In the garden
Feb. 29th, 2012 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
supermouseToday was a lovely warm spring day with occasional sunshine and dry all day. I have a shocking cold, but it wasn't so bad earlier so I went out and sorted out my plants.
On the 14th January I sowed seeds of catnip, woundwort, comfrey, sweet peas ('Old Spice' mixed), leeks (White Star Autumn Mammoth), spring onions (White Lisbon) and rocket salad (cultivated type).
Of fifteen rocket salad seeds planted (seven months too early to be really successful apparently), 15 have come up. They were transplanted last week to a seed tray full of compost for cut-and-come-again, and are alive and well today, growing their true leaves. Apparently rocket salad quite often do very well when little and suddenly fall over dead, so we'll see. At this time of year they will also be more prone to pests, yay!
The leeks were planted far too early and will all die, but of the 24 seeds sown, 16 have survived long enough to be planted outside to die there.
The sweet peas got too cold and too wet and succumbed to mould, so of 18 seeds, only 12 made it into the ground outside, underneath the dead bush by the decking. The birds love that dead bush, so I am loathe to root it up just yet. It can be a trellis and feeding station for this year. The sweet peas are useful for adding nitrogen to the soil as well as smelling nice and looking pretty. I do actually expect most of the sweet peas to live to flower.
The spring onions were planted at the right time of year and should have been fine, but I think they disliked the three days they were deep frozen. Of twelve seeds, five seedlings remain alive for now, in a trough in the greenhouse. I have more seeds I planted on Friday which may do better.
Two catnip plants are just showing. There is no sign of the woundwort or comfrey. I have more comfrey seeds to sow much later in the year when it might do rather better.
I also dug up all the stinging nettles that were growing by the rhubarb, and have put it all into a lovely blue pot, with compost in the bottom and the same earth it was already in surrounding the roots. Stinging nettles, if wilted over flame, make a nice spring salad snack. They're also a boon to wildlife. The roots yield a yellow dye and the stems can be retted and woven into cloth. I expect the nettles to do very well, but the sheer act of trying to cultivate them might send them into a decline.
I also transplanted some chickweed seedlings out of the way of my sweet peas - chickweed is a very pretty salad herb, with a fairly pleasant greenish nothing-taste and pretty white flowers. I'll mostly be leaving it in place to grow as a green manure and occasional snack. The chickweed I haven't touched at all should do well.
On Friday, I planted out grown parsley from pots, and the bulbs of freesias and asiatic lilies. The last two plants are not edible and have no use in a vegetable garden, but I like them. Nearly everything else I am planting has a purpose - as food, to deter pests or to attract bees and wildlife.
I learned that if I want bee-friendly garden flowers, I have to grow varieties with single flowers rather than double. Bees get confused by double-blooms and can't get nectar, so they waste a lot of energy looking, then go hungry. Bees are in so much trouble already that I'll make sure my blooms are all single-flower only.
On the 14th January I sowed seeds of catnip, woundwort, comfrey, sweet peas ('Old Spice' mixed), leeks (White Star Autumn Mammoth), spring onions (White Lisbon) and rocket salad (cultivated type).
Of fifteen rocket salad seeds planted (seven months too early to be really successful apparently), 15 have come up. They were transplanted last week to a seed tray full of compost for cut-and-come-again, and are alive and well today, growing their true leaves. Apparently rocket salad quite often do very well when little and suddenly fall over dead, so we'll see. At this time of year they will also be more prone to pests, yay!
The leeks were planted far too early and will all die, but of the 24 seeds sown, 16 have survived long enough to be planted outside to die there.
The sweet peas got too cold and too wet and succumbed to mould, so of 18 seeds, only 12 made it into the ground outside, underneath the dead bush by the decking. The birds love that dead bush, so I am loathe to root it up just yet. It can be a trellis and feeding station for this year. The sweet peas are useful for adding nitrogen to the soil as well as smelling nice and looking pretty. I do actually expect most of the sweet peas to live to flower.
The spring onions were planted at the right time of year and should have been fine, but I think they disliked the three days they were deep frozen. Of twelve seeds, five seedlings remain alive for now, in a trough in the greenhouse. I have more seeds I planted on Friday which may do better.
Two catnip plants are just showing. There is no sign of the woundwort or comfrey. I have more comfrey seeds to sow much later in the year when it might do rather better.
I also dug up all the stinging nettles that were growing by the rhubarb, and have put it all into a lovely blue pot, with compost in the bottom and the same earth it was already in surrounding the roots. Stinging nettles, if wilted over flame, make a nice spring salad snack. They're also a boon to wildlife. The roots yield a yellow dye and the stems can be retted and woven into cloth. I expect the nettles to do very well, but the sheer act of trying to cultivate them might send them into a decline.
I also transplanted some chickweed seedlings out of the way of my sweet peas - chickweed is a very pretty salad herb, with a fairly pleasant greenish nothing-taste and pretty white flowers. I'll mostly be leaving it in place to grow as a green manure and occasional snack. The chickweed I haven't touched at all should do well.
On Friday, I planted out grown parsley from pots, and the bulbs of freesias and asiatic lilies. The last two plants are not edible and have no use in a vegetable garden, but I like them. Nearly everything else I am planting has a purpose - as food, to deter pests or to attract bees and wildlife.
I learned that if I want bee-friendly garden flowers, I have to grow varieties with single flowers rather than double. Bees get confused by double-blooms and can't get nectar, so they waste a lot of energy looking, then go hungry. Bees are in so much trouble already that I'll make sure my blooms are all single-flower only.
