Gardening & garden purchases
Mar. 20th, 2011 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunn Today I motored on with the gardening did yet more weeding, compost-shifting and removed a great deal of mahonia so that the Happy Apple Tree can get more sun. And I cut back the big hypericum bush.
I also laid some hazel hedge, and used some of the generous quantity of trimmings to make a rather Blair Witch style new support for my prized Actinidia Arguta Issai, which rather to my surprise has survived the worst the cold could throw at it and looks about to burst into leaf.
The temperature in my greenhouse today was just off 30 degrees! 30! In March! I have just bought a new automatic greenhouse vent, as mine seems to have died.
The rosemary bush which only just struggled through the 2009-2010 winter is, alas, toast. I do feel that rosemary is one of those herbs that I really can't have a garden without, and anyway I haven't bought any seeds yet this year, so I have just ordered from crocus.co.uk:
A decent sized plant of Rosmarinus officinalis 'Miss Jessopp's Upright' (went for this over the species as it's a bit taller and supposed to be a bit bluer and a bit more upright in growth)
250 seeds pea 'Delikett'
40 borage seeds (impulse buy!)
basil 'Genovese' (approx 4000 seeds! Woohoo!) - to plant in the greenhouse.
lettuce 'All Year Round' (to start in the greenhouse, then maybe some outside if I can manage to remember to water them)
onion 'Red Baron' - 50 sets (never grown onions, gotta be worth a go?)
beetroot 'Boltardy'
cucumber 'Crystal Lemon' (for the greenhouse again, though I bet I don't manage to keep the watering up enough, I do eat a lot of cucumber so really should try to make the effort!)
pumpkin 'Jack O'Lantern' (to plant in the raised beds after the peas are over)
I am continually tempted to buy too many seeds, so I hope I haven't overdone it again!
I did intend to get some nasturtians as well, but the Crocus selection of nasturtians is poor. They only had 'Alaska' and some dark-flowered non-spreading type, and I wanted an unvariagated climbing one, maybe Empress of India or something like that. And it's just occurred to me that the cold winter has probably seen off all my self-seeded Verbena Bonariensis and Alyssum. So I might need to get some more...
I really should have worn gloves for all the chopping and trimming. My hands were a bit knackered anyway due to their perennial annoying-skin problem, and now they have been scratched to pieces as well, they are very stiff and red. I'm going to try soaking them in moisturiser in a mo, at the moment they are sort of frozen, but fortunately they are at least frozen in such a manner that I can still type as that only requires movement of the knuckle joint.
I also laid some hazel hedge, and used some of the generous quantity of trimmings to make a rather Blair Witch style new support for my prized Actinidia Arguta Issai, which rather to my surprise has survived the worst the cold could throw at it and looks about to burst into leaf.
The temperature in my greenhouse today was just off 30 degrees! 30! In March! I have just bought a new automatic greenhouse vent, as mine seems to have died.
The rosemary bush which only just struggled through the 2009-2010 winter is, alas, toast. I do feel that rosemary is one of those herbs that I really can't have a garden without, and anyway I haven't bought any seeds yet this year, so I have just ordered from crocus.co.uk:
A decent sized plant of Rosmarinus officinalis 'Miss Jessopp's Upright' (went for this over the species as it's a bit taller and supposed to be a bit bluer and a bit more upright in growth)
250 seeds pea 'Delikett'
40 borage seeds (impulse buy!)
basil 'Genovese' (approx 4000 seeds! Woohoo!) - to plant in the greenhouse.
lettuce 'All Year Round' (to start in the greenhouse, then maybe some outside if I can manage to remember to water them)
onion 'Red Baron' - 50 sets (never grown onions, gotta be worth a go?)
beetroot 'Boltardy'
cucumber 'Crystal Lemon' (for the greenhouse again, though I bet I don't manage to keep the watering up enough, I do eat a lot of cucumber so really should try to make the effort!)
pumpkin 'Jack O'Lantern' (to plant in the raised beds after the peas are over)
I am continually tempted to buy too many seeds, so I hope I haven't overdone it again!
I did intend to get some nasturtians as well, but the Crocus selection of nasturtians is poor. They only had 'Alaska' and some dark-flowered non-spreading type, and I wanted an unvariagated climbing one, maybe Empress of India or something like that. And it's just occurred to me that the cold winter has probably seen off all my self-seeded Verbena Bonariensis and Alyssum. So I might need to get some more...
I really should have worn gloves for all the chopping and trimming. My hands were a bit knackered anyway due to their perennial annoying-skin problem, and now they have been scratched to pieces as well, they are very stiff and red. I'm going to try soaking them in moisturiser in a mo, at the moment they are sort of frozen, but fortunately they are at least frozen in such a manner that I can still type as that only requires movement of the knuckle joint.
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Date: 2011-03-22 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-23 10:56 am (UTC)I've been wondering about planting a bay, but as you say our current winters do not suit them, plus I am a bit low on places to put sunlovers...
I would be inclined to give it another month before you prune yours, if you do - you might still get a late frost, and the dead bits will be protecting the surviving bits at the mo.