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.

Narcissi Paperwhite in Greenhous

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.

Salad Mix

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.

Early Chives

The sweet peas sown a few weeks ago are now growing well. I will sow the next batch this week.

Sweet Pea Seedlings

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!

Terracotta Rhubarb Forcer

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.

Broad Bean Seedlings

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!

Raspberry Bed

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!