Seeds, trees and weeds

Ty Hen Cottage was in danger of becoming engulfed by seedlings but thankfully the weather warmed up so that my charges could be introduced to the big wide world via the cold frames and greenhouse. I also sold plants at Crug Farm Plant Fair  (and only bought one!) so had some new space.

Rhubarb Victoria, seed sown in March, now potted on.

Everything changes so quickly at this time of the year so that photos I took a week or so ago now seem positively wintry. So many more leaves on everything.

Cheery spring flowers. Short tulips are great in a windy spot.

We were left with various aviaries and converted sheds by the previous owners and Paul has been busy demolishing, renovating and moving them. One of the aviaries has defied our efforts, being of such strong consrtuction that it would be the envy of an ancient civilisation with thousands of slaves at its disposal. So we have now decided to use it as a shelter for our washing and it now  houses a washing line! It is an ugly structure so we shall pretty it up with various rapant climbers!

Renovated shed now chicken house. Notice CCTV just in case anyone has eye on the blackcurrants!!!

I have begun to tackle the patch of ground elder in the front garden, I did try eating some as I weeded but I didnt really like it. We have enough leaves to provide salad for the entire Anglesey population  but decided instead to donate to the recycling centre!

As I write this, it feels aa chilly and breezy as a day in March but the weatherover the last weeks has certainly warmed with potatoes, jerusalem artichokes, shallots, onions, beans, salads, sweet peas, celery, broccoli, oca and mashua (my treasures from seedy penpal!) looking bigger everyday. I am overjoyed that the Astrantia Ruby Cloud is finally germinating after having been in and out of the fridge! I shall celebrate by buying myself an onion hoe later. Our ducks and hens are enjoying the run of the field and have spent some happy days in the spring sunshine. I havent had time to sow  the parsnips so am off outside into the rain to finally get them  going.

Onion Bed,  I need that onion how!

Broad Beans

Mashua on right and Oca on left ready for planting

Whilst I have been busy sowing, planting out and potting on, Paul has been planting trees in the field, to form an additional windbreak. Our willows rods from @poshplants are shooting well. We have also planted many birch and a few poplar... these were saplings aquired so not our first choices but thought we could harvest later if necessary. Paul spent the week at the Centre for Alternative Technology and came back with lots of enthusiasm for more growing projects for the future!

It finally feels like spring!

Garden Destruction

A great deal of my outside gardening activity recently has involved removal of plants and features. So much so that a couple of areas look a bit post apocalyptic. I like conifers... their colours, shapes and smell. I even like the retro 1970's look of a mixed conifer island bed! One sniff of a conifer always takes me back to working in a polytunnel as teenager, striking thousands of cuttings listening to Radio One! 

All this is leading to the fact that I am in the process of destroying two beds of conifers, planted I think with the idea that all the varieties were slow growing 'dwarf' conifers. They are not and as our house is single storey, will be in danger of making a dwarf of our house.
Here is a section of one of the beds before.....

 During.......

 'After' will follow in a few weeks! Still trying to work out what I wll replace them all with?

I have  sown nothing outside or in the coldframes due to the cold weather so the greenhouse, windowsills, propagator and spare room are all brimming with seedlings. Here are a few....

Tomatoes

Chilli plants in the foreground

Rhubarab Victoria, one of the few varities to come true from seed apparently.

Sweet Peas, spring and autumn sowings.

Primula denticulata sown last year

    
  All the veg and flower seedlings are coming through or have been pricked out... just waiting for a milder spell now just like everyone else. A few spring photos from around the house and garden to finish.

 My next round of garden destruction is to rid the garden and paddock of huge clumps of Carex pendula. Out with the pick axe once again!

Bees and Good Advice

Recently I made more fondant in case the bees had eaten down what I made before.

 

The finished result looks rather like a slab of Kendal mint cake in a plastic take away tray!

As it happened, when Paul checked, the last lot  had not been finished! As it was such a freezing day, there was no sign of the bees.

Since then, despite the freezing weather, bees have been flying in the middle of the day and it has made me think about early sources of pollen and nectar to plant... more trees, Erica, more bulbs and early flowering shrubs. With this in mind I bought a Daphne mezereum at the Plant Hunters Fair at Plas Newydd, from the Aberconwy Nursery stall. The alpines were so colourful and all very tempting.

Kittens and hens (and humans!) can be very inquisitive creatures and we are still considering a hedge an fence barrier around the apiary. 

Some good advice given by Alys Fowler I believe was that during this cold spring, better to weed the garden rather than sowing and planting. I have followed this, sticking to all indoor sowing, but the raised beds are all ready and I am fed up with weeding out the ground elder in the front garden so I have been weeding out a few conifers...more later!

Seeds, Bees and Slippers

The bee hives our now in our field and due to the dry weather there was no problem moving the heavy hives into position in the paddock.  Although we have had a heavy frost every morning for the last week, the warmth later on has meant the bees are flying. However, I did make fondant for extra feed this weekend. They are visiting snowdrops, heather and daffodils.

As our house has slate floors throughout which can be a bit hard and cold for no shoes, I am making "Visitors' Slippers". Having boiled a few jumpers in the washing machine to make felt, I am sewing simple mule type slippers in various sizes. My first prototype pair are a bit untidy but the photo shows the general idea. I made mine with three layers of felt for the base but am told that a more waterproof sole can be made from an old yoga mat!

Seed sowing continues. The propagator is jam packed. I love sowing seeds, sieving the compost, using a presser board to firm the compost (or a jam pot lid when sowing in 9cm pots)before carefully placing the seeds and then more sieving. The very best bit is floating the trays and pots in a bowl of water and waiting for the surface of the compost to glisten! Tomatoes have been pricked out and the chillies have just germinated, even the ones from Home Bargains! This weekend, I have sowed chard, leeks, broccoli, beetroot, Nicotiana mutabalis ( a beautiful small flowered variety with marshmallow colours, guess what the variety is called!)  various Primula, Monarda and .....Cotoneaster! The seed was saved  and chilled from a lovely bunch of Christmas greenery my sister gave me! I was delighted when I came to sow the leeks that Carl, my seedy penpal sent last month had included an early and a late variety  'Jaune de Poitou' and 'Bleu de Solaise'. I have only grown Musselburgh before so am looking forward to trying these.

We planted red, white and yellow onion sets as well as shallots today. We decided to cover the bed with floating film as our Catlings are now experiencing the outside world. Freshly  raked raised beds are the ideal spot for their toilette it seems!
Next post will be a bee  gallery!

Seeds and Sunshine

It's impossible not to feel optimistic after a day of blue sky and sunshine in February! Today the propagator was switched on and I sowed chillies, tomatoes, basils,  coriander, Clematis,, Kniphofia and Tagetes. In the greenhouse I sowed extra sweet peas and Rhubarb Victoria as I want lots of plants!

Yesterday, our cockerel Humphrey more than earned his keep by shrieking and crowing so loudly that I ran out  to the paddock expecting to find a fox. Instead I found a stoat with a Silkie bantam in its mouth! I kicked it off and poor Hilda jumped up and ran off, she has a small wound but seems fine and laid an egg this morning. We shall have to see if she goes off lay now, poor thing. I read of the need to plug any small gaps in the hen house as stoats, weasels etc can get in and cause havoc. I shall add a photo of the ducks, a more tranquil scene from today!

We spent all day outside, even eating lunch in the sunshine so there was plenty of opportunity to look at new growth and flowers. I am very pleased with the Helleborus orientalis and daffodils in ground and pots. 'February Gold' is living up to its name. Pruned the roses today, watered all the sweet peas and cold frames and Paul mowed the paddock with our 'new' mower... Given to us and coaxed into life.

Now our Internet is working again, I have been checking out Oca and Mashua cultivation and shall leave planting for a while yet. These tubers are such an exciting part of my Seedy Penpal parcel from Carl Legge. I am so looking forward to eating the harvest and I adore perennial Nastutiums.

Cake and Seeds

Marmalade and Fruit Cake Recipe

Uses up left over dried fruit and last years marmalade

225g whole wheat flour
150g soft brown sugar
150g soft butter
325g mixture of any dried fruit, make up any combination to make the weight
50g of any nuts chopped, I have used almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts
grated zest of a lemon
400gof chunky marmalade
3 teaspoons of baking powder
3 medium eggs

I put I a 7inch square cake tin, greased and base lined. I am sure a round tin of similar size would be fine.
Oven, 170C

Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat everything with an electric whisk. Place the mixture into the greased tin and bake for about an hour and a half. A skewer inserted should come out clean when the cake is ready. It takes longer to cook in my Rayburn, more like 2 hours. If top becomes brown before cake is done, cover top with greaseproof paper.  Cool in tin for half an hour before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.

This week I sent off  a parcel to my seedy Penpal  and received mine from Carl. I had been warned to expect the contents to be all shapes and sizes and what a fantastic assortment arrived! A thyme plant, a just perfect addition to the herb garden and for our bees.The foliage was very fragrant asI unpacked the plant. Tubers of  Oca and Mashua, which I am very keen to try and loads of seeds for interesting edibles, all packed up with a beautiful Llyn sunset card! I am intrigued by Par Cel, a leaf celery that I have not come across before. So, I have a whole lot of new varieties which I can try out in my new garden and shall write of my progress periodically.

A productive weekend

As anyone knows who heats their home and cooks with wood, quite a bit of time is spent on wood related activities! Cutting kindling, stacking logs indoors and wood chopping are frequent Saturday morning activities. The kittens first day outside was made far more interesting by them having a pile of newly split logs to climb over and explore.

We have been concentrating our efforts on the kitchen garden as it is dry under foot and we are keen to get growing again! Derek the Weather on BBC Wales said on Friday that he would eat his hat if it rained on Saturday. Well, he must have had a bit of indigestion on Saturday as we were out gardening in freezing rain and hail. It did pass and we had a few warm minutes in the sunshine!

 One of the first things we discovered when we moved in was that we don't have much soil! When wanting to grow your own fruit and veg this is a bit of  a disadvantage! Fortunately we have been able to use some well rotted compost from the garden and topsoil dug out to make a driveway from a member of Anglesey Freecycle to replenish old raised beds and fill up new ones. I have also been planting some herbs that I have been growing in containers, the Bay having been in containers of ever  increasing sizes for about 5 years. I planted the first of many Rosemary, as it is so good for bees. Unfortunately, we have not moved our bees yet as the land we have been keeping them on is too wet to get on .

I had some leek plants that I had grown in the hope of planting at the end of last summer but ended up bringing them with me and so they have all been planted. I have also begun my cut flower bed with Digitalis Excelsior Hybrids and Snowy Mountain I grew from seed last year planted out at last. They would have been better planted out 5 months ago but I hope the plants are bulky enough to do
their stuff! Last year, as they were visible from the road, I had a photographer stop his car and ask to

take photos of my 'giant foxgloves' I don't think they will be so giant this year! I have acquired 3 varieties of rhubarb and potted them up to bulk up before I get the fruit patch sorted.

One of the good things that happened this week was contact with #seedypenpals.  This is great way to share seeds and make contact with others organised by Carl....  http://www.carllegge.com  . So I am anticipating a package of seeds from @CarlLegge and preparing to send an interesting selection to Danielle in The Netherlands!

We finished off last years marmalade by making a cake and the house has been smelling like Mrs Coopers kitchen as I simmer some Seville oranges for a new batch. Just off to complete the final stages now! More pictures and less text next time, my hands have been muddy most of the weekend so just a few quick snaps when the when the sun was shining!