I'll have a Pea please...

Weather: April showers with a few sunny intervals. Cool...9C

I have planted out the peas (Avola) which I grew in a polystyrene box that arrived as packaging. I have put them amongst the peas I sowed directly into the ground a couple of weeks ago...I say amongst, as only two seedlings have appeared. As there are few slugs (due to the success so far of my nematode campaign) I can only point the finger at mice!

Actually - I'm feeling a little guilty about how well the nematodes have worked. I saw three slugs this morning who'd been at some spinach seedlings but these are the first I've seen for a month. This time last year I could have enticed a hundred to a beer trap each night. The guilt? I have found a toad who has taken up residence in one of the compost heaps...and I'm sure he'd prefer the slugs to be as plentiful this year as last year. He is in the compost heap with the best compost in and I haven't the heart to move him on and each morning I lift up the hessian that covers it to see if he's still there. He always is! So the compost will have to wait.

I can't be feeling that bad about him though because the next installment of the slug nematodes arrived in the post last week and I watered them in a couple of days ago. You are supposed to do it in dull weather and keep the ground damp. The weather forecast on Saturday was for heavy rain in the afternoon after a bright start, so as the clouds rolled up at midday I was out there with my watering can musing smuggly that the rain would water them in. At two pm the clouds rolled away again and we had a brilliantly sunny afternoon. At regular intervals from then on I had to fill the watering can to keep the soil moist. I emptied the water butt! It hasn't refilled yet but the forecast is for heavy rain tonight so that should be OK.

I also put up bean supports at the weekend - see photo . People use hazel and willow but I always use Buddlea! The plus is that I get lots of straight sticks when I prune in the spring. The minus side is that they root very easily so you have to make sure none of them get too good a foothold or you get new buddlea plants. After a couple of years in the garden they have dried enough to break up and use as kindling for the wood stove.

The peas are in the bottom left of the photo - the beans will be along the spindly frame behind. The tree (a wonderful Acer called Crimson King) will shade the area rather more than the beans will appreciate but I should get some and......

we are working on bringing more of this part of the garden into cultivation by moving the shed up under the tree and dropping the greenhouse back 10 metres. The idea is that it is moved at the time the overwintering Pelargoniums and fuschias come outside and before the indoor tomatoes get placed in their grow bags. Next year the beans will be in full sun.

Watch this space!

Tulip explosion...

Weather: Summer seems to have arrived all of a sudden. No frost last night, the sun came out today and the temperature is in the high teens for about the first time this year.

The tulips have responded! Compare this photo with the photo on the previous post.

I had a busy weekend in the garden - although it was cloudy and cool the conditions for gardening were perfect. I worked on the borders - splitting many of my perennials, particularly those which may survive in the shady bit of border created from removing the huge Choisya back at the beginning of the year (see Jan 12th post). That bed is in the background on the photo below - but before I detail that the orange stems of the Eurphorbia in the foreground are remarkable at this time of year - I reckon they've grown a foot in a fortnight. It is Euphorbia Fireglow and was given to me by a fellow pupil at an art group a few years ago. It is quite rampant and spreads pretty quickly but it has a stunning display at this time of year.

I also rescued a statue of Aquarius who had been entwined in ivy and was all but invisible in her previous position. You can see her on the left of the photo - I'm sure she'll feature in later posts as I'm pleased with her new position.

So what did I plant...around her: a white Tradescantia (which I have read will grow in shade) moved from a bed where it was all but devoured by slugs last year. I took a punt on some pink Veronica which I split from a clump I grew from seed several years ago. I split some deep purple Monks Hood (very poisonous) from another shady spot so I'm pretty sure this will like its new position. I'm less convinced that Iris Sibirica will like it - I inherited it with the garden though and it was in a shady spot originally. There is also a bright pink Aster called Elsa Spath (I think) taken from a clump that was really in need of dividing so even if it isn't happy in the shade the original clump will have benefited from its thinning. There is Knautia Macedonica which also came from a sunnier spot....well it's worth a try. And the thinnings of Geranium Kashmir White...

And I treated myself to a new plant from Waterperry Gardens - I chose and Aquilegia called Leprechaun Gold. It is said to be tolerant of partial shade...it depends on how it interprets 'partial'!

How many of these will thrive or survive ...who knows!

Tiptoe through the Tulips

Weather: Overnight frosts for the last three or four nights but bright days with just the occasional heavy April shower!

This morning's sunshine quickly melted the frost off the Tulips - but the cool April has kept these blooms back. I haven't got a note of the date they flowered last year but I suspect they were virtually over because we had such a warm April last year.

Frost or not I saw the first swallow on Sunday (13th) and this morning one was sitting in the sunshine on the telephone wires near the house.

I ordered seed potatoes and shallots as a bit of an afterthought this year and they arrived this morning. I would usually chit my potatoes but it's a bit late to leave them out long. As soon as I'm sure the soil is warm enough they are going in! I've got limited space so I have just 5 tubers of Harlequin (a cross between Pink Fir Apple - which I've grown with great success in the past - and Charlotte, an early main crop) and an heirloom variety with red flesh called Highland Burgundy (10 tubers). These are also a main crop.

After my frustrating time with veg last year I'm not 'saving space' for later crops that may or may not materialise. We've also come up with a cunning plan to enlarge our veg plot. It means moving the greenhouse and the shed and probably won't be completed this year but Bill has already started putting down the foundations for the greenhouse. The next problem will be how to move it. It is an all metal structure that we constructed on site from the instructions - adding in the glass as we went. Any thoughts on the best method of shifting it ten feet would be gratefully received! I suspect we will have to dismantle it.....

Other things done since my last post: I planted the shallots that arrived this morning - the are called Red Sun and they are big fat bulbs. I planted out Tom Thumb lettuce plants that I've been hardening off as they are too big for the pots I grew them in (my lettuces have been a huge success so far this year. Fingers crossed).

How is my lunar 'In Tune with the Moon' gardening calendar going? Well not too well so far. It would be fine if I could get out in the garden every day but my gardening, like most of us I suspect, has to fit round the other things in my life! Although I do see that Friday (a root day with a descending moon) would be a good day for planting my potatoes. I'll put it in the diary!

Chocolate anyone?

Weather: Frosts overnight for last four or five days. It has been sunny most of the week, but cool and a cool wind has blown up today with some sharp April showers (including hail!) 9C .


It's not easy to photograph but the climber above is Akeba Quinata also known as Chocolate Vine. It has taken some time to establish (I planted it two or three years ago) but it is lovely at this time of the year with reddish purple flowers that are supposed to smell of chocolate but as they are about 8 foot off the ground I don't often get close enough to smell them!I bought this as a plant from one of my favourite nurseries called Bernwode Plants at Ludgershall near Aylesbury. They stock some really unusual plants and their catalogue tells their stories. For example the Akeba Quinata was introduced by the plant collector Robert Fortune from China, Japan and Korea in 1845. I understand that in hot summers it may be followed by dark fruits but I have also seen that it is not self fertile so I would probably need another plant if I want fruit.

It's been a busy week - I was going to say 'we' but of course I meant - Bill cut our giant hawthorn back to 2 metres high and I pruned it. Our permission to cut it back says we must reshape the crown so I have pruned it accordingly. It looks a bit sad and spindly now but it will be interesting to see what it is like later this year and next season.

Anyway, thanks to Bill's hard work, we have a store of logs for next winter and lots of kindling. He also shredded the twigs to be incorporated into the compost heaps over the summer - so all in all a productive exercise. The only complainants are the sparrows for whom it was a great vantage point but there are plenty of other trees and bushes for them. I am delighted to have the extra light in the house as it is less than 8 feet from the front wall.

Other things in the garden this week: sowed Avola pea seeds (finished last year's packet). Last year's peas hardly came to anything as most were demolished by slugs before they could get properly established. Sowed sunflower seeds from a very old packet. A short row of Perpetual Spinach from a very very old packet of seed show some signs of germination. Seeds of parnsip, radish and salsify (sown last week) still not showing.

A squat pot of leek seedlings in the greenhouse seemed to be suffering from lack of space and as it is too early to put them out I have transplanted them into a bigger pot. It looks a bit of a dogs breakfast but they have a long growing season and I hope this disturbance won't be too detrimental to their long term health.

Planted 4 Lily corms - all bought cheap...two look particularly unpromising but hey they are worth a try!

I toad you so!

Weather: after a foggy start the sun came out and the temperature reached 16C.

Having spent too many hours at the computer I decided to go for a walk in the Oxfordshire countryside. The toads definitely think it's spring! I found this pair on a bridleway. They were lucky I was a walker with my eyes open and not a horse who could have wiped them out with one hoof.

There were lots of butterflies around too. I saw several Peacocks including the one below who kindly stayed still long enough for me to photograph him. But I also saw an Orange Tip and a Brimstone.



There's a clump of wild garlic on this walk, which I do regularly despite not having a dog! I've picked a few leaves from this each year for several years - I chose a dozen or so. I was taught to pick wild flowers by a lovely country woman who used to babysit for me when I was tiny. I always knew her as Mrs Dabinett - which seems very formal nowadays but back then a child would never call an adult by her first name. She taught me many of the west country names for flora and fauna which I still use today! She told me that if I picked from the wild I should leave any clump or group of plants looking as if I hadn't taken any and if there aren't many there then don't pick at all. It's good advice and even though we aren't supposed to pick most wild flowers at all nowadays I always follow her advice when I do.

A little later on the walk I came across another old favourite - a plant I always called an Oxslip - but having got home and done a bit of research I suspect it to be what is known as a False Oxslip. True Oxslips seem only to be found in the East of England and we are pretty central here - and the flowers on the true Oxslip hang on one side of the stem wheras you can see from my picture that the flowers are pretty evenly distributed around the stem and the leaves look more like a primose leaf than the more knarled leaf you'd find on a cowslip. A lovely plant however and I enjoy seeing it at this spot each year.
When I first came to Oxfordshire my job was 24/7 ( 25/7 actually radio stations are demanding beasts!) and I hardly had time to step outside my front door. I can't believe how lucky I am nowadays to be freelance and have the time to get outside mid week.

Enough of this 'walking' stuff - I must get back out into the garden. The third of the trees I got permission to work on is being cut back today. A vast old hawthorn (30ft or so) is being reduced to 2 metres.

It's due to get cold and miserable tomorrow and that's when I'll come inside and get back to my day job!

...out like a lamb?

Weather: 14C after a mild night

It was always going to happen - once the spring was here there is so much to do in the garden that it leaves little time for blogging about it! But after a windy March the early days of April have been mild and calmer.

The Lamb's Lettuce that I grew in a big pot over winter in the greenhouse has come in to its own. I've often thought about growing winter salad leaves but never got round to it properly and this is lovely stuff. Its flavour could be described as bland but it has a fresh smell and taste that summons up memories of wet grass and buttercups in spring from my childhood in the west country. And best of all - mixed with a few outer leaves from the Little Gem lettuces I sowed very early on in the propagator and some of the Rocket that stood in the garden over winter and is putting on new growth - makes a great 'nil food miles' salad. (Not counting the Olive oil etc in the dressing).

I had pricked out 10 or so Little Gem lettuces into a tray and the day before yesterday planted them out in a cold frame/raised bed. It is an old (and somewhat despised!) plastic cold frame that in desperation I sunk about six inches into the soil and filled with earth last year in an effort to deter slugs. I protected the edges with copper tape which did have some effect. This is now coming into its own because the soil is about five inches from the top of the plastic sides and the original lid fits on nicely to warm the earth for seedlings. But back to the Little Gems - on the first night out two plants were nibbled and in the morning the culprit was spotted inside the copper cordon (which incidentally I also treated with slug nematodes 10 days ago).

I added an extra barrier yestderday - I surrounded each plant with a circle of sawdust. This morning. No more nibbling. The first battle in the war against the slugs is won!

Other things done in the garden this week: Sowed row of Parsnips with Radishes as a catch crop indicator. Plus a short row of Salsify - this is the first time I've tried Salsify.

Back filled the bean trench. Applied slug nematodes on the whole of the vegetable garden and on particularly troublesome flower beds (the weather has been wet to damp ever since which bodes well for their efficacy this year).

Pricked out Black Russian and Costoluto Firorentino tomatoes, plus aubergines into individual pots and left them in the propagator. The Costoluto Firorentino are new to me this year - the Black Russian is three year old seed so I am particularly delighted with their germination!

Sowed a few early seeds in pots in the greenhouse: courgettes, cucumbers, climbing french beans and runner beans to bring on. With luck this will keep me ahead of the game later in the season.

Obtained permission (from the council and the owner) to have an elder tree and a sycamore tree on a neighbour's land that were shading my garden to be cut down. This was done this week so there will be a little extra light in my patch this year.

Chili seedlings (Prairie Fire) that I sowed in the propagator on March 3rd and had given up on have germinated after all. There are four showing now.

That's it for now....phew