My Tiny Plot

I love clearing up in Autumn and preparing the garden for winter. There’s something refreshingly final about clearing the ground, digging it over and starting again. My resident robin loves it when I get in clear up mode. He sits and watches me until I’m done and then swoops in for the kill. He normally goes home with a morsel or two in his beak.

However, the thing I love best is sweeping up leaves.  There are so many colours in my garden but I’m not sure why. I only have one tree (an Acer that I have had for about 7 years and it’s only ever grown an inch). All the other leaves are blown in from neighbouring gardens. I don’t mind because they’re all such gorgeous Autumny tones.

I cut down the last of the Runner Beans too and stored the poles until next year (making sure to scrape off all the dirt and bits of vine). I harvested the last of the Runner Bean seeds and stored them in an old tin box in the potting shed ready to plant next year.

I even had time to oil my garden furniture to protect it from the winter frosts, which, says the woman in the florist, are coming this weekend! Bring it on, I say. I shall be inside sat in front of my cosy woodburner reading seed catalogues.

I’ve always wanted my own branded seed trays, just like Monty at Berryfields. But it’s one of those things that you never see for sale in the shops and much less the opportunity to put your own name on it. And even though I did find somewhere online selling traditional seed trays, and also somewhere offering personalised branded trays I felt that they were charging too much to make it really worth while. After all, I am only going to fill it with dirt and leave it in my cold frame all winter!

So, in these cash-strapped times there was only one solution – to make my own. I used part of an old packing box for the tray and bought a stencil and permanent marker. I’m pretty proud of the result. After one season of dirt and moss it will look just as good as the real thing, I’m sure.

I’m always intrigued to see what other people grow in their kitchen gardens. So, when we went to visit my sister-in-law, Kristin, I went straight out into her back garden to inspect her ‘square-foot gardening’. I was amazed (and I must admit slightly jealous) by what she was growing in such a small space. 

Practically, everything Kristin was growing was bigger than the plants I had in the UK. Her corn was nearly 7 or 8 foot high, and her Basil plant was huge and very healthy (we got a bucket-load of leaves from it to make fresh Pesto). She was also growing a ton of Jalapeno peppers that were already fruiting, a Watermelon and lots of Cherry Tomatoes.

I had assumed that since Colorado is so dry that it wouldn’t be the ideal place for growing vegetables. However, it is sunny; over 300 days of sunshine per year. And the bottom line is that you can provide water, but you can’t provide sunshine, especially in the UK where I live. 

For me it’s always touch and go with veg like Sweetcorn, Tomatoes, Melons, Basil and Chili Pepper – will they ripen in time, will they get enough sunshine? In Colorado they certainly don’t have to worry about that.

My pea seedlings are romping away and some of them are even flopping over they are so big. So when I was out walking yesterday and spotted some twiggy branches lying on the ground after a windy night, I took the opportunity to gather my first harvest of pea sticks.

Pea sticks are a must for every avid pea-grower. You push them into the ground around your peas and the tiny seedlings cling to them for support thus keeping your precious harvest off the muddy ground and away from slugs. It’s ingenious really.

Of course you can use netting to support your peas, or even bamboo sticks with string tied around them but pea sticks, au naturel, are my favourite.
If you don’t live near the countryside, or just don’t want to walk around carrying an armful of sticks like a crazy woman then you can always contact the Forestry Commission as they do pea stick gathering days at this time of year.

I created some plant tags today. I’d like to say that the idea is all my own but I shamelessly stole the design from the plant tags that I saw at The Lost Gardens of Heligan when we visited in the summer. I put two coats of heavy duty gloss paint on them to stop them rotting in the ground and then used a waterproof markerpen to write on them. I’m hoping I can reuse them each year – at least that’s the plan. I love the fact that they are wooden and reusable. I try not to use anything plastic in the garden – not necessarily for any environmental reason (although that’s nice too) but it’s more for aesthetic reasons. Sometimes plastic is unavoidable (for instance my temporary coldframe has plastic panels) and of course plastic is cheaper but in my opinion traditional materials sit better with the look of my new garden and I really love the idea of using the same products and materials that say, Victorian kitchen gardeners used. Maybe, I’m missing a trick here – I’d be interested to know what other people think on this.

Before:

After:

The garden is slowly being cleared ready for the landscapers to start on Feb 14th. As you can see we have lifted the patio and all the brick pathways within the beds. We’ve also taken up all the Bath stone that surrounded the pathways, scraped up all the gravel from the larger pathways and removed the wood that made up the major beds. The frog is in shock.

It’s been a lot of hard work and it’s not done yet since we still have to remove all the tree stumps. A task for which we have bought quite possibly the coolest tool ever – a wrecking bar! Not only does it have a super crazy name but is also about 6 feet in length. It makes you want to hold it in a Karate stance while singing ‘Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting’. And I would – if I could lift the thing! I suspect it might be a boy-only tool. Damn it.

But what’s it for? Well it’s the tool of choice for all discerning stump-removalists (apparently) so with at least 5 very averagely sized stumps to remove what else could we do but kit ourselves out with the best that Travis Perkins could offer? No really, we even bought some steel toe-capped boots and everything! Stumps – your days are numbered.

And… just a quick shout out to Freecycle – the best way to remove heavy stuff from your garden without actually lifting a finger. If you don’t have a group for your city then make one. Since clearing the garden we have advertised the stone slabs, concrete slabs, bricks, Bath stone and the bench. All have been claimed and most have been removed. Freecycle rocks!

A quick update on the plans for the garden. We had a quote from a couple of different landscapers and we decided to go with the nice chap who runs Littlescapes. We were very impressed with his work ethic, friendliness and all round dedication to the job. Plus he insisted on coming over to meet us face to face before he would give us a quote. Which made us feel special!

However, his quote was a little bit over and above what we had budgeted for. His quote was nearer to £10,000 and frankly we needed it to be nearer £6000. We did think about postponing the garden work until we could afford it but the thought of one season without anywhere to grow any veg made me feel sick. Plus we had systematically been burning bits of the garden for the last few months in anticipation of the new garden. We had already passed the point of no return. So we decided to knock a few items off the wishlist to bring the cost down. Henceforth, we will be doing without the following: waterfeature (always the first to go), lighting and electricity, cold frame (ouch), compost bins (again ouch), soil preparation plus plants and planting.

What’s left? I hear you ask. Hmm well… obviously the garden still needs clearing and some old stumps need removing. We’ll be doing that ourselves – well when I say we I actually mean Ryan. He’s already started on that – photographic evidence above. Littlescapes will be taking care of leveling the garden which is no small task, preparing the ground for drainage, laying all the pathways, making all the beds, and pruning and shaping plants and shrubs that are left.

Basically, they are doing the hard landscaping which will leave us a framework to work with. We’ll be doing the soil preparation and planting and Ryan will be building the compost bins (that’s my man). I’m still hoping to squeeze my brick-built coldframe in right at the last minute, but only if we can live on Macaroni Cheese between now and then.

As part of the redesign of my garden I have been busy researching which varieties of fruit trees I should plant. One of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make is which apple varieties to go for. Apple’s are split into pollination groups. A group is made up of those trees that flower at the same time and therefore can transfer pollen to each other. So it’s imperative that you choose two varieties from the same group.

If only it was this simple then everything would be fine. However, some varieties in each group are either self-fertile or are what’s known as Triploid (ie they produce pollen but are unable to pollinate other trees). If you choose a Triploid variety (like Blenheim Orange, Bramley’s Seedling, or Jonagold), you effectively have to ensure that you have three trees in all, the Triploid, its pollinator and another tree to pollinate the pollinator. Complex huh?

Another consideration is how damp your conditions are. Apple trees don’t take kindly to sitting in wet conditions and there are a few varieties that will not tolerate damp and cold, – one of these being the very popular Cox’s Orange Pippin. So you need to avoid those if you live anywhere that’s not very mild.

Yet another consideration is whether the tree is a tip-bearer (bears its fruit on the tips of branches) or a spur-bearer (bears its fruit along the side of each branch). The first is fine for and orchard situation but if you want ornamental trees you need to choose spur-bearers.

One more consideration (stay with me, we’re nearly there) is whether the tree bears fruit yearly or biennially. If you choose two trees that are Biennial then you could be in trouble if they both flower in different years. Add to that the choice of whether you will be growing eating apples or cooking apples and you have one complex decision to make.

So after around 3 weeks of research, finally I have made my decision. I’ll be going for:

• Discovery: A well-flavoured, crisp early apple with a long shelf life. Bears heavy, regular crops. The skin is bright crimson and the blossom is very frost tolerant. Suitable for growing nationwide. Eating apple. Pollination group B.
• Greensleeves: A midseason crisp, green apple. Hardy and reliable with good disease resistance. Crops heavily and is suitable for growing countrywide. Self-fertile. Eating apple. Pollination group B

You might have noticed that Greensleeves is self-fertile. This is okay because Greensleeves will pollinate Discovery but Discovery doesn’t necessarily need to pollinate Greensleeves. This should ensure that Greensleeves will always crop.

I’ve found the RHS Fruit & Vegetable Gardening book invaluable in helping me make my decisions.

Anyone else thinking about buying apple trees? Which varieties did you go for and why?

I was recently photographed (and soon to be interviewed) for a forthcoming feature in the Mail on Sunday entitled ‘Digging Life into your Soil’. At first I thought – well, how much can be said on the subject of digging? But then when I thought about it I realised that not only is there much to be said, but it’s also one of the most important points in any vegetable garden. I also found, to my horror, that I hadn’t really touched on the subject here at mtp. Surely a travesty. The only reference I could find was this short post on ‘Bastard Trenching’.
I know everyone has a different digging regime but here at mtp it usually goes a little like this. Around, September time when a few beds start to be emptied I throw in some green manure seeds. I usually go for something quick like Mustard (I’ve heard so many scary stories about how other manures are difficult to get rid of). I give it about two or three weeks then I dig it in, chopping it as I go. This usually leaves some green matter on the surface which I cover with a layer of either manure or compost. In a few weeks the whole lot will have disappeared below ground – thanks to the worms.
Bastard Trenching seems to be a great way to prepare any bed used for cutting flowers. Layering the manure under a spit of soil forces me to cultivate the soil quite deeply and means that the goodness is securely locked underground waiting for Spring.
On the rest of the plot I alternate between digging in manure, or compost depending on what I plan to grow in each bed. I usually don’t dig in lime until the Spring as there’s less chance it will be washed away in the rains. We have two wood fires at home and so produce a lot of wood ash. If there is room I add this to the compost bin. However, in mid winter when the composting really slows down I either throw the ash on the ground where I plan to grown onions or I start a wood ash pile, or collect it in a bucket.
One of the soil cultivation methods that I haven’t tried is the ‘no dig’ method. At this time of year, I’m so eager to get out there and ‘do’ something in the garden (anything!) that I can’t resist digging. Maybe when I’m older and find digging difficult then I will adopt this method. But until then I am totally addicted to digging. .
So, don’t forget if you see a photo of a pregnant woman digging and smiling like an idiot, while trying not to stick her bum out at an awkward angle – don’t choke on your cereal – it’s just me.
Oh and I’d love to hear about your digging regimes.

The days after Christmas are a great time for getting your affairs in order. You have some time off and hopefully you’re swimming in new gardening books, and bursting with ideas about the new season. I’ve been using this time to finish off my garden diary which I have been writing for the past year. I started it in January 2007 and it’s just about finished. I have been recording everything that I sow, plant, or prune in the garden and the week of the year that I do it in. When certain plants don’t germinate or they are sown too early I have crossed them out. Today I have been transferring the data to a new notebook since the old one fell apart because I left it out in the rain one day. Now that I have a complete year of information I can start to fine tune it into a very useful list of ‘to dos’. Yes I know there are books out there that I can use to do the same thing but this is done week by week and applies to my garden, in my location, with my weather systems and includes only veg that I like. Basically, it’s all about me!