Bottom of the garden

 

February gold - hazel catkins

Unsurprisingly, January turned out to be one of the mildest and sunniest on record; February is proving to be a little nearer normal temperatures, but with some mild days between the chillier ones.  Last Friday morning we even had a little light snow, which didn’t last long, and there have been some gusty winds.  But there have been enough pleasant days to get on with some proper gardening.

Most of the jobs have been down at the far end of the veg plot, and in the adjacent Dump corner.  I’ve been wanting to make a start on a new compost ‘bin’ – actually a builder’s white sack in which some flint for the drive was delivered.  For ease of emptying, the bottom of the sack was slashed open, which makes a good drainage hole.  First, I had to move the bags of sawdust left over from the ash tree demolition work which were taking up the space where I wanted to put the new ‘bin’, and I took the opportunity to start using some of the sawdust on the veg plot paths.  The alpine strawberry plants that have been blocking paths have been heaved out and left to wilt before being added to the compost heap; a few of their seedlings have been planted in the little square bed in the bottom third of the plot, replacing most of the existing but rather old strawberry plants that I had pulled up in the autumn.  This was mulched first with mushroom compost, and the adjacent paths – now cleared of obstructions – are gradually being mulched with cardboard and some of the sawdust.

The new compost ‘bin’ is now in place, and  I’ve started filling it with garden waste in the hope of eventually generating a reasonable quantity of mulching material for next year – it’s a long-term business!

The honeysuckle and clematis that grow alongside have also been thinned and pruned.  Originally they were intended to cover the trellis that concealed the Dump corner, but said trellis has mostly disintegrated and the honeysuckle at least is now fairly freestanding.  Some alternative plan for screening will have to be found at some point – the white sack is a bit obvious - but not just now (too much else to do).

In the veg beds I’m trying not to dig out existing weeds, but some digging will be necessary in that bottom corner to control the encroaching lily of the valley, and up at the other end I need to remove the alkanet that has self-seeded.  It’s an attractive plant with blue flowers – properly blue, not the ‘purple-going-on-blue’ that you see on so many plants, and I leave it to flower for the bees, but it’s a bit of a thug and I need to be ruthless.  Generally, though, the 'no dig' practice does seem to be keeping weeds down; I just need to extend that practice to the outer edges of the plot!

Above all this activity, the hazel trees – which provide a fairly effective screen between the veg plot and the Dump – are giving a great display of catkins; long and pale gold in the sun.  The catkins look good in a vase with snowdrops, but they do shed a lot of pollen on the tablecloth.

Up in the greenhouse, the sweet pea seeds have been – rather belatedly – sown; whereas I would normally put them in the cold frame, this year I’ve tucked them up in an unheated propagator on the greenhouse staging.  Once planted out in their outdoor positions (probably in the two pots near the back door, which has been successful for the past couple of years), I’ll sow some more seeds alongside, for succession of flowering – and to replace any that don’t come up first time!

Sweet peas, all nicely tucked up