Dorset Garden Diary - March Winds and the Seedlings are Growing

Hi everyone,

It's been a blustery couple of weeks being battered by strong winds. Storm Gareth stripped felt off one of the sheds

thankfully that has been the only casualty. At one point the torrential rain was being blown horizontally across the garden.

 

But today it is calmer and sunny albeit colder but I'm not complaining. There hasn't been much opportunity to get out in the garden because it's been too wet but the seedlings have put on a spurt - courgettes and tomato Marmande

 echinacea and poppies

 cucumbers

 leeks and organic corn salad

 stocks, lemongrass, tomato Alicante, zinnias and antohi peppers

 lupins

 little gem lettuce and kale

 

Despite the weather, the garden is flourishing - honeysuckle on the arch near the cottage garden

 

The fruit trees are all coming into leaf (except the plum) - quince

 Morello cherry

 pear

 apple

 aubretia looking a delight in the cottage garden

 and in the bed at the back of the greenhouse

primroses and primulas

 hellebore

 hyacinths

 and the garlic and mixed onions. The fennel (on the right) is just getting past it's best now.

 

It's all starting to get busy and there are more seeds to sow at the end of the month and in April. The weather for the week ahead is calm and dry - perfect for him indoors fixing the felt back on the shed roof!

 

Regards,

 

DD

 

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Dorset Garden Diary - Probably the Mildest February for Over Forty Years

Hi everyone,

It's been an interesting couple of weeks in the garden. The temperature has been unseasonably warm and we had the highest recorded temperature for February in the UK. Here in Dorset it has been mild and on the morning of 26th Feb this was the temperature in the greenhouse with the windows open

The seeds sown have started to appear - these are tomatoes, leeks and lemongrass

coriander, dill and parsley

cucumbers passandra F1

and salad corn leaves

This morning I continued the production line sowing the next batch of seeds

the pots under cover are all flowers and the other tray is vegetables

You remember the incident with the rat and the bird feeder? Well, we had a think as to how we could to stop it happening again as we didn't want to pay a fortune for a purpose-built squirrel deterrent and we came up with this

it's a large plastic mixing bowl! So far it seems to have worked. The birds, however, have not been happy with their new slimline feeder and boycotted it for a few days, then they started to fly near it but didn't land on the perches but now they've got the hang of it and all is well again. The blue tits have been in and out of the nesting box all week.

The garden is gradually bursting into more colour. Daffs and aubretia bordering the cottage garden

the photinia (red robin) has grown about a foot in the last month

hellebore and ornamental grass

I think these are hyacinths and, if they are, I have no idea how them come to be growing in the garden because I didn't plant them

I'm having a senior moment trying to remember the name of these delicate flowers growing in the front garden

And indoors I think my orchid could finally be flowering. If so, this will be the first time in over five years!

Oh, nearly forgot. Whilst I was sorting out the pots to sow the seeds I came across a couple of wasps hibernating in the bottom of them. Now wasps aren't my favourite insects but they actually looked cute as they semi-woke and stretched...I put them in another pot and covered them up.

That's about it for this week. Just waiting to see if storm Freya arrives as forecast. I've made sure everything is battened down in case she does batter us.

Regards,

DD

Follow me on Twitter - @daisydigga