Later than usual March 2022 update

 A new baby in the family, 3 once in a decades storms, and a hideous war breaking out has pushed my sense of the travelling of time even more out of whack the past few weeks.  

But, here are the pics for the March 22 update.

Garage wall East facing 6.3.22

I planted some biennials here in the autumn, they have not gotten any bigger and some have disappeared completely.  There are masses of Daffodils here that need to come up and be tagged and replanted elsewhere.  There is a beautiful story to these I will tell another time.  There were 5 perennial sweet peas in this bed, I managed to dig one up, and will have a go with another one next week.  They are truly mahoosive underground.  Although really lovely, they are just too much now!  I will keep one, but the rest have to go.  I planted a summer and a winter jasmine by the personal door, and this end the sad little twig is a wisteria I bought 3 years ago and planted when we moved here 2 years ago.  It has not grown at all.  Hopefully it's growth is all underground at the moment and it will shoot up soon.  This is where we plan to put a lean to green house as it has loads of sun all day, is close to a water supply and has electricity in the garage behind.  I plan to plant my gyp and grasses in this bed, so will have to sneak a bit more grass away to make room for it.  But first, the old battens and wire needs removing, the wall needs a clean, and then a fresh paint job.

Lone Orlaya Grandiflora in the Sweet Pea bed

I guess I have learned my lesson over this beauty!  You need fresh seed!  I had 2 packets of seed from 2020/2021 so didn't buy any fresh for last autumns hardy annual seed sowing.  Out of a tray of 20 sown, I had 3 germinate!  There was a discussion on IG with the flower farmers about this.  It appears that with this particular cut flower you definitely need fresh fresh seeds.  I popped into Planters at Tamworth this afternoon and bought a pack from Sarah Raven, the sow by date is 2025, so I hope it means they are super fresh.  I will sow all of them now, and buy some more in the autumn.  

Keeping it real with the row covers!

Some of the ranunculas are going in the end of the Rose bed under a row cover.  I was in a hurry 3 weeks ago, and bought pipe and plastic to make the cover, but as I got back to the car DD2 called to say the baby was on the way, so grandsons needed to be collected from school and the whole baby machine took over, then Dennis, Eunice and Franklin blew their way across the country and by the time I was ready to start the bed, the pipes had warmed up in the house and folded rather than bent, so another lesson learned.  at the back of the photo is an area which would make a lovely evening patio when we re model the garden, but for now, it makes a much better place for the compost heaps, so they were moved this weekend.  I am hoping that the eucalyptus will form a bit of a shield so it doesn't look too awful.  This spot made a great winter nursery for the perennials I dug and divided in the autumn.

2021 no dig bed South Facing

Really pleased with the way this bed has worked.  It was the first no dig bed I had put into this garden (Feb 21).  I have always done "no dig" since reading a Charles Dowding book in the 80's.  This was the first one with a hort student in the house!  Happy to report he did a test on it in the autumn and was delighted with the condition of it and the life in it.  Yesterday I topped it up with the contents of last spring's compost bin, stuck apple pruning's in for supports and planted out the Sweet rocket that I overwintered in the greenhouse.  It has been hardening off for the last month, and the leaves have beautifully toughened up.  I should have taken pictures.

One disaster

area after

another!

These area's need the most work.  The last photo is the north facing bed which had a bunch of fruit planted 2 years ago when we moved in.  We have some shade tollerant plants either ready in pots or on order to go in here including hydrangeas, Hellebores, Heucera's Japanese anenomes and Astrantia in various shades.  This should be fairly straight forward on a dry day.  The other areas will have a mix of perennials and annuals, but need a feed and clearing first.

2021 Dahlia bed flipped in Nov.

The bulk of last summers biennial sowing went into the Dahlia bed with a bunch of apple prunings for support.  We have a variety of shades of cornflowers for drying, Honesty for the seed heads, and some Hollyhocks on their last warning.

Ranunculas

These are autumn sown corms.  I managed to save several from last season, but due to the light levels in our old greenhouse some developed mildew.  The surviving ones have been slowly hardening off since the storms.  Last year I had them in pots and had quite the daily work out taking them in and out of the greenhouse.  This year I am going to put some in the end of the rose bed under hoops that I can pull a cover over in case of bad weather.  Some will go in pots and some in another bed, maybe the south facing one.

Bit of a mess! 

Another big job for the next couple of weeks.  This needs tidying, and the glass needs to be given a good clean to let more light in.

So, that is the March check in, see you again in 3 weeks for the April one.  Hopefully there will be a lot more colour and light.  I have deliberately not edited the pictures so that I can see how the light changes over the year.

Have a beautiful week 

#prayforukraine