Bloomin' Lovely

A quick update.

We've had some spells of windy weather lately but the almond blossom managed to come out at just the right time so hopefully the bees will be getting a good chance to pollinate the flowers. In fact the garden has been full of contented buzzing this week. The willow catkins are alive with bees, the mirabelle plum hedge is in full blossom for the first time since I planted it and the ground is covered with the hue of red dead-nettles.

I have decided to embrace
red dead-nettles

The mirabelle plum hedge is in blossom for the first time

For the first time we have frog spawn in the pond too which is very exciting news.

I planted my onion sets this week and my first early potatoes. There's not much to look at right now but it won't be long before the veg plot is full of crop plants again.

I've been busy in the polytunnel too, preparing poles for all the climbers. As well as tomatoes and cucumber, I want to grow squashes and melons vertically this year. I also have some sweet potato slips coming and a couple of more exotic climbers, groundnut and Madeira vine. It's time for another go at Yardlong beans too now that hopefully (fingers and everything else crossed) the red spider mite is on the retreat. I am using willow poles harvested from the pollard trees.

The big news is that Sue and I are old enough that we have had our first Covid vaccines but it doesn't quite feel like we can relax yet. A rare visit to Peterborough had us aghast at the sheer volume of people. I did manage to find two versions of eddoe in one of my favourite Asian supermarkets. 

Talking of eddoes, the bulbs I showed you last time have now been potted up and are doing really well. The ginger is growing too so the polytunnel should have a tropical feel to it this year.

On a sad note, the cat which appeared on the farm passed away. Sue found it under the straw store and at least made it comfortable for its last few hours..

Our turkey stag has gone into the freezer too. It seems he lost a battle with the young male and was looking very sorry for himself.  He was quite a size and I struggled to even carry him. We will miss him and the new turkey king will have to step up.

It is now the start of my Easter holiday and we have a few days of hot weather forecast. With the  equinox past, it will be a fortnight of hectic seed sowing and veg bed preparation. There'll be plenty to report on in my next post.

2021 Week 9 - The Beginning of a Forest Garden

Answer to Last Week's Mystery Cliff-hanger
The mystery objects from last week were eddoes, also know as taro or elephant-ears. They are an exotic ornamental which I will be growing in the polytunnel. The tubers are a popular root crop in some parts of the world.

Now that good roots have developed, I've potted them up and within a week their shoots have poked up into the air.

These will live in a new exotic section within the polytunnel where I am going to experiment with various crops. Familiar will be sweet potatoes, ginger and okra, less familiar are groundnuts (apios) and Madeiran vine. I don't think the galangal root which I purchased are going to come back to life so I am on the look out for a new source of fresh galangal.

The Forest Garden
Last week I spoke about my new forest garden and that is the main topic for this week.

A forest garden seeks to copy nature but using plants with a purpose, either edible, medicinal or for other purposes such as dying or basketry. It involves growing crops on all different levels, from ground cover to herbaceous perennials, climbers, shrubs, fruit bushes and trees. It doesn't really suit annual crops such as carrots, so I will still be keeping a substantial part of the veg plot for more traditional staple crops.

But some of my existing planting scheme will provide a perfect start for a forest garden. The area I will be using already has cobnuts, an almond, a sweet chestnut, apples, pears, a mulberry tree, greengauges, lime trees and black locust.

In amongst these are the fruit bushes and canes and mahonia. There are flowering currants and buddleias to attract insects and at ground level rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, sorrel and horse radish.

So we have a good start. I have purchased some unusual crops to incorporate, including oca tubers, mashua, Caucasian spinach (just germinating from seed) and yacon. We are now entering the realm of crops unfamiliar to most in this country.

I will be adding herbs too along with wild garlic, Good King Henry and Day Lilies.

But this doesn't quite make a forest garden. I want more variety and more in the shrub and tree layer.

To this end, I have purchased small starter plants of the following, many of which even I had not heard of until I started researching.

Chocolate Vine, Russian Olive, Blue Sausage Tree, Japanese Raisin Tree, Red Elder, Chinese Quince, Himalayan Honeysuckle, Chilean Guava, Goji, Chinee Dogwood, Barberry, Hardy Orange, Bladdernut, Sechuan Pepper, Mini Kiwis, Nanking Cherry and Yellow Giant Fig.

Well, what an eclectic collection of plants! 

I have selected them to be hardy, mostly self-fertile and hopefully fairly maintenance free. I doubt they'll provide us with staple foods, but they will eventually add a great deal of variety to our diet. The area should also be a beautiful place to spend time and be a major attraction to wildlife.

This is a project to be developed over several years and is a major new departure for me. Only now do I really think I have the gardening knowhow to make it succeed. I need to nurture the young plants I have brought, hopefully to get crops and to take cuttings. I will be growing many new plants from seed too, though perennials are often more difficult to grow from seed than annuals.

There will be failures along the way, but it is an exciting new project. Every year I seem to take on a new project and a new feature develops on the smallholding. Last year it was the willow holt. The year before I converted the veg plot over to no dig.

Last week I showed you the extension to the polytunnel. This will be crucial for raising the plants to go in the forest garden, as well as elsewhere. This week the netting came through the post. It was surprisingly easy to stretch over the tunnel frame and I managed to order just the right size.

There was time for some more traditional gardening too. Underneath the big old ash tree in the middle of the garden is an ornamental bed. A few years back I raised some grasses from seed. I was aiming for a large area of grasses which would swish in unison and create a wind-blown ocean. But it didn't quite achieve the desired effect. 

So this week I dug up a whole load of the grasses, leaving just enough to suggest a small swathe, and transplanted the rest to a problem area for which I had never quite found a purpose. I like the result.

Much of the extra work I've been doing this week has been possible because of the help I've received from the dogs, who have been turning the compost heap for me with great enthusiasm!