I’ve been back from maternity leave for a few weeks now & have been very busy visiting nurseries & seeing suppliers to ensure we have the yummiest plants around in stock. What a choice we have this year. Our growers are as enthusiastic as we are about plants & it’s been so nice to catch up with them & all the lovely new varieties of plants they have been busy propagating.

I think my favourites the last couple of weeks have been the English garden classics, herbaceous Geraniums & the more exotic Salvias.

My little girl appears to be taking after me, she loves being outside & is fascinated by plants & flowers so I’m looking forward to teaching her all about plants & how to grow them.

Emma B

Back in March I put up a ‘living wall’ by using 5 drain pipes and fixings, I then planted it with strawberries and mixed lettuce leaves, here’s the before and after shots, I’m really pleased with it as it's been slug free and have been picking the leaves for the past few weeks, the strawberries are just about ripe for the picking!!!

Emma’s now back from her maternity leave and can’t wait to let you all know some of her news, so next week will be Emma’s blog again, between us we’ll be keeping you up to date with all our gardening experiences!!

Lin 

Our keen amateur gardener!

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!

I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon Wine Tasting in London at the weekend, it was great fun and I came back with slightly exaggerated ideas of creating my own vineyard!!



I learnt that many modern grape vines live very happily in our mild British Climate and now is the perfect time to plant them, so I’ve decided I am going to give a vine a go and trail it over an arch I have going into my veggie patch. It’s against a wall, away from the wind and will get sun all day long…. so you never know next year I could be treading my own grapes!! 

Lin 
Our keen amateur gardener!

I’m sure everyone's grass is looking slightly worse for wear after the consistent rain we had earlier and if you were unlucky enough to be flooded as our lawn was, I expect there’s rather large patches that will not be growing back this year.
Firstly I’ve sprinkled over the top a layer of builders sand to try and break up the sodden ground and have carefully raked it over, trying not to damage the few strands of grass already there! I’ve then used Evergreen multi purpose grass seed which is on offer at the garden centre this month and put a generous amount on the barer patches. Fingers crossed in about 3 weeks, I might see some green again rather than a brown muddy patch!! 

Lin
Our keen amateur gardener!

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!