Mid March

Well, here we are in the middle of March and things are still threatening to burst into life in the garden, but are not quite there yet. The Pulmonaria which has been in flower for the last two weeks is looking more spectacular with each passing week......

Whilst the daffodils that are in the long borders are just on the point of bursting into flower.......

.....there are a couple that already have. This first one is a dwarf daffodil planted in the small bulb bed by the summerhouse......

and this is one of the original doubles that are located along the line of the path just below this years veg patch under the large holly tree.......

Elsewhere in the garden, there are buds appearing everywhere, as well as weeds, so I started my day by hand weeding the top long border and got about one third of it's length done. I then got the Mantis out and rotovated some more of the ground that will be used for this years veg. There are still a lot of roots that need to be dug up before the Masntis will look at the ground, but once it gets going it's a great machine, and it doesn't wreck your body in the way the large rotovators do. Anyway, some more ground has been blackened and I will do a bit more again next week if it stays dry.

I also sowed some self saved lupin seed as Sally would like a wall of lupins just below the hedge of the lower long border and there aren't as many self-seeded plants in the border this year.
The greenhouse continues to flourish with everything greening up nicely and most of the sweet peas are through.
And just to prove that patience really is a virtue, I sowed some tree peony seeds that I gathered at another garden I work at,  about 18 months ago - left them outside for the best part of that time and today,,, look what I have... a baby tree peony !!!!!

To finish the day off I lifetd some more leeks and cut some PSB for Sally.
And finally, here is this weeks piccie of the borders from the potting shed. See you all again next week.

Dave's Got A New Toy !!

But first.....
Having bought the veg seeds for the year (with the exception of tomatoes and seed tatties which Sally is going to organise, here is what we intend to grow in the garden this year....
Leeks - Musselburgh
Cabbage - Hispi
Spring Greens - Offenham Flower of Spring
Savoy Cabbage - Tundra
Cauliflower - Cheesy
Runner Bean - Achievemnet
Climbing French Bean - Cobra
Beetroot - Bolthardy
Parsnip - Gladiator
Carrot - Early Nantes 5
Onion (from Sets) - Centurion & Sturon
Perpetual Spinach
PSB - Red Arrow
Kale - Black Tuscan
So enough to be going on with.
Anyway, upon getting to the garden this morning, I planted up the onion sets of Centurion and Sturon (50 of each) into 10 cell packs. They were just planted into straight, unadulterated MP Compost and then placed in the greenhouse, alongside all the perennials and sweet peas, all of which seem to be coming along nicely.

Then, unable to resist the temptation any longer, I set about assembling the new 4 Stroke (Deluxe) Mantis Tiller. After a bit of confusion over the handle configuration, it was up and good to go.

Having assembled it, filled it with oil and petrol and starting it up, I gave it a go on the small area at the far end of the lower long border. After a few false starts (it doesn't like stones !!) I mastered the technique and I have to say that it is a very impressive piece of kit. I have used one before on well cultivated soil but never on weed-ridden, root-infested virgin ground, which is what I decided to break it in on. Well, it's gotta start somewhere !

So it was off to where the veggies will be this year. Now this area is littered with the buried roots of a lot of the scrub trees that I cut down when I started the initial clearance, so I also took a fork, a spade and some loppers with me. The roots that the tiller got jammed on, I either dug or pulled up and the tiller did an admirable job on the rest of it. A big rotavator mgiht have been quicker but after the initial sod-busting, it would be redundant, whereas the Mantis will be a useful tool throughout the various  garden areas, even when they are fully planted up.

These piccies above show the area under cultivation for this years veg crops - there is about the same sort of area after the pile of black polythene, so that should be sufficent for this year, whilst I work on clearing what will become the permanent veg patch.

The daffies in the border still aren't in bloom but are damn near to it -there are a few out under the holly tree down the bottom of the garden, but I reckon another fornight and we should have a decent display to photograph.

The rhubarb is going mental - the following pic is of three (yes only three) crowns that I transplanted

soon after I started in this garden - look at the number of heads coming through - ridiculous! (And please ignore the Ground Elder and Couch Grass - these plants obviously had troots that were entangled through the actual crowns themselves, hence the reason they are still there !!

So that's about it for this week, just one final thing to do - this weeks piccie from the Potting Shed...

See you next week.

.

Garden Plan

For those of you who follow this blog, whether a registered follower of not, I think that it might help your understanding of what is happening where if I drew up a rough sort of plan for you, so here it is. It was done on Powerpoint and converted so I hope it's ok.

This will let you see where all the major areas of the garden are/ The green circles are fruit trees, the red circles are the holly trees and the areas still in white are as yet not fully reclaimed or don't have a final use determined. The small black square (top centre) is the Summerhouse. If you would like more detail I can supply rough dimensions fo all the areas.

Nice day to to finish the month

A really beautiful day - warm, with warm wind to help too, but first off I'd like to say I'm glad Sally is on the mend.
On my arrival this morning, I found some blister packs containing some perennial plugs sitting on the bench of the potting shed, so my first job of the day was to pot these up into 3" pots. There were 18 x Campanula pyramidalus which when they grow up should look similar to this.....

Then there were 10 x Echinacea purpurea White Swan which should look like this...

There were also another 6 of the purple Echinacea purpurea. After potting these up they were all delivered down to the greenhouse which is beginning to fill up with perennials for the long borders, most of which are beginning to show signs of growth and will be ready to plant out in April. So at the moment the greenhouse staging looks like this......

The sweet peas sown a fortnight ago have started to germinate too.
After potting these up, I weeded the small bed adjacent to the old summerhouse which is being filled with various bulbs.......

And after this, I returned to weeding the long borders as per previous entries. There are a few plants in flower or close to it at the moment, including the Pulmonaria and Hellebores.......

Most of the perennials are now beginning to push up fresh seasons growth so things are progressing steadily, though I am itching for the daffies to bloom as they look really good in the borders and are a sure sign of better weather arriving.

Anyway here is this weeks photo from the potting shed......

Richard and Sally came down in the afternoon with a present for me - the 4 stroke Mantis Tiller  :-) 

so that will be assembled and given a test ride next week. We discussed the proposed siting of the Strawberry Bed and we look to have settled on the west facing border for at least the next two or three years, when, as well as cropping, we will be looking to increase our stock by cultivating the runners produced. And finally, myself and Sally had a discussion over a nice cuppa about what veg to grow this year, so without boring you with specific varieties, here, in no particular order, is what we have planned.

Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, Leeks, Salad Leaves, PSB, Sweetheart Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, Kale, Cauliflower, Perpetual Spinach, Tomatoes, Parsnips, Beetroot, French Bean, Runner Bean, Spring Greens.

Thats it for this week, see ya next week.

Not a lot to report

The camera saga continues - batteries got fried in the charger so yet again no piccies this week, though to be honest, there's not a lot to see from today anyway. Things are (very) slowly beginning to break into new growth, but you have to look hard to see it. Spent almost the whole day hand weeding more of the borders, including thinning out the red hot pokers.
The perennials in the greenhouse are sending out new growth and the sweet pea seeds sown last week have started to put down roots - how do I know - cos half of them are pushing up through the layer of compost covering them!
Sally has been pretty poorly this last few days soI'd like to wish her a speedy recovery from her viral infection and that's about it - off to buy some new rechargeable batteries tomorrow !

Takin' it Easy

After putting my back out and being barely able to walk out the forest on Monday, thisTuesday at Scotsburn was a day for the lighter jobs.
So, when Sally appeared with the sweet pea seeds, I brought the compost - 2 x 25 litre John Innes Seed Sowing Compost and 1 x 120 litre Multi-Purpose - down to the garden and started sowing the sweet peas

These are all from Unwins and three of these varieties will be grown as cordons with a view to to exhibiting the blooms, with the remaining blend being grown up cane wigwams in the borders.

The varieties should look like the following photos;

Sweet Pea Daphne

Sweet Pea Royal Wedding

Sweet Pea Pink Pearl

And for the borders, Flowers Arrangers Blend of Sweet Peas

The seeds were all sown  in 3" pots, 3 seeds per pot of John Innes Seed Compost which worked out well as there were 21 of each of the show varieties and 54 of the Blend so every pot has 3 seeds.

All these plus another 30 sweet pea seeds (Fragrantissima from T&M) are now resident in the greenhouse.

After this was done, I got on my hands and knees for the rest of the day and started hand weeding the lower of the two long borders - removing ;ots of young willowherb and creeping buttercup and a few baby docks too. I also put up the first Sweet Pea wigwam after I had weeded past the area it is now situated.

Slly also intinmated that she would be ordering a new toy for the garden that day - a 4 stroke Mantis Deluxe Tiller, so I'm looking forward to that arriving - hopefully the ground will be slightly more workable by then than it is currently

That's about it for this week, all that's left is this week's view from the potting shed

A Lovely Crisp Day

Well, for a change it seems that we are having the best of the weather up here. Whilst our friends in England-shire are battling with snow, we have a heavy frost each morning followed by clear blue skies and sunshine. And to prove I'm not making this uop, here is the view from the potting shed this morning

So today was a non starter for doing more weeding or digging as the ground was frozen yet again, so I started the day by pruning back a climbing rose that is partially obscured by the Garrya tree by the summerhouse. Then I pruned all the pear trees along the wall of the fruit bed - this entailed not only pruning from ground level but then using my pole pruners and finally climbing a ladder up onto the top of the wall and inching my way along it, pruning as I went - I should add that the top of the wall is not flat - that would be too easy, no it has a slope of anywhere from 45 to 60 degrees and as the sun doesn't hit the sloped surface at this time of year, it was as slipery as a slippy snake from Slippy Town.
Anyway, job done!
Then I checked on the greenhouse -all the perennials bar two rudbeckia seem to be in fine health. I cleared away any rubbish and pulled out two perennial spinsch plants that had gone over - the chard still looks to be producing though.....

I then barrowd some FYM from the ther end of the garden and spread it on the larger of the greenhouse beds - this will be incorporated in due course....

Had a quick chat with Sally about growing sweet peas on the cordon system for this year and also about the forthcoming purchase of a 4 stroke Mantis - apparently there are two 4 stroke versions so the company are senfing up some bumph on the two versions available.
Then it was back to a general tidy up, clearing leaves and cutting back the various clumps of Hypericum.
The bulbs are increasing in number weekly and I'm looking forward to a good show starting next month.
I hope to get a rough plan done this week and will post it as soon as I get a chance.
That's about it for this week. After I left, I went to see another walled garden I am starting at on Friday coming, that is in the same or worse state than this garden was - see my other blog for pictures of this

to be posted over the weekend.