Driving to work over the past week I’ve seen some fantastic displays of Camellias in front gardens, there are such stunning colours and after the bleak winter we’ve had it’s a joy to see, and a forerunner to the blossom which is just starting.  

I’ve never been able to grow a camellia in my garden as the soil is not acidic enough. So I’ve decided to pot two up in large containers in front of my porch and fill them with ericaceous potting compost which I must remember to add a good acidic fertilizer to every year! 

The porch is in the shade which is actually ideal for these woodland plants and once it has stopped flowering in Spring the dark shiny leaves will be a stunning contrast against the stonework. 

Lin

Our keen amateur gardener!

Unbelievably the weather has turned! It makes such a difference the sun shining and a break in the rain! It’s the time to clean and repair your garden tools, and check garden furniture for any rot. Now it is finally warm enough to brave the elements, treat sheds, fences and trellis with wood preservative; brushes and rollers are fine for most things, however a sprayer is well worth buying for tricky projects such as woven panels!

Lin

Our keen amateur gardener!

Please do remember to put out fresh supplies of food for the birds the prolonged periods of wet weather and flooding are a real threat to our feathered friends. Feed them with good quality high energy bird food and fat/suet balls and check that clean water is available. If you can’t find any bird food, scraps of bacon fat, mild cheese, fruit, breakfast cereal and uncooked oats are all fine. Moistened bread is only an empty filler, but better than nothing.

Lin
Our keen amateur gardener! 

If the rain ever stops, It’s time for doing a bit of pruning this week, firstly I’m hoping to tackle the Wisteria and will cut all stems coming off the main framework to 2 or 3 buds of the previous years’ growth. It’s growing over a wooden pagoda against our garage and if I don’t cut it back now it ends up covering the roof and the tendrils have been known to get under the tiles!

Next it’s onto my espaliered Apple & Pear trees, I have 2 of each going around my walled Veg Plot and I keep them pruned close to the main stem leaving three healthy buds.  Where it’s been so mild the buds are really developed and it won’t be long before I get some blossom! Aaah the first sights of spring!! Please rain stop!!!!

Lin

our keen amateur gardener!

On with the next project for this year. Last year we laid our square front garden to lawn and dug a 3ft border around three sides and used a layer of breeze-blocks as a wall, all year I’ve looked at the blocks hoping they would start to blend in but alas no!

Well I’ve taken a drastic decision and am going to paint the wall black with an outdoor masonry paint as soon as it’s a nice sunny day. There is method to my madness as I’m going to go for a Japanese theme.

I’ve already got a Fatsia (Castor Oil Plant) in one of the corners and Japanese maples, and I’ve been looking at some of the miniature black and variegated grasses and bamboos to plant hanging over the blocks. As a focal point I’m going to grow three box balls and try a bit of topiary! I’ve got two large red planters that I’ll fill with white azaleas.

Lin

our keen amateur gardener!

I love snowdrops and there’s no more beautiful and delicate flower at this time of year, I bought a plant from the Garden Centre a few years back and every year the plant comes back bigger and better. I had thought of dividing it once it stops flowering but whilst talking to one of the Garden Centre Managers he told me there were many varieties and all shapes and sizes which has got me thinking of creating a woodland corner in a partly shaded area, with 4 or 5 varieties, some ferns and anemones, primroses or hardy cyclamens and covering with leaf mold. I’ve two old logs that have started to rot and break down which would finish off the effect! 

Lin

Our keen amateur gardener!

Finally it’s been mild enough for me to get out in my greenhouse! Even though it was raining I took myself off with a flask of coffee and spent a few hours pulling up all the dead plants and weeds in the beds, brushed down the shelving and threw out some of the old broken trays and plant pots and washed the ones I wanted to keep.

I’m sowing some sweet peas this week, last year I’d planted some in the autumn but to be honest they hadn’t done that well so I’ve left it till now to sow them into pots and will leave them on a high shelf in the greenhouse that gets plenty of light. 

Lin

Our keen amateur gardener!

I’m afraid I’ve been rather lazy since the Autumn and I really haven’t been caring for all my house plants, my cymbidium orchids prefer the cooler conditions of my conservatory and like to be moist, though not overwatered, but I haven’t watered them at all!!! So I’ve dunked them in a bowl of water until the pot felt heavy and allowed them to drain before putting them back on their tray of new gravel.

I also checked some of the pots outside and a couple sheltered by a wall are bone dry even after all this wet weather so it may be worth checking all your planters, if alternatively they are under water use a few bricks or Patio container feet to raise them up to avoid them sitting in the wet. I’ve also had a bit of a clean up of all my containers and cut back leaves and removed debris, I’ve spruced them up by covering them with gravel as I had some left over from the house plant trays!

Lin 

Our keen amateur gardener!

It’s been too cold to get out on my veggie plot and I’ve only been going out there to pick winter salad and spring onions. The Garden Centres have now got their range of seed potatoes in and I’m going to start chitting them by putting them in a light and cool place (my conservatory) with the end showing the most 'buds' uppermost in old egg boxes. Once the shoots start to sprout, pinch out all but two or three. Starting them early gives them a really good chance to develop before planting in early March.



I’m also making up my plan of vegetable crop rotation for this year and need to rotate where I planted cabbages last year and put runner beans in and I’ll put onions, carrots and parsnips where the runner beans were! It sounds complicated but it distributes and puts back all the nitrates and nutrients into the soil lost through growing.



While I’ve been sitting with a cuppa doing my plan, I’ve also been through my old seed packets and thrown out all the out of dates, there’s quite a list of new seeds I’ll be needing as well as potatoes!! 

Lin 

Our keen amateur gardener!

Happy New Year to you all, well I did say I would be making some New Years resolutions and become a lot more Eco friendly in my garden this year and the first is to leave the Christmas tree out on bin day next week for it to be shredded for mulch. I forget every year and it ends up going into the normal bin as it’s too big to compost.

For Christmas I got a Solar powered fountain for my fishpond!! I can’t wait to put that in when it gets milder!

I’m going to buy a water butt to store water in for the summer months, and I hate slugs and snails as they chomped their way through my veggie patch last year, but slug pellets aren’t very pet friendly so I have decided to buy some bantam hens to scratch about the garden and eat all the bugs and grubs!! And of course they’ll supply a constant good fertilizer for my veggie beds and yummy eggs every day!! Meet the girls!!

Lin

Our keen amateur gardener!