Since we moved to the seaside we have spent winter months doing indoor jobs /diy etc but realise it is just a fill in while we await better weather. For various reasons we did not get much diy done this winter so spring could not come soon enough. Now though the sun is shining and despite the lawn being a bit like a bog we have been able to get outside and start this year's projects. My kids used to laugh at us old fogeys for our gardening but ha ha my eldest has just got an allotment and the next three also quietly admit to enjoying their gardening. Mrs L is delighted that her seeds in propagators are coming up. Somehow there is nothing better than growing stuff from seed that you end up eating. All we have to do is try not to grow 10,000 ridiculously hot chili peppers.
My winter months are spent trying to plan for the Spring, which is when Gardener's World comes back from the Winter break. In normal years there is a slight problem as our seasons are about 3 weeks ahead of the south of England and more the further north you go, so I have often done things that are being described as jobs for the weekend. Over the last ten years I have worked out what will and will not grow in our soil which naturally is rather poor. It has been a case of digging in all the compost I can lay my hands on, and slowly it has been getting better as shown by the worm count. It has been an unusually wet Spring so far, and many things have been attempted between showers. My neighbours used to grow all their own vegetables, but decided to give up as it was as cheap to buy them from the supermarket. I still enjoy the difference in flavour from something that goes from the ground to the pot on the same day, rather than it being hanging around for days. The weather can give you a great crop of something, or a total failure. When I see that I have lost a crop I am thankful that I do not do it for a living.
Across the years we have reduced massively the number of different veg we grow. We found we either did not eat enough of it or it all ripened at the same time - and that was when it was cheapest in the shops. Even so home grown tastes so much better. Here we concentrate on onions and beans/ peas as we seem to eat masses. This year for the first time since Wales we are going to grow a few spuds. We also have a lot of success here with soft fruit. Cherries, plums and gooseberries were already established but we have added blackberries, blackcurrants, red currants and white currants and blueberries - with varying degrees of success. Greenhouse is good for tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers of all sorts. We have tons of rhubarb but do not eat much and it is not easy to give away. Mrs L has a salad raised bed so we get a lot of our salad crops very fresh.
It's a case of patience here. We live at around 300 metres above sea level and in many parts of Germany there can still be night frosts until mid May - the so called Eisheiligen (Ice Saints). Normally we grow lots of veg. The Cabbages, Carrots, Onions, Spuds, Marigold, Sellerie will all be in by late April - the beans and tomato plants will have to wait until May. For the first time I will be growing Tomatoes both in the greenhouse and in free land (without shelter) because they are a perfect partner for cabbages - as long as they are open to wind as well as rain it should be ok. Hoping to get lots of apples this year - unfortunately last years crop was decimated by a late frost during the blossom. Lots of currants of all colours, gooseberries and thornless blackberries make up the soft fruit. Sloes as well but not enough for Schnapps yet.
I am looking forward to the new gardening season, today I ventured out and did some tidying up, first real blast since I had my hernia op. It was sunny day with a cool easterly. I don't have the space to grow veg although sometimes I do a few potato sacks and try and grow cucumbers and toms in the greenhouse, the latter are usually disappointing due to lack of sun and warmth. When I was working I had an allotment but I really could not cope with that and my garden so both suffered, I never really got on top of the weed problem on my plot and and the allotment gestapo were always on my (and others cases), I thought it was meant to be a hobby! I got fed up with them and gave it up, it was not the friendliest of allotments, not much community. We are surrounded by neighboring houses and woods and keeps the sun off our garden a bit. I started a herb garden last year and waiting for signs of growth. We moved in here 17 years ago as a new build on a farmers field which was solid clay. We have worked it and dug in organic material and the soil is now quite decent but I never see a worm and am puzzled why, maybe they cannot make it through the surrounding clay to our gourmet patch. The grass is a bog still after all the snow melt and the beds are pretty soggy but there are signs of spring life now despite the cold weather we have had (and still have). The cold has kept the snow drops going for a long time and the daffs are about to start. My rescue primrose (50p chuck out from garden centre) is already flowering. When I retired 4 years ago I started revamping the garden and mulched everything to tackle the weeds, it now needs mulching again. I have one section still to do and will plant it up with shrubs and perennials to keep the maintenance down. More anon, happy gardening all.
In Wales the sun set behind a hill at about 5 even in the summer; that and the height above sea level meant we had a short day and short growing season. When we moved there I dug 30 to 40 8x4 foot beds. Back breaking work done by hand on a field trampled previously by horses. Later we bough some pigs and where we put them they ploughed the field in no time - wish I had know - they would have saved me work. Pigs are powerful beasts - they uprooted a couple of large trees. I now have just 3 veggie beds - and the raised salad planter.
Gardening is not just about the successful ventures, but the failures also. I brought over some apple trees, ones you cannot buy here. For four years they were loved, mulched and fed, making good growth. Two apples only but they were young trees. Last summer was so dry for such a long period many trees in these parts have not survived, including my apples. It is sad to see the state of them, but I know that I will try again, and maybe have some fruit sometime in the future.
Garden here north of leeds is totally soaked through... and the lawn just full of moss year on year...
We had a small window after last weekend where the lawn dried a little so barrowing a couple of dozen loads of soil and bark was possible. I have about the same to go though but daren't go across the grass now as it is swampy again OFH - if failures in the garden are what gardening is about then I am successful.!!!!
and we have the scourge of the brown bin here.. Mme Yorkie insists on filling it the the brim cramming it down etc.... and very wet here... .and we have to fill the bin and put it out for Sunday .... oh fun!!
We have a more environmentally friendly bin - it is green. They empty it once a fortnight and like Mme I cram it full. I even managed to get out there and fill it when we had the snow - and they emptied it. Mind you - they have just emptied our ordinary bin today and will do the green one on Monday - whatever happened to bank holidays?
I think that some of you need to get on the Internet and find out about the joys of doing your own composting. Think .
All our tomato seeds have now germinated - much delight of course. Plus a load of sweet peas. But I have been instructed to make a maypole for our half barrel planter to grow them up. Apparently ones you can buy have too few "strings". Oh joy !
I wish I had room for a composting area, it breaks my heart to fill the brown bin. I chip woody stuff and put it on the common "flower bed" as a week suppressing mulch the estate maintenance folk are supposed to "maintain".
I have a garden shredder that deals with small twiggy branches and that is great for creating and maintaining paths by the veggie beds
We have about four compost sections.... all works well The brown bin is for branches and 'bigger' organic matter etc.. and we cant compost all the leaves grass etc
Our compost never matches the stuff Monty Don produces. I even turn it occasionally but still it is nowhere near his quaility - he is not a normal human being
He is the god of gardening even greater than the little and lesser spotted Titmarsh.... and said to be a reincarnation of the great percy and geoff
Mrs L is concerned about the squirrels' nuts. I am instructed to move their feeder this morning as apparently they do not like its current position.
