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!

Merry Christmas to you all from all of us at Head Office!! Don’t forget to keep topping up the water for your Christmas Trees and Poinsettias to prolong them through to the twelfth day of Christmas!!

Next week I’ll be thinking about some New Years resolutions I can put into action for the garden! But in the meantime it’s time to batten down the hatches for a week and eat drink and be merry! See you all next year!

Lin 

Our keen amateur gardener!

Today at Head Office we had our annual Christmas buffet lunch and some of us came dressed in our Chrimbo Jumpers! Emma came in with Baby Grace and it was lovely for us all to have a cuddle with her! (Grace not Emma!) 

Here’s a picture of Simon bonding with the latest edition to the company!

We all can’t believe how quickly the year has gone and also how mild the weather has been so here’s hoping it doesn’t get too cold or too wet over the next week and everyone has a fantastic Christmas. We’re hoping to get out on Boxing Day and have a lovely walk in the forest, hopefully we’ll get to see the last of the Autumnal leaves still on the trees!

Don’t forget we are doing a competition on our Facebook page, if you post a picture of your Christmas Tree onto our wall, you could be in for a chance of winning £50 Gift Vouchers!! Got to be in it to win it!! Good Luck!

Lin

Our keen amateur gardener!

Okay, I think we’re almost ready for Christmas at home! The tree and decorations are up, although I did have to buy a few extra baubles, and we went for a frosted theme this year! While I was at the Garden Centre I picked up from our Farm Shop some lovely extra sauces and a yummy Chilli Jam to go with my own chutney for Christmas dinner and cold meats on Boxing Day.

At the weekend, depending on the weather I’m going to hopefully spend a few hours in the garden clearing up the last of the fallen leaves and where it’s been so mild doing quite a bit of weeding! I’m going to invest in some bark chippings to cover the ground; this will keep in the moisture and keep those dreaded weeds away!

Lin 

Our keen amateur gardener!

I’m off this weekend to get my real Christmas tree!!! We always get very excited about this as it’s the start of the lead up to the festivities, and decorating the tree has become a tradition in our house that includes a few tipples of something warming to get us in the spirit….I can’t say the tree looks amazing and it usually needs tweaking the next day but that adds to the fun!

We put our tree well away from the radiator and it’s a good idea to cut off an inch from the bottom of the tree like you would with cut flowers, so it can soak up water and I make sure it’s watered very day, apparently they can absorb up to a pint of water a day!

While I was helping out at the Christmas Evenings I was really pleased to see the selection of LED lights we have in the garden centres, I threw our old ones away last year as I was fed up with trying to replace the bulbs!! All that’s left to do is to get up into the loft to find the baubles… lets hope they’re not in too bad a state or I may well be visiting the garden centre again for some new ones!

Lin
Our keen amateur gardener!

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is almost upon us, every year I promise to get myself organized well before that rush a day before Christmas but as of yet have never achieved it! After helping out at our Open Evenings I had a good look around our gift area and I’ve found lots of perfect gifts for all the members of my family who are always hard to buy for!

There are some beautiful Houseplants in stock now, including the old faithful Poinsettia which is a must in our house and takes pride of place in the conservatory where there is a constant temperature and no cold drafts as this can easily make the leaves drop.

Lin 

Our keen amateur gardener!