Thursday 9 April 2009

What's growing?

With the Spring sunshine rapidly encouraging growth, I thought I'd give a quick run down of all the happenings currently flourishing on the plot.

The daffodils we didn't know we had -
almost lost their lives to the lawnmower! When they have finished flowering I will dig them up and move them somewhere more suitable.

All four apple trees survived the winter and have lovely healthy new growth. I suspect the stable muck and top mulch may have helped them through the current dry spell we are experiencing.

Comfrey -
one day this will be a lush patch of leaves that can be cut and covered in water to make a liquid feed. So far they too have survived the winter and the heavy foot of Mr Laws! Bees love the flowers too!

The redcurrant -
a birthday present from Nick and David. It lives - which makes me happy. And look - the strawbs can be seen in the distance and are starting to look better from a weeding and a top mulch of spent mushroom compost.

Hyssop -
another great favourite of bees - and butterflies too! Medicinally can be used to soothe coughs and catarrh which is great news for me and even better news for Andrew! I've been watching 'Grow your own drugs' - I reckon I could turn my hand to to a bit of herbal alchemy!
These plants may will be moved somewhere else eventually and replaced with the taller Anise hyssop, which I have yet to raise and is on my mental list of plants to grow.

The geranium collection (relatives of the wild meadow crane's-bill) -
with all the change occurring on the home patch these have been re-homed here so I can still enjoy them as my most favourite garden plant. The space at home I can then use to grow the tender high maintenance or regular use stuff such as salad leaves, tomatoes, peppers and aubergines etc.

Garlic -
we use a lot of this so I'm pleased it's looking this good. There is some yellowing of the leaf tips which generally means the soil is lacking in nitrogen - (hardly surprising with a previous crop of grass) but over time, adding lots of soil improver's - compost, muck and mulch I'm sure it will get better. However, the onion family are not huge fans of a freshly fed patch. All the books tell you they prefer poorer soil but well drained - great on our sandy loam - not so great on clay.

Ah yes - and the wall. This is growing well too. Soon, I will have a fortRESS - but it will be pretty and green and not look like the trenches of the first world war .
More on the wall another time.......

Other stuff in the ground that should be growing are the spuds - except the Maris Piper's - (still frantically preparing a patch for them), onion sets - (there is some life here), shallots and the raspberries. I'm a little worried about those. I wonder if I buried them too deep or whether the mulch is too thick - I may have to prod around to see what I can find - sigh.

Mostly, it's all good though - I have many an idea spewing forth from my tiny noggin and splattering all over our little piece of land in a free styling, organic kind of way.

What is developing - is something quite unique.......

1 comment:

Nick said...

Glad to see that the redcurrant lives!

We finally got the spuds you gave us planted.....plus a few Anya which Mum gave us.

Yay to veggie growing fun! Next up is sweetcorn!

Nick