Cold Weather Watch

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I keep five chickens, mainly so that we can have fresh eggs throughout the year, but also because I love to watch them on a daily basis - they make me laugh!

I have been a bit worried about them during this cold snap - they were very reluctant to come out of the barn at all and were slightly perplexed as to what snow was - but now they seem to come and see me on the patio most days, mainly in the hope of a treat. I have been cooking them pasta and rice to keep them stocked up against the cold, along with their normal pellets and corn with grit and they seem to love the extra carbs - I hope it keeps them warm as it’s been mighty cold at night recently!

Chickens are such good entertainment and mine can be quite naughty! They have a habit of eating the windfall apples from under the tree. Now, I let them do this as I thought it was a treat for them to have all those apples, but that was until I realised that they were in fact drunk. This became apparent one Sunday afternoon when they tottered across the patio and started walking into the window. It took me a while to realise the problem but then we had to catch them (not easy) and get them back in the barn. And there they stayed, confined to barracks, for a few days until they were back to normal!

Wild birds should not be forgotten during the cold either and I have been putting out bird seed every day so that they can get a bit extra to eat. Remember to put out fresh water as well and change it when it freezes over - this is often forgotten during the winter but birds don’t eat snow very well so they need fresh water on hand at all times.

The garden lies dormant under the snow at this time of year so it’s a good opportunity to continue with your plans for the growing season and wait for the frosts to clear. But there is always something going on - we have bulbs coming up aplenty - I can’t wait for Spring and the promise of beautiful flowers, bluebells and the onset of warmer weather.

Happy bird watching. Until next time.

-- Jane Dubinski

In the age of austerity, dig for victory and grow your own food

Gardening doesn't have to be a chore, it can also be a rewarding past time, fitting right in with the "Make Do and Mend" resurgence of late....

1. Choose a fine day to get yourself sorted for the year ahead and consider what you’d like to do in 2012. You could take a trip to the library to browse through some books.
2. Have a blitz in your garden, sorting out pots, tools and odd jobs in readiness for the Spring.
3. Jot down a planting plan and check your seed stash.
4. Draw up scale plan to create your own kitchen garden.
5. Plan and enjoy colour in your garden. Colourful containers can be both for decorative and eating purposes. Colourful lettuce leaves look great and will keep you stocked up with fresh salad. Peas, beetroot, chard, courgettes, onions and carrots can all be grown on your patio. A packet of spring onion seeds costing 99p can provide up to £30 worth of produce.
6. Start a mini orchard. No longer do you have to have a huge amount of land to grow fruit with the development of cordon trees. They don’t grow more than 2m and can be grown in pots.
7. Make raised beds and save your back. You can buy these in kit form or make your own and they look great.
8. Make your own herb garden. They taste good, smell good and are good for you. Choose a sunny spot for your herbs and ensure you use containers with good drainage.
9. Peanuts and sunflowers are great to attract garden birds. You can also leave them your left-over cooked potatoes, rice, pasta and cake crumbs. Remember feeding birds bread is a no-no. It fills them up without giving them energy.
10. Consider the front of your house. A colourful spring flower basket or containers can make all the difference.

-- Rob Amey

Knees

I can't bear to have wet knees. For that matter I hate to be wet and cold at this time of year, but that is a story of trial and error which led me to the conclusion, German and Swedish army waterproofs are the best in the world for the price. However, we are talking of knees and more importantly knee pads. It may seem an odd idea, but upon arrival at any garden between October and April, I put on a pair of knee pads and will wear them throughout the day. This saves me an uncomfortable day and protects the joints to boot. So, I could not wait to trial the Town & Country knee pads and excellent they are!

At this time of year I find I will be constantly on my knees in the garden, tidying borders, digging out old plants (to be moved elsewhere) or just simply doing that kind of maintenance in the garden that I could not do at any other time and there are of course those moments where you see something that needs to be done and requires instant attention.

As my grandfather used to say in his broad Devon drawl, “In the garden there are twelve months of hard work. Four of those you can do constructive work. T'other eight months you are playing catch up me boy.”

As is usual for me at this time of year, I am busy in all my gardens reconstructing borders, rockeries and even woodland gardens for my clients. I am lucky that I work in some of the countries most spectacular privately owned forgotten historical gardens which, over the years have been left abandoned or neglected. A job I can honestly say, fills me with such joyous pleasure, words alone cannot explain. Overall the gardens seem to the owners a huge mess, leaving them with the problem of where to start first. My four tips for any of you undertaking such a task?

1. Stand back and allow the garden to tell you what it needs. My training at art college allowed me to learn how a painting should read and the same goes with a garden - shapes, content and movement are first. Colour and texture always is the secondary consideration.
2. Take things in small chunks, allowing yourself to rediscover the original architects dream in your own time.
3. Start from the house and work outwards in the same manner as a ripple on a pond. If however, you wish a different focal point, then start from there.
4. Always consider what is outside the garden. Is there a view which was incorporated or is it to be omitted now?

In my business, a garden is a sculpture with an exceptional advantage- it can be changed at the will of its owner.

-- Guy Deakins

Round the Garden in February

If you fancy spending a bit of time in the garden this month then there’s plenty of tasks you can busy away doing whilst you’re outdoors.

1. If you didn’t get time to plant bulbs last year, then now’s the time to visit a garden centre or DIY store. You’ll instantly transform your garden into an array of Spring colour with tulips, crocuses and hyacinths.
2. Cut back overgrown hedges towards the end of the month.
3. Check on any winter container plants you have. Remove dead heads and check if they need some water.
4. Any bare-rooted plants can be planted now, such as roses or hedging plants, but remember to soak roots for an hour before planting.
5. Clean down your paths and driveway and clear any moss.
6. February is a good month to dress beds for your annuals. I use a fish and bone mix for a natural slow release feed.
7. This month you can sow half-hardy annuals indoors and peas and beans in propagator trays on your window sill. You can plant them outdoors, but protect them from slugs and snails with pellets. Chillies are also ideal for sowing from mid-February.
8. This month is perfect for buying potato seeds and starting the chitting process.
9. Alpine and rockery plants often come out in spring, so do a bit of tidy up now and any weeding and removal of debris.
10. February is good for pruning rose bushes by reducing stems to approximately half in length. Always cut to an outward facing bud.

-- Rob Amey

Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

I really should take notice of this piece of advice myself, rather than making plans to grow enough food to feed a small country. But every January/February brings the sound of seed catalogues dropping on the mat and me grabbing them with excitement, drooling over all the pictures of beautiful healthy vegetables that I obviously need to grow!

So I plan all my raised beds (I have six of them, so am very lucky), making sure that I follow the principle of rotating them so that I don’t grow the same thing in the same one each year. I then place my seed order and look forward to the moment they arrive, hoping the weather improves and I can get into the greenhouse and plant them all!

And that’s where it all goes a bit wrong. It is all down to time, you see, or rather lack of it. I am sure that my plans would all come to fruition if I were able to spend every waking moment in my garden, tending the seedlings, planting out and nurturing them but unfortunately I don’t have every waking moment to spend in the garden due to work commitments, children, dog, chickens, etc....

So I come back to my piece of advice and the title of this blog - don’t bite off more than you can chew. This year I am planning to utilise only a couple of the raised beds and nurture these rather than failing miserably by doing too much. Let’s face it, you don’t need 10 courgette plants or 15 tomato plants and if you feel the need to plant lots of seeds so that you can pick the best ones to plant out, then sell the extra ones outside your house or give them away to friends and relatives.

This way you can make sure everything grows healthily and you will not have to try and keep up with the harvesting - usually of one type of vegetable at a time. So choose wisely and enjoy each crop as it comes along without getting stressed!

-- Jane Dubinski

Potatoes rock!

People have been asking me recently what my potato plans are this year. We are lucky enough to have a fabulous Potato Day in our local area whereby you can preorder your seed potatoes in single batches and collect them on the organised potato day in mid February.

This is brilliant because you can try lots of different varieties and also get a mix of first earlies, second earlies, early maincrops and maincrops so you can spread your planting, growing, pulling up, eating and storing activities.

I'm really looking forward to another year of potato growing - it really is incredibly simple and so rewarding - digging up potatoes you've grown yourself is like finding treasure!

These are the key stages:

• Buy your seed potatoes now
• Chit your seed potatoes - put them in a light cool dry place for a good few weeks so they sprout really well (I use eggboxes which work perfectly)
• Plant out your seed potatoes in April - sprouted end up
• Watch out for frost - cover any plants if frost is due
• Keep covering up the plant roots with soil so no tubers are uncovered (as they'll go green and poisonous if uncovered)
• Keep well fed and watered
• Start digging up first earlies in August
• Dig up maincrops before first frosts and eat or store (perfect potatoes only) in a cool dry place out of the way of any potential pests

ENJOY!

-- Holly Rowan Hesson

Plan your vegetable plot

Whilst it certainly doesn’t feel like it is January, I typically use this month to plan out this year's vegetable plot. Reflecting on last years growing season will help you to decide what worked and what didn’t.

Decide what you would like to grow this year. Are there certain vegetables that your family use often in cooking? Would you like to try something new or unusual like purple carrots? You could even think as far ahead as to what vegetables you’d like to grow to make homemade chutney as gifts next Christmas!

Reputable online seed companies usually have some great deals during January and February so it’s worth ordering them sooner rather than later. Asking family and friends if they would like to split the cost for half the seeds is a great way to keep prices down!

I also use this month to plan where I am going to plant each vegetable. I had a glut of green tomatoes last year so they could really do with being in a sunnier spot. Rotating your crops from last year will help soil fertility and will also help to control insects and pests.

-- Gemma Dray