up the composting process.  I have special bins for the leaves made from chicken wire with stakes at the four corners.  Once the grass is too soggy I like to use my rake.  This is not only a very satisfying task on a crisp Autumn day but great exercise as well.  I must confess to hating the noise of all those leaf blowers, such an intrusion into your thoughts as you clear the garden.

I am in the process of moving all of my pelargonium’s and fuchsias into my potting shed.  The problem being that over the last few months I have let it become very messy!!  I will have to give it a sort out and then the moving can start. I cut the plants down by half and clean up any decaying leaves.  I need to make space for the dahlias as well.

For these I take the tubers out of the pots and leave in a tray upside down.   I then sprinkle with yellow sulphur, then cover with dry compost and leave in a dry, dark frost free place until the spring.

I have spent the odd dry day wandering around my garden, secateurs in hand, sniping and tidying the borders.

I also thought it would be a good idea to prune the roses that have a lot of fresh growth to prevent wind rock. In the vegetable garden I have cleared away any fallen leaves and weeds and harvested all the crops that will spoil in the very cold weather. I have covered the last of the salad with cloches to see if I can get it to over winter again.  Fingers crossed it will or I could always sow some on the window sill.


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Garden Madness

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Having a short time away from home, the garden has decided to take matters into its own hands.  On my return I had a walk around assessing what needs to be done.  I couldn’t believe how many baby strawberry plants have sprouted from their mothers, giving me a new supply to replenish the old tired plants or give away to friends.  I have finally managed to plant out the baby kale plants.  They have settled happily because the soil is so warm still after the fabulous September weather.  I have discovered that I no longer have only one toad I have a whole family and some newts as well.  I am pleased to see them and hope they will stay to eat any slugs and snails.  My blueberry bushes have now turned a spectacular shade of red.  In fact the whole garden looks so colourful and bright.

There is a tremendous amount of berries on our Holly and Sorbus trees, which will give the birds lots to eat.  I must remember to get out the bird feeders and give them a good wash ready to fill them for the Winter time.  I had a lot of trouble with squirrels last year, they managed to take down, destroy and try to bury any bird feeder I hung up even the square ones!

I have a lot of self seeded Verbena Bonariensis that seeded into the driveway.  I moved them into pots and they are now ready to plant out into the main herbaceous border along with the Guara  Lindheimeri that I have grown.  They should settle in quickly because the soil is still so warm.   I am an avid seed collector and have been out collecting the seeds of Nicotiana Sylvestris, fennel and coriander ready for next year.  I store them into paper bags that I have brought my market fruit and vegetables in or brown envelopes or sometimes I have asked my local camera shop for the plastic film cases that they just throw away.  All are great for seed storage.


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Garden Tips

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Gardeners get seriously itchy fingers by October, and want/need to start chucking out old annuals, cutting back really exhausted herbaceous plants and to carry out all sorts of adjustments – but with 40% less rain than normal last month (where I live, at any rate), the soil is still rock hard and we should all try to hold off disturbing plant roots until the soil moist. The great garden clear up is therefore going to be a protracted affair.

Given the right soil conditions, however, the next few weeks are a good time to lift and divide herbaceous perennials that need it (after three or four years).  Their best bits – the outside sections – should be replanted in compost-improved soil, and will re-establish themselves quickly before the temperature takes a nose dive next month. It is now common practice not to cut back or disturb those plants that have ‘good winter structure’, or that provide birds with food – or just something to trapeze around on for fun.  As long as this year’s debris is cleared away and everything is shipshape by March, all will be well.

This is not a serious shrub-pruning time, however much we may want to ‘tidy’ them up.  Leave spring flowering shrubs such as Ceanothus and Hydrangeas well alone or you may find yourself cutting off the best flowering shoots.  Late flowerers such as Buddleias and Hypericums can be cut back by half if they are a real eyesore, and pruned properly  (down to a low, woody framework) at the correct time, in early spring.


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September 2009 – Getting Colder

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Autumn seemed to arrive on the 1st September, colder nights and longer shadows.  The courgettes have developed  mildew on the leaves but I will leave them in place for a while longer as they still seem to be producing courgettes,  which is great as the colder weather has made me won’t to make soups and courgette soup is a family favourite.   I decided to dig up all my remaining potatoes and store them in my Jute bags to make space for the pumpkins and squashes that have been rapidly outgrowing their containers in the greenhouse.

This completed I continued to tidy and weed the vegetable garden.  I planted out some very late lettuce and made sure to surround them with an ample circle of Slug and Snail Deterrent.

I still have a lot of spinach another soup favourite and masses of Raspberries which I am picking on a daily basis.  I must make some room to plant out some Garlic and make space for the kale that I am growing.  I had to pull up all the original kale plants as they had a bad attack of cabbage white caterpillars. The tomatoes in the green house are slow to ripen but then I remembered a tip I had heard it was to put a banana skin near the tomatoes and the chemical that is released from the banana will help the tomatoes ripen.  The good thing is that it is working.

I am also going to sow some Calendula ( pot marigold) for next year I love to have these bright little flowers in the vegetable patch and dotted around the garden.

In the flower borders I am continuing to dead head and collect seed for next year.  The Asters are the star flower  in the herbaceous border with the sedums coming a close second.  We have Aster novi-belgii and Aster frikartii ‘monarch’ and Sedum spectabile ‘carmen’  I seem to have inherited some plants this season that were not there last year.  One is the very large Rudbeckia Herbstsonne and a pink flower Chelome obliqua .  Perhaps the seed was dropped by birds or they came along with another plant.  It’s always fun when this happens.


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Garden Tips

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

‘Relaxed’ gardening involves, I firmly believe, being one step ahead.  It pays to nobble your first lily beetle before he finds a mate, to stake your delphiniums properly before that June thunderstorm, to take your favourite tender plants indoors – before they shiver and rot  to death etc. etc..

So September is the month you should build a leaf cage – or even another leaf cage (read on) – in which to store and compost the leaves that are about to hail down on you – gardening manna from heaven.

All you need is four stout posts some chicken wire and something with which to tie them together.  Leaves rot slowly by the action of bacteria and fungi and need neither to be covered nor to heat up, unlike ‘green’ garden waste.  Make the cage bigger than you think you need, since initially leaves take up loads of space (unless you use a leaf-collector or mow them up, which shreds them, thereby speeding up the rotting process into the bargain).  Don’t make the mistake of just piling up new ‘old’ leaves on top of last year’s almost-rotted ones, or you will get in a terrible pickle when you try to use them.  And if you don’t have space for a leaf heap, or only have a few leaves anyway?  Cram leaves into punctured black bags, shove them under evergreen shrubs and forget them for 18 months.


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Garden Tips

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

It is (almost) not too late to:

Make sure you prune your early-summer flowering shrubs and (once-flowering) old shrub roses, cutting out old flowering shoots to reveal the new growth that will flower next year.  Older bushes may need a major stem cut out from ground level to encourage the whole framework to renew itself.  You can also give June-clipped box hedges that look a bit shaggy a neatening trim – in fact this is a good time to cut other evergreen hedges too.

Cut back and feed June/July-flowering perennials (even delphiniums) with a soluble fertilizer (wormery fluid, comfrey or sea weed, for example).  Some perennials will come back and flower again this summer – but make sure you take the opportunity to renew slug defences.  Alchemilla mollis and cat mint will come back from severe shearing, while borders generally benefit from the removal of excess, tired foliage, which can all be composted.  Keep on deadheading all plants – except those plants that carry good-looking bird-friendly seed heads.

It is all systems go in the vegetable patch this month.  Garden hygiene is important in order to minimize pests and diseases. But when clearing up and composting the debris of old crops, remember to leave the roots of legumes (peas and beans) in the soil for a few more weeks. This insures that they introduce all their nitrogen back into the soil – valuable fertiliser for next season’s leafy crops.


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August 2009 – Helpful Visitor!

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Well, there was great excitement in the garden this month.  I was clearing away the peas in the vegetable patch and I discovered a little toad snuggled into a small burrow that it had made.  Unfortunately I had destroyed his home by removing the wigwam of peas.  So I quickly dashed to my potting shed to get an old crock to make a little toad house.  I am pleased to say that he is still there and hopefully eating all the slimy creatures that have come his way. Talking of nature we have so many Bees and Butterflies in the EcoCharlie garden at the moment Bumble Bees, Honey Bees, Peacocks, Cabbage Whites, Tortoiseshell and a pretty brown one. I must remember to look in my butterfly book to identify it. The Bee Attract is obviously working very well. The down side is that we also have a large amount of caterpillars emerging especially on the cabbages.  I do pick them off the leaves by hand but I am going to leave them now as there is just too many.

Toad in the EcoCharlie Garden

Toad in the EcoCharlie Garden!

I am afraid I was a bit slow in netting them this year and the cabbages now look like colanders!  Never mind there is always next year.

We are very pleased with our newly seeded patch of lawn.  Normally growing new grass seed would be a job for September onwards, while the days are still warm and we have more chance of rain but July has been such a wash out, weather wise that the grass seed has germinated and looks lush.  If September is a dry month the patch is small enough to keep watered.  Another job we have accomplished again because of the wet weather is mulching the large shrub beds with a layer of permeable membrane and then laying a thick layer of bark chippings.  Normally this would have had to wait until the soil was wetter in the Autumn but because of our damp July we have been able to conserve the water and suppress the weeds.

The Raspberries have started to ripen thick and fast.  I seem to picking them on a daily basis and using them for with breakfast cereals and in sauces for ice cream and desserts. I am cutting lots of flowers which perfumes the house with smells of lilies and sweat peas, lovely.


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