Moving

Please note that I have moved my blog to mikethegardener.wordpress.com I hope you follow me there.

Too hot

Well summer has most definitely arrived.Jobs have had to be found in the shade.One of the advantages of this dry spell is that the grass has been slower to grow which has meant that less time has had to be spent on the mower.Applications of weedkiller have been very effective and the wildflowers which are a tougher breed have flourished.
I went to Archies field on Wednesday to do some weeding for habitataid.co.uk the thistles need dealing with before they set seed.The fields were glorious - such a contrast to the A303 which they border.I do so remember
 in my previous career thundering up and down motorways looking out into the fields and envying someone working in the fields without a care in the world.I tried not to look too smug.Actually it was too hot and noisy I don't know how all the wildlife put up with it,they must be more resilient than we think.
The fields are looking superb and I hope with the sign facing the road it will spread the word.The approach to the field is along a concrete runway with no hedges either side and no other person in sight. it was so hot and dry it reminded me of being in the south of France in the 70's we'll be growing grapes next.Oh but we are.Near where I live is quite a sizeable vineyard which is looking pretty good.If it carries on like this it will be a vintage year.After a quiet morning I drove back past Castle Cary station and saw all the kids queing for buses to get to Glastonbury just up the road it was funny how I had been reminded of France all those years ago and here was another one of thirty odd years ago, a gang of us with rucksacks and tents and not a care in the world.When I got home I got an email from one of my friends who was with me on that trip and the one to the south of France - he was worried about his son going and that he was going to be ok.How time passes.

Problems with Trees

It is surprising to me just how much damage is caused to the trees during the summer.This last week we have,unusually, had a wind from the north which with all the trees as leafy as they are going to get, has caused a fair amount of damage.If the branches would break off cleanly it would be bad enough but when they tear a couple of feet of bark, disfiguring the whole of the side of a tree it is disastrous.I had a particularly bad one to deal with right above our greenhouse.It took ages, I had to rope it so that when it fell it did not crash into the greenhouse.In the new border we have a self sown horse chestnut that loses a major branch every year or so it seems.This year it lost another large branch and took out a Cotinus Coggyra Purpurea  which was in its way.It did not kill it' but it gave it a major pruning.

While I had the chainsaw and the tractor handy I decided to put the Robinia in the front garden out of its misery.This is a job I have meant to do for at least three years but while there has been life, albeit pretty feeble, I have left it alone.The trouble is it is now under the canopy of a spreading and beautiful copper beech which has left it lacking light and water.The books will tell you that Robinias are ideal for dry poor soil and will tolerate shade- but there are limits and this poor tree has been pushed too far.It has gradually lost more foliage each year and this dry spring has left it with only one branch with foliage.The good news is that it made a super bonfire which burnt all the grass clippings for the last couple of weeks.I hate cutting down live trees but this one was becoming an eyesore.
We have had the best crop of strawberries this year that I can remember.My wife has concocted a recipe using them in muffins which are superb- let me know if you want the recipe!Great just out of the oven but be careful as the strawberry chunks take ages to cool down as my blistered tongue attests.It will be rasberries soon - no wonder I'm not skinny.

Abundance or glut

All of a sudden the vegetable garden is full of produce.I was very proud earlier this week to dig up some new potatoes destined for the table at the www.habitataid.co.uk wildflower course - I hope they went down well.The last course for ponds seems only a little while ago ,but then we were looking at bare plots now they are full of ready or nearly ready fruit and vegetables.Time passes so quickly.One of the jobs I did very early this year was place stakes around all the delphiniums and boy has that paid off .Most of them are now well over six foot tall and looking superb.It is so much easier and effective to do them earlier.I must pencil into the diary to do them the same next year as the results are worth it as they then grow unchecked.There is nothing worse than wrestling with stakes and string to check plants that have gone over and the results never look very good no matter how hard you try.The same with peonies and alstromeiria.We seem to be back to watering all the time the rain, though a help did not last long enough.It has speeded up the grass growth which has left me mowing most of the week and looks as if next week will be much the same.
This morning we went up to the National Trust place Stourhead for a walk.In their walled garden they have surrounded their brassica plot with a copper pipe laid around and beer traps inside to get rid of the slugs.I have read about this but this is the first time I have seen it used.I must try and find out later how effective this has been.

Breakdowns and aggravation

Why does the hot weather make everything break down or does it seem worse when you are hot and bothered.When I am busy an unforseen disruption can be really irritating (it actually involved cursing and throwing things - but I 've calmed down now.)Punctures are particularly bad as there is never a good time for them to happen.It is not so bad if it is my beloved Iseki tractor( see picture) which is so old the tyres come off the rims easily and the punctures can be repaired there and then - ten minutes and you are back on the road.The new Mitsibushi tractor and the John Deere mower are a different matter - the tyres are so tight you have to take them to a tyre depot and on a Saturday evening just forget it. So feeling grumpy I thought I would do some watering and lo and behold the tap exploded - a perished seal which eventually I repaired with ptfe and rubber bands after an hour of sweating and cursing because the nut was too tight to loosen easily.
Once I had calmed down though I went for a walk round the garden with the camera and a glass of beer and felt much better.Alchemilla mollis is almost a weed here but at this time of year looks fresh and gorgeous as a backdrop to the lupins.It is such a versatile plant and is able to grow just about anywhere you put it.The borders are looking great but its a shame the poppies don't last more than about a couple of days.
It looks as if the disaster with the sweet peas may be saved I made very late sowing which have germinated at last and I hope will catch up fairly quickly.

Buy one get one free

As any gardener knows at this time of year weeding is a never ending task but not  one to just switch off when it becomes a slog.Being so hot and dry this week I can make huge inroads into the weeds with a dutch hoe.Each winter I put huge amounts of our own compost over the herbaceous borders.We are on heavy clay and if I did not do this, apart from the nutritional benefits, the ground would be like concrete and impossible to sustain the less robust plants.I do try to keep the compost free from weeds by covering each layer with grass clippings and hope the ensuing heat will kill off the weed seeds but this is only partially successful.When I first came here there were no compost heaps (terrible I know) and most of the plants were straggly and poor due to a lack of feeding.It is not that the soil is poor but it is so heavy it does not release any of it nutrients.I managed to get a huge supply of horse manure which cured the problem but introduced another - couch grass which nine years later I have only just managed to eradicate.I made the same mistake years ago on another garden and introduced bindweed which is so difficult to get rid of completely.Anyway back to the hoeing.Before I start I carefully check over the area for any useful seedlings that have appeared.Under our beautiful tree peony as you will see from the photograph I found two peony seedlings which I will carefully pot up.In other parts of the garden I check for calendula seedlings which I leave insitu as they always flower better and longer than ones we have planted.In the compost I often dig up and move to a more suitable location,nicotiana and California poppies - all for free.I have a little area near the greenhouse of seedlings I have potted up as I'm not sure what they are,mostly these get thrown away but occasionally a gem surfaces.This is where I found a buddleia alternifolia which now has star billing in one of the horseshoe borders.  This also breaks up the monotony of hoeing - or at least that is my excuse.

Fess up time

When I said dry in my last blog I did not mean this dry.It has meant that all the planting out has had to be followed up with plenty of watering a very time consuming occupation.
Earlier this year I bought a batch of potting compost from a chap who calls round every year. Normally this is excellent but this last load has been a disaster - nothing grows in it. I have not tested it ,something I will do in future but I suspect it is really acidic, nothing gets going once it has germinated. In future I will only use John Innes for this purpose. The result is that I have no sweet peas ,usually a feature of the garden not only in the vegetable plot but scrambling up through shrubs to give colour and to enhance the scent in seating areas.I hoped to buy some at the local garden centre but I have left it too late so I am hoping a very late sewing will save my bacon. I rescued most of the cuttings I took over the winter by changing the compost ,not something to be recommended but at least it has worked.It does not matter how careful you are there is always something to trip you up.Listening to Gardeners Question Time always makes me feel better as they all make great big mistakes.A mistake I made last year was to grow all the tomatoes outside a disaster as they all got blight due to the awful weather. This year they are staying in the polytunnel which pretty much guarantees a scorching dry summer.

My last confession was the dahlias last year which I did not cover up in the barn sufficiently well - they all died.I have grown nearly all the replacements from seed and they are terrific so I do not feel quite so guilty now apart from the beautiful 'David Howard' that I must replace as I miss it so much.Dahlias are so easy to grow from seed I will do quite a few more next year and just leave them in the ground to overwinter with a decent mulch.If they survive well then great but if not it is not such a disaster.

Late frosts

I have just got back from a weeks holiday, pleased with myself for not putting out the tender plants.It would have spoiled my holiday if I had known that the frost was causing havoc at home.

A week walking in mid Wales among some pretty wonderful scenery.Also managed to see some wonderful gardens.I am a sucker for old fashioned walled gardens and Croft Castle in Herefordshire did not disappoint.Although just as far back because of the persistent cold weather as we all are, there was plenty to see from the perfectly pruned apple trees to the huge collection of sedums.We were based in the Elan Valley with a huge area of mountains and reservoirs with lots of pretty little towns with local food shops another of my favourite hobbies!Did some great walks and have got the blisters to prove it. Now back to work and quite a busy week ahead hardening off the tender plants and preparing all the containers as well as catching up with weeding and grass cutting - lets hope it stays dry.

The plate spinning act

This is the time when everything is growing too fast.The grass looks as if it needs mowing again just after you have finished and the weeds are appearing all the time.

.The weather forecasts here are not very accurate in fact at times complete tosh. I remember last year I checked the forecast the night before as I wanted to spray weedkiller on the drives and pathways and some spot weeding of thistles along the lake.Dry for the next couple of days said Richard Angwin our local BBC forecaster.So I spent most of the day with a knapsack sprayer - a hot heavy job spraying the weeds.I had not been finished half an hour and yes it p****d it down.I was so angry I even sent him a snotty e-mail.It is with this in mind that I am looking at the weather forecast with a little trepidation,frost is forecast, which could spell disaster with the apple trees in full blossom.Fingers crossed he is wrong again.I do hope we get some warmer weather soon though everything tender is looking very sulky.
I split some of the beautiful delicate water lilies and planted them in the ornamental pond which was beginning to get congested this week.However careful you are the soil does escape from the basket so I double line them with old fleece from the carrot beds.They soon burst out though but they do look amazing when flowering.

Birdsong

There is a blackbird that has started waking me up early every morning.It is driving me mad ,not because it is so early,at the moment just before 5am but because of the song that it is singing,or rather a phrase in that song.It is catchy like a pop song.Throughout the day I hear this bird,sometimes faintly but every time somewhere in its song the same phrase.I work in other gardens and listen carefully but it is only this one bird that uses this phrase.Never noticed it before,but like a trainspotter I collect bird noises,differentiating the hyena like call of a woodpecker from the squeeky toy sound of a swallow or the low distress call of birds when  a predator is around and even the warning calls of birds when someone else is in the garden eg the boss - so look busy.
This week as part of my habitataid work I went to Archies field for the first time to check progress and to spray weedkiller on some thistles emerging on the margins.The roughly triangular shaped field is right next to the A303.The topsoil has been scraped off and left to one side and is the major culprit for the thistles.This leaves a mainly sandy over gravel meadow just perfect for wildflowers and considering this is only its first year and pretty early in the season very impressive.I am looking forward to the results later in the year.

While I was there I could not help looking at what birds were there.As we were so close to a major road with a constant supply of road kill there were plenty of magpies and crows and even a buzzard.Then being lucky enough to work in tranquil surroundings it struck me that you could not hear any birdsong it all being drowned by the roar of traffic from the road.Now most  people in this country hear other noises ,the odd car or children playing but this was oppressive.It was like living next to Niagra falls constantly overpowering everything.Do you know I missed that pesky blackbird!

First crop of the year

I cut some asparagus this week banishing the hungry period.Everybody goes on about how satisfying it is to grow your own vegetables and how we are doing our bit for the environment but even after all these years nothing beats the first crop of the year. I have been growing salad crops in the polytunnel which will be ready soon but outside seasonal crops are better.The books always tell you the quicker you can get sweetcorn to the pot the better but I have never been a great fan of it but asparagus falls into the same category.Way back before I grew my own I thought this was a tasteless overhyped vegetable, but fresh is altogether another experience.I often look at the limp bundles in the supermarket and note in the last instance the country of orgin is Peru and wonder why people waste their money, all that time out of the ground plus the travelling must affect the taste - although I have never tried it ,the price being a deterrant.Asparagus must be one of the easiest crops to grow,most of the work going into the initial preparation of the bed.After that all that is involved, is keeping it weed free and watered and a light top dressing of compost each winter.Not too taxing especially as if left to grow on the fine foliage is excellent for flower arranging.

It has been a strange week as most planting has had to be followed by quite a bit of watering,this being critical to the survival of young plants.As I am writing this though it has started to rain which is a bit of a blessing.This will give the emerging carrots and parsnips a good start.The vegetable plot is looking very good now with the help of Vern who has been constructing the paths between the raised beds and the addition of the new pond in the background will make this a very attractive area.

Creating a wildlife pond

Last week I went on a course run by habitataid on how to create a wildlife pond. This was a revelation to me. Apart from the diverse and fascinating people that I met, the technique for creating a pond has changed radically. The old days of the expensive and temperamental butyl liners have gone. I remember years ago a similar course where once the area had been dug out we all spent ages flattening the inside of the pond to eradicate sharp stones then a layer of sand was spread and then the dreaded liner was dragged into place. At this stage everyone had to take their boots off to walk over the liner smoothing out wrinkles. The whole thing was a nightmare followed a few weeks later by a leak caused by an over exuberant heron puncturing it, which meant the whole thing had to be started again with a new liner which was expensive and soul destroying. No wonder people with experience of this discouraged anyone from creating a wildlife pond that had to use one of these liners.
A new product developed to create an economical barrier to protect against seepage in landfill sites is now being used.Called Bentomat it is a fabric with a dry clay filling which forms the barrier. It looks like a carpet or a floppy type of plasterboard and is rolled into place over a dug pond and then filled over with a 300mm layer of soil - and that's it. Water acts with the clay filling and seals the pond similar to lining it with clay.The lining will self seal after small punctures or in serious cases can be repaired by putting another piece of bentonite over the hole like a patch. The liner is much cheaper than butyl does not need all the preparation and looks more natural insitu as it is all covered over.
This opens up so many possibilities that I am only just beginning to get my head round them.Small ponds in gardens linked with wildlife areas are now a distinct and exciting prospect.The hardest part was dragging it into place but that was because we were making quite a large pond.The fact we had a mechanical digger for the hole meant you also had the horsepower to move the bentonite roll .In smaller ponds perhaps hand dug the handling wold be much easier.
I was surprised by just how many people are now involved in environmental and green projects.People creating micro hydro power which I must try and find out more about.A company using willow for river bank erosion and filtration.The government needs to take these more seriously and help them to develop.
I came away from the course excited about new techniques in pond building but also motivated by the people I met.

Springtime and the weeding is easy

There is nothing better than a beautiful spring afternoon with the gentle sun on your back weeding a border.The ground is soft and fragrant and none of the larger herbaceous plants have taken off yet giving loads of room for manoeuvre and the weeds are small and easy to move.The bittercress are neat  and soft and come out in one small clump and even the creeping buttercup is soft and pliable.The dreaded docks come out in one go and not with the sickening snap that means you will be revisiting this area again in a few weeks. In one garden I work on they have one area that has a small amount of ground elder that I have a constant battle with under a patch of three Cotoneasters.The only course of action is glyphosate and I have always found this is the best time of year to apply it effectively.I do take the precaution of covering the shrubs and plants nearby so that I can concentrate the spray on the young green shoots. This week appears to be the best opportunity as there is no rain forecast for a couple of days.I used to mix the weedkiller with washing up liquid and put it on with a glove but I still find spraying the most effective and efficient way of dealing with the weeds.
On a more creative note now is a good time to sow grass seed. The patch left by the old apple tree with its glorious climber 'Rambling Rector' now has to be filled.Last year we had a beautiful gnarled old apple tree with I had planted with various climbers and perennial sweet peas - it was a glorious sight in the summer.It has ,however succumbed to the weather and age and had to be removed.There is much debate on what to replace it with - another tree? or a shrub?

Mostly birds and frogs

I noticed on Tuesday quite a large flock of swallows over the lake. I have never seen them arrive this early in the year. Normally they are here about the middle of April but sometimes we get a couple a few days earlier but this time there were at least twenty. This is heartening because there were not many last year and when they started breeding they were decimated by a Hobby that must have come over with them.This was the first time I have seen one, and I had to dive indoors for my trusted RSPB book to ensure I had identified it correctly. I got a really good look at him ( or her, strangely I only ever saw one) as he went to dispose of his catch in the wood shed and would fly right past me when I went to investigate the noise, and oh boy was there a commotion.The swallows are very much loved here even when they are dive bombing you in the yard because you are too close to their nest,being follically challenged I often feel they are trying to plough a furrow in the old napper.One of my favourite sights is them criss crossing in front of me skimming the lawn when I am mowing seeing how close they can get to the machine.When you get that close you appreciate what smooth almost fluid movements they make.
The other interesting event this week has been the frogs annual 'get together'. The edges of the pond have been boiling with activity with clusters of dozens of frogs the size of footballs mixed in with the weeds oblivious of us watching them - they surely must be easy pickings for predators. It's a shame so many of them don't survive as in those quantities we would surely be slug free enabling me to grow hostas  - mmm hostas!The battle to keep the delphinium shoots intact would be easier too.

Greening up

The broad beans have gone out this week and I am preparing the fencing for the sweet peas and runner beans.The greenhouse and the poly tunnel are now rapidly filling up.I have started the cuttings of pelargoniums and tender plants adding to the pandemonium.
Checking along the borders, the irises are starting into growth and I regret that I did not thin them out last year.I have made a note to attack them with a vengeance later this summer.I have a feeling they would take over if left to their own devices,they always try to head into the lawns ,never the other way.I end up burning a huge pile every few years.I made the mistake of putting them on the compost heap a few years ago and had irises poking up in odd places for years - worse than couch grass - well maybe not! One little job I make sure I do now is to go over all the borders while they are still easy to navigate looking for nettles and brambles and creeping buttercup,which is very bad this year.While they are young and green and the soil is very soft they are easy to get out.There is nothing worse than a proud stand of delphiniums with a great clump of nettles in them or a lovely shrub with a great bramble sticking out of it.They are very difficult to get at later in the summer.It looks like it is going to be very wet for the rest of the week and over Easter so these are pretty urgent tasks before I become a slave to the lawnmower.With the clocks going forward there is more time now,so when I can, I try to do the mowing during the last couple of hours of the day, as it is still very damp until the afternoon.That is in theory,it never works out like that,if the last few summers are a guide it is best to mow whenever you can as it might well rain for days.The the ground is mostly clay so mowing can only be done when it is dry or it looks just awful. 

Vermin ?

This last few weeks I have been wandering around the garden puzzling at the appearance of crocuses and snowdrops in the oddest of places. I have noticed it very occasionally in the past but this year they have been all over the place. When I looked more carefully I realised they were not as random as I first thought,being mostly under the canopy of trees.It dawned on me what was happening.They were being dug up and moved by squirrels. I'm not terribly fond of these little creatures because of the damage they do to the trees. We have lost several trees in the garden that have had their bark stripped off and quite a few others that are stunted and unsightly with horrible bare patches on them. I can live with the small holes they make burying their stores of food. The bulb moving I quite like as it makes the bulb planting look more natural,of course I have not found yet where they are digging the crocuses from so ,no doubt, I will change my mind..They must have been digging in the areas with crocuses looking for nuts and then burying them to dig up later. I hope this is part of digging up nuts and not that they have now got a taste for spring bulbs.With all the freak happenings of global warming nothing would surprise me now.
I never learn. A few weeks ago I sowed a couple of packets of tomato seeds in the greenhouse.The first one "Shirley" came up in a few days but a new one to me "Olivado" did not show.Worrying that I would not have enough I bought another packet "Ailsa Craig" which I have not grown for years. I left the" Olivado" on the greenhouse bench to deal with later.The "Ailsa Craig germinated a few days later and at the same time I noticed that the "Olivado" had now started showing through a good fortnight after I had sown them.How strange. So now even before harvest I have a glut of tomatoes albeit at this stage just plants. I never learn to wait for a while. The same happened last year with courgettes.
This next week is going to be all about preparation. I will get the bean and sweet pea fence and trenches prepared and put the stakes in place for the delphiniums.I know its a little early but it is so much easier at this stage when there is room to manoeuvre. I will also finish the first mowing of the lawns.It was slow going last week as the grass was so straggly and thick with missed leaves. It also takes so much longer at this time of year dodging all the clumps of bulbs in the lawn,and stopping to make notes of plants in the borders to move or split. I try not to get distracted when I am mowing but it is not easy.

Why are we waiting

The sub zero temperatures are continuing way past what can normally be expected for this time of year. This has put seed sowing and even taking cuttings on hold. Jobs are backing up which is very frustrating.Trying to be more positive means I have time to go round the borders and finish off tidying areas and marking perennials that I want to divide this year. The lupins are due to be split up.Last spring was just too wet to get on the ground and it does give me more time to divide the crocosmias that I did not get time to do this autumn. I have the ubiquitous lucifer and citronella a beautiful delicate plant ideal for the front of borders not only for colour but texture and contrast. I quite like the idea of doing a patch with lucifer at the back and citronella at the front.
Of course the dry bright weather has meant that greenhouse work has been a little neglected. I normally spend quite a bit of time taking cuttings of pelargoniums and fuschias for all the containers so I must get on with that this week.I have quite a few dahlias in the green house that I started early so that I could take cuttings to build up stock from all the losses last year.They are now sprouting so another job beckons.

Layers

My size eleven feet have been a distinct disadvantage this week.

One of the joys of working in a established garden for the first time is all the new plants encountered.The garden I have been working on for the past few months is springing into life.The patch that was just bare border a week ago is now a forest of delicate tulip and iris leaves.The climbing roses that were one of my first jobs to prune are now covered in delicate red shoots confirming that I have'nt killed them, even though I took so much away.I have been mulching the borders with the most beautiful compost that I suspect has been rotting for quite some time.Usually mine never gets to this stage as I have already found a use for it.This glorious stuff is mostly leaf mold with gravel mixed in, which makes it perfect to put on a fairly heavy soil.I have also been raking it into the new beds to improve the tilth.Being very light it is easy to scatter amongst the delicate bulbs.To break the job up a little I have been trying to remove as many pesky celandines as possible,they just spread like crazy and one little bulb left and you are back to square one a year later.This work is being carried out near a couple of tree peonies so I am keeping a sharp eye out for their seedlings that often appear now.I have to manoevure carefully as my feet can do untold damage. I was told that the peonies came from Kelways of Langport the superb specialist nursery just down the road. I have not been there for ages - a trip is imminent! When I first went, I was amazed at the variety of colours and just how easy they are to grow.At my first garden we had a huge one that had to be cut down each year as it was right at the front of the border.At first I was nervous of doing this but the more I cut it down the more it flourished. In fact I found that if you left them they do have a tendency to get leggy and not flower as much.They also appreciate a decent mulch to keep the moisture content round their roots more constant. The seedlings take ages to grow on but the results,when flowering, although brief, are rewarding.
As I am working my way through these borders I am wondering what else will appear in the next few weeks that my feet are now hovering over.

Forty acres and a mule.

I was listening to the Paul Jones radio show the other night and he played a song called '40 acres and a mule'.I've heard this line before in blues song but never knew it had any significance until Paul explained.Apparently in the 19Th century when America freed its African slaves they gave them 40acres and a mule. The cynic in me tells me this would not have been prime land hence the reference in so many songs. As you would expect I then spent quite some time wondering what I would do with 40 acres. With the present pension crisis would it not be better to give us a few acres instead of money, or at least the option. I would settle for that even if it was not as much as 40 acres.
I was thinking about this the next day when I was cutting pea sticks. It was a beautiful afternoon and I was working my way along the hedge following a fairly large flock of long tailed tits who were quietly keeping just a few yards ahead of me. I always cut the twigs as late as possible so that they stay flexible during the growing season. I have cut them earlier before but by August when you really need them they go all brittle and snap easily.

I have been watching Monty Don's latest couple of series - Mastercrafts ,thumbs up and My Dream Farm emphatically thumbs down. Mastercrafts is a slow leisurely programme looking at old crafts and letting people try them. It is beautiful television and makes you hope that all these crafts will not die out. The one on thatching was my favourite, what an amazingly complex craft.A newly thatched roof is a beautiful sight. Surely with grants and a more updated image these could become more popular.The ultimate in sustainability. The other series, My Dream Farm was the the same old tosh,the running before you can walk syndrome that has got us all into the current mess we are in. Borrow a dollop of money and dive in head first. Each week people with no idea about a craft or how to run a business are given a leg up from Monty that they have not had the gumption to do themselves. More worryingly Monty advises them to get pigs or sheep or cattle with little or no experience and no reserve cash in case things go wrong. A follow up show a couple of years later might be interesting - bet it would never get comissioned.
Back to cutting pea sticks and dreaming about 40 acres. Grow loads of vegetables and make jam and chutney, sell the surplus at the local farmers market or at the gate. Not going to make me a fortune but my idea of heaven. No , the real solution would be apply for planning permission and stick a couple of hundred cheap houses masquerading as a twee village and give it a poncey village name ( ring any bells your Highness) on it - now thats more like it.
The raised beds are now finished so now the next task is to build a new compost heap the power house of any vegetable plot, and the more mundane but equally useful job of sorting the paths out.In the greenhouse the seeds I sowed last week have now started germinating. I think I will sow a few chard and perpetual spinach seeds to get an earlier crop. I will also try a few beetroot in modules for an early start.

Is February the most boring month to get through?

What a contrast the days are in February.Thursday was the most miserable wet day interspersed with sleet and hail.When it is like this and I cannot work inside I pick the most boring job I can find and get my head down and plod on.It's not so bad, after all, I spent twenty years working in an office so I'm used to tedium.To help me I listen to something on my ipod.I have a pretty varied collection of music, lots of folky things,Tamla, plenty of his Bobness, (Bob Dylan) heavy metal for when I feel so inclined and joy of the twenty first century - podcasts. Most of the BBC stuff ,The Archers,Gardeners Question Time,Mark Kermode and so on is, as you would expect,superb.The Guardian Daily podcast keeps me in touch with the outside world. There are also some great independant productions - Wiggly Wigglers are very good ,as a bit of a tech head Cnet.uk is very interesting.Over the pond NPR have some great stuff. With this to keep me company in the rain I set about filling the raised beds with topsoil and levelling them off so that they could settle down before sowing. I covered one of them over with black plastic to dry it out and warm it up a bit.That kept me busy in the morning.
The afternoon was spent in the greenhouse thank goodness for the start of the growing season.
As I am lucky to have a heated greenhouse I can now get on with sowing seeds.
I normally start in January but it was so cold and covered in snow that I left it until now.
I have started with broad beans, Master Green Longpod as usual ,Parsnip Princess,and tomatoes -Favorita,Cherry,and Shirley.
Not so many flowers this year just some dahlias and cosmos and a few tagetes to keep the bugs off the vegetables.
Friday was by contrast a beautiful day, no ipod today.I was at the same place where yesterday it felt like the Battle of the Somme. The sky was clear and blue, the birds were singing their hearts out, and the lowish sun was shining through the willows reflecting the most georgeous reds and yellows.The snowdrops are at their best now and being joined by the crocuses and everything is on the starting blocks.
The raised beds are part of a new venture for me and a new and exciting garden.The new venture , - hopefully more of that in the future.In October I started a new project working for a habitat company http://www.habitataid.co.uk/ Please visit, it is very inspiring .Nick -the boss wants to create a wildlife pond which will be the subject of a course in the spring. We started by planting a wildlife hedge to surround this, and an extension to the vegetable garden. As this was part of a field still inhabited by sheep I stripped the turf to give the hedging a chance to get going.We have created some raised beds from railway sleepers which I will fill with this stripped turf. I have sown some vegetable seeds for that and am chitting some potatoes to go in next month - hopefully. This has been an exciting project and I am looking forward to the results. When the ajacent pond is dug we are hoping that all the frogs and beneficial insects will keep the vegetable garden free of all the usual culprits.

The Real Start of the year

This is my very first post and what a good time to start. Yesterday I received my batch of seeds and seed potatoes for the year. Such an exciting time. I will start today, okay I know its Sunday but I am very impatient. After all these years I still think there is not a moment to spare.The last few weeks of snow has put me behind my schedule.
Just a little bit about the garden. At present I am working as a sole gardener on a 30 acre garden in Somerset. I have a tied cottage on the job and have been here nine years. Much has changed in the last nine years. Apart from adding new herbaceous borders and an ornamental pond a new lake and woodland has been created. I have also managed to persuade my boss to get a polytunnel which has been very useful. He was bemused - he's not a gardener, but he has been impressed by the results,earlier vegetables and flowers, and tomatoes and peppers. Many of the shrubs were leggy and overgrown when I came and infested with vinca (I'm not a fan) this had been used at first as groundcover, but very quickly had been taking over. The lawns were very weedy and full of moss, mostly because they had been mowed with a mulching mower ,which together with heavy clay had made the problem worse. I have still not completely eradicated the problem but it is quite a bit better.The added bonus is that the lawn clippings together with leaf mould and other rubbish has given me a fine supply of compost which has made the soil easier to work and a much needed feed.
Well thats enough for now the greenhouse calls.