April-2013
After all the unseasonally cold weather over Easter , I think Spring at last has now Sprung !!
The reward for all the waiting is at least to be enjoyed with harvesting some Champaign Rhubarb. The lids of the clay forcers were nearlt being raised up by the force of this wonderful crop.We planted in some early potatoes, the ground well prepared a few weeks ago, and the rain has fallen just right. Broad beans are well up, at the other end of the plot, the runner bean poles have been set up and firmly tied in anticipation.
As usual, a few early runner bean seeds have been planted individually in pots and are getting away inside the Greenhouse. We always pop in a runner bean seed in with the plants when we plant them out, they always seem happy climbing up together.Because of the late season, i have tried a new thing of putting in plugs of parsnips.Never tried this before, and have always sown direct and thinned accordingly, so we will see if this works ok.
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March 2013.Ground is dry now, so ideal to start to till over any soil that you have rough dug in the autumn. You will find the soil breaks down to a fine tilth, now the frost has done it work for you. Remove any old brassica stalks that are no longer required.In areas where a lot of traffic has compacted the soil, do dig deep under the "pan" and ensure the soil can drain, we use an old heavy dury "navvy" fork for this as a garden fork may break.
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| February 2013...Our experiment with the leeks appears to be showing some signs of success. The roots with the 1/2" or so of stems left, were potted up and left in the potting house and they have sprouted. The ones with around 1/4" of stems left have rotted off, so do leave enough try 3/4". (20mm) |
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| January Notes: Heres an experiment we are trying for the first time... Take a leek plant and harvest ( ours are still small so far this year but tasty nevertheless.. ) leave the roots with say 1/2" (12mm) of leek stem and re-pot. It would appear from early results that we have new plants rapidly forming...will report next month. |
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January 2013...An old farm hand always used to say to me" Ah boy, don't you get cursin the snow 'cos every six inches of it, is worth a quarter hundred weight of nitrogen, per acre." I dont know if that has ever been proved, but I always think of him when the snow lays on the vegetable grounds. |
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Collect and recover any seed labels from the veg patch and store ready to re-use. |
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Late December
Liming of the land. We use our woodash from the winter fires on ground ready for onions
Also any heavy clay lands are treated with a liberal coating of lime .
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December - Notes from our Journal.Clean off all the tools and prepare them for winter.
Sharper all cutting tools, and blades where possible. Use a simple carborundum stone and make the fine edge with an oil stone, when completd rub on a few drops of oil with a cloth and put away ready for action next year. |
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| November brings in the frosts. A good time to lime the garden for the forthcoming brassica patch, and spread any wood ash from the fires onto land prepared for onions, as they will benefit from this. |
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October - Notes from the Journal
Reminder to prepare the hamper for the Harvest Festival |
August 2012- extracts from our Head Gardeners Journal....
Early Raspberry canes will have finished fruiting, cut out old stems and tie in the new ones.
Keep an eye on the butterfly eggs on brassicas and wipe off eggs or take off caterpillars
Runner beans have produced a bumper record breaking heavy crop and the freezer is full.
In spare moments we finally filled the Victorian Alpine Log Shed with firewood which had been drying for two years . |
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July 2012 -
Apparantly some regions around Europe are experiencing drought to the extent that they are tankering water in to sustain communities.
We dont have that problem at least in the UK and most garden plants are rewarding us with abundant blooms are crops due to the plentiful rain.
Every thing is now at a full gallup. warm breeze and moist soil means that plants are making a catch-up on the seasons challenging weather pattern.
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White Lady Runner Beans have raced each other to the top of the bean poles and have caught up with the season |
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| Red Potato variety has worked really well, these have been dug early to check for slug damage. so far so good. |
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The Broccolli has produced some fine spears, note the dark green-come-blue colour of the leaves we look to achieve, telling us the plant has enough trace elements , minerals and potash / nitrogen in the soil. ( Farm yard manure dug in and growmore in the tilth prior to planting)
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| We planted new strawberry runners this year , saved from previous plants ..as it has paid off with a heavy crop. |
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Time to remove the broad beans and plant out the leeks. |
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Brassicas including kale like very firm soil, and the plants prefer to be put in with a dibber or metal bar in rock hard ground. Black kale sits alongside Curly kale above and is growing away well, keep the hoe tickling the surface on dry days , if the soil is poor use a general fertiliser like Growmore at the prescribed rate, before you plant out.
In windy weather there is a danger the top heavy plants will blow over, use canes and tie in if neccessary, dont forget to employ a cane top, to protect your eyes.
Tip- We normally break off and remove the lower leaves to make hoeing easier. |
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Above, White Lady runners in their pots patiently await the first week of June.
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April Notes from our Journal...Today we have hastily cobbled together some cloches (as an experiment) to keep the cold wind off some curly kale plants.
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Update, they have proved to be a great sucess and we will be making some more.
Round up some sheets of horticultural glass 2' x 2' and cut in half. Make some wooden blocks to hold them up, and finally cut some end sections and hold up with wooden pegs.
(note the top vents which allows the rain in, prevents overheating, keeps both the wind and the birds off ) |
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January |
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January is a time to think about sterilising the Greenhouse.
Obtain the smoke sulphur tins from a proprietary supplier.Great care must be taken by the Gardener to ensure that fumes are not inhaled during the process. accordingly ensure that all the vents are closed.If the vents are of the automatic type pick a cold day when they will be firmly in the closed position.
Firstly ensure that you take time to fully read the instructions, use a magnifier if you cannot read the text with ease.
Leave the door wide open for a swift exit and then prepare the sulphur Candle following the manufacturers instructions.Light on a metal tray placed on the ground.
As soon as the candle is lit, leave the Greenhouse promptly.
Do not return inside the Greenhouse for the duration of the time given on the instructions.
It is good practice to either lock the door or at least make a sign and hang on the door handle to warn others that may not be aware they you are fumigating the Greenhouse.
Advise any children of the household to keep away from the Greenhouse during this time.
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December |
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Be prepared as Jack frost can show up uninvited.
When he comes at least the benefits of his visit will be welcomed, as long as you are prepared in advance. Rough dig any lands of bare kitchen garden and leave cloddy so the frost can help to reduce pests and diseases. If you have heavy land, stand on short duck boards to keep the soil structure open and prevent panning the subsoil.
Make sure that plants that require protection are brought in or covered, and that the Greenhouse is prepared for heating if required.
Bring the cold frame into the Greenhouse and heat this with an electric mat or small tube heater for example.
Stand it on top of an insulated section of building insulation to save heat .
Top tip- if you are using a new DAB digital radio you can tune into a station which constantly broadcasts uninterrupted birdsong . Sit down with a coffee while you scan over the seed catalogues and relax to the sounds of Spring.
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November |
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Any seeds from plants that have been "let go to seed" , need to be collected, labelled and stored.
Incase of any sudden unexpected frosts look after any late crops of salad stuffs with cloches.
Set the mower blades higher for the Winter .
Our milder climate in recent years allows the grass to keep growing in the Winter , and it still needs to be trimmed now and then.
A family of Hedghogs produced four offspring and gave us a memorable moment one torch lit evening in October as we watched them scuttling around as they were boldly moving further from their nest.
The parent Hedgehogs had nibbled off the matured Bluebell straw stalks and scrunched into a nest under the Wisteria stems , reminding us to leave parts of the garden for nature to use.
We hope that the Hedehogs will stay around and provide control of the slugs.
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October |
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Pick a dry Autum day and prepare your manure heap for the coming season.
Obtain a load of well rotted cow manure and make a neat heap to allow to further rot down.
Also widely available is bagged horse manure which ia also very valuable to the gardener.
You will be well rewared if you prepare the runner bean trench for next season and make a deep fill of manure .
Select the produce for the Harvest Festival and prepare .
Pick any varieties of Apples that feel ripe. |
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September |
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September is a busy month for caterpillars too...
The hungry caterpillar ,like the story book will eat your greens faster the the children . If you have not covered with fleece pick off the pests every day if possible.
My Father used to give me a jam jar with a string handle and pay a me a "Tanner" for picking these |
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August |
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Runner beans will be in full flower,. To ensure maximum fetility spray the flowers in the evenings with water .
Preserve the beans by freezing or try salting down in jars.
August continues here with Beetroot |
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July |
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Leek seeds sown way back in the winter, will now be filling out in pots . Once the broad beans have finished, cut the fleshy stalks off , compost and leave the roots in the ground for a while to deposit the nitrogen nodules in the soil . Pull or dig out the woody roots in a few days, brush off any nitrogen nodules from the roots into the soil and dispose of the woody root which is hard to compost.
Once the Leek plants are ready decide whether to top and tail or not? Top and tailers like to lay the fingerling ( as we call immature Leek seedlings) in the palm of your hand, close the palm around the leek and twist off the protruding roots and top of the green shoots with the other hand .These plants can then be simply popped into dibber holes and left open, without backfilling. The benefit of growing Leekes is that very little maintainance is required, as nothing really likes to attack or infest them.They take up the precious ground for many months as they are very slow growing, but it will be worth the wait.
click here for more images |
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June |
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Those magic runner beans that Jack so relied on will also be one of the most prolific garden vegetable plants for us too, this month.
Pop a seed into the hole when putting the plants in for a sucession of cropping.
The beans enjoy being kept moist at the roots and the flowers being usually red or white will attract lots of Bumble Bees.
The RHS favoured "White Lady" as one of their popular varieties , and we now always grow it too . Experiment saving your own seed , we have and in previous seasons, they came back fine.
Be selective and tie a coloured wool around the pods you have chosen to save for seed .
TIP When you pick off the broad bean tops to prevent the blackfly, try boiling the leaves into broad bean leaf soup...delicious.
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Potato crops can be lifted on a dry day.
Use a broad tined potato fork, and only lift as many as you can use. If required the green haulms can be cut off and composted from the whole row in advance,making the lifting easier once the tubers are at the required size.
Precious planting ground is now at a premium in June so once the spuds are lifted this will free up some ground to dib in the leekes maybe?
Ex pototo ground is very friable and works beautifully with ease and little effort.
To cook take a handfull of fresh mint leaves and put in the cooking pot with the potato, once cooked serve with butter for an amazing taste. |
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May |
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Any lawn is only as good as the weed control you give it. Given time, mother nature will bring in deep rooted "stealth" weeds that crawl under the radar of your lawnmower blades and manage to come into full flower between mowings ....how do they do that? One solution is to invest in a powerful selective cocktail of chemicals that you will buy as a liquid or granular formulation and douse on the lawn not just this year but every year. Alternatively invest in a Daisy Grubber which is one of the simplest tools the Victorians ever invented. My favourite junk shop carries many at around twelve pounds which I think is a good investment. Pick a dry warm day, when the weeds are growing and take each section of the lawn a bit-at-a-time and ease the tap roots out. Not only is the task very rewarding, but the investment of the tool reduces each year you use re-use it, and the chemicals that you would otherwise have used are not harming the soil structure. The Blackbird evensong is so special, and I am glad to think that the worms she finds as she busily runs up and down her lawn are quite organic. |
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April |
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Seed potatoes come in may interesting varieties to try . Before planting out it is beneficial to conduct the process of leaving the seed potatoes in trays to allow them to sprout, which is called "chitting". Planting methods are endless, I prefer to dig the bed and leave the furrows "proud" in February if soil conditions are dry enough. If there are any frosts the slugs will be reduced prior to planting. Dig in whatever organic material is available, well rotted cow manure is best if available. I normally make a slit with a spade and lever front to back to make a thin trench. Into the trench goes a few pellets of dried organic pelleted fertiliser to give the spuds a good start. When the signs of the leaves start to peep through the soil ridge up and cover them over, which will keep any late frosts from blackening the leaves. The weather in the first week of June often throws a frost at us here in Somerset to keep us on our toes. Stand flower pots over the leaves, or place a sheet of fleece over to keep the frost off.Once the haulms (the green stalks and leaves) or "hams" as we call them have flowered , cropping can commence, if the hams start to die back on the main crop cut them all off and compost them and dig the crop up as and when required.
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April |
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If you can find an old flat tine potato lifting fork in a junk shop grab it with both hands, and pay the man his twenty pounds quickly, as you will enjoy using it all your life. Not only that but it is very useful for other duties in the garden like dividing herbaceous plants. Use back to back with a digging fork for example and the twenty pounds will be recovered with the "swaps" the divided plants will bring. |
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March |
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Once you have experienced "Forced" rhubarb, there will have no going back for your taste buds to the naturally grown version. The succulent melt-in-the-mouth moments, coupled with that unique flavour is worth counting down the long March days for. Out of season, rhubarb forcers should be removed from covering the plant to allow the few stalks which have been purposefully left for the plant to recover and left to grow. The forcing pots are usually available in various guises from good Garden Centres and you should buy when you see them in the stores, as they are usually available too late for the season and due to economies of production, only made available once a year by suppliers.
The forcers also make for a great feature piece, and are a constant reminder of the joys to come next year. |
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