Back on the plot

Today was the first day's serious gardening of the year.  It's not that the weather has been bad - it's been mild on the whole, and relatively dry, but I've been persuading myself that garden jobs weren't all that pressing, and apart from minor bits and pieces such as pulling up the odd weed I haven't been doing much outside.  But there is work to be done, so this afternoon it was on with the gardening gear and out to the greenhouse.  Very satisfying is was too, although none of the jobs were big ones.  Mostly it was the early seed-sowing: the aubergines, sweet peppers and chillies, all to be germinated indoors, and the spring sowing of sweet peas, which have been left in the greenhouse (the autumn-sown ones sprouted in early winter and were put out into the cold frame in December).  A few small lettuce plants which had been sitting in modules in the cold frame were planted into a trough in the relative warmth of the greenhouse (which is cooler than usual this year, having dropped a few times to 2.2C, which is on the cold side for some of my tender plants but nothing seems to be suffering too much so far).  Then there were a couple of other odd jobs to do, such as tying in the broad beans, most of which have reached the height where that is both helpful and desirable.

There is other work waiting for me, including pruning the apple tree and raking weed out of the pond.  It's also a good time of year for digging up perennial weeds, and goodness knows there are plenty of those to tackle.

One job which I did do earlier in January was to plant the last of the tulip bulbs, last year's 'World Friendship' bulbs which had proliferated remarkably well; this probably means that they are too small to flower successfully this year, but we'll see.  They were nice tulips and I'm reluctant to throw them out.  To create a home for them I emptied a big pot which had been housing a mix of small plants, mostly shrubby herbs grown from cuttings; they had been popped in there during the dry summer weather to give them a better depth of soil, and hence more water retention, than their individual small pots could provide.  They hadn't put on a great deal of top growth, but their roots had expanded enormously and I had to cut them apart - so I was surprised to find vine weevil grubs in there.  Goodness only knows what they had been living on as nothing seemed to be damaged.  I fished out as many grubs as I could find and left them out for the robin, who enjoyed the meal.

Actually we have two robins - they paired up before Christmas and have been feeding together quite happily.  We'll see if the friendship lasts when the really cold weather blows in!  There have been a few frosts but nothing to seriously worry the birds, and they haven't been particularly territorial so far.  There are quite a few finches around, mostly goldfinches - two of them were feeding on the phlomis seedheads this morning - but there are also a group of chaffinches, which were soaking up the sun the other day on the apple cordons against the wall, and a male greenfinch has also been around.  We've also had a few bullfinches enjoying eating the flowers on the winter honeysuckle, which has been in full bloom since early December.

Freesias and winter honeysuckle

The winter honeysuckle (Lonicera purpusii) has been a mainstay of posies of flowers for the house; it paired well with some white supermarket freesias, and also with early snowdrops and hazel catkins.  The winter aconites and the first of the hybrid hellebores are out (the big Helleborus argutifolius has been in flower since before Christmas), and I see that the Cyclamen coum that self-seeded at the edge of the path are also flowering.  Daffodil leaves are starting to sprout, although I know from experience that it will still be some time before we see any flowers; they seem to have an ability to sit in bud for a very long time without actually blooming!

Snowdrops and catkins

Cyclamen coum

Helleborus argutifolius

Helleborus x hybridus

Snowdrops and aconites

Things I learnt in 2018

A quick round-up of things I learnt in the past year.  Ok, so the weather last year wasn’t exactly typical, so some of the following may not apply in a ‘normal’ year.  But, in general, in 2018 I learnt:

1.  That it’s true that tomatoes and aubergines should be sown early.  I sowed them indoors, and kept them there until the temperatures warmed up enough to risk the greenhouse, and they did much better.  The tomatoes were much more successful in my bags (about 20 litres) of compost than in growbags.  I potted the aubergines on into larger pots than previously, and kept them on the staging in better light, and got much better results; however they really need even bigger pots (3 litres?).

2.  That it’s also true that late-summer annuals like zinnias and tithonias can be sown late (April/May); they don’t like hanging around waiting to be transplanted, and they catch up very well.  This might also be true of starting off dahlias, although in 2018 they took a long time to get going (the cold spring? Or too little water in summer?).  My ever-growing collection of dahlia tubers is in dry storage in the greenhouse, although I noticed the other day that two of them (‘Sam Hopkins’ and one of the ‘Café au lait’) already had buds on them, so they have been potted up already, and I might take cuttings from them if they do well.  I’ll see how they get on and perhaps pot the others up early, depending on how the spring shapes up weather-wise.

3.  That autumn-sown sweet peas will peter out early, so I need to sow some in spring as well for continuity.  But not too many as I don’t really have many good places to grow them!  And also that the turquoise-flowered varieties aren’t worth bothering with; as I discovered in previous years trying to grow ‘Tutankhamun’, the ‘Turquoise Lagoon’ seeds were slow to germinate, made weedy growth and never did anything.  A gardener’s life (and garden space) is too short.

4.  And, on the subject of annuals: I discovered that French beans are annuals and need to be repeat-sown for continuity (unlike runners, which are perennials).

5.  Sticking with beans for the moment: last autumn I reverted to starting my broad beans off in modules and transplanting, and the plants are doing well.  So I’ve learnt that that’s the best way for me, whatever the gardening experts may say.

6.  That daffodils, other than the small ones like ‘Tete-a-tete’, don’t do well in pots (they didn’t for me, anyway).

7.  That covering newly-planted shallots with fleece keeps the birds from disturbing them.

8.  That hedychiums thrive on moisture as well as heat; I put them, in their pots, outdoors for the summer thinking that the warm weather would be good for them, but they didn’t flower until too late.  I assume they found it too dry; they’re tropical plants, after all, and probably like a steamy atmosphere.

9.  That Francoa sonchifolia is on the tender side – supposedly!  My plants didn’t look great after the cold March weather, but they survived, despite being exposed to the east winds, so I was surprised to discover that I ought to be protecting them in winter!  On the subject of winter protection, I’m experimenting with some mesembryanthemums (Livingstone daisies) that had been in the window box; when I cleared out the box for winter planting, a few of them were still in flower and I plonked them in a pot.  They’ve survived the few light frosts that we’ve had, to my surprise, so I’ve taken them into the greenhouse to see if they will keep going.  I don’t know if they’re annuals in their natural habitat or not.  It turns out that I accidentally transplanted some ‘Tete-a-tete’ narcissus along with them, so at least there will be some interest in that pot in spring if the mesembryanthemums don't last the winter.

9.  That I’m still not good at labelling pots!

10.  What ash dieback looks like :(

11.  That creeping buttercup and the creeping potentilla, two of the nastier weeds in the lawn, flower on the end of runners, so by spotting the flowers you can find the runners and pull them up; it doesn’t kill the plant, obviously, but it does discourage them from spreading.  And I also discovered that it is actually possible to uproot the potentilla, provided you fork down far enough (it’s a tough-rooted little weed).

12.  Not to trust bulb suppliers to send out what I asked for .... 

Much more to learn in 2019!