May 7th 2016 -Old Mixed seed experiment – result!

Remember those old seeds I cleared out of the bottom of my seed box,most years out of date?

Well after germinating them in cold February on the chilly windowsill, then dumping them in the greenhouse beds, these are the results.

It seemed most of the seeds were a mix of different types of radishes.  previous attempts to grow these were thwarted by slugs and/or drought.  There were also  carrots, the variety of which I know not, the odd parsnip..

A pretty  plump yellow radish.Sliced in a salad that  was good to eat. Some have have grown so large that  they have entangled themselves with the carrots.

 

Early May Bank Holiday Weekend

Still below average temperatures outside.

Lots going on in the greenhouse though and maybe more  successful than last year.

In March, whilst clearing out my seed box, I ended up with a large handful of random seeds rattling around the box bottom.   Unwilling to throw them away (of unknown age), I scattered them onto a dampened cotton wool wad,stuck it on the window ledge and waited to see what would happen.

well quite a lot happened as you can see, but not sure what they all are!  I suspect some of them are radish seeds, small rounded hard shiny seeds.

Early Spring

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2016 – New Jungle Initiatives

This year  I hope to get this jungle into control better now my back has been fixed.

Soil conditions are still chilly but the greenhouse is beginning to show signs of life.

Meanwhile, on the kitchen window sill, a forest of courgette seedlings have emerged.  Alys Fowler, writing in the Guardian, advocates turning the tray each day to avoid plants craning their necks towards the sun.  Done that.

Next advice snippet is when I come to pot them out, bury the leggy stalks in soil and, as if by magic, the stalk cells will transform into root cells.  Hmm.  Will that work? We shall see!

October 2014: A Mild Autumn Favours The Dahlias And Other Flowers

Nearly November and temperatures up to 19o C yesterday.  This has enabled the dahila blooms to flourish in the sunshine.

Cactus dahlias with new Bishop of Llandaff dahlia, gift from the newly weds

I think this is the best display I’ve had since planting the dahlias in that spot, although I did lift them during last winter.  This may have been due to the extra compost I fed them in August coupled with the warm and mostly dry weather conditions.

Behind these is a smaller and less blousey dahlia, nestling in amongst the wisteria.

Then whilst photographing these I spotted the pink climbing rose against the shed wall, offering a last chance cluster of well formed blooms.

September 2014 – wedding flowers

This year I was asked to grow flowers for son number three’s wedding.  Bit of a big ask for me as things don’t always go to plan in the jungle.

I started with sweetpeas.  They germinated okay but somehow failed to thrive, despite me watering them in dry periods.  Only a few blooms appeared.  I sowed cosmos in the greenhouse and the slugs rushed in. Luckily I managed to save a few and they did grow well, in the centre of our petangon bed.

Grew tall due to leaf mold in underlying soil

That worked well in the church flower arrangments – shame that I can’t flower arrange though.

One Dahlia (cactus) decided to flower and this was used in the pedestal arrangement

Only flowering dahlia made it to the pedestal arrangemet in the church

Spot the cosmos too!

Of course, now that the wedding has been and gone, the dahlias are flowering much better..  Maybe because I fed them some chicken manure rich compost, the flowers are much bigger this year.  I found this one drooping due to its sheer weight

Large dahlia bloom bowed down by its own weight

Growing your own seed

Last year a huge parsnip decided to seed in abundance.  I collected the seed and sowed a tray full in the spring.  Germination rates were high and they transplated okay into the garden. The size of the tubers is quite good.  I don’t really want huge ones.

Then I tried lettuce self seed, by allowing the lettuce to flower and seed, rather than give it to the hens.

It seeded alright, but I can’t see any evidence of Autumn lettuce.  Maybe the slugs got there first..

2014 season

April was a warm month so ideally plants should have got going early on.

I germinated a mixture of tomato seeds  indoors, in a propagator a bit too early.  They germinated well enough but then became straggly and began toppling over, unable to cope with their great height.  I should have  waited a bit and not been so impatient.

Lettuce in the greenhouse germinated quickly, only to be scoffed rapidly by a team of hungry slugs.  Agghhhhh!

I sowed peas in a gutter but the mice fancied those.

A cheap packet of summer squash seeds from Lidl  did prove to be a success though.  The germination rate was high and the plants looked healthy and promising.  Once planted out they began to cover the ground in a verdant mass of thick leaves.

 

A year has gone!

I don’t know what happened.  A whole year has passed since the last post.

The garden is still a jungle though, probably even more so after abusy summer with rampant vegetation growth.

I took this image last year, of a Comma butterfly on the Michaelmas daisies.

Let’s move on to 2014!

 

Jungle gardening

How many gardening books do you have in your house? A couple maybe? Or is it half a bookshelf?

If so, then do they offer ‘Complete gardening’ experiences or perhaps more specialised books like borders, alpine plants, bonsai gardening..

A quick leaf through their pages will display a almost improbable array of fantastic looking flowers and vegetables, all in perfect health. Who would be foolish enough to publish photos of flowers mangled by greedy slugs or bolting vegetables. Yet that is what some of us get when we garden.

An inspiring book read by the fire in the depths of winter rarely materialises into a garden dripping with gorgeous flowers and plump edible vegetables. Sometimes it seems that something else always gets there first.

Looks a pretty good specimen….

Until it is rotated and it’s other half seen.

…Aggghhhh! something got to my beautiful aubergine first

So you can see, all is not what it seems in the jungle.  The fauna are just as keen as the flora to thrive.