Spring restlessness

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

It is all very well for those who live in Cornwall to give you the sound advice about waiting until April to sow hardy annuals if you live further north (I am talking to you Mr Higgledy).  For me living in chillier Oxford, there is too strong a longing to get everything started  to resist opening up my annual seed packets in earlier March. So on my windowsills and cold frames are a mixture of the sturdy and the leggy – the latter living proof of the soundness of the advice.

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Leggy cosmos purity

Maybe potting on up to their seed leaves will sort things out. Even if they do have to be composted, the hope they gave emerging from compost is probably worth the sacrifice.

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Less leggy seedlings growing on fine

No time for sowing, plotting or planting today, but tomorrow is set aside for digging new beds at the plot. Also for ordering seeds from Derry Watkins from SpecialPlants which I have visited on various (always sunny) days. Have made a start and my basket is pretty full already (and I am only on the page for C) so perhaps some cool prioritising tomorrow is needed. Looking at the unusual range of choices on her website, makes me rethink my decision to just sell flowers because there is a lot of pleasure to be had sowing and growing on new and beautiful plants.

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Planting on the Plot

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

A chill returned this weekend but my perennials growing in pots had been hardening off out of the cold greenhouse and on the plot itself. The knautia looked very cheerfully stocky and the strong white roots were creeping gently out of their pots so decided to get them in the ground in the almost weed free soil of the second bed. Added pea shingle to help drainage and peat free compost on the top. The seeds were from Higgledy Garden and the plants promise to be different shades of pink. Last year’s flowers from the garden looked wavy and wiry and wildish in my experimental bundles of flowers at the market.

The plant left over with its slightly weather beaten outer leaves will go in the garden at home.

Bit battered but healthy knautia

Bit battered but healthy knautia

Looking at the two planted up beds at the plot, it was reassuring to realise that the planting had all been done at home from seed and that the sweet rocket, achillea, cornflowers and direct sown larkspur had not needed much outlay, though sowing, pricking out and potting on over months did take time.

The emerging tulips on the other hand are a different story.

Cosmos Dazzler growing steadily on cool windowsill

Cosmos Dazzler growing steadily on cool windowsill

Windowsill seeds at home making good progress, but looking forward to when it is warm enough for some direct sowing.

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Learning how to make posies

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot
Beautiful British flowers arranged by a beginner at CommonFarmFlowers

Beautiful British flowers
arranged by a beginner (me) at CommonFarmFlowers

Up early to head off to Somerset with flower friend to learn how to make a hand tied bouquet and jam jar posies at CommonFarmFlowers with Georgie Newbery. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was there to learn about flower farming. That was a full day’s intensive course packed with useful advice and was excellent. Today’s course was just a few hours long and more leisurely, but still full of things to learn and excellent too.

Growing flowers and learning about how to do it is hugely exciting for me and the more I learn the happier it makes me feel. Arranging them? Not so much…

But I want to grow flowers to sell at my local farmers markets and don’t think I can just rely on the kind help of my confident and artistic friends. Previous courses and attempts have not helped. Tangled up in stems, I have become even grumpier than usual.

Today, after Georgie’s clear and accessible demonstration of how to do a hand tied bunch I had a surge of optimism that this time it was going to be different. Then it was time to begin and blank anxiety set in for just more than a moment. Everyone was jolly and Georgie was encouraging and so I decided just to get on with it. My bunch turned out to look like a bunch of beautiful flowers.

Lots of lovely flowers to take home

Lots of lovely flowers to take home

Though not as aesthetically lovely as some others it is looking natural, fresh and bright on my kitchen table.

On kitchen table

On kitchen table

We also learned how to make jam pot posies with the lovely flowers which were left over and these miniature bunches were just as beautiful and, as I was working on a smaller scale, less daunting.

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Now I just need the flowers to get growing, though I can’t imagine they will be as perfect as these.

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Growing steadily for the Plot

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

Sometimes it seems to me as if it will be October before there are any flowers ready to cut and sell. Until recently, the pots planted up with tulips were stubbornly just showing soil and the seedlings seemed to be frozen at a very early stages of development, but today, although not very warm, most things seem to have nudged on nicely.

The tulip beaks are pushing towards the light and seem to have grown an inch since yesterday.

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Tulips emerging

While the ammi majus  seedlings look cheerful both inside and outside of the cold frame.

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All the seeds planted last weekend have germinated and the windowsills and cold frames are getting fuller and fuller.

Tomorrow off on a jaunt with my friend and farmers market partner  for a Mother’s Day treat – learning how to make a hand tied bouquet with Georgie Newbery at CommonFarmFlowers so that when my flowers do finally bloom I will know what to do with them.

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Balancing work and plot

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

Thankfully today was grey and damp so that I couldn’t be so easily seduced from the piles of proper job work I needed to finish before tomorrow. This work can a pleasure in itself, but not as immediately attractive as being outside and making progress at the plot (or neglected allotment).

So lots of bargains were made with myself as the day progressed: early morning clear up at allotment had to be followed by essay marking. Another portion of indoor work was completed before mooching off to pot on penstemon and mint.

White penstemon home sown and ready to be planted at the plot

White penstemon home sown and ready to be planted at the plot

 

 

One chocolate mint hopefully turning into 5

One chocolate mint hopefully turning into five

Once the light has gone, the magnet to resist is House of Cards …

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Seeds, butterflies and bumblebees

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

A beautiful day for planting seeds under cover and pottering around outside in the sunshine pricking out cosmos seeds and potting on moth mullein. There were yellow butterflies floating across the garden and fat bumblebees enjoying the flowers on the winter honeysuckle.

Moth mullein just potted on

Moth mullein just potted on

Noticeable growth and progress from last weekend with tiny blue clary seedlings inside poking through the compost from the sowing last Sunday. They are one of my favourite flowers for cutting and last year kept going and going until self seeding in Autumn.

Salvia seedlings sown last sunday

Salvia seedlings sown last sunday

 

Cosmos Dazzler pricked out into small pots

Today, I am going to put into action another one of the sensible pieces of advice from Georgie Newbery’s flower farming course which is to only use fresh seed. A few weeks ago mentioned sowing old packets of seed – very few of them actually germinated while some of the fresh seed was up in just a few days and all the fresh seed germinated after a week or so. It is definitely a waste of time doing my twice daily check on seed germination to gaze at lifeless compost which disappointingly doesn’t produce anything very much. So there is going to be a fresh start and a ruthless purge – apart from my tomato seeds which seem to last forever.

Tempted to plant out some of my plants at the plot today as they have weathered winter outside and seem quite hardy, but the soil seemed so wet and cold last weekend it seems a bit harsh . Perhaps with a blanket of fleece.

Meanwhile, still sunny and lots more seeds to plant.

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Emerging at the plot

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

Windy but surprisingly sunny today and time to look more closely at the plot. Too wet to dig, but started on a third bed by the gate by removing large perennial weeds and putting a thick layer of  peat free compost on top. When the soil dries up a little, hoping this can be the sunny spot for my sweet peas.

The start of the third bed

The start of the third bed

No obvious sign of tulips in the second bed, but very close to soil peering revealed an emerging tip.

The barely visible tip of a tulip!

The barely visible tip of a tulip!

The bees neighbouring the plot seemed busy near their hives and the catkins bordering the plot looked brown and golden in the sunlight.

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Still too muddy to do any direct sowing, but as last week indoor sowings have germinated will do some more for windowsills at home.

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Flower Farming Workshop with Georgie Newbery

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

Even getting miserably lost in the dark on the way home, didn’t make me feel any less enthusiastic about the excellent course with Geogie Newbery in Somerset. Just after getting my plot, I had come across her book, ‘The Flower Farmer’s Year’ and read it from cover to cover almost immediately. The voice in her book is confident, hugely knowledgeable and above all generous and it was lovely to realise as soon as I arrived that she was going to be like this in person.

We met inside the space of her airy and  beautiful converted barn, snug with the heat from a wood burning stove. The first treats were delicious homemade biscuits and packets of Higgledy Garden seeds to take home on the course notes. Satisfyingly, though I order from Higgledy, most were seeds I haven’t got.

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The other course members came from all parts of the country – one even from Glasgow. Everyone had land or the opportunity to get some – my plot being by far the smallest. As the day went on definite strategies and approaches emerged for everyone with clear, detailed and straightforward advice from Georgie.

Everything about this day was perfect for me from the genuine excitement of learning new things to the sensible advice about planning and strategy. And the lunch, wine and flapjacks were all delicious! I left feeling that the development of my plot is manageable if I plan. That sowing seeds little, often and regularly is what I will do from now on. Among all the new things,  I even learned that I can sacrifice some of my many achillea plants at the feet of my sweet peas to attract pests away from my sweet pea crop.

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A fantastic course if you can get to one – do it.

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Sowing Seeds

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

A grey day and the rain came earlier than expected, but kitchen table planting of flowers for the plot and tomatoes for the allotment made it seem brighter. Sorting packets of seeds earlier this week, on another wet day, found packets which are years and years old. My store has a range of Sarah Raven seeds from the almost historic to the most recent on offer from the local garden centre. Have decided to give all my old packets of seed a chance, just to see whether any can be stirred into life.

Seeds old and new

Seeds old and new

So into small seed trays were sown: Antirrihnums, (Night and Day & Scarlet); Cosmos (Purity & Dazzler); the grass Panicum ‘Frosted Explosion’ and Gardener’s Delight tomatoes.

With half term almost over,  the plot’s progress will definitely be erratic as it’s back to work tomorrow, but before it comes might be able to squeeze in some more sowing of salvia clary, sungold tomatoes and verbena …

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Planning the Plot (continued)

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

So we turned down the muddy path and made ourselves as waterproof as possible before walking across to the plot. Inside the fence, water gathered in pools on the black paths and the soil in the beds looked pitted and rain drenched. My flower friend looked around silently and I thought perhaps a bit dismayed – this plot does look bigger in real life.

Then she snapped back into characteristic, energetic life and measured beds with strides across the mud (7 in total we think) and asked if I had a compass. The idea of where to get a compass was baffling. As was trying to work out where was east and west, north and south in the deluge of a downpour. We gave up on that for another day. It was chastening for me to realise that my haphazardness was definitely not going to be granted much room to roam. This is a new feeling and quite bracing too.

Soon after in the pub, other new ideas were suggested: a management plan for the plot, working out the tasks and time needed. What, no planting of a hundred seeds and working out what to do with them when they all germinated? No wishful thinking about digging all the beds by Spring? Order and realism is being applied to potential chaos. After the initial surprise, could feel the warmth of gentle optimism as actually developing this plot seems achievable.

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