23rd - 30th March

23^rd March

The sweet pea germination rate is now up to 35%. It had better pass 50% soon. It is interesting how I can sow 100 seeds of the same type of flower on the same day in the same pots, compost, conditions and keep them in the same place and have some that are not breaking the surface at all, others that are barely up whilst 10 are at least 5 inches tall, 4 of them are over 6 inches and 1 of them, 7 inches.

My onions are really coming along well. So well in fact that I’ll have to plant them out soon. I was going to move them out into the greenhouse but it has been very windy today and I fear accidents may happen. I bought a packet of organic root vegetable and onion fertiliser which is very high in potassium (potash) and I took that to the allotment and gave a liberal sprinkling over section 3 in preparation for planting out the onions. It looks like we’ll have some rain soon so that will help. We have had about 10 days of absolutely glorious weather. It has felt like we are in late April/May not the middle of March. When I think that this time last year we had just had Easter and it was a bitterly cold one, we certainly have had it better this year. My Dad has heard that we are in for a long hot summer. I’ll hold my horses as a friend of mine, a PhD graduate who got his MSc in climatic something or other has told me that there is a huge error factor in the mathematical model used to predict the weather. He says that venturing past a 3 day forecast builds up so much error in the formula to make it incredibly unreliable, so I’ll not get excited over a summer long prediction.

24^th March

My pessimism over potential low sweet pea germination spurred me on to sow those extra seeds from the packets. So 1 each of Blue Danube, White Supreme, Due Magenta and Scarlet and 16 of the mixed variety. I also found a spare Red Arrow seed from last year. So they are all sown as a back up. I also potted on the hanging basket plants into little yoghurt pots as well as 4 more red peppers. All of these are now in the greenhouse. Into one improvised seed tray (one of my recycled plastic tubs) I sowed all the Cineria Maritima seeds. There was supposed to be 150 in the packet but it seemed far less so I counted them, arriving at a figure of 130 so allowing for unseen seeds (I had sown them by this point) the quantity was probably correct. Funny how the eye deceives.

25^th March

I had a great sowing session at lunch time. I sowed all the remaining Nicotiana seeds into one end of a large tray with over 100 plugs, and the rest I sowed with Ageratum. If they all grow I’ll have more than I can cope with in the garden. I could use more containers – but most of those would only stand on open ground where I would otherwise plant them direct into the spoil! One idea is to use a wooden fruit box I found in a skip to grow the flowers. Being low it can be put out by the willow tree behind a low bamboo edging so that the flowers grow up behind it. Any surplus after this will be planted out down at the allotment – if I have space there! I sowed another small plastic tray with leek seeds and 21 cauliflower seeds in a thin plug tray. 40 Brussels sprouts (Bedford Fillbasket) were sown into a modular tray. The onions are still looking very good, sweet pea germination (the original sowing) has reached 37%, but nothing yet to show for the 8 chilli pepper seeds warming themselves on the radiator.

26^th March

A good dose of rain today which was needed, but the temperature yesterday and today was significantly lower, with accompanying wind which was less welcomed. The car in which I collect the topsoil for the allotment raised beds has been shunted from behind, jamming the boot shut, thus meaning I have not loaded up with soil today. On the plus side, my Dad has given me some seeds that he got as part of some promotion. Rocket, basil, thyme and mixed salad leaves as well as a plant that looks remarkably like nicotiana called laurentia.

In the garden there are 2 tulips that seem to be nearly ready to flower, and the hyacinths have been out for over a week now, and you really notice the lovely fragrance they give off. The fennel has been growing for a month or more, the oregano in the ground has woken up after its hibernation and the chives have sprung up into life, with at least 1 flower bud. I have about half as many daffodils as last year though. I checked a photo I took and counted over 60 flowers, so I don’t know what has happened there.

30^th March

I went to the allotment to cut into the ground with a spade to make a little channel around the plot for the base part of the wire mesh fence to slot in so that it at least descends somewhat below the surface. With the ground very hard and compact I don’t think rabbits will burrow much into it so I can get away without ensuring it’s the recommended 6 inches deep. Is that me taking the easy route again though? I had got only a little way when my spade broke. It wasn’t the handle or the shank, but the blade itself – right across, so I now have a funny little implement that is a very short but wide spade end on a handle. I remember the blade bending a bit in the past and thought that it couldn’t be too good for it, and now it’s gone. I wandered over to amuse Alfie by asking if he had some cellotape for it and he lent me his spade, so I finished the job. I also trimmed some overhanging wood from the raised bed.

20th - 21st March

20^th March

I have borrowed a jet washer from my brother-in-law (he is proving very useful this year!). Yesterday I took it to my dad’s and we blasted the grime from his patio and today I set about doing the same on the strip of concrete at the back of the house. It is amazing how much comes off. I knew it was dirty but the difference now is more than I had thought was possible. I also blasted clean the gutter at the end of the conservatory roof so that the water flows better into the water butt. I have taken off the end piece that has the top of the downward spout. This has some second hand tights (or are they second leg tights?) used as a filter and it has worked well in stopping the fine dirt that gets washed down from the roof going into the water butt. Last spring when I checked, there was a few inches of this dirt at the bottom of the butt, but now it is clear. The trouble is that the filter has now clogged up and only a heavy downpour of rain gives enough volume and force to enable water to get through and into storage. I was defeated by time and light and will have to finish jet washing and re-tighting tomorrow and then – put up the new mini greenhouse! Can I contain my excitement I ask?

21^st March

Well, I did manage to contain myself overnight and I stepped out to find a patch of silty mud at the lowest point of the concrete where water runs off into a small square of soil underneath the large wooden container I placed there last year. That needed blasting which created another puddle still with dirt that needed clearing out. Whilst that was draining away slowly I fixed up a new section of recycled tights (well, the other leg from the pair I was given to use last year) and reconnected the downpipe to the gutter. Still the water had not soaked away so it was time to construct the mini greenhouse. I never usually check and count all constituent parts when I open such packages, but this time, for some reason, I did. Just as well as I was missing 2 base supports. This meant a 40 minute round drive to the shop plus queuing time in a garden centre on the day before Mothering Sunday but at least it was exchanged immediately without any fuss whatsoever. Back home, it took only 20 minutes to put up, the trickiest part being slipping over the tough plastic cover. I cleaned the last part of the concrete area then I was able to place the greenhouse in its designated spot. It stands tall and proud and looking good to the right of the water butt as you look at the house. It already houses the 3 trays of leek seeds plus a container with a sweet potato buried in some compost. The idea with that particular project is that in this environment, the potato will send up some shoots which are then cut off when they are finger length, then potted up to develop further.

This was not the end of the pressure washing though. I continued up the path unveiling more of the original colour of the paving then on to the arrangement of garden items I had lined up on the lawn for a quick clean up. The other bin, a ride-on peddle dumper truck, a plastic 3 wheeled scooter, a bat box that was full of cobwebs and a small plastic climbing block with slide and the patio table. All in all a good job done.

I was hoping to sow some flower seeds now that I have space, but time eluded me. On a more positive note, I now have a 30% germination rate of sweet peas with hopefully more to come.

19th March

19^th March

I finally got rid of the contents of a large number of bags and containers. Last year's compost in the container pots in which grew the peppers and basil and various other plants all got tipped into section 2 at the allotment where I’ll be growing leeks. So too did 2 bags of almost rotted down compost from the bin, a couple of containers of rotted down wood chips and a fair quantity of leaf mould. The soil now looks a lot richer as the topsoil I’ve been importing seems dry, lumpy and a little clayey,

Back home I sowed 3 trays of leek seeds.

I am watching last Friday’s Gardener’s World via the BBC iplayer. They have started the series with Carol Kleine retracing her gardening roots and visiting her old gardens and friends with their gardens. My eyes popped out of my head when I saw some of their gardens. One man’s in particular was amazing. He built a garden from scratch beginning 6 years ago and now has a perfectly manicured plot which is enormous and contains large water features and mature trees and perfect lawns with borders of fantastic colour. It really made me look at my garden in my minds eye and make a far less than favourable comparison. Here I am journaling my exploits on 2 meagre and humble plots of ground having low expectations and only slightly lower results at home with worse than low results at the allotment last year and it should be this chap who is writing about his achievements. Then I am reminded that I am in no way writing a manual of the memoirs of an accomplished gardener, I am writing because I am a nobody in the world of horticulture (as well as in other worlds!) and I just wanted to chart the miniscule exploits of an average bloke with an average plot and less than average skills, and it all began as a personal record with no delusions of literary competence at all. Either way, I was not put off by seeing these gardens, but blessed to be able to view them and be inspired and filled with awe.

11th - 18th March

11^th March

Today I finally got round to re-felting the roof on the shed. The old felt has been in ribbons all winter but thankfully I had under laid it with a plastic material so the shed was still waterproof. It was hardly a horticultural job, but a garden task completed that was well overdue.

13^th March

A major landmark in my gardening year has been reached – the first outside planted crop has gone in at the allotment. 15 garlic plants are now replanted from their tray and are securely underground at the left hand side end of section 1 where I have been able to fill up with topsoil. To commemorate this, the flag of St George now flutters above the plot. Last year I put up the flag which is attached to a plastic flag pole by duck tapping it to a hefty iron pole that was part of the blackberry support system. There it flew proudly for a few months until one day when I was clearing wooden poles and chucking them like spears to the area of ground between sections 8 and 9 and thinking to myself ‘I bet I couldn’t hit that flag if I tried’. Although I never tried, the end of the next wooden stake hit the flag pretty much centrally and the force was enough to not tear the flag but snap off the flag pole cleanly from the support. I had meant, all summer, to find a replacement pole and re-strap the flag on again, but like the royal standard only flying where the Queen is in residence, I thought I would fly my flag when I had vegetables growing, so today was the unfurling and now the red cross on a now off-white background can be seen from the gate as one enters the allotment property.

17^th March

Yesterday and today I collected about 8-10 bags (each day) from my brother-in-law’s house and emptied them into section 1. The amount of soil in the car boot is enough to draw comments from people about how my rear suspension (the car's – not mine) looks somewhat flat (if that is the right word to use) yet when the soil goes in the ground it seems to disappear promptly. I have finished digging over section 1 now as well.

Of my 100 pots/modules of sweet pea I have 13 that have germinated. The maths is simple – a 13% success rate at present but still early days.

18th March

I am in the middle of 3 rather busy and hectic days so I am appearing at the allotment for a few minutes, saying a quick hello to Alfie and going off again. I emptied another boot load of soil, gave section 3 a quick rake, then went home.

10th March

10^th March

A thought crossed my mind to inaugurate the fire pit but as is often the case, this was a rushed, last minute idea that really did not warrant a quick blaze and me stinking of smoke in the short time available. I did go out into the garden with our 2 year old though – maybe it was the presence of such a young one that quashed my fire idea – and as he pottered about in that cute toddler fashion, I potted on some sweet peppers. The peppers came in 4 x 4 plug plant sections, and I wanted the pots to sow some chilli pepper seeds into. The pots in question are a square base for catching the drips, whilst the part that holds the compost is 4 plugs in one and each is far narrower at the base where the drainage hole is. This means a gentle squeeze is all you need to slide up the plant when you want to move it up a pot size. However, the even better aspect is that all together this pot contraption fits just perfectly between the gap at the top of the double radiator in the kitchen, thereby providing a good heat source which is essential when attempting to germinate pepper seeds. Hence 8 peppers had to move up into small yoghurt pots – well, fromage frais pots to be precise – not as large as yoghurt pots! This season’s new compost was broken into and piled into these recycled pots, they were watered and put back in the conservatory, and the old pots washed out and filled with new compost and the chilli seeds were sown later this evening and placed on the radiator. What I also do, especially with seeds that are not great germinators, is to water the compost with quite warm water, just to give them a head start. I’d hate to be sitting in a pot of compost that was wringing wet with cold water, well, more so than in warm compost!

Later on, and one day later than last year, I sowed the sweet peas. My wife had found a set of 5 trays with 20 pot holes in each. I happen to have 5 packets of sweet peas with 20 seeds in each, the match could not have been better, a marriage made in the finest greenhouse! So I set-to with filling them with compost and it is surprising how much you get through with these trays, and then watering well as you are not supposed to water again until the seedlings have emerged. Again I used warm water in an effort to aid germination. Last year I achieved a less than 50% germination rate. I was planning to sow only about 15 of each variety and sow extra if necessary, seeing that I did well with the few that did grow last year. Unfortunately I forgot this at the time and filled all 100 pots so in some ways I’m hoping for better results and in other ways, I’m not as I don’t know what I’ll do with them all – but rather more than less. Each of the Unwins packets contained 21 seeds, a bonus on the advertised 20, but the 1 Suttons packet which said it had 25 seeds actually had 37, so I am well insured on that variety, even some for next year perhaps.

The instructions for sweet peas say to sow 5 in a 5 inch pot. I did this last year and of course, many did not germinate, but those that did were competing with other plants and their roots were beginning to entangle by planting out time which meant there would be some root disturbance which checks growth a little. In sowing 1 seed per pot hole I can grow on in confidence knowing that this will not be an issue. I don’t know why you are told to sow 5 to a pot. If you’ve got individual pots you can take away the ones that don’t germinate and save space, whereas a whopping 5 inch pot with one plant rather takes up space. It’s not as if the professionals disagree with me. Look at these new root trainer pots that encourage good vertical root growth. The information on the product states they are ideal for sweet peas, and they are designed to put 1 seed in each pot!

A job that really needs to be done is the cleaning on the concrete area as I want to assemble the mini greenhouse, but I’d like to clean up the flooring first. A jet washer for a day costs £20 + VAT and seems a little expensive for what I need it for so I may have to resort to a scrubbing brush. I really need to get more space. Practically all the conservatory shelving is taken up with onions, the sweet peas are in the loft (it’s a converted one, not a cold, dark and dusty one) and I want to start sowing leeks and some brassicas, not to mention a few flower seeds that need starting off soon. That quiet, down time in winter is quickly fading away, I must get cracking!

6th - 9th March

6^th March

I completed building the raised bed for section 1 albeit a little ramshackle in appearance and a few days this week I have been collecting topsoil and filling up sections 2 and 3. Now that it has rained a fair amount, the soil in section 3 has settled somewhat and needed topping up. In the garden this week I have pruned the roses.

7^th March

I cleared away the small pile of tardy wood that is on my fire pit, so that now I have a small pile of tardy wood on the lawn. I have cleared the pit and levelled it once again and have started to put some recently acquired bricks in an oval arrangement to build a better brick container for the fire. Time did not permit me to finish though. I did manage to turn some compost and add some manure to it and fork in some rotting material from bin 2 into bin 1. I’m hoping to get more transferred and find some decent quality compost down at the base that I can take to the allotment.

Hilliers Gardens, Hampshire

9^th March

I had a really good lunchtime in the garden with my youngest boy, now a healthy 2 year old. I finished building the fire pit, so maybe I’ll have 1 less excuse for not getting rid of surplus wood. Mind you, the weather is my main excuse. It’s either too wet to enjoy a fire, or too windy and the smoke just goes everywhere, or it is really cold, and yes, I know a fire keeps you warm but . .  or it’s lovely weather and people have their washing on the line! Whilst out there I pruned the plumes from the grass plant (pretty sure it is a pampas grass) and realised I really need to trim it back as most of the leaves are looking worse for wear.

I notice from last year’s journal that I sowed the sweet peas on this date and I did plan to do it today as a celebration of the anniversary, but events overtook me.

The garden is looking promising with a number of tulips coming up and some daffodils ready to bloom, although I’m sure there were far more last year - did I mistreat them? There are buds on the roses and the trees, and the fennel plant is a small mass of bright healthy green leaves, and even the sage is sprouting back into life – all looking well.  Inside, the onion sets are growing. There are quite a few of them which have developed a green shoot, so life for them is beginning earlier as planned.

23rd - 28th February

23^rd February

I had a quick visit to the allotment and found out that my Dad has dug over sections 6 and 7 – well done Dad! Back at home I did plan to plant the onion sets into little pots or modular trays and get the boys to help, but the call of a DVD showing a certain SpongeBob Squarepants was, strangely, more alluring. By the time I got outside after fortifying myself with a cup of gardeners’ tea, it was not quite enough time for me to be sure of getting all the onions sorted before teatime, so I pottered around doing other jobs. I pruned the remaining fuchsia stems from the front garden and sawed the last of the larger sycamore branches. I love getting the big bow saw out onto real wood straight from a tree. When I clip away at the finer branches and twigs with secateurs, not only is it a little tedious, but I fear I will wear out the secateurs with all that snipping. The bow saw, however, simply glides through the wood in a very satisfying manner. After that, I transplanted the extra strawberry plants into the wooden tub that last year I grew the salad leaves in. I had to move out 3 rocket plants that were sown last May and even now are only the size of an egg, yet their roots were amazingly long for the amount and length of leaf on top. Perhaps they will spring into life this year. All this effort fitted exactly into the time available before tea – good planning!

 

Exbury Gardens, Hampshire

24^th February

I collected 8 more bags of soil from my brother-in-law and emptied that out onto section 3 at the allotment, and dug about three quarters of section 2. I saw that my Dad has been digging some more – almost all of section 8. I just can’t stop him! Back home I noticed that the 3 fuchsias that I took in from last years’ hanging baskets are beginning to show signs of new shoots.

26^th February

I’ve planted the onions! 58 sturons and 64 settons, all in modules, watered, and covered with a cloche and placed on the shelves in the conservatory. I only found 1 rotten set in each batch, so that wasn’t bad. What was strange was that 2 x 200g yielded 124 sets yet last year and the 400g bag had 161. I realise that due to size and weight of individual sets – and there were tiny ones and large ones – there will not be exactly twice as many in a double weight bag, but a difference of 37 seems way too few. Seeing as last year I had space after planting up all 161, I might get another bag to fill in the gap, or maybe I’ll try shallots. They have the bonus of giving numerous bulbs per set, unlike an onion which simply grows bigger. It will also add width to our home-grown culinary range.

27^th February

I went to the allotment after work and took all manner of tools – except the saw for the wood.  The completed raised bed for section 2 is about 8-10 inches short. Never mind, that space will be used as a dedicated flower bed! The chipboard sections, although prone to water damage, are a real pain to fix together end to end and it is a little bit of a rough job so maybe it is just as well they won’t last too many seasons. I also finished off digging over section 2 and so now it too is ready for some topsoil when that is available again.  Section 2 is the one I can fill in with quite a bit of organic matter as it is for the leeks that like that, but section 1, like section 3, will have to be mainly topsoil as it is for carrots which will fork in manured soil. If I can get these 3 sections fitted out as raised beds, and there is every reason to suggest I will, then that is all the roots and alliums beds ready. That will then give me breathing space to get some decent wood (I may even pay out for some) and work on section 9. This will mean, firstly, that the other end section is completed which is key for sorting out the wire mesh fencing as it will go tightly round 3 edges of that section, and secondly, I can pile in loads of manure for this years’ crops – the squashes, then re-manure it in the autumn for next years alliums – onions don’t mind manure from the previous year!

Saturday 28^th February

I popped into Hilliers and bought a packet of courgette seeds as last seasons’ green ones have been used up. I got F1 Defender which is reputed to be a heavy cropper. I looked at shallots and for £1.99 I could buy a bag of 15 shallot bulbs which would require a fair few bags to fill the potential space, or I could buy 50 Centurion onion sets for £1.49. Need I explain why I went for more onions? All in all it was £3.94 well spent I feel. Once home I headed straight for the garden and planted up the 50 sets in a tray of soil. I now have all space filled on the conservatory shelves with a few seeds to plant over the next few weeks!