Hope you’ve all had a lovely Easter break and been out in your gardens, we made use of our Chimenea and sat out until late evening wrapped up in blankets drinking hot chocolate and star gazing!

In my veggie patch I’ve decided to use one of my raised beds purely for Oriental Vegetables. I’ve sown Pak Choi, Mooli (a large radish ideal for stir-frying) Chinese cabbage, Kohl Rabi, Mizuna, Mustard leaves, Baby Sweetcorn, Okra and Red spring onions. I’ve also found a Vietnamese Coriander to plant in my herb patch and have planted Chilli's in the greenhouse. Can’t wait to be able to just pick leaves and enjoy my own Asian cuisine!

Lin 

Our keen amateur gardener!

All my winter containers are starting to look a bit tired so I’m deadhead daffodils and narcissi and hyacinths and giving them a liquid feed. I’m not going to cut back the leaves as the bulb needs the nutrients for next year and will just let them die down.

I’ve added a few extra spring bedding plants such as Violas and Dianthus as an interim until I decide what colour theme I’m doing for summer. Check that your container plants are not drying out as this warm weather will quickly affect soil moisture levels, but please remember there’s still a chance of frosts so make sure your new bedding is protected either by covering with fleece or putting them in your greenhouse overnight.

Lin

Our keen amateur gardener!

My fig tree has started to creep nearer to my conservatory so it’s time for me to prune it back. I’ll make sure I don’t prune too harshly and leave this year’s figs that have formed. Pruning back too far will mean loosing any fruit this year.

A few weeks back I transplanted a Clematis that was in a shady spot and being eaten by slugs as soon as the poor thing started to leaf up, it’s now growing up the Fig tree and putting on lots of growth so will need to be tied in to support it. It will give the area some colour for a month before the Fig starts to vigorously green up!

Lin 

Our keen amateur gardener!

The clocks have gone forward and finally we can look forward to warmer weather and lighter evenings, but I’m sure we will still get the inevitable ‘April Showers’ as well as night frosts. My greenhouse has started to overflow with tiny seedlings and it’s all to easy to get carried away and want to plant them into my Veggie Garden but they all need hardening off for at least a month, although I have planted out my Sweet Peas on a south facing wall where they have been basking in the morning sun and already started to climb.



At the weekend I noticed a few asparagus spears poking through the soil, I was very excited at the thought of picking my first crop as I have waited 3 years for the bed to establish. The next morning they had been annihilated by slugs and snails!! So now is the time to wage war on slugs and snails, I’ve been keeping a daily eye out for them and been picking them off and my Chickens have been having a feast! 

Lin
Our keen amateur gardener!