29 Apr 2020

Pot(ter)ing on

Last weekend, and for a few days before, stage two of annual veg growing, otherwise known as Peak Bottleneck, has been reached here.

Tray of seedlings on a balcony ledge
Just one of the trays on my tiny balcony

Peak Bottleneck, as every balcony gardener knows, is when things start to back up and there are too many arrivals (tiny seedlings) and not enough departures (bigger plants).  Suppliers of seeds will be feeling the same right now, with too many orders coming in and not enough staff to fulfil those orders. Their solution is to temporarily close down their websites to stem the flow; my salvation lies in a newly purchased mini greenhouse, which has been put together but still resides in my living room as a useful night-time spot for my baby plants.

Plants in modules or tiny pots dry out quickly so need regular watering; my other time honoured remedy is to pot everything on into bigger pots (7 or 9cm) until they're sturdy enough to be planted into the garden and withstand rain, wind, slugs, etc.  A healthy plant has a much better chance of survival but even those will be challenged by baking heat and a lack of regular watering. Best to keep them nearby, for now.

I have a balcony full of seedlings and do the Hokey Cokey dance most evenings when a decision has to be made as to whether I dare leave any of them out overnight. Daytime temperatures have been in the 60-70°F zone, dropping to around 45°F at night (chilly) so tiny seedlings are brought in, bigger plants (brassicas, etc) stay out. And when I say ‘bigger’, I'm referring to the plants that have matured enough to show their first true leaves, like this Bolivian Giant achocha - a vine that will eventually grow to over 3 metres (and hopefully be dripping with large, pepper-like fruit).

Bolivian Giant achocha seedling showing first leaves


The tiny seedlings are the modules of tomatoes and chillies that didn’t get sown until the beginning of April as I didn't want them stretching towards the light as they grew. Now that they're soaking up the outside light during the day, the tomatoes are doing well, 50 and counting, the chillies not so much. Another evening basking in the soft flow of warm 26°C air from my fan heater might help. I shall persevere.

Tomato seedlings ready to pot on


My job today is to prick out my tomatoes, if I can find enough spare small pots. I know where most of the pots are because they're currently occupied by sweet peas sown in early January. Those sweet peas need to be planted out as soon as I've built a structure for them to climb and that task is subject to me deciding where everything else will be planted. And then I can start again with round two of sweet peas, beans, peas, beetroot, salad leaves, etc, etc, etc. It's akin to one of those sliding puzzles where one bit has to move before the rest fall into place.

Wish me luck!


19 Apr 2020

Spring progress ... but not as we know it

Mid-April, even in the southern counties of the UK, can be cold, wet and windy. This year though, there have been some joyously warm days when spring has overlapped with summer and brought vibrant colour to the garden.

There’s nothing like a few days of warm sunshine to bring everything out in the garden - me, the flowers, germinating veg seeds and, of course, more seed sowing! A little garden update is due ...


Deep pink cyclamen lit up by evening light in the garden
Gosh.
Evening light, setting sun and ... pink.  I may have stopped breathing for a moment.

Let’s start with some colour.

11 Apr 2020

Chuffed as a Weed: #2 Myosotis

Forget-me-not flower growiing out of a wall


With spring well underway, I’m spending quite a bit of my gardening time bending over to pull out weeds. Little and often is my method for keeping the worst weeds at bay, but what is a weed anyway?

4 Apr 2020

End of March in the Veg Patch


Narrow garden within a low wall, with soil for growing food plants, surrounded by paving.
Hardly a vision of beauty, although this space will fill up fast.

Isn't it lovely the way our gardens are giving us hope and keeping us sane, carrying on regardless while the world beyond the garden gate is mostly off limits? Even if the weather isn't good, I like to have a wander around the gardens here most days and feel much calmer for it. I'm lucky that I have two gardens to look after - the veg patch and the car park garden - plus a few borders including the triangle by the washing lines which is mostly maintenance free (although there are some gaps crying out for new plants).

30 Mar 2020

Sowing seeds for a salad garden

The internet and social media are full of tales of people turning to gardening, and food growing in particular, during the lockdown.  Most crops take a while to be ready for picking but one of the fastest and easiest to grow is salad, especially baby leaves, herbs and cut and come again. This post is anecdotal but with, I hope, some practical advice on how I get my salad garden underway, starting with my balcony and raised beds.

flowering broad bean plants
Just beautiful! Autumn sown broad beans flowering in the veg patch this week.

25 Mar 2020

Chuffed as a weed #1

Green fresh leaves of sweet woodruff growing out of an old wall
Sweet Woodruff or Galium odoratum.
A useful and vigorous ground cover with scrambling stems that will root where they touch the soil
(or even push their way through the mortar of a brick wall) 


This time last year I was studying planting design on a course based in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. There, I had the enormous pleasure of meeting Tony Kirkham, Kew’s Head of Arboretum, Gardens and Horticulture. Basically, he’s the tree man and his knowledge of, and boundless enthusiasm for, trees has earned him a worldwide reputation, the VMH and, earlier this year, a well-deserved MBE.  You might be more familiar with the name if you watched 'My Passion for Trees', Judi Dench's 2012 tv series where Tony introduced Judi to his favourite tree, a 1500 year old yew tree in a Surrey churchyard. (You Tube clip here.) To my mind, I will always think of him as one of the nicest, funniest and friendliest people I’ve met.

16 Mar 2020

Bursting into life

Bumblebee foraging on purple pansy
Good things in small packages - sitting in the sun this morning, watching this bumblebee forage.

This past week the garden has been a welcome relief from all the doom and gloom of the coronavirus outbreak (currently 22 cases in my home borough of Camden). It’s been really heartening to see plants bursting into life, a good distraction from the scary turmoil in the outside world.

The gardens that I look after here have always provided a place of peace, calm and sanctuary for me - yes, even with slugs, aphids, and foxes - and I’m grateful that I’m able to work outside in the fresh air, listen to birdsong, watch plants grow and think about the seasons ahead. (Especially important as I live in a second floor flat and am otherwise surrounded by bricks, mortar and concrete. Urban living!)

It also feels very relevant to have a space to grow food in these uncertain times and the weather feels warm enough to start sowing.  I’ve started several more trays of micro leaves - lettuce, herbs, salad leaves - on my balcony and this week will sow tomatoes and chillies indoors plus peas, carrots, spinach and more broad beans outside.

Broad beans starting to show white flowers

Speaking of broad beans, the plants that I sowed into modules last November and planted out in December are now flowering! Having never overwintered broad beans before, I don’t know if this is unusual or early thanks to a mild winter, but it’s pretty thrilling. Such are the simple things that please me.

Looking down onto the sprouting centre of purple sprouting broccoli
Ridiculously excited at the sight of those purple buds

A neighbour kindly gave me a couple of brassicas last summer. Unsure of exactly what they were, I thought they would look pretty among the perennials in the car park garden. Turns out that they’re Purple Sprouting Broccoli - quite small as they were probably in modules for too long, but they’re definitely sprouting.

Early white blossom on plum tree
The plum trees are the first to blossom, but the pears are not far behind

As is the blossom on the plum tree.  I noticed this fragile flower as I wandered the garden in a fairly forceful wind; I don’t reckon its chances much but at least there will be more blossom to follow, this time I hope in sunshine. The weather this week looks very promising. (And bumblebees are foraging, see top photo taken this morning. That bee eventually buzzed off towards the plum blossom.)


Paved cul-de-sac after being tidied
It doesn't look much now but watch this space!
And, finally, some good/bad/good news.  Last weekend I cleaned up an unused south facing paved space thinking it would be perfect for growing sun loving veg. The next day I spotted several empty but used Veg Trugs outside a closed down day care centre and was given permission by the owners to take them for my new space.  Hurrah! I thought. But the following day someone had stolen the best ones, leaving only those that had seen much better days. I won’t repeat what I said at the time, suffice to say that my faith in human nature plummeted.



But, undeterred, as is my nature, I contacted Veg Trug. They had already very kindly offered to donate new liners for the abandoned trugs - I explained what had happened and asked whether they would let me have a discount on buying a couple of new Veg Trugs? (I babysit to fund the gardens here.) Within the hour, the answer was yes. And, sometime today, two beautiful new Veg Trugs will be delivered for my new community space.

But that’s not all.  Friends went to collect the remaining old Veg Trugs and their carpenter son has said he’ll replace and rebuild the trugs for me. This is why I love living where I do, the community here can be so supportive and kind. Two very important traits in today’s world.

I hope that story has left you all with some optimism for the times we live in. Safe to say that during this virus pandemic, I am concerned about my family and friends, particularly as they're so far away. So I'm wishing you all good health, staying safe and virus free; remember to wash your hands, take vitamin C, think of the people around you and grow some greens, even if that's just pea shoots in a pot on your doorstep or balcony.

Caro xx

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