This week I am starting off with a review of a few jobs from previous weeks that are now paying dividends.
The first is a picture of the Narcissi Paperwhites which are flowering in the greenhouse. These bulbs were planted in pots before Christmas and are now giving me lots of pleasure when I am working in the greenhouse, as well as lots of material for vases for the house.
A Bright & Spicy salad mix (from Marshalls) sown in November is starting to grow away with the increased light levels and should be ready to start picking from by mid February. The next batch, which I will sow this week, should be ready in a much shorter time.
Chives that I potted up from the garden before Christmas and brought into the greenhouse are ready to eat. I love to eat these chopped into omelettes and as a garnish on soups.
The sweet peas sown a few weeks ago are now growing well. I will sow the next batch this week.
Do you remember the rhubarb forcer that I ordered from Crocus? Here it is stuffed with straw and placed over the young shoots of rhubarb Timperley Early. I was so excited to photograph it that I forgot to put the lid on!
I mentioned sowing broad beans back in November. Despite their fleecy cover there has been no sign of life for weeks and I had almost given up on them. When I glanced under the fleece this week however, I was delighted to see these tiny shoots.
Last week I included pruning the autumn raspberries on my list. Cathy of Rambling In The Garden left a helpful comment about double cropping, which is something I have never come across before. As a result I have cut back the row on the right hand side of the bed and left the left hand row standing. The theory is that the standing row will start to crop in July, with the cut back row cropping as normal in autumn, giving me raspberries from July until November. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will work!
This week on my list;
- I like to get seed sowing for the vegetable garden underway in February, so this weekend I will be sowing broad beans, peas, leeks, lettuces and salad leaves in the greenhouse. More on this later next week.
- Following my post about Hardy Annuals for the Cutting Garden, I will kick off the sowing season with cornflowers, calendula and ammi majus, as well as sowing the next batch of sweet peas.
- Start to prune the climbing roses.
- Finish pruning the fruit bushes and espalier apple and pear trees.
- Cut back my grasses.
- Order new barefoot roses for planting in March.
- My project for February is to dig and prepare a long bed along the woodland path. This has just been an area of scrubby earth filled with nettles, docks and thistles, so it will be a challenge to bring this into cultivation. This will only be possible if the weather is suitable, but I hope to complete the preparation (with some help) and then plant up a number of winter flowering shrubs that I have in pots which are ready to stretch their roots in the open ground.
Most of the above are jobs to continue throughout February, rather than jobs to complete this week!
I am looking forward to being back on Sunday with Flowers On Sunday. Until then I hope you have a lovely weekend!
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Crikey, you’re such a busy girl! It’s nice to see people getting on with their jobs in the garden. Managed to weed and cut back a little yesterday but we’re back to the rain, I’m afraid. Never mind, lots to do in my study. Have a nice weekend 🙂
It is nice to hear from Annette – I hope the rain stops and you can get on with your jobs soon!
How nice to have Paperwhites nearby as you work through tasks in the greenhouse. You’ve accomplished so much already, can’t wait to see your garden progressing in the next weeks. Susie
Thank you so much – hopefully the weather will stay mild and I will have lots to show you later this month.
Well done Julie – it was a lovely day today! Thank you for your posts of jobs as this gives me a lot of guidance. Only finished building the house last year – some jobs still to do of course – but I am able to start seriously gardening and am so pleased to have your blog for all the wonderful information on types of plants and where and when to do the jobs. Finished rescuing ash trees from huge amount of ivy today, gathered up branches and twigs from lawns and borders after the storms. At the risk of you thinking I’m mad I have an ongoing project of transferring tough grasses from borders etc and breaking them into areas of rough lawns rendered muddy and awful by dogs scraping back legs after they have finished doing their stuff, the large pointer is the worst culprit. I figure if these grasses have stood up to my hoeing and assaults where I don’t want them they may hold the ground together where they are needed!?
Which winter plants are you going to put in your new walk beds?
Thank you Pam – I do hope that by writing about what I am doing each week I can help answer questions about what to do when. You sound very busy & I like the idea of reusing the grass – waste not etc. Let me know how this works. I am hoping to write a post about my winter bed when the work has been done. I am planning to include viburnum tinus and bodnantense, sarcococca, skimmia, box, a daphne, a winter flowering clematis, hellebores and snowdrops, a garrya and possibly some roses, lavender and verbena bonariensis for summer colour. All these are already living in pots around the house and need to be planted out this year. Any other suggestions are much appreciated!
Isn’t it good to be able to bounce ideas off each other? I am definitely going to have bulbs in the greenhouse next winter and I like the idea of chives there too – I really miss not having them all the year round. Enjoy your jobs – and I look forward to seeing your flowers tomorrow and your vase on Monday!
Thank you Cathy – I hope you liked todays anemones. I would love to be able to grow these myself but I do not have enough indoor growing space. Sadly I don’t think these florists anemones would grow outdoors.