Purple broccoli

This Sunday we enjoyed the first purple broccoli with a roast beef dinner. I wasn't overly impressed but it was nice to see my first broccoli harvest on the plate.

The apple tree is beginning to show a fine display of leaves. I'm sure within a few more weeks the once twiggy look will be replaced with a fine bushy growth.

Carrots and lettuce have started to show in the borders and pots. I have had to put slug pellets down in these area in the hope that the young seedlings will survive.

The only other activity in the garden over the last week has been to transplant the 11 tomato seedlings and 2 leeks. 3 cabbage seeds have germinated but they can wait for another week before they are re-potted or moved to a position in the garden.

The radish and Brussels that were re-potted a few weeks ago are still in their pots. As they are still small I cant be sure which is which (should have labelled them!). I will have a better idea in few days as everything is changing so rapidly now the warmth has arrived.

The warm weather has meant that the garden has needed a watering with large cracks appearing in the soil.

First signs of life

This weekend brought the first signs of life in a number of places. The first potato broke through the surface at the weekend. Now, two days later, two others have emerged. The potatoes with planted about a week before the main seeds in the greenhouse. Therefore they have taken about 3 or 4 weeks to germinate.

The broccoli, planted last year, has started to develop into more recognisable small purle/green fluffy sprouts. However the cabbage is still just a mass of leaves.

The seeds in the greenhouse are emerging slowly. Broccoli and radish have already been repotted with tomotoes looking like the next contender. They are too small to transplant yet, but hopefully they will be much bigger by the weekend.

The garlic is still doing well. I am experimenting with carrots and parsnips sown directly into the borders as the carrots sown into pots over last two years have been disappointingly small.

The sunny weather also meant the grass could be cut for the first time this year.

The warmth of spring

There is certainly a warmth in the air with spring making it's subtle presence felt. Although the wind has been generally cold and the rain (sleet and snow!) heavy and persistant, when there is a chance to feel the sun, it is warm. The plants are lapping it up too.

Daffodils are almost all in bloom and blossom is starting to appear on trees. Since I sowed the seeds a couple of weeks ago, the brussels and radish have germinated first. There are signs of the tomatoes germinating next but everything else is at a slower pace.

A couple of days after sowing all those seeds I planted garlic into the right side border. That too has germinated quickly with each clove at least 2 inch's high. Last year I grew garlic in pots. They germinated fine, but a combination of overwatering and a dull area of the garden meant that they all rotted. This year they are in the ground and on a sunny side.

This weekend the rain and bog-like conditions prevented me from doing much until Monday. However I did eventually get to repot the brussels and radish, sow onion, leek and cabbage seed for the greenhouse, and start off some salad, both indoor and out.

It's seed weekend

A glorious sunny Sunday followed heavy rain on Friday and light rain on Saturday. All that rain left the garden water logged and so I was unable to go near the borders. Instead I used the time to sow the veg and flower seeds for the coming year. All have been put into the green house as its too cold and too early to be left outdoors. I have not got a great deal of space so for the larger plants I have restricted the amounts of veg seeds in each row to 5 for each variety, in the hope that at least 1 will germinate.

Tray 1

1. Tomato - Harbinger


2. Tomato - Money maker


3. Tomato - Gardeners delight


4. Tomato - F1 Fantasia (x2) Harbinger (x3)


5. Pepper - California wonder


6. Pepper - Mini mix


7. Pepper - Yolo wonder


8. Sweet basil

Tray 2

1. Mint


2. Radish


3. Radish


4. Leek


5. Leek


6. Brussels


7. Brussels


8. Marigold

Tray 3

1. Salpiglossis


2. Coleus


3. Nigella


4. Morning Glory


5. Nasturtium


6. Antirrhinum


7. Cosmos


8. Stock

Tray 4

1- 5 Marigold

6-8 Sweet Pea

To round off the day, I also created a new herb garden with a pot of mint that I bought at Morrison's on Saturday and a pot of Thyme and Parsley that I have been growing for a few seasons. The herbs are contained in a trough that sits next to the back door, so that I don't have to go far to pick a few bits of anything. As mint is a bit of an aggressive plant containing it within the trough should be perfect.

Now I have planted up this herb garden next the back door I have realised that I should do the same for the salad area. For the past few years I have grown the salad at the top of the garden, but that means I have to walk to the top of the garden to pick a couple of leaves. So the next job for the week will be to move the salad containers down to the back door. This should also be an improvement for the plants as there is more light and warmth at the house end of the garden.

Apple tree joins the Garden of Shaz

Welcome to the newest member of the Garden of Shaz. The Cox's apple tree, a Christmas present from Rob and family, was planted into the garden today. It takes pride of place at the top of the right side border.

Over the last few weeks I have been improving the soil, digging in new compost and sand. This weekend brought glorious sunshine and so I could not hold back any longer.

The tree was in a plastic pot and so I treated the planting as such. However, once I tried getting the tree out of the pot I faced a problem removing it with the rootball intact. As I prised the tree out it became a bit messy. In the end the tree came away from the soil and so became a bare root planting. With a stake to keep the tree in place, it should be protected from the wind that will blow towards it.

At 4 ft tall I can not wait to see how well it grows over the next few years. I do hope might attempt at planting it was satisfactory.

Homemade compost

The first weekend of March brings glorious sunshine. Perfect weather for gardening.

The weekend jobs were to carry on improving the area where the apple tree will go and some general tidying before spring really hits.

The apple tree will go near the top of the garden in the left side border. The soil in that area is horrid and needs lots of improvement before the tree goes in. For the last few weekends I have removed the grass, added good soil and dug it over but with any heavy rain it still gets too boggy.

This weekend I started adding sand to improve the drainage.

But how about the compost heap? Since starting work on the garden I have composted as much as I could, with any extra going into the wheelie bin. But for those few years I had not looked to see what was happening below the top level.

After removing the newest material from the top it wasn't long before I found really good decomposed compost, as you can see from the photo. And there was loads of it. Three buckets of this free compost then went in to the border to help improve it.

I hope to be able to have the soil ready for next weekend and get the tree planted before the growing season starts again.

I also dug up the carrots that have been growing since last spring time. I was hoping these would have grown bigger than the previous year but no such luck. As you can see from the photo the average length is only 2-3 inch's and perhaps two meals worth.

The lack of growth may be due to the depth of the container. This year I will plant some carrots direct into one of the borders to see how they do.

New resident in the Garden of Shaz

This Saturday saw my first proper exploration of the garden this year. It was a lovely sunny day, although cold, and the ground was very soggy. So the plan was simply to tidy the garden and make some preparations for the planting of the new apple tree.

As the ground was so wet I abandoned the trainers as normal garden wear and went for the heavy duty work boots kept in the shed. Before putting them on I thought I had better do a quick spider check in case of expected visitors. However, instead of finding spiders I had a bit more of a surprise. Inside both were bits of material, laces and plastic making what looked like a cosy little spot for something slightly bigger. The boots had become winter homes for some mice.