March in the Garden…

 

Spring colour in the flower bed

No doubt gardeners everywhere will be enjoying the flourishing of spring in their gardens at this stage - and we’re certainly no exception! It’s quite fascinating looking back just a few weeks to last months post and seeing how much things have come on in that short time - from crocuses then we now have daffodils, grape hyacinths and even some tulips on the brink of flowering too. My favourite Aquilegias have sprung into life and even have buds on, and to my delight the three Ranunculus that we paid £1 each for last summer have not only survived through the winter well swaddled in horticultural fleece, but also appear to be about to flower any time! 

A satisfying row of peas…

On the veg front the first things to go in were first early potatoes (“Rocket”)  and a row of peas (“Kelvedon Wonder”) in the new strip of bed we dug last month - and indeed the peas have already popped their heads up. Those are being protected from the attentions of the local cats and the pigeons by means of a complicated arrangement of canes and garden twine, efforts to protect them from slugs might be slightly more challenging. Hopefully once the potatoes appear as well, that should deter the bigger pests freeing up the canes to make a slightly more traditional pea support!  MrEH also sowed a bed with a mix of turnips and beetroot - the turnips being the small round ones we grew years ago on the allotment, and we’ve popped in a row of Kale “Scarlet” At the back of the main veg bed - this should both look attractive and help to fill the “hungry gap” from autumn into winter as well. 

Gooseberry flower buds

Mid month we decided that it was possible that the rhubarb was breaking through, and just a week later it was actually looking like rhubarb - my goodness when it grows it REALLY grows, doesn’t it! We won’t be able to take too much off it this year as it needs another season to get to full strength - we will be making a couple of small harvests though so that’s one to look forward to. Also on the fruit-front the gooseberries are covered in leaf and are even beginning to show their first flower buds, the blackcurrant also has plenty of leaf and while the redcurrant is lagging behind at the moment, it’s got plenty of buds. We’ve also gained several raspberry canes, a loganberry and a wineberry plus some strawberry plants - so if all that lot get going we will be well supplied with fruit through the summer and into autumn! 

Rhubarb!

Currently filling our front room windowsill under the propagator lids are an array of chillies - from my favoured “Hungarian Black” - those using saved seed from the single plant I managed to get to grow last year, to the distinctly more fiery “Bhut Jolokia” - MrEH uses those for concocting various mad versions of flavoured vodka, gin etc for post-rugby match shenanigans so being able to grow them would make life easier for him….however we’re not seeing any success with either of those so far sadly. More optimistic are the “Bishop’s Crown” variety - from a packet of seeds got free with our Kitchen Garden magazine - nearly all I sowed of those are now up and looking sturdy. Also on there are aubergines - with a couple of those having popped their heads up too - and some sweet peppers as well. Meanwhile in the garden the mini greenhouse is standing by ready for duty again - and already contains sowings of some soft herbs and flowers - notably mini sunflowers and calendulas, both of which will get used as companion planting  if they germinate OK. 

Coldframe with herbs

Further acquisitions this month include some more cover for bringing on tender plants while there is still any risk of the temperature dropping in the form of two small cold frame/giant cloche arrangements, plus a larger polycarbonate style cold frame which now houses herbs and will work well for more hardy sowings of other plants and hardening off. Joining our metal arches are four narrow trellis frameworks - two of those are already in place against the fence to support a couple of Clematis - the one I bought last year has been joined by a new purchase - and currently we think the other two will be placed alongside the arches to increase the spread area for beans and squashes. 

Strawberries settling into their troughs

It still feels like SUCH a novelty to actually have the privilege of this space - even though we’ve been here over a year and a half now, I’m not sure that feeling will ever wear off!

Robyn 

February in the garden…

 Well, who foresaw one of THESE posts appearing so early in the year? Not me for sure, but then we got cracking on a small project we have been discussing for a while…

You’ll recall that increasing growing space has been right at the top of our garden agenda since we moved in. We made a start by stripping various shrubs out of the raised beds along one side, and of course the addition of the new veg bed. We’ve been discussing what other options there were though - there isn’t really any more options for adding anything at ground level so the next logical move was to add scope for things to grown upwards instead. A couple of cheap metal arches were acquired from a well known online store named after a big river, and last weekend we set about building and placing them. 

Once they were in place we turned our attention to the best way of really maximising the space there - and decided that sacrificing a strip of lawn on that side was the way forwards. That would mean that we could plant stuff for climbing up on both sides, and have a narrow strip available for other planting too - and a strip which gets a reasonable amount of sun, at that! My Mum has one of those useful half-moon edging tools, and we talked about popping over to borrow that, but then it was remembered that I also have some form for being able to actually do a remarkably straight tidy line with just a digging spade… 

There - what do you think? It might ideally want a bit of tidying up at some stage, but right now it ticks the box for “good enough” which is what was needed. Of course a bit like the other side, we did encounter a LOT of concrete and rubble that needed dealing with - indeed we have a whole compost sack of rubble to go to the tip (this feels familiar!) and several bags of dug out turfs as well. I suspect as we continue digging it over there will be more rubble appearing as well - but we are expecting that! 

That’s how it looks now - oddly enough the arches have completely changed the look of the whole garden, it’s very strange! There is still some tinkering to do on that side - we want to reduce the height of those raised beds by another level ideally to give less areas for slugs and snails to hide, the wood is beginning to rot quite badly anyway - eventually they will probably come out altogether. The new strip needs an addition of plenty of compost dug in to get it ready for planting as well. 

Elsewhere our efforts at getting spring bulbs planted in have paid off - we have crocuses all over the place…

…and lots of other things appearing too, most of which we can’t quite remember what they were - quite a lot of various tulips I think? And there were also a lot of alliums of various colours and sizes - you may remember from last year that those are a real favourite of mine and something I always knew I wanted plenty of! 

Auntie D’s Pulmonaria is flowering away cheerfully there as well as you can see - the ridiculous thing seems to have no concept of seasons as it started flowering around Christmas! 

The next month will be about buying any additional seeds we think we might want, and then making a start of getting things sown that can be I reckon, once again the front room windowsill will be pressed into action with the cheap and cheerful propagator lids we bought for seed trays to encourage things along.  We’re already starting to plan our growing for the year - with several different types of tomato in the mix and definitely some different squash as well - I have a fancy for having a go at some proper winter squash this year as it’s something we buy fairly regularly so that could be an excellent money saver!

Robyn

Looking back...

 Well that is 2024 done and dusted - an odd year, not having the beer festival in August (cancelled due to problems with the venue and too short notice to find a replacement in time) took a lot of structure out of the year for us, while also freeing up extra holiday time which is always going to be useful! Lots of the "regular" sort of things still happened of course, and a lot of the start of the year was settling in to the new house. The garden was, as we know from previous posts, a massive focus for us - and having the time freed up from not doing beer festival related stuff was a help on that side of things. 

January: The year began with a lot of rain, the discovery that yes, we did have a roof leak, the discovery of a Pied Wagtail roost in a nearby supermarket car park, and a meet up with pals for excellent pizza and equally excellent beer during a wander around the Hackney area. 

February: Our first Hidden London tour of the year was to Baker Street - and it was a superb one, SO much history as you might expect, and definitely one of the most interesting we've done in terms of drawing our eye to features we might not have noticed otherwise, and really getting into the bones of the station!  We also incorporated a ride on the new bit of Northern Line down to Battersea, and a look at the fantastically refurbished Battersea Power Station too. Later in the month was a weekend spent in Derby meeting pals and exploring more brilliant pubs!

March: A bit of a quiet one according to my phone camera roll. We did some work in the front garden - planting up some pots kindly given to us by a neighbour and also digging over a section of the ground and planting directly in. We had a walk at Tring Reservoirs including a look at the rather fascinating rebuilding of the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal - an astonishing project! Another walk at Aldeburgh including lovely light for viewing the stunning scallop shell sculpture on the beach. The month ended with a massive change to the back garden as the new veg bed was dug out! That turned out to be a far more involved job than we were hoping it would too - with a deep bed of concrete below the slabs, and somewhere approaching a foot depth of rubble below that. 

April: The 1st of the month we did indeed feel like April Fools as we spent the day completing the  digging out of the veg bed, breaking out more huge chunks of concrete and bagging up rubble ready for numerous trips to the tip through that month! We took a break from that on the 2nd though for a brilliant opportunity - to tour the old London Transport HQ at 55 Broadway. This is somewhere that we'd wanted to visit for AGES having missed out on doing the Hidden London tour of it when it ran through our own stupidity! (It's also one I've already blogged about so if you want to know more, scroll on back!).  By the end of the second weekend in April we had made good progress on planting up the new bed - a rhubarb and a redcurrant had found their new homes, and some herbs too. The following weekend was reserved for a trip down to Devon where we had a walk about Totnes and found some fabulous edible planting...also already blogged about! In the other extreme, towards the end of the month we travelled to the other end of the country for a weekend in Dundee for the Campaign for Real Ale AGM & Members weekend, making time for a stop in Edinburgh on the way too. We had a lovely time exploring pubs, managed to spent some time with one of my very best friends, and then had a rather grotty trip back which did at least see us getting a full "delay repay" refund on the tickets! 

May: Began with another visit to Hackney with a different pal this time, and more excellent pizza and beer. Airshow season kicked in for me this month too - it felt great to be back camera in hand again, and also to catch up with some pals from that side of things! In the garden the potatoes we'd planted started showing signs of life, and the first fruits started forming on our courgettes too. Then later in the month it was time to pack the car and head north for our annual Hebrides trip - back to gorgeous little Kettle Cottage this year for a rather chilly, windy fortnight. Always a joy regardless of the weather mind you!  We stopped on the way up at The Kelpies too which was wildly exciting and every bit as impressive as we could have hoped! The start of the holiday was rather overshadowed for me by the news of the Spitfire crash at Coningsby, and the subsequently confirmed death of Squadron Leader Mark Long - a real tragedy, and one which had a profound effect on the whole air show community. 

June: Home to a garden absolutely flourishing, both in terms of flowers and veggies! First proper harvests too - this was the month where the garden really began to earn its keep. Airshow-wise, Sywell held their first (and as it stands, likely to be only) full airshow - two days of wonderful weather, fabulous warbirds and great fun with friends. I ended the month with another visit to Shuttleworth - more warbirds! 

July: The big news was of course the General Election, but that day stood out more for me for a bit of time spent with the lovely Strikemaster Display team at North Weald. We made a visit to the London Transport Museum depot at Acton which was a fascinating day - and we'll certainly be booking to go back! A day at Ealing Beer Festival with a group of CAMRA pals was a great day out, and then it was "the biggie" of the airshow season with the Royal International Air tattoo at RAF Fairford. This took a rather different form for me than before with a group of 5 of us sharing a house for the duration - but my goodness me WHAT a fun few days! We have a plan in place to repeat it all again this year too - can't wait! While there I also had an incredible opportunity to sit in on a Red Arrows post display debrief which was amazing - the way they pick the display apart picking up on even the tiniest flaws is just incredible. It was certainly not anything I ever expected and I couldn't be more grateful to the team's PR Manager Andy and Red 1, Bondy for giving me the chance! 

August: Lots more homegrown stuff, with perhaps the highlight being cucumbers! Also some foraging - plums to turn into plum sauce (and MrEH also made some jam around this time too) which was delicious! We had a weekend in the North West to catch up with lovely friends and for me to make a visit to the Blackpool Air Show - not a show I can usually do as there is usually a clash with the beer festival! We also made a trip down to MrEH's hometown for the annual Regatta, and I walked out to a local landmark I've wanted to see close up for the last 20+ years - The Daymark!

September: The garden was by now providing most of our vegetable needs which was excellent - we were even at the stage of being able to do some batch cooking of produce to fill the freezer as well. Our second bit of LT Museum adventuring of the year happened too - with a Hidden London tour at Holborn one day followed by a ride on the 1938 tube stock the next. Both excellent and Holborn might have my favourite tiling to date! There was a camping weekend in Ludlow with friends for the food festival too - first time back at one of our favourite campsites in a few years!

October: The highlight of the month was unquestionably the stunning Northern Lights display we saw from our very own back garden all the way down in Essex. Having missed the aurora when it showed well "down south" earlier in the year we were thoroughly pleased to have seen this one! The garden was still feeding us too with the last of the courgettes and tomatoes still appearing and our first potatoes as well!

November: Final major garden harvest in the shape of the remaining tatties being dug and stashed away in the shed, and then it was just a case of generally getting the beds tidied and ready for winter. There is still chard producing a little, although by the time of writing it was mostly beaten by the frost. There was a small local beer festival to attend which was fun! Sadly the month closed off with the news of the death of a very dear friend of ours - although he had been in poor health for a while it was totally unexpected at that point, and left us all very shaken.

December: Christmas month, and of course as always it kicked off with a trip to the wonderful Pigs Ear Beer festival in London. I tried to do "something nice" each day specifically through the month too - anything from wearing a piece of jewellery I might not normally have put on, to a little foody treat or going out somewhere different. Nothing massively "full on" but just a nod to a nice if quite dark and cold, month. Our friend's funeral gave the opportunity to spend time with a lot of other good friends over some beers - which he would absolutely have appreciated.We took time to head up to Suffolk to visit one of our favourite RSPB reserves and have fish & chips in Aldeburgh while we were off work over Christmas, too. 

And there you go - our 2024 summed up in a few paragraphs and some photos! 

Robyn