My Tiny Plot

I usually throw my coffee grounds in with the kitchen waste and they eventually end up in the compost bin. Yesterday, however, after I’d made my morning coffee I looked at the grounds and thought, I know, I’ll put them on my Blueberries.

Why? well mostly because they make the soil look all black and neat like new compost, but also because I understood that coffee grounds, being acidic, would make a lovely mulch for my acid-loving Blueberries. Makes sense huh?

I mentioned this on Twitter and got a reply that said when you make the coffee (ie run water through the grounds) that all of the acid is washed away. I’m not a coffee ground expert and I haven’t done said experiments myself so I turned to Google to show me the way.

It seems there is some confusion in the matter. Some sites say that grounds are virtually neutral by the time they hit the ground making them nothing better than a good mulch and worm fodder. Other sites insist that these tests were flawed and that coffee grounds are indeed acidic.

Well, I for one, am confused. Should I be wandering around the garden in my slippers at 8am on a Saturday morning with a pot of used coffee grounds in my hand or should I just chuck em in the kitchen compost as usual.

I’m thinking if they are acidic then the Blueberries are loving it. And if they’re not then the worms are loving it instead and the Blueberries are like, “it’s about time the worms got something, they have a hell of time of it.” But I can’t really say either way.

And… who knew that coffee grounds could be so useful outside the garden?

Tags: acid-loving, Blueberries, coffee grounds

Do your Autumn-fruiting Raspberry canes look like this? Then it’s time to prune them. There’s not a moment to lose.

I don’t want to create panic or anything but this really is the time to prune Raspberries if you want a nice big Autumn crop. If you leave it any longer then the plant will start to put more and more energy into the existing canes when what you actually want is the plant to put its energy into this year’s growth, which will subsequently fruit.

I know that you can leave Autumn Raspberries unpruned and they will crop on the existing canes, just a little earlier. But isn’t that what Summer Raspberries do? Besides, I love my Autumn Raspberries.

Gorgeous handfuls of plump Raspberries in late August, September and October, you can’t beat it. My little boy couldn’t eat them fast enough! I pruned at this time last year and got a bumper crop so I’m doing it again.

And don’t forget the plants wouldn’t mind a nice mulch at this time of year too, rotted manure, home-made compost or wood chippings will do. Happy pruning!

Tags: Autumn Raspberries, Pruning

Quite a few people have been asking me about my reference to Percy Thrower, and that fact that I use his book ‘In Your Garden’ as my sowing and planting bible. So I though I would make a post dedicated to Percy. The book is old! It was first printed in 1959 but I think the impression I have was printed in 1960. Nothing like some up-to-date, cutting edge gardening data eh?

The reason I like it so much is that it breaks up the year into months and then into weeks. Most books will tell you what to sow in what month according to where you live. But this one tells you what to plant this week. It’s brilliant! Of course, he is a little part of childhood too, being the Blue Peter gardener on TV in the 80s.

So for example, here’s an extract from January (fourth week).

“As soon as the Brussels Sprouts have been gathered, the stalks should be cleared from the ground unless there is a shortage of Purple Sprouting Broccoli or Kale in which case a few Brussels Sprouts may be left to produce young shoots for gathering later on.

Herbs such as Sage and Thyme can be replanted and large clumps can be pulled apart into small pieces with roots attached. The bushes can be cut down to within 9 inches of the ground and plenty of young shoots will grow up from the base…”

But, being a gardener in the 60s he also recommends spraying your crops with all kinds of nasties, poisoning the mice that eat your Pea seeds and dusting Turnips with DDT to kill flea beetle! Ho-hum you can’t have everything can you?

What I especially like are the black and white photos that have been hand finished in pencil. Why, I’m not quite sure but someone has taken a lot of time making these photos into a kind of eerie half reality that I just love.

The sad thing is I think it’s out of print. The only books I can find on Amazon are second hand or from collectors. I’m not sure you can buy it new anymore.

So that’s my gardening bible. I read other books, of course, but I always go back to see what Percy’s up to this week. It’s like an addiction I have.

What’s your gardening bible?

Tags: gardening books

I’ve cleared out my seed box, cleaned it out and put everything back sorted into which month they need to be sown in. It feels good to be this organised at the beginning of the seed sowing season.

It’s pretty difficult to put seeds into the months they are sown in because most seeds have a period of a few months where they ‘can’ be sown. If you sow them at the beginning of that period then you’ll get an early crop, if you sow them at the end then you’ll get a late crop. What I decided to do is to put the seeds in the month that they can be sown in first. Then if I want to sow them successionally I will move them to the month after once I have sown them.

This works fine for most things except seeds that need to be sown more often than every month - example Lettuce, Radish and other quick maturing crops. These I put into a separate compartment for seeds that are sown virtually all summer at fortnightly intervals. And I just dip in and out of that one.

It would be brilliant if growing vegetables were more simple than this, but unfortunately it’s not. What to sow when was the one thing that I struggled with for probably the first two or three years of growing. And still the only way I can feel truly in control is to constantly check sowing times and reorganise my seeds yet again!

Tags: seed box

The ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ Photo Mission is over and it’s time to choose the winner. The quality of photos this time was AMAZING. I was truly wowed by some of the photos. You guys are good! But after some deliberation I chose the photo above, of some snow covered Kale, as the winner. It’s by Lisa over at Pot & Box who walks away with 10 (not 9 but 10) boxes of the brand new Figo frame system. Provided by our friends at Bau Outdoors. Well done Lisa!

The other entries were just as lovely though. Like this beautiful photo of snow settled on a tree by Emma Bartram. Sublime.

A close contender for the prize was this gorgeous photo of a frozen seed head by Liz Early. Precious.

Stephanie from Narrative Self has been busy with the two photos above. The first one is a photo of her overwintering Onions covered in snow and the second is of her shivering Leeks. Both lovely photos.

And of course Toby Bunting’s entry made me laugh as I did specify a photo of some ‘frozen veg’. Ha ha, very funny Toby, but ‘no soup for you!’ as my husband would say.

Well done to all. And watch out for February’s Photo Mission with another, very cool prize.

Tags: cold, photo mission, snow

My Dad is always nagging me to feed the birds. I’ve always resisted because, well, enticing the poor little mites into the garden with the promise of food only for them to be then hunted down and eaten by my evil house pets is not my idea of benevolence. But… it is snowing and they do look terribly hungry and a little bit bored too. So I thought, let’s help the little chaps out.

So I decided to look online for an easy-to-make-at-home bird feeder. I found a recipe, and it erm… required the following: Lard, Suet and bird seed. Well I have the bird seed but since I don’t live in the 1940s I’m all out of LARD! Who the heck has lard in their cupboard anymore - people who are on a ‘die quickly’ regime? Anyway, let’s not get this out of perspective.

Another one required a pine cone that you smear with peanut butter and then stick seed to. A-ha! now we’re talking. I didn’t haven’t a pine cone (don’t get me started on that one too) but I did have, wait for it… an Apple!

So I made some holes in the Apple, put a string through it. Smeared it with peanut butter and…

rolled it in bird seed. Well it looked good. Whether the birds will appreciate it remains to be seen.

Tags: bird feeder

At the risk of sounding repetitive mtp has been deluged with more snow! And for the benefit of our friends outside the UK I know it’s just snow and yes I’m getting a bit too excited about it. But honestly, it’s not normal. Not round these parts anyway. I took some photos of the Winter wonderland. The birds have given up the ghost and gone back to bed. Quite right, good idea!

Tags: more snow

It’s time to start thinking about buying some seed. I spend weeks researching which vegetables and which varieties I will grow. Most of my decisions are made based on what I’m into eating at the moment. But I always leave room to try out new vegetables that I’ve never grown before.

Because my tiny plot is, well, so tiny. There are tons of fruit and vegetables that I’ve never grown before. Some because I just don’t like to eat them - Celery, Celeriac, Chicory - not really sure why they all begin with C…hmmm.

And some because I’ve not had the right equipment or the space. So with that in mind I’m homing in on some new veg that I’d like to have a go at.

• Seakale (Angers) - ever since I saw it featured on The Victorian Kitchen I’ve always been fascinated by what it would actually taste like.
• Melon (Sivan) - because now I have a huge coldframe I finally have the space to grow one!
• Borlotti Bean (Supremo) - I’ve never grown beans for drying and the red pods will look so good in my garden.
• Tayberry (Buckingham Thornless) - When I saw a Tayberry trained into a fan at Heligan a couple of years ago I’ve always wanted one. Now I just need to find a bit of wall to train it on.

That’s it for now. I’m sure I will think of more before the seed order goes in. I always do.

Tags: Borlotti, Melon, Seakale, Tayberry

Ooooh baby, it’s cold outside. We’re having one of the coldest spells we’ve ever had here, with hard frosts at night and lots and lots of snow keeping the landscape looking more wintry than ever. Ahhh just what I like.

It’s time to don your bob-hat and brave the cold because it’s photo mission time again!

We’ve got a fab prize waiting for the winner and so it’s any excuse to get out there and snap your freezing veg. That’s right, this mission is all about photographing your veg patch in the grip of Winter. Whether it’s frozen Broccoli, snow-capped Sprouts or icicles on your Leeks, photograph it and send it in to gill@carsonified.com.

Here’s some photos I took earlier to get you started. The top photo is mtp after the recent snows. Then my Box hedging - brrrr! The next one down is my Broccoli braving the frosts, the next one is of my Leeks huddling together for warmth.

Take the best photo and you could win 10 (yes that’s 10) boxes of the hottest, newest, brilliantest invention the veg gardening world may have ever seen - Figo. It’s a neat connector that let’s you build your own frames with just normal garden canes. It’s fast and cheap to build things like bean wigwams, netting frames for Brassicas and even fruit cages.

Our friends at Bau Outdoors and Figo have kindly supplied the prize and the competition is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. The closing date is next Friday, 15th Jan. Good luck!

Tags: figo, photo mission

So I’m all like…

In my opinion there’s nothing better than snuggling up with a seed catalogue when it’s snowing outside! Okay there is one thing better, snuggling up with a seed catalogue and a glass of wine. But it’s only 2pm after all! What’s your favourite thing to do when the ground is too frozen to dig? And… what’s your favourite seed catalogue? Mine is Marshalls - they do do a nice layout.

Tags: snow