First Day of March

And still not a daffodil in flower ! We all thought that with the mild winter we had up here, things would be early on the go in the garden but for some reason, the oppposite seems to be true with only the snowdrops and a handful of crocus in flower - there are signs of life but not too many.
Anyway, this week was spent applying a winter wash to all the fruit trees - something I meant to do before now but forgot!.
And the Mantis was brought out the potting shed and put to work, rotovating the rosebed (where all the dahlias will be going)

followed by the cordon sweet pea bed (where the veg was last year)

 and the area of the fruit bed that was under black polythene all winter (where this years potatoes will be going.

The rest of the day was spent clearing up branches and setting light to one of the last remaining burn piles in what will be the vegetable garden - only one left now, but it's a biggie !

And to finish on a bright note - a pretty little hellebore!

A wee bit chilly

The weather has been beautiful all week up here, with beautuiful clear blue skies every day. Unfortunately it is still February so the clear skies can only mean one thing - hard frosts every morning. This morning was no exception and it was -6 this morning as I arrived at Scotsburn.
Given the ground hasn't had a chance to thaw out all week, there was lirrle to be done with the beds and borders etc, so it was out with the chainsaw and more logging and blocking done, to clear more of the felled trees.
I also cut down the cotoneaster that was growing up through the beech hedge and pulled it clear of the hedge - no point in having it slow down any growth the beech wants to put on.
In the greenhouse, the exhibition sweet peas are just beginning to show through the compost and the onion sets are putting down roots.
So, not the most exciting day garden wise but all the felled timber needs to be cut up and removed so that the next phase of the garden improvement can proceed. One more day with the saw should see the bulk, if not all, of the felled trees cleared.
Thats it for this week.

Mid Feb update

Friday was a beautiful day, although there was still a bit of snow on the ground - I am informed that about 6 inches of the white stuff fell on the garden on Wednesday (I had 4" in the forest I was working at on the same day).
First off was the greenhouse - I moved all the perennials outside...........

then set about planting up the onion sets (Centurion and Red Baron) into 12 cell trays, and started to pot on some of the larger Cantebury Bells after giving them a good soak........

and finally, there is no point in wasting the snow that was left around the greenhouse, so I shovelled it up and spread it on the greenhouse beds to help in the rehydration process.

After this it was up to the small beds either side of the summerhouse and these were weeded and cleaned up as they are full of various bulbs so hopefully in the coming weeks we should start to see some colour in these two beds.

 

 

 

And to finish the day I logged what was left of the fallen trees in the area set aside for the veg garden - the photo below also shows the beech hedge fully cut back, though there are still large clumps of cotoneaster growing through bits of it, and this will all be either cut down to about 3ft or removed altogether.

 

 

That's it for now, back again next week.



2013 First Post of the New Season

Well, welcome back to the garden. It's been a while since I last posted but to be honest there hasn't been too much happening other than clearance work and blocking a lot of the trees I felled last year.
Plans for the new season are underway with the principal aim being the construction of a new and permanent veg garden. This will be sited at the far end of the garden below the Fruit Bed. The area allotted is approximately 625 square yards, and will consist of a central bed (with an as yet undecided feature such as a sundial in the centre), surrounded by a further 8 beds, the four corner beds being "L"  shaped. The plan is to enclose the veg garden on 3 sides with a Rosa rugosa hedge, with the fourth side being open to an area to be planted up with more fruit trees - mainly plum, gage and damson.
To this end, the cotoneaster hedge has been cut right down, a large Ash tree has ben felled and the beech hedge has been cut down using secateurs, loppers and chainsaw - and a tractor with a front loader bucket as a platform (I can hear H&S screaming already!!)
The next step is to await the digger to come in and dig out all the stumps and scrape all the rubbish away - but in the meantime, there are a lot of bulbs appearing in this area and these will be dug up and transplanted elsewhere as soon as the ground thaws out - could be a while as it is frozen to at least 4 inches currently - if not deeper.
All this means that for this season, the growing of veg will be restricted to possibly the west facing border. This was home to the cordon sweet peas last year, and I have already weeded it and given it one pass with the Mantis.
The sweet peas for this season were sown today - 21 seeds of 6 varieties -all from Unwins Seeds. This year the varieties are Gwendoline, Alan Titchmarsh, Jilly, Vera Lynn, Orchid and Tranquility. This is double last years number of plants but also double the varieties.
Last year we had snowdrops on January 10th - and given how mild it was before Christmas, I fully expected them to be as early this year - but although they are poking their heads through the ground, we have no flowers on display as yet.
The greenhouse is pretty full with plants awaiting Spring and there are even some planted in the beds as there was no room left on the staging.
The last two sticks of the Brussel Sprouts were cut today - these have been some of the best Sprouts I have grown ( it seems to be a crop I struggle with for some reason) and Richard says they taste really nice which at the end of the day, is what it's all about.
Apologies for the lack of photos but apparently my web album is full so I am looking at alternatives - hopefully be sorted by next week.
Thanks for stopping by.

Bad News, Good News

Let's start with bad news - my car is knackered - the ignition barrel needs replaced and it's gonna cost way too much due to a whole heap of stuff that is linked to the ignition barrel having to be replaced  as well for it to continue working, so the hunt is on for another work runabout.
However, I did get a loan of the OH's car to get to work this morning - how many gardeners do you think drive to work in an XJ8 ????

Now the good news - I got another new toy for the garden - a lovely set of tripod ladders!!

 

These were put to use immediately and I have started to sort out all the trees and roses on the SF wall - and I have to say that these ladders make the job a whole heap easier and safer - I can now reach to top of the wall without having to overstretch or having to resort to walking precariously alonh the sloping wall top. - happy days indeed.

 

 

Other than this, I spent the morning clearing the long border. These are now are more or less cleared for winter, but there are still one or two plants hanging on in there. I cleaned up another four dahlia tubers, gifted by another garden I work at, and these have joined the others in the greenhouse.

Talking of greenhouses, Sally has removed all the green tomatoes and made chutney with them, so I also cleared out the tomato plants and canes so now I have more room to putsome overwintering plants.

I also helped Richard log and block another two laods of firewood from the trees that I felled when I started in the garden - and we have started on the trees that are in and around where the new veg patch is going.

Speaking of the new veg patch, Sally has come up with a rough draft of what she would like and it meets with my approval so it's full steam ahead - will fill you in with details as time goes on.

 

Garden Update

Sorry for the lack of updates recently but there hasn't been too much to report due to weather and just mundane jobs being done. On the subject of the weather, Friday just past was quire a busy day.
On arrival at the gardenm the remperature was -2 though the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue. However by about 12 noon we had some hailstones, followed by snow, followed by hailstones again, then more snow then even more snow, though thankfully it didn't lie in spite of being quite heavy at times.

So what has been happening - well the first frosts did for the dahlias, which is a shame as they all still had lots of flower buds waiting to open - I suppose it's been on of those years. The tubers were all lifted, cleaned and are now residing in boxes of straw under the greenhouse staging

 

The greenhouse is beginning to fill up now, and is currently home a large quantity of Canterbury Bells which will be space fillers for the borders, 36 dahlia tubers, 51 young strawberry plants taken from runners, 4 pots of pinks (from a neighbours garden), 2 rooted honeysuckle cuttings from beside the summerhouse, 2 Astrantias that may of may not make it through to Spring, 5 tree peonies, 2 ordinary peonies (all from seed), 12 x Echinops (from seed), 2 x Lavender (from cuttings) 12 x Gaura (from seed) 8 pots Campanula carpatica (from neighbours garden), 4 x Alchemilla mollis, 3 pots of mint (from root cuttings) 11 x Geranium Johnsons Blue (from root cuttings), 9 pots of Crocosmia "Lucifer", 9 blackcurrant cuttings and 2 globe artichokle slips - with a lot more to come in the following weeks.

 

So what else is going on - I've started putting the borders to bed for the winter now, cutting down most of the perennials, and will be starting to cut back the climbing roses next week.
Sally has some ideas she is yoying with but the veg garden idea is now a central island with either 4 large, 8 medium or 12 smaller "triangular" beds radiating out from this central point, the whole area to be enclosed with a hedge of Rosa rugosa. Alonside this will be planted up with an assortment of fruit trees including greengae, plum and damson, and the large slope is now being cosidered for planting up with Flowering Cherry trees undersown with a wildflower meadow mix which will have paths strimmed through it. -  watch this space !!

 

 

October already - where'd the Summer go ????

So it doesn't look like we'll get a summer, Indian or not. There is a definite autumnal feel now, with the first grass frosts and the leaves starting to change colour. I just wish someone would tell the ******* caterpillars - all over the PSB and Sprout tops.
Anyways, apologies for this weeks lack of photos - both cameras are off on duty elsewhere at the moment, so you'll just have to put up with my typing again this week.
Before I update you on what has happened in the garden this week, I should tell you that I am now working at Scotsburn on a Friday and not a Tuesday - this will allow Sally to touch base with me each week as she has an early finish on a Friday for the rest of this year.
So on arriving down at the garden the first thing I noticed was that Richard has had the hedgeclippers out and the box hedges have all been trimmed - he did not, however, pick up all his trimmings so that was first on the list - 5 barrowloads of box trimmings and I cut back a vouple of shrub roses en route too.
Then I cut down one of the large clumps of Peruvian Lilies before tidying up and weeding the "lupin wall" just below the herbaceous borders, and removing all the spent foxgloves from the edge of the "rose bed".
I then cut back the dwarf lilac by the gate and, after finding a couple of large, hammer in type vine eyes, I finally got around to securing the pear tree by the gate.
On the subject of pear trees, the mystery tree growing alongside the pear trees in the fruit bed, would seem to be a "medlar" - this is to be confirmed but deffo looks like that's what we have.
More tidying up in the afternoon and cut back a "doing nothing" tree against the WF wall - will finish the job next week with the chainsaw and paint stump kille on the remans. I then planted the winter jasmine alongside and poked it behind the support wires on the wall to help it climb upwards.
Picked some more Runner Beans, and dug up a few carrots and parsnips - not too may as Richatd and Sally are off on holiday at the weekend - have a great time and see you when you get back - don't forget your sketch pad Sally -  I am expecting a completed design for the kitchen garden when you return !!