Save money

I know we all have our own opinions on how best to go about things and that is how it should be but that is the point of blathering in a blog; it is a way of sharing those opinions.  So anything I write isn't the 'law' and meant to be followed, it is just a record of how I go about my doings and might help someone very new and now and again spark an idea for someone else, if only to go in the opposite direction!

So, for what it is worth, here's how I save a bit of money on plant food.

I don't buy propriety boxed stuff that is easily available in B & Q and all the garden centres and, over the years, I have stopped buying specialised food for particular plants.  I am SURE that is the way to go for a 'show' garden or a treasured plant but I have reverted to exactly what my mom used to do and she always had a great garden.

I buy bone-meal and a general purpose fertiliser (Growmore) by the pound from wherever I can find it for the cheapest.  I think Diggle Lane beats my next recommendation in price but it is not so easy to get to it at a time when there is someone there to sell it to you.

I store it in a couple of airtight kitchen containers.  Do this even if you do buy the boxed stuff as the cardboard boxes are useless at keeping stuff fresh.  They suck up moisture like blotting paper.

I then write on the lid how I use it. If you enlarge the photo you will see the Growmore is used a week before sowing - when I remember!! and then scattered anywhere and everywhere once a month through the growing season - veg garden and flower borders alike.  The rain does the rest.  My mom actually swore by Phostrogen but I haven't found that loose yet.

The Bone-meal gets used when I plant as I just said in the post about the roses.  It is also flung around as my last ritual in the autumn on the garden and lawn, basically it is to make good strong root growth to make plants tougher for the winter.

I bought my last lot from Gordon Riggs at their Rochdale branch.  I was a huge fan of Riggs some thirty years ago - the Todmorden one.  It was a very rough and ready nursery that grew its own stuff, so I knew it would survive Bury blasts and it was cheap.  It was a regular outing for me, my husband and the kids.  They were always on a promise of an ice cream (all weathers) from the van outside if they were 'good'  and at about half-time the non-gardening trio would buy a drink and maybe some chocolate from the machine they had 'under glass'.  So everyone came home happy.  It is still known in my family as Griggs - when you wrote a cheque (remember those?) you wrote G.Riggs and it sort of read as Griggs!  Well it worked for us.

Sadly like Summerseat and New Bank and just about everybody else these days most of the stuff is bought in (from Holland?).  A bit like the High Street, the nurseries that were now all look the same.  I suppose there is more money to be made in Restaurants and nick-knacks and they get you through the bad weather times, not to mention you don't have three generations of family pricking out thousands of seedlings any more.

Beat the rain drops

We were driving back from Leeds yesterday in the pouring rain and I must have been the only person for miles around who said - "I am glad its raining".  A couple of days ago I had planted a couple of things out and had done some weeding and discovered that parts of my garden are bone dry; not many parts I must admit but it did make me wonder if I should water the pots and the narrow dry border round the front of the house.  So thanks to the Rain God for one job saved.

Sorted

That said, no miracle occurred on the weeds and the dead stuff.  I managed to get out there this morning and finish weeding and tidying the new (last year) border.  I still have the rest of the borders to do which is about three times this strip.

Here's the result:

Not sorted

I thought I would label the photos in case you were in any doubt!

It actually got done because I received the two roses I won last year in a Spalding Plant and Bulb Company competition (the post about that is 15 December 2012).  I particularly wanted to get them in the ground while they were still looking fantastic and the chickweed was in the way! 

The roses were delivered yesterday while we were out and the cardboard box had been left round the back of the house in the bucketing rain; opening the box was like trying to open soup, but the roses inside were pristine in their completely sealed bag.  

Two here, fresh and ready to go

There was a lot of paperwork guff inside including one of their wonderful Planting and Gardening Tips Book.  It is like a bit of a bonus as you can look up the information you need for the plant you just got, but there are thirty plus pages of other information.

To plant a bare root rose properly - you soak it in luke-warm water overnight.  Dig a hole bigger than you think you will need and mix the soil with well rotted manure.  You plant it a bit deeper (5 cms) than the place where all the stems join up.  Put the soil back in the hole and heel it in (tread gently right round it).  Soak with water and then mound up a bit of soil around the stem.

Now for the truth... I rarely bother to soak if the plant looks fresh, green with nice shoots and the roots feel moist, although soaking can still be helpful as it helps 'unfold' the roots.  I just ease them out gently into the right position when I plant.  I never have any well-rotted manure to hand (!) so anything really woody like a shrub or a rose or big tough perennial gets a sprinkling of bone-meal to kick start it.  Also, this time, I let nature do the watering.

Thank you Spaldings.  I can't wait to see them do their thing.

Work for April

I was just looking at my list of jobs for April and thought I might share them with you as a prompt for stuff you might need to do.  You will find a lot of things on my year round list appear something like four weeks after seeing them on Gardeners World or in a magazine, not because it takes me that long to cotton on but because I find my garden (up here) is about that far behind theirs.  I have the jobs blocked out week by week in my little scribbly garden notebook.

(Last week of March if I was here I would try to plant out parsnip and potatoes - technically the ideal ground temperature should be 7 degrees!!  Trim the lavender hedges - I actually don't don't have them any more! and scarify the lawn)


Here comes the four weeks of April (in my garden) ...

Week 1
Sow beetroot outdoors (ideal soil temp 15 degrees/joke!!)
Feed roses - just the cheapest all-purpose feed like Phostrogen or Growmore - buy it by weight from somewhere like an allotment - I think I got the last lot from Diggle Lane allotment.  I need some more so I will check it out soonish and let you know. 
Feed clematis with bone meal - same source again to save money
Feed start Jasmine with bone meal

Week 2
Sow runner beans indoors
Bug spray the roses - I use an all-purpose one that includes treatment for black spot etc
Begin weeding the lawn and fill with grass plugs or just weed and feed it

Week 3
Sow carrots outdoors (ideal soil temperature 15 degrees)

Week 4
Sow tomatoes indoors
Feed Rhubarb

All this is over ridden in my plot by just trying to get back on top of clearing up dead stuff and weeding - basically six months of no-one touching it.

That said I have just planted some Glory of the Snow (Chinodoxa)  (this isn't my garden photo) and some Bluebells. 

My friend gave me some tête a tête in a lovely pot for Easter and they have just about finished in the house so they will find a place in the garden soon.

Here comes the sun....

Before.....

......  well, for a day at least.  It was lovely and warm this morning - in the sun!  I was astounded by the difference in the shade and discovered I need a cardigan and coat for that.  The air temperature must be pretty low.  Fortunately my front garden gets a bit of sun in the morning so most of the time it was nice out there and I was actually out side in a t-shirt for a couple of hours, tidying up.  You can actually see how much the sun/shade has moved round in two hours in these photos.

............and after.

The two hour constraint turned out to be purely physical.  I was jiggered!  I do absolutely nothing for six months in America so the first garden stint creases me.  I hope I get back in my stride and soon as I have a lot to go at this year.  Two hours was just enough to get the front sorted out.  All kippers and curtains me - as long as the neighbours think I have a tidy garden that will do for now.  Look at the mud splashes up the wall from all the rain.

and after on this one

Round on the side wall, I hacked the rose and clematis back into shape and tied the rose back onto the wires.  We have to get out and find some better system before it really starts its 2013 growing.  I said that last year so I am determined to get it done in the next week or two.  

I don't want a trellis behind it and the eyes and wires we have in now are a pain as the wires always slack off.  I know there are tensioning systems but my other half says our sort of brickwork/mortar won't take that sort of thing (???)  So, as I said. I need a rummage round a good garden centre to see what's what.

I came back in for lunch and then toddled off to B & Q for a few bits and pieces as they were having a three for two offer this weekend.  Incidentally if you are over 60 you should get a diamond card for a 10% discount every Wednesday.  In addition to this anyone can join the B & Q club which works any day and gives you special offers for anyone with a membership number.  You also get entered into a £10,000 draw every time you shop there.  Today I got 20% of a hanging basket and some plants.  The discount was also on grow your own plants, seeds and bulbs and pots and planters; so it is well worth doing. 

Another bargain

Yesterday my seeds arrived from Thompson and Morgan.  The order from them was a bargain as it came post free which is generous as it is, seemingly, arriving in separate parts.  The seeds are the same price as in the shops and they gave me the radishes for free.  The catalogue must have said somewhere that you got the cheapest free but I never noticed; so that was another two quid saved.

I only realised when they came that I had chosen Alan T's selection... always nice to know he agrees with me.

Follow up on Spalding Plant & Bulb Company's bulbs

When we came home for a couple of weeks at Christmas I took a look at how the bulbs I had from Spaldings were getting on (see my post dated 5 January).  There was little or nothing to tell other than there were signs of life.  I expected most of them to be done and dusted by the time I got back.  I am pleasantly surprised to find they had waited for me.  

Your winter has been so cold and extended that everything is miles behind.  I actually have three lots of snow drops which I find utterly thrilling as it has taken me many years and several gardens to actually produce.  Thanks to my friend H who gave them me 'in the green', fresh from her garden, two years ago.  Here they are amongst the dross of last years crocosmias.  Yes, I know it badly needs a tidy up but it is too cold, I have too much else to do and I would be disturbing the critters who might need it all...... greenfly and slugs (!!!) come to mind.

How English and full of Spring promise are these wonderful tête-a-têtes - from Spaldings.  I had ten bulbs and they certainly have  all appeared in full bounce.  They are my long-standing favourite and I have them dotted all around the garden.  I have moved a few of them from garden to garden each time we have moved house.  Again it is a flower from a friend.  My friend D used to turn up at school at regular intervals at this time of year with a pot of dead daffs for me, which everyone thought was odd and/or funny. They had done their thing in her apartment and came to me to go in the garden.  They do really well and multiply year on year.  I keep any large daffs in separate beds as I don't like the looks of either when the sizes are mixed.  However fancy the big ones are these are still the ones I love best.

To tell the truth I am not sure if these are the Iris.  (Spaldings too)  I had 20 Iris and 20 Allium and I didn't put a label in.  I never learn.  I always think I will know what something is when I see it and then ..... I don't.

Here are photos of both pots.  The ones I think are alliums are looking great.  Maybe the poorer pot will come into its own later.  Maybe I should have not left such a big gap above the soil.  Why did I do that?

I had 10 Tulips (Darwin Hybrids) and again everyone has produced a great looking plant, full of promise. 

Have you noticed how bulbs move around a little?  I promise you they were evenly set out in the pot but have shifted slightly as they grew.

These are kind of doubly exciting as I haven't a clue as to what the flowers will be like.  The pink edged ones will be a warm colour for sure.  Watch this space.

The 20 muscari are great looking too.  I am assuming they are the common blue variety which I adore but I know there are all sorts of shades now and white are very popular.  I have even seen a sort of lime green colour and a yellow with pinkish tops!!  It is a good job the horticultural world doesn't depend on me as I love the simplest version of pretty much every plant - plain yellow daffs, no frilly tulips, things that 'should be blue' need to be blue etc.  So, if I ruled the world, I would have robbed myself of some glorious roses and peonies and camellias to name but a few.  Still, I just hope these are blue.

Finally the last of Spaldings bulbs are the lovely, lovely anemone blanda.  These really are a woodland plant.  When they find a happy place they make carpets of blue through the trees and look just wonderful.  I don't have Monty Don's garden so a handful (20) in a pot will have to do it for me.... and it sort of does.  These are on the table immediately outside my patio window so I see them several times a day and they make me smile.  I try to do this inside as I do begin to look like a loony grinning at a bowl of plants.

They have clearly come out in a good spell of weather and have got knocked back by some frost, but they are struggling back and I think they will be great if we can get a bit of gentle into this dreadful cold we are having.

So thank you Spalding Plant and Bulb Company for a great gift and I hope I am doing OK with them.

If you want to see these pictures larger just click on them.  If you want to see them for any reason without the nattering along with a handful of others showing some more things making their way in the garden, go to photo albums - link in the right hand column.  Garden - 2013.  I am sorry Picasa Web albums are rubbish and don't let you nest albums into a few main headings.  This means a bit of a search if you want something.  Its default position is by date order so usually if you go there from a Blog the album I am sending you to is pretty much at the beginning of the stack.  If you ever want to just look at Garden albums they are all preceded with the word 'Garden' so if you click on sort by album title they are all bunched together at 'Garden'.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

I will have been back in Bury one week tomorrow and there is so much to do it is frightening.  I am dreadful for wanting it all done immediately - as if it matters!

I had a quiet moment just before we left the States to order (most of) my veg from Thompson and Morgan.... they had a couple of days with free postage.

My three six foot by six foot lotty boxes will be planted as follows:

International Kidney

Box one - just potatoes.  I have chosen International Kidney because they have been the best of the six varieties I have grown these past three years.  No blight and they go right through our stay here. They start as small new potatoes and grow on to some really nice, good size spuds that you can pretty much do anything with.  They were scab free, smooth and thin-skinned - all round good.

Fulton's Strawberry Surprise

Box two - will be a pretty much permanent bed.  It will have rhubarb in the middle. I have settled on Fulton's Strawberry Surprise.  I did a lot of reading around on varieties and hope I have chosen a good one.  I grew Timperley but I was never happy with it.  It has gone on to another's care where it might do better.  I was heading towards the traditional Victoria but my childhood memory of it is that it was pretty sour and could be tough.  Maybe my grown-up taste buds would think differently?  

Now this is where this blog could be useful if other folk who grow stuff up here around Bury (and anyone else!)  would share anything with us that works.  Is anyone having great success with rhubarb?  What variety is it?  How do you grow it? 

Appropriately, it has strawberry in its name and I shall be growing strawberries around it.  I have some ever-bearers that have done quite well in pots and I am hoping they will really come into their stride when they can escape in the ground and take a deep breath..... always think pots work like corsets!  I haven't included a photo as I had three varieties - Albion, Calypso and Elsanta and now I have no idea which is what.  I will do my best to identify them as they grow and fruit.  Apologies for sloppy gardening.


Box three - will be the one which swaps around with the potato bed each year and will grow my runner beans and peas etc.  Right now I have on order:
Runner Bean 'Scarlett Empire'
Radish 'French Breakfast'
Salad Leaves 'All seasons'
Pea 'Hurst Green Shaft' (second early)

There will be enough space left to shove in anything that catches my eye.  Maybe ONE courgette plant!  I learned very quickly two people don't need six of those.

Hurst Green Shaft

Here comes my next question - how do you support your peas?  I know you should use the old (pea stick) trimmings from pruning your hazels but, as I don't own a country estate, that won't be happening.  So far I have only grown dwarf varieties of peas and have just scrabbled them through a mish-mash of canes and strings.  This won't work on a larger scale.

I can't wait to get started, but I think I will probably hold off until the middle of the month.  There is a meeting for the lotty users on

10th April at 6.30 pm

Brandlesholme Library (next to the shops)

Won't it be great if we have gardening weather with us by then.

Come back tomorrow when I hope to do an update on the bulbs I had from Spaldings.

Bit of an update

When we were back for Christmas I thought the garden looked very autumnal rather than wintery - obviously it hasn't really struck yet in terms of cold snap.  Many things, like the roses, were still in leaf.  It goes without saying everywhere was a swamp.  After such a wet summer how can it still be doing what it is doing?  I was about to say I have never seen such extended rain but I have.  Last time was probably back forty years ago!  I do remember when I moved up North (about then) I said to my mom that it rained every day from October to April - only a slight exaggeration.  As an inhabitant of the Midlands plateau and four years in Suffolk,  I had never experienced such relentless rain surrounded by grey short days.

First there was one, then two .......hellebores

The rain kept me out of the garden pretty much during our two weeks at home but I thought I might just leave everything alone anyway and let it die back and have a good Spring clear out.  I really need to do a big refresh everywhere next year.  Most of the garden is five years old now and needs a revamp.  I have also pretty much neglected the weeding for a couple of years so that has gone beyond the pale.  I can see a big redo coming.  This, of course, depends on whether it dries out enough by then to let me do it.

Click on the picture to spot the aliums

I took the opportunity to check on the Spalding Plant and Bulb Company's bulbs which they sent me.  If you look closely at this pot, you can see the aliums have their heads up and there was one anemone on the way when I arrived and a second one by the time I left.  I am pretty sure all the other bulbs are doing fine too as there are signs of the soil being moved under the gravel where they are coming into growth.  I am hoping my friends are around when they do there stuff if it is too early for me to see and that they will send me a photo or two.  If they do I will pass them on. 

The Russian Sage I had from Spalding's looks as dead as a Dodo but I would expect it to - so April will be the deciding time for that.

Can you spot six different varieties of plants?

As far as I can tell amongst the weeds the Thompson and Morgan babies are surviving.  They haven't put on any growth, but then shoving them out in October  wasn't conducive to that.  So, again we will see what happens in the Spring.

Roll on next Summer.