It really is time to start to get our flower borders and veg patches into some sense of order .

my garden prior to any real work starting … – 6th April 2020.

Having the opportunity to spend an entire day in my garden is something I relish, the last thing it ever is, is a chore. However, when I say an “entire day ” it is not entirely filled with the physical activity of gardening. I consider it includes having a coffee, or a beer, listening to birdsong, or listening to an album, checking out whats growing or happening around you, reading a good book. There really are tonnes of things you can use your “garden space” for.

  • Feet up with a ” shed load of tea” – a perfect way to use my garden space.

However, as I am focusing on helping friends and family to grow cut flowers and veg, I better put my mug of tea down and show you how I will be gardening over the coming months. One big sentence of advice first though – if you only have an hour or so at a time to garden, then think realistically, about what can be achieved, don’t take on too big a project, that never completes.

Uptil Sunday (5th April 2020) I really had left my garden to its own devices from late autumn. This is entirely down to the fact that I choose to fill my garden with ornamental grasses, perennials and hardy annuals. With their beautiful winter sturdy stems and seed heads, they keep my garden looking interesting for months and months well past their flowering time. But its now time to start my 2020 garden.

My Garden from late summer through to March 2020

One last thing, I wanted to show you, how my garden has changed over the years, as I like to try out new design ideas. It is very much a place to sit and relax, cook, and to be with my family, and to be entirely surrounded by gorgeous plants – its as simple as that. Obviously I would love to have my friends round for garden and greenhouse parties this coming Easter, but like millions of other people all over the world, that is on hold for the time being.

  • what a cracking greenhouse party that was !

How much time have you actually got to spend, or more importantly want to? I prefer long stretches of time in my garden on weekends, however, I do try to find an hour daily as well. This week over a a couple of evenings I have cleaned through last years over-wintered Dahlias ( I keep them frost free in my greenhouse). I’ve checked them over to see if new shoots had started, and removed any rotten tubers, which would be detrimental to their health this year. On another evening I filled wheelbarrows of compost, to start filling my raised beds with.

  • yes, a puncture all ready…
  • I don’t think I need to sow any dahlias seeds this year.

On another evening I potted up the previously checked over Dahlia tubers. These will now grow on in the greenhouse till late May, until all frosts have passed. This year, they will be planted in the ground, uptil this point I’ve only ever grown them in containers, and I am hoping that this will lead them to being even more floriforous. They are so simple to grow from seed, and there is still time to do this. When I say they are simple to grow from seed, I really mean it. Sow them now, and they will flower in their first year. And here are some I’ve grown in previous years.

From now on in, my blog becomes a weekly diary , which will be split into 8 topical sections. If you find my advice unclear, just email me, on my contact page, and I really will try to solve your gardening query .

1 Seed sowing (ornamental and vegetables and salad)

2. Ornamental garden ( Trees, perennial, annuals,grasses)

3. Vegetable garden

4. Greenhouse work

5.Jobs for the month

6. Composting

7. . Any other jobs…

8. My working life

  1. SEED SOWING

I made a sowing plan for this year. It just keeps me in check, on what needs sowing. For example , my April index shows me I have 5 packets of different sunflower seeds, that I would like to plant in April, so far I have sown 3, and have the date noted.

This is a really basic plan, and it works for me. I have also included whether I will be initially sowing in the greenhouse of straight into prepared beds outside.

I have kept a sowing diary for years, it is more specific, than my monthly index, combining the two works for me .

I also keep my seeds in alphabetical order. It just helps, when you are looking for something particular. My seed box must have over 80 packets in it, if it wasn’t in alphabetical order, I would waste so much time, in finding things…

Last weekend I helped my niece sow some seeds for the first time. We decided to start with the larger sunflower seeds. We used messenger.

  • put an individual seed on the surface
  • gently push in, just to cover up
  • Cover over with compost. just a light watering, job done.

This weekend it will be the turn for Amaranthus seed, these are more like grains of sand. It is relatively straight forward to do this, and I will share how its done next week.

April is my main month for sowing flower seeds. By sowing a couple of packets a week, rather than all in one go, you hopefully won’t end up with a glut of germinated seedlings, that will need pricking out all at the same time.

2. ORNAMENTAL GARDEN

The brick edged raised bed, is being cleared to make way for my new cut flower bed. It is presently full of plants that are “okay” My garden is relatively small, so it is important that every chosen plant ( whether from seed or bought ) for my new cut flower bed is super gorgeous. Having a specific cut flower bed is something new for me, and I am quite excited about this project. As uptil now, all the flowers I have ever grown for cutting, have ended up in my big border, and by cutting them for the house, alters the overall intended image I was after for the border.

Brick raised bed at back – for cut flowers, and veg beds need some attention…

3, VEGETABLE BEDS – I have started thinking about how I am going to prepare my veg beds, and how I am going to set them out. Last year, I ended up with tomatoes and cucumbers sprawling all over the place, which over ran the salad,and over the beetroot, it became a little too chaotic ( even for me..) My veg plan will be on the blog on Saturday.

I do know that I will be extending the veg beds, by 10 metres square, which will give me 15m2 for crops, and will use my greenhouse for tomatoes and cucumbers this year.

I will not be sowing anything directly into the soil for about the next 2-3 weeks, as I need to prepare the beds, I will fill them with compost, and fleece them over, to start to warm the soil up. The first things that will go in will be salad crops and beetroot. There is no point in racing, I just need to prepare the ground properly. This is something I will be getting on with this weekend.

4. GREENHOUSE WORK My greenhouse is unheated, and it is only really in the last three weeks or so that I have started sowing seeds. And it is only in the last few days, that plants have started germinating. I will be cleaning my greenhouse roof this weekend, it makes a huge difference to light levels, for the health of the young plants, so that’s another job on my list for this weekend…

5. JOBS TO BE COMPLETED THIS MONTH.

I really want to have sown all my flowers for this year, not all my veg though, runner beans and french beans can wait till May.

Clean windows – both house and greenhouse, as I do like looking out onto the garden from our home.

Make my new raised veg beds, and prepare the ground for growing.

6. COMPOSTING, and FEEDING CROPS – I admit to having made no compost for years. However, I will be starting my composting wormery bin this weekend, so watch this space, as to how I will be going about this.

I will not be buying commercially produced fertilizers this year to feed my plants, and will be making both nettle and borage liquid feed. See this Saturdays blog for my return to home made liquid feeds…

7. ANYTHING / EVERYTHING ELSE … Please, remember to buy some gardening gloves, and don’t garden without them. A recent incident involving a rose thorn stuck in my knuckle, ended up with a trip to the doctors. Bloody hell it hurt so much, and as I ended up looseing two days of income ( you have been warned)

8. MY WORKING LIFE – There are some stunning spring flowers out there. Here are a few from this week.

  • Double primroses
  • Dog tooth violets
  • Fritillaria imperialis and Tulip

This weekend coming, you will find me in my garden and greenhouse, as it is International Greenhouse Weekend. I came up with this presently relatively unknown event 2 years ago.

I think its time to change the title from ” day ” to International Greenhouse “weekend,” please feel free to join in, whether you have a greenhouse, a polytunnel or cold frame, or even if you have none of these, lets just make it a weekend to celebrate our garden spaces.