Spring Forward

It's that time of year again, the garden is waking up and starting to stretch, so it's time to blow the dust and cobwebs off this blog and let you know what I've been up to.

It's a strange start to the season, in part because here in the south east of the UK we didn't get much of a winter, but mostly because Coronavirus has been keeping us at home. No pottering round the garden centre to steal ideas and rescue neglected discounted plants, no foraging for wild garlic in the woods, no bargain hunting round garage sales and free ads. Luckily what I do have is some seeds, some outdoor space, and some bored children. We can create a lot out of that.

I always planned to kick things up a notch this year, in terms of how much I was growing, but the fresh food shortages in the shops have given me added motivation, so I'm probably going to plant much more than I'll be able to keep up with. I wouldn't recommend that if it's your first year - plant a couple of bits that you enjoy eating and can give lots of time to. You'll likely have a better crop because of it. I'm ignoring my own advice because it's my second year, I already had a little bit of veg growing experience before I started last year, and I'm envisioning a long season ahead with nothing much else to do.

On the windowsill:

I don't actually have a huge amount of suitable windowsill space in my house but I'm making do with what I have to start seeds off. I used some small pots to start off some courgette, butternut squash, and pumpkin seeds, as well as some tomato seeds. The squash family are a joy to start from seed and a great project to do with toddlers and young children because the seeds are big and chunky, they germinate quite quickly, and once they start off they grow so fast you can almost see it happening. Great for people who need a bit of instant gratification.

Beginning to germinate (about 3 days after sowing)

The next morning (4 days after sowing)

The day after that (5 days after sowing)

They'll probably get overcrowded quite quickly, and I'll need to move them. I sowed 2 seeds per pot expecting a poor germination rate because it was cheap seed (from Wilko) but they all seem like very happy seedlings.

As well as my squash plants, I've also sown some tomatoes, which are starting to sprout:

As you can see the seedlings (and their seeds) are a lot smaller and more delicate than the squashes, so it might be difficult for little fingers to plant individual seeds.  Don't worry if you end up with loads in the pot like this, we can just pick out the smaller, less healthy looking seedlings and grow on the ones you want.

The other thing on my windowsill right now is cut and come again lettuce. I had run out of pots but I had a rubbish old loaf tin that I never used (because it doesn't let the bread cook evenly) and I figured it'd do. I like reusing and hate sending stuff to landfill. 

I put a few stones in the bottom of it for drainage but you probably don't even need to do that because lettuce is a shallow rooted plant and the tin is deep, so the roots are unlikely to ever be waterlogged.

I will try and remember to turn this every day so it doesn't go leggy from the lack of light, and in a week so so I will sow some more seed on the bare patches of soil in the pot so I get a longer harvest season. This is a fab little crop to grow because , as a cut and come again variety, it will benefit from a good trim every now and then, and will regrow when it's cut, giving us several little harvests. Much better than having a row of iceberg lettuces all ready for harvest at once and being sick of the sight of lettuce halfway through day 2 after harvest.

In the garden:

We have been busy in the garden too. The grass has had its first cut of the year, and I've been trying to stop the dog scratching one particular area of the garden (while also making our pollinator friends happy) by planting some perrennial flowers - primroses and daffodils mostly. 

We picked them up on special offer at the garden centre a week or two before everything shut down, because yellow is my daughter's favourite colour and she wanted something to brighten the garden and her spirits. Then my youngest son brought home some daffodils from school for Mother's Day, so I added them in too. In between I have scattered some seeds I saved from last year's marigolds. They were F1 hybrids, which don't always produce good seed, and I'm not sure if I harvested them at the right time, so we will see if they come up or not, but if they do it should make a great area for our bees and butterflies.

And hopefully, because they're supposed to be perennials, most of these flowers will come back year after year.

I've been busy in the veggie section of our garden (which I will probably end up adding flowers to as well, because they attract pollinators and insects that defend our crops) too. There's still lots to do, but already it's starting to take on victory garden vibes.

As you might be able to see, the big bed at the back near the toy car (the one we built out of an old bed) survived the winter, but the one I bodged together out of an old chest of drawers last year did not (I would've been astonished if it had) - we may try to hold it together for one more year, I'm not sure yet. 

Peas:

The peas (bed closest to us with the frame made out of an old cot) that we tried overwintering have mostly survived, much to my surprise. The only ones we lost were those that got damaged when high winds blew the frame over.  I took it down and packed it away after that, and have just reassembled it today. The overwinter pea plants that survived have just started to grow again after going into stasis over winter, so I put the frame back up and laid the plants on it so they can grab hold and start themselves back up. I've also planted a some more seeds today and will again next week so we get a succession of peas rather than one huge glut, just like with the lettuces. 

Potatoes:

So last year I attempted to grow potatoes in bags. They seemed to grow well. I then completely forgot to harvest them. Forgot I evenue had them. I discovered the bags yesterday but they've got new growth on them so I'm leaving them for now and we'll empty thwm at the end of the season and see what's what. Remind me.

This year I decided I wanted lots of potatoes so we are doing them in the ground. See the big trench at the back of the picture, that looks "worryingly like a grave" (or so said my husband,  who was digging it for me)? That's where our potatoes will be. They're currently"chitting" - ie growing eyes - on my daughter's windowsill. Pro-tip: do not teach your primary school age children the word chitting unless they are very good at pronouncing the sound "ch"

We need to make the trench a little deeper so we have a good heap of soil next to it. Then our seed potatoes will go on the bottom of the trench and be covered with just a tiny bit of earth from the heap. Each time the leaves poke through the soil, we will cover them up with more from the heap (and maybe some well rotted manure or compost if I can get hold of some) and when we've used up all of the earth from the heap we will let them grow. When the foliage dies off, the potatoes are ready to be dug up and harvested.

Fruits:

The little sucker I transplanted last year has survived winter and even has a little blossom on it.

I was concerned that it may not be a Victoria plum, because the parent tree was grafted, but the blossom looks similar to me.

I'll have to keep on top of the tree so it doesn't turn into a monster like its' mum, but I'm pleased it survived the transplant. I may net this blossom against the birds since they have the whole giant beast tree to strip of blossom.

I left the pot of strawberries out over winter (you can see them in the terracotta coloured pot in front of the pea frame in the victory garden pic above). They survived the mild winter well and are flowering already. I don't think it's warm enough for the flowers to develop into fruit, but the bees and ladybirds seem to love them.

I think that's everything up to date for now. I'm still waiting on the apple blossom and hoping to get some deliveries for my garden soon (though deliveries have been unavoidably delayed what with the global pandemic we have going on), and there's still a lot to do so I'm sure my posts will be coming thick and fast as spring goes on.

I know from my stats that a lot of people are suddenly very interested in growing food on a budget, and I think that's fantastic. It's great for mental health to get outside in nature, even if it's just on your balcony, and it wont hurt to take some pressure off the food supply while things - and therefore people- are still uncertain. It's also a brilliant opportunity to bond with your kids while sneakily teaching them all sorts about the food chain, beneficial insects, how ecosystems work and even literacy and maths (reading seed packet instructions, writing labels, counting seeds, measuring space between plants) while also tricking them into fresh air and exercise, and getting them interested in trying more fruit and veg. Gardening is a great homeschooling projet,  and is just as valuable as learning about historical battles or trying to teach your child algebra you barely understand yourself. If you're on lockdown, growing veg is the perfect family activity to do together. They'll catch back up with the academic stuff later, but they'll never forget the time you spent together or the skills you taught them.

It can also be a bit daunting for beginners though, so if there's anything you'd like to see  an in depth post on, or any terms you'd like explained, let me know in the comments or on twitter and I'll do my best to answer for you.

In the meantime you can see the little garden things I don't always share here on the hashtag #VsBoringGardenTweets on twitter. Happy growing!