Saw a great load of Travelor's Joy wild clematis on a walk today and it's made me want to grow it from seed for it to scramble among hedges in our garden,
The flowers are attractive to pollinators and that's something I always look for in a garden worthy plant I think the flowers are unshowy quite plain and white but I can do subtle it doesn't all have to be blowsy, the seedheads do put on a show though.
Planted all the bulbs that arrived a few days ago except for the tulips (Tulipa batalinii 'Bronze Charm') which are going on the allotment as they always last longer there. I plant them deeply (around a foot), without grit and even on our heavy clay most larger flowered hybrids glower reliably for at least five years, and if we're lucky some varieties such as Tulip 'gorilla' last a decade or more.
The bulbs I actually did plant began with Ipheion 'Jessie' which oddly arrived in the green, I'm not sure if that was deliberate I suspect not but hopefully they'll still flower. I've never grown them before and my combination with crocus may not work but we'll see. Then I planted six Hyacinthus 'Blue Jacket' I try to do some hyacinths every year and hopefully they join some of the ones I'd planted in previous years. They remind me of Easter at infant school when large tables of potted bulbs were on display in the assembly hall filling the whole place with scent, hated school but there are some memories like that I like to revisit and the best way to trigger the strongest memories is through the snozzle. I really enjoyed the school library as well both for the many nature books and the TV. I also planted some white Hyacinthus 'Carnegie' both varieties layered with Crocus vernus 'Flower Record'. Glancing at the website I bought them from I see they're now all out of stock so I'm glad I caught them when they were available. The Hyacinths are for me and the crocuses are for the pollinators, they were popular last Spring.
I put a bird cage over the pots and four big rocks, between the foxes, badgers and squirrels it's a battle but without wildlife the garden loses its main purpose for me. I never saw badgers and foxes here when I was young, and I rarely heard tawny owls but now it's a familiar sound after dark, at a time nature seems to be losing it's good to recognise these successes. The long warm summer was also good for ladybirds and butterflies I saw my first 11 spotted yellow lady bird and my first ever hummingbird hawkmoth on the rose campion (Now Silene coronaria it used to be Lychnis coronaria) grown from seed collected from a neighbour's plot in 2023 I planted it in the flower bed behind the potatoes, I hope it self sows.
Strong breeze with occasional stronger windy gusts but the air feels warm so really nice to be out in it, a few crocus and snowdrops out and leaf buds swelling everywhere. #weather #crocus #snowdrops #fatsia #water
I sowed my chard in summer last year because I'd mislaid the seeds. despite the late start it grew well and I had a few small harvests later in the autumn before the cold weather set in. On the whole the winter that came was fairly mild but we did have two cold snaps withe temperaures were below zero every night for a couple of weeks, it was enough to kill some brassicas and that's quite unusual I've not really known that except during the exceptional winter of 2010. The chard suffered with die back as I'd expected but I decided to cover it with enviromesh (fleece never seems to last on our veg plot it gets damaged by the wet and wind and just creates a mess) this seems to have been enough to get it through the second prolonged cold snap and it's now growing away so hopefully I'll get more harvests in the spring and I'll also sow more and earlier this time. Must get better at successional sowings! #allotment #growyourown #veg #chard #rainbowchard
Sieving one year old leafmould to use in a seed sowing medium, Most of the leaves were oak which I read takes at least two years to break down, apparently not always as most of it is done here in 12 months, great. #compost #allotment #leafmould
