Friday 22 March 2013

Winter's last Hurrah

I'm having a bonus day off work here ahead of my two week Easter holiday, thanks to the snow that fell late last night and hasn't stopped falling since. The school where I work was closed by the snow, so I didn't have to go to work, though I do feel sorry that the children in my class didn't get their fun day at swimming and toy and games day in school. I was going to go head to head with some of them on Mario Kart, but ah well, there's always the summer end of term!

The daffodils photographed again, now laden with snow

Front garden looking wintry

The seedlings are doing very well on the window sills, and the Dahlia yams I planted last week have begun to germinate. Nothing will be going outside just yet though, even if the pea plants are outgrowing their pots already. However, I do have some spinach and salad leaves growing slowly in the cold frame under a fleece, poor things!
 
Peas and French beans are going strong


Dahlia yams coming up (planted 15th March)

 
The new blue bird table and the feeders have been very popular today with the snowy weather. There has been a constant stream of visitors all day, mainly blue tits, sparrows and blackbirds, but also two collared doves, a coal tit, a great tit and a robin. I tried to take some photos, but the zoom on my camera is too modest so I won't post the rather poor photos on here. In fact the camera really needs to be replaced as its flash no longer works either, so I have today, ordered myself a new Fujifilm bridge camera which was reduced in price and has a 30x zoom. Compared to my current 3x zoom, this is going to be great and I can't wait to try it out on the unsuspecting wildlife when it comes!
Progress in the garden... well I noticed Gavin (raised bed builder extraordinaire) had some rather nice wooden beams in the garage and I hinted that they would make good raised beds, but he was already planning to build an olive press for his place in Spain with them. However, I came home from work one day this week to see new raised beds in the garden made from the wood, so a raised bed building fairy must have visited. I should have photographed them before they were buried in the snow, but here's the bigger one anyway. These are lower than the ones at the back of the garden because they will be for more shallow rooted plants and I wanted some aesthetic balance, with lower structures at the front and higher at the back. Not much lawn left now!


Feeling generally optimistic, even if it is a slow start to Spring. It's the school holidays - hurray :O) I've already written over 1,400 words today on my book and there's lots of potential to get things moving now... or to learn patience perhaps while winter persists.

Sunday 10 March 2013

Mother's Day and the garden

More daffodils are out this week even if it is cold!

It has been snowing again today and after a taste of Spring, the cold is back. The forecast for the rest of March is colder and drier weather than normal which is similar to the last two years. Perhaps the weather isn't helping but I've been feeling pretty down this weekend. I made myself go out in the cold just to do some repotting. Felt a bit better after my fingers had made contact with soil and my daughter Holly always cheers me up. Today I read a chapter of 'The Power' by Rhonda Byrne, that always really helps me to 'police' my thoughts more, and to put some effort into creating positive thoughts, because thoughts turn into feelings without us even noticing. Hopefully the sun will come out for us all soon.

'Every single second is an opportunity to change your life, because in any moment you can change the way you feel. It doesn't matter what you have felt before. It doesn't matter what mistakes you think you may have made. When you change the way you feel you are on a different frequency....When you change the way you feel, your life changes.'
(Rhonda Byrne 'The Power').

Thinking ahead, I've plans for removing more of the front lawn especially since I've ordered some adventurous (but easy to grow) seeds recommended in 'Homegrown Revolution,' by James Wong. I'm going to be growing Dahlias both for flowers and edible tubers, Cucamelons: a small fruit that tastes of both cucumber and melon, mouth numbing Electric Daisies, Quinoa, (prized superfood which grows easily here), Callaloo: colourful spinach like plant and quite a few more. I have a mixture of fruits, root vegetables, edible flowers and greens to try and am going to have to make some more space. So it's goodbye to the mossy old lawn, except perhaps for some mossy lawn pathways. I wonder if the popularity of this book will really revolutionise what we grow on our windy island? It makes sense really, as we eat things like quinoa here, why not grow them?
It's Mother's Day today, so after being served jam crumpets in bed by my daughter, Holly, I've indulged myself in a bit of creative writing. I'm trying to get my second novel into shape and with about 25,000 words written it's on its way. I've changed my mind a few times, but think this one is working. I've just had a lovely lunch of sweet potato and chilli soup from a recipe I found on the internet, it's a delicious combination of sweet and spicy. I'd rather like to try growing sweet potatoes too, there are now varieties that can be grown here in the UK.

Next up is a visit to my Dad who is recovering from a major heart operation and my mother who had a heart surgery 4 years ago. With those odds, I really do need to grow my own food and eat as healthily as possible (sorry Mum and Dad!)

Yesterday, I did make some progress with the garden project. Braved the cold and potted up the beans, peas and some of the tomatoes as they were outgrowing the propagator. They are making excellent progress and there is not much window sill space left. Hopefully these should be planted out in the Easter holidays when I'll have two weeks off work and will be hoping for good weather to hang out in the garden!


Now it's time to play the All American Rejects really loud while I get up and get dressed, it's 2.30pm after all! ;0)



Sunday 3 March 2013

Spring has arrived

Young plants are coming up on the window sills, it's lovely to see seeds turn into life. Everything planted indoors has germinated well: broccoli, beetroot, carrots, leeks, peas, French beans, tomatoes. The potatoes are chitting well too, with some small, healthy green shoots now showing.
 
It has been a cold week of pleasantly calm and dry weather, though with plenty of frost overnight so the seeds planted outside haven't germinated yet. This is the first wave of planting. Some of the more tender vegetables will be planted next month.

French bean shoots, with beetroot and peas in the background.

Carrot, broccoli, tomato and leek seedlings.
 
 
While researching front gardens which have been dug up for food, I found James Wong's website and was really intrigued by his adventures into growing unusual edibles and edibles that you would never think could grow in our cool, wet and windy climate. I already knew that you could eat nasturtium flowers and leaves, but I didn't know that Dahlia tubers were edible or that you can grow certain types of melon here. Or that there is also a small kiwi fruit that hails from Siberia, can survive down to -35c and has an edible skin. Inspired by reading his blog and looking at pictures of his rampant, jungle like front garden, I now wonder if I would have been better buying purple carrots instead of orange ones and whether I have space for a patch of electric daisies, whose small yellow flowers will give your mouth a shock and a bit of a local anaesthetic (useful for toothache)! Some of the unusual root crops such as New Zealand yams, Skirrett and Queensland Arrowroot could be a viable alternative to blight ridden potatoes. Like many last year, my potatoes suffered with blight and as I had to pull them up early to save them, the yield was paltry. According to James, there are no records to say that potatoes suffered from blight in the first 100 years after they were brought to the UK. It was only later that pests and disease began to establish a hold. Similarly, his unusual crops are easy to grow and blight free.
 
Perhaps then, biodiversity is the key. We are growing too few varieties in a climate that could support much more. The less variety we grow, the easier it is for pests. Monocultures are a pest paradise, unless of course sprayed heavily with chemicals that then have to 'evolve' and grow stronger to deal with stronger pests. By growing more variety in my own garden I hope to attract natural predators and also to confuse some pests by planting aromatic plants near those targeted by insects.
 
I've made a list of 20 varieties that I'd like to try, (though I may not have room to try all of these this year):
 
Salsify, Borage, Electric Daisies, Emir Melon, Asparagus Peas, Dahlia Yams, Purslane, Quinoa, Wild White Strawberries, Queensland Arrowroot, Callaloo, Skirrett, New Zealand Yams, Peruvian Earth Apples, Sugar Leaf, Sweet Potato, Inca Berries, Chickpeas, Cucamelons, Microgreens.
 
Some of these plants are beautiful ornamentals, so I'm really pleased that I can grow plants that are both useful and easy on the eye. More about these soon!
 
In the meantime, here's the link to James Wong's site:
 
 
Today it's been lovely, sunny and spring-like, if a little on the cold side. We've moved the pond to the new wildlife corner, along with the rocks and boulders from the front garden. The rocks provide useful hiding places for insects and amphibians. I've also made a small animal house, with hedgehogs in mind, out of bricks, rock and wood. Three sedge (carex pendula) have been planted, they are very small at the moment, but this plant comes with a warning because once established it spreads like wildfire. The area already looks much better, although it isn't finished. The next task is to plant some flowers that are attractive to bees and other beneficial insects, I'm thinking of Borage and Phacelia which both have attactive blue flowers.
 


The above picture shows the shrub in the wildlife area being pruned last weekend.



This is how the wildlife corner looks today after the pond was moved.

 
Above left: Phacelius which I hope to grow in the wildlife corner (it is also a good green manure) and to the right, a picture of the hedgehog house.