Finally!

Finally after what seems like ruddy forever I managed to get some gardening done - in between wind and rain storms.
When I say "gardening" what I actually mean and what would be nearer to the truth is that I managed to sow some seeds. Yep, that's the extent of my "gardening" and all 10 mins of it were carried out undercover in the polytunnel.
Hardly enough to call "gardening" I know but those 10 mins felt bloomin good, sowing seeds in the middle of winter somehow makes you believe that Spring may just be around the corner.
So what could I be sowing in the depths of winter?
Well, I was out shopping the other day, one of the few times I actually leave the sanctity of my home and land and once again I passed the Phormium Tenax that are growing like triffids outside a department store so this time instead of promising myself that one day I'll get some of the seeds, I got hubby to wait in the car while I grabbed a few seed pods.
I know nothing about Tenax seeds but I assume these are ready because the pods had actually burst open and the seeds were literally just about clinging on inside.

Once I got em home, I asked a few people over at UK Veg Gardeners if anyone had had success with Tenax seeds (my last attempt years ago produced nothing) and once I had a reply I got to work with them.
Basically I sowed them in damp multipurpose compost, sieved compost over the top of them and then put them in the coldframe to get that period of cold they need.
Once I'm back off my holidays in February I will then give them some bottom heat and see if I get any seedlings - fingers crossed.
I'm seriously hoping that I get a couple of plants from these because I've noticed Tenax does extremely well in the exposed coastal gardens up here.

As seed goes these are really quite pretty methinks.

Don't you just love it when you have an excuse to buy more chocolate tubs - they make super seed trays once you've pierced drainage holes in them.

I'm quite excited about seeing whether these produce anything for me but I have to tone down the excitement a little because I have a tendency to chuck them away if they don't produce in the time I think they should.
So fingers crossed and away from the seed tub - eyes only!



 

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Tillys Nest

I need Seaweed.

Healthy soil = healthy plants right? Right!
And a fabulous soil improver that also just happens to be free - Seaweed, available in abundance at your local beach.
Did you know that Seaweed contains over 70 Vitamins, Minerals & Enzymes all ready and waiting to provide those nutrients to plants?
Besides soil conditioning, claims have also been made that seaweed can

• help reduce plant shock when transplanting, 
• reduce fruit drop, 
• help encourage root growth and 
• enhance photosynthesis by increasing the plants Chlorophyll levels.  

Cool huh!
But how do we utilise seaweed once we've gathered it?
Well there are various ways of tapping into all those nutrients. We can use it as a mulch to rot down slowly into the soil or directly onto the compost heap to rot down but my favourite way is compost tea. It stinks to high heaven and I dread taking the lid of the bucket each time I use it but it's worth it if it's improving my plants and soil for free.
There's always the debate to wash or not to wash and I admit the first time I used seaweed I did wash it but I don't bother anymore.
To make the compost tea I simply stuff some Seaweed in a bucket, fill it with water and leave it somewhere for a couple of weeks to stew. Then I just drain the tea into a spare tub that has a lid and chuck the stewed seaweed onto the compost  heap along with any extra I managed to get. The tea is then used to feed flowers and vegetables at a rate of 2:1 (2 water, 1 tea) though I have used much weaker solutions on some plants.

With seaweed tea in mind I took a trip to the local beach the other day, bags in hand to gather as much as I could. Gutted to find when I got there that the only Seaweed around was live stuff still rooted or attached to rocks. This is the stuff I never ever take, it's just too important to the ocean and ecosystem, I only take stuff that has been washed up.
The ocean was rough while we were there, even the seals were having a hard time to get to the safety of the rocks and apparantly a few of the poor things have also washed up dead at the other local beaches - beaches which are also apparantly abundant in Seaweed. I guess we were just at the right beach at the wrong time.
Never mind we have plenty of beaches to choose from and I'll have that Seaweed tea ready for my veggie crops in 2013.

 

None of this seaweed was any good to me as it's rooted or stuck to rocks.

Rough waters.

My daughter with Kasa & Lucy, safely on leads as the ocean was seriously rough.

 

Garden therapy & frozen earth.

I bet I'm not the only one who stares out the window on these cold, rainy, windy days eager for the Spring to arrive so that I can get out there to carry out some of the many plans for the garden I have rattling around in my head!
Honestly I have so many new and exciting ideas for next years gardening that if I don't start some of them soon my blinkin head will explode and I'm adding fresh ideas every day because time I would have spent in the garden is now time spent on the laptop reading every gardening article and blog I can find.
Yesterday the wind had dropped to literally nothing and I had planned to forget about housework and spend all day outside on the land with the dogs gardening to my hearts content - garden therapy and I was so looking forward to it.
The problem turned out to be not the wind or rain but frozen earth! Any kind of digging, plant replacement or garden clearing was out of the question and with nothing doing in the Polytunnel or the green house my only job was to replenish the bird table - so much for garden therapy.
I'm sure the birds appreciated the feast I served them up though

This feast includes crushed fat balls, regular bird seed, crushed peanuts, koi food, mealworms, fat pellets, pinhead oatmeal, fruit and niger seed.

I also make my own lard cakes into half coconut shells that hang up for the birds. I have to be careful what I hang up though cos the Rooks take everything. I've even had to mesh the birdtable so that anything bigger than a Starling can't get in.
I'm in the process of making another birdtable cos this one is way round at the veggie area and we'd like one that is near the house patio doors so that we can watch them from indoors. We mainly get Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Robins, Greenfinches etc to the table but I'm going to add hangers to entice the Waxwings and other birds that I've seen up the lane at someone elses feeders. I just hope it doesn't encourage the Rooks as well.