A happy man finding a bit of old rusty tat in a skip
This week’s exploits in the garden all started when I bought
a twenty pack of pansies.
It was an impulse buy; I’ll admit it as I was just in the
shop for a look around. The impulse buy
started a shopping frenzy. If I had some plants to pot up then I would need
some potting compost, so away I went to the compost isle to get a couple of
bags. When I got home it dawned on me
that there was so much to sort out before I planted the first pansy into a pot
so I continued my shopping online and ordered a huge pile of 20 cell plug trays
and a suitcase full of vegetable and flower seeds to fill them.
For Tomorrow
I think the amount of initial work needed to kick start the season
must be the main reason why so many of us don’t start the spring garden until
quite late. Time is an important factor of course but it’s the thought of all
of the preparation work that needs doing, it can all get a bit
overwhelming.
For that reason I tend to use the philosophy of just doing
10/20 minutes a day in the garden and keep picking away at the jobs until you
feel you are making progress. I also use the wise words of Julie’s dads, which
is “Leave something for tomorrow” I particularly like that idea as it takes the
pressure off finishing a job in one go.
With that in mind I thought I’d give you a blow by blow
account of the jobs I have done over the past few days and I must say it’s been
a real pleasure and I have an impulse pack of pansies to thank for that.
A Week in the Garden
The compost I bought is very fibrous but needs sieving to
make it suitable for seed sowing. It says on the bag that it’s ideal for
germinating seeds but it looks like that was stuck on as a seasonal
afterthought because it’s not in the list of instructions on the back. There is
a quantity of “John Innes” compost added to the bag but have decided to
embellish things a bit with some of my own
(also sieved) garden soil and material from the compost bin. It’ll get
most of the seeds growing that don’t like being planted straight outside, which
is my favoured method of planting I must admit as nature does most of the work.
The seeds I ordered were the usual non root veg that we tend
to go for. Salad varieties such as spring onions, lettuce (no tomatoes this
year) coriander, rocket and chives. Then we have gone for the usual, broccoli,
kale, beans and mange tout (no peas this year) it’s not a huge amount of
variety but it’ll fill the garden up nicely.
I have the seed trays filled up ready and needed to clear
the tunnel and cloche inside the tunnel to accommodate them (which took 2 days)
To re-home the pansies we needed to empty the old pots from
last year. Unlike the last three years everything in the containers has died.
There are usually a few old geraniums survive but it’s been a colder winter
this year. The old compost is now in the garden and the fresh supply is being
added. There’s no point keeping any of the old material in the pots because they
are an ideal breeding ground for root eating grubs such as vine weevil. I’ve
also added a few hands full of shredded hemp stalks I have in abundance into
the mix, I think these will absorb water and act like moisture retention gel
for the pots. It’s a bit of an experiment but I think it’ll work and not starve
the plants of nitrogen.
We’ve also been getting one bed ready for the broccoli. Last
year it was taken over by nasturtiums, (my most prevalent weed in the garden)
so this time we’re covering the whole area with the landscape fabric so they
can’t get a foothold. I’ve also been collecting woodchip from an area in the
park where they topped some trees last year. I thought it would be well rotted
by now but it still needs putting through the compost bin to rot down a bit
more before I use it.
So all in all it’s been a busy week in the garden. Making a
start is the main thing for me.
All work aside, the highlight of my week though was seeing
an old dustbin garden incinerator, complete with chimney lid in a skip in a
neighbours driveway. It’s old and rusty with most of the galvanized cover burn
off – very aesthetic I think. I couldn’t resist it though and it’s now pride of
place in my veggie patch.
