I’ve decided to bunch these 3 cold and relatively dormant months together as there isn’t much to report on! We had a relatively mild Christmas period; however, like the rest of the country we experienced quite a lot of snow fall and plunging temperatures towards the end of winter. It seems to have taken its toll on the daffodil bulbs we planted in October as lots of these have grown leaves but no stems/flower buds (?!) Those that did emerge were unfortunately rather bedraggled looking.
Whilst perusing a copy of ‘Homes and Gardens’ that a friend of mine gifted me as a year subscription for my 30th, I saw a fantastic looking greenhouse by a company call Alitex – they make bespoke Victorian greenhouses. I really look forward to getting one (although will potentially need to remortgage the house first) as I’ll be able to start off a lot more seeds as well as take cuttings etc.
In early January I planted some sweet pea seeds (‘Jilly‘) into toilet rolls – hopefully some of these white blooms will be out in August for our wedding; it would be lovely to use some! Although I liked the multicolour of the variety I planted last year, I thought I might try something different this year and these caught my eye at the garden centre. Thinking ahead to spring – I’m thinking of planting these up the pergola posts which we built last November. I’ve used toilet rolls to plant these seeds in as I’ve read that they like to have long taproots to anchor them. Planting the seeds in this way means that you don’t need to prick out and transplant the seedlings (apparently they don’t like this); instead you can plant the rolls directly in to warmer spring soil as the cardboard naturally degrades.
During February one of the alpine plants that we planted in to the dry stone wall last year flowered – a welcome shot of colour in an otherwise drab garden!
I’ll save all my cardboard tubes for you Guy x
Ah Jill! They’ll be gratefully received! x