2013!

Ok its taken a while for my next post but better late than never I guess.
So last years gardening attempt was a mixed bag but a big learning curve. I made a mistake by sowing too many seeds to start with and then not keeping on top of them with watering and planting out. This year I am scaling things down a bit and focusing mainly on fruit and vegetables for seeds. On top of that is the big back garden project that I have started on. Photos to follow as I have done a bit already.
The good news is that the raised bed I made in the front lawn is still intact and has plants in it still! Amaze balls! Also some of the bulbs that I planted that didn't show last year have started coming through and are flowering!

My lovely new Salix

Say hello to my latest garden addition  - another gift from a generous donator! I think it looks lovely in this wooden crate....

Gardening freebies!

Free seeds!!! I have found the following offers recently so thought I would share!


1) Birds Eye on Facebook - go to Birds Eye on Facebook, click on the Grow your Own page,  and enter the following; Keyword - either GROWCARROTS, GROWPEAS or GROWCORN and the code is  L2025


2) Get 2 packets of free seeds for climate week from new website theBorrowers. Click the link and follow the instructions ;
http://www.theborrowers.co.uk/borrowers-news-blog/05-03-2012/press-release-borrowers-joins-climate-week-free-veg-seeds-offer 



3) Free seeds from Farm in my pocket; 


Please send a separate, stamped addressed envelope for each variety you want

to:

FIMP Free Seeds offer
Golygfa Hyfryd
Salem
Llandeilo
Carmarthenshire SA19 7LT

The varieties we have available can be found here:
http://www.farminmypocket.co.uk/blog/free-seed

"Sadly, the Black Magic runners have now run out...but we still have the
others - at least, for now! Some are running low, but we'll continue to send
seeds out as long as we can, and we'll post on FIMP to let people know when
they're all gone."

4) Not exactly a freebie but a slightly naughty way of saving a few pennies on those expensive plant labels....I have recently found my local costa coffee and starbucks (most coffee chains have them) very generous with their wooden stirring sticks...just the right size for writing plant names and the long ones can be cut in half! 

I will update when I get any other offers!

Seed Germination

I was told about this very interesting experiment from my mother. Basically if you want to see the rate of germination of any seeds then you can do quite easily just with some water and kitchen roll. I chose 5 seed varieties at random (I just wanted to see if this worked first) and then put a damp piece (you will need to keep this damp) of kitchen roll over a square of glass. I then put my choice of seeds on to the kitchen roll, labelled them with the name and date and covered the whole thing in cling film. The idea is that you can then monitor how quickly each type of seed germinates and the percentage that work so you then know whether to sow more or less of a particular type of seed.

I did this on the 24th Feb and these are the results so far....

1) Dusty Miller (Senecio Cineraria)
Very very hard to see but a tiny thin shoot.

2) Cape Jasmine (Gardenia Jasminoides)
Something green appearing - very small but I am not sure if this is mould :(

3) Midnight Candy (Zaluzianskya Capensis)
No obvious signs of growth

4) Evening Primrose Apricot Delight (Oenothera odorata)
No obvious signs of growth

5) Alyssum Carpet of Snow (Alyssum maritima procumbens)
The star performer!!! Amazing growth

Raised bed update

I have a love / hate relationship with next doors cats at the moment. Now I know my raised bed looks like a giant cat litter but really it isn't!
Rollo and fluffy if you read this, please stop digging up my BULBS!!!

I am getting slightly annoyed now. I resorted to putting down some old trellis and plastic mesh the other day but it wasn't big enough and they cleverly just dug in the bits that weren't covered... This has now gone and instead we have some rather unsightly big green netting which is covering everything except the Cordylines and the Narcissus which are just opening in each corner of the bed. We shall see if that stops them!!

Seedling update!

*NEWSFLASH*
After 18 long days and nights we had some new arrivals in the polytunnel greenhouse. This was on Tuesday.....say hello to my Poppy Shirley (Papaver Rhoeas) seedlings!

Since then we have had daily arrivals...Its been great! Next along was a mixed hollyhock (Alcea) on Wednesday...

Along with Cosmos double click rose bonbon (Cosmos Bipinnatus);

And finally some very tiny Livingstone Daisies (Mesembryanthemums);

Yesterday (Thursday) we just had more Cosmos and another Hollyhock. Fingers crossed for today! I was beginning to worry that I wasn't going to get anything as my heater stopped working. I don't think there has been a frost recently but the temperature seems to be all over the place at the moment, my frog thermometer (£1 from the pound shop) has gone from less than 10 to nearly 30 degrees! hmmm I think froggy might have croaked it ha ha. :)

Update

Hello again...Ok so I need to get into the swing of writing on this blog more regularly! I am gardening, I just keep forgetting to update my blog :(
So my mammoth seed planting extravaganza continues in the new polytunnel;

I am in the process of having a good sort out of my seeds. I have packets everywhere; in boxes, bags, indoors, outdoors. In order to keep track of them all I now have a fab storage system (A very nice gift from a young man :) ) Its basically a hardware type cabinet with lots of little drawers. I wanted an apothecary type chest but they are a bit out of my budget :( . Anyway it looks like this will do the trick along with my plastic DVD storage unit which is going to hold any bulbs/ larger seed packets.
I'm still collecting the seeds from my garden - if you don't do this then you definitely should! I save myself a lot of money by doing this. The only trouble I have is working out what seeds I can use and what not. Luckily I have a fab gardening book collection that I can call on and perhaps my expert gardener mother who knows everything!! I had the challenge the other day of trying to work out if you can collect seeds from a Bacopa Snowflake. My books decided that this was a pond plant for some reason (its not!) and I only found one reference on google. Anyway it would seem you need to take cuttings from this plant....this is not great since mine died a while ago! I am tempted to try and plant what I think could be seeds anyway just to see what (if anything) happens - probably not much but then that's part of the fun of gardening..experimenting!