Plantpassion

Progress at Hill Top Farm - Nearly a flower farmer

This week for the first time, i've really felt like flower farming is my proper job, - rather than something i'm just doing in my spare time.

On Monday, - I made my first English flower sheaf, for a real customer, that i'd never met before. - She'd found me through Facebook contacts, and was giving a handmade Sussex Trug basket to a friend for a special birthday, and could I do a sheaf of English flowers to go in it. - Well, I could, and I did, but in my excitement, I forgot to take a photo!, - so you'll have to make do with photos, of the flowers i've got coming on in the Polytunnel, and those I took to my son's school fair on Saturday.

Yes that is the first Sweet peas, - Variety Beaujolais, - Sown on the 11th November, in Root trainers.- I'm hoping for lots more of them over the next few weeks.The scent was amazing, and I took it to the fair, to show it off.

And i've still got this lot to go out on the field, before my Opening event on Friday.

So what am I doing sitting here writing this? - I've got work to do. - Catch you later.

When less is more - no pruning, low maintenance, great results

This weekend, I returned to a garden which i've been helping develop borders in over the last year. - I'll be blogging about the borders over the coming weeks, as we're rather pleased with how they look at the moment, but today I wanted to show you that sometimes, doing nothing is better.

This Shrub / tree is Osmanthus, probably Burkwoodii, - I wish this blog had smellivision, as the scent from it was wonderful.

When I first visited this garden, it had regular work done on it, but unfortunately the gardeners were rather keen on pruning, and not so keen on removing ground elder and bindweed. This Osmanthus had been neatly clipped

As a result, there were hardly any flowers, - the flower buds had all been cut off. This year, - it hasn't been touched, at all, - and the results are rather spectacular. That's the kind of low maintenance gardening results I like.

 

Village Plant Sales, - 5 reasons to buy locally

This weekend the 11th May, between 2 and 4 pm, i'll be at my local village hall helping my Garden Society raise funds by selling plants. - They'll be tea and cakes as well, plus the books and gadgets that tend to get swapped around at these do's. - I know it's not the only one happening locally, - and Twitter is full of planty people potting up, labelling up (4 pint plastic milk bottles cut up nicely into labels!) and sorting through excess seedlings, propagated plants, and layered shrubs.

So why should you go along to your local plant sale, (apart from the promise of cake!)

1) If plants have done well enough for your neighbours that they have seedlings or plants they can split, then they'll be likely to do well in your similar soil too

2) There are always people who've grown the plants for years and years, and can give amazing advice about what will work for you

3) You're supporting a local group, - my garden society plant sale is the main fundraiser for the year, and pays for the hall hire and some of our speakers.

4) There are always unusual gems, that are no longer for sale in most garden centres, or are "out of fashion" Snap these up and be ahead of the trend, - see what's happened to Dahlias and Chrysanths!

5) You can bag some bargains, The odd 50p or £1 will send you away with horticultural treasures to enjoy for this year and those to come.

If you're near to Horsley in Surrey, come along to the West Horsley Village Hall on Saturday afternoon, 2-4pm and say hi, - i've got veg plants, Astrantias, Achillea and Briza Maxima among others that i'm taking along. you can come in for 50p, or 3 plants! - and save room for the cake.

If your hosting or going to a Plant Sale this weekend, - add it in the comments, and lets get growing locally.

Unusually rewarding tulips

I'm a great Tulip fan, - i've written about them before here  and here, and I probably have about 10 varieties growing in my front garden, but i'd not grown Parrot tulips before this year.

These beauties (Irene Parrot is the orange, and Roccoco is the red) are flowering now at Hill top farm. - They were planted in crates last Autumn, and have been shoved in a corner in my garden, then dragged up to the farm, and balanced on high ladders to stop Squirrels and other pests getting them, and i'm now being rewarded with wonderful blooms. - They'll be on the list again for next year.

Weeding large areas, The hoe is back in favour

Weeds, - the bane of every gardener. - All those plants in the wrong place, all those fast spreading seedlings that take over as soon as your back is turned......

Now i'm a great believer in plants in the right place, ground cover so that weeds can't get to the soil surface, And i'm a great fan of detailed hand weeding to ensure that roots are removed, and perennials are reduced, but there are 3 times when a sharp hoe, with a light root cutting technique wins every time.

1) - in the year after creating a border, when weed seeds will have been brought to the surface by all the soil preparation and planting. - A good hoeing session will get rid of all the annual weeds before they've seeded. These borders were created last April. The plants are doing well, but havn't knitted together at full spread yet, so hoeing the annual seeds was a great way to clear the border. - Note, the Marestail coming through - Hoeing will have no effect on that.

2) - When you've got a dry flat area that is going to be used as a path - Like here Inside my Polytunnel. The borders were hand weeded, and a thick layer of Mulch/Organic compost put on them to plant into, - but the pathways have been hoed each week to keep weeds at bay

3) Between straight rows of Vegetables or flowers, - - straight, so that you can identify those which are weedlings and seedlings, Often, so that they don't get a chance to take over.

 

When Hoeing isn't such a good idea

When the soil is wet, -

When you've got plants close together,

When you'll be disturbing the soil surface and bringing up weed seeds to the light.

Here's to keeping those weeds under control this season. - Don't forget the saying 1 year of seeds is 7 years of weeds!

Magnolias in all their magnificence

My brief respite for the year is over. My Magnolias will keep me hard at work from now until the last leaf falls in November.

At the front of this photo is my soon to Bud burst Magnolia Soulangeana, - This weekend it started dropping it's bud casings. - These furry covers for the flowers have been sitting on the bare branches all through the winter, waiting for Spring to arrive.

In the back ground is my Evergreen Magnolia Grandiflora. - It may not drop all its leaves at once in the Autumn, but from now on, until the summer when it flowers, it will divest itself of a good proportion of its leaves, all over my border below, - just enough to make it untidy, and clear it all off, where upon the wind blows and a few more fall.

When the flowers of both are finished, Petals rain down, and if not removed quickly, soon become soggy on my beds and lawn. And of course in the Autumn, the leaves of the deciduous tree create piles that my son loves to leap in. But with almost weekly work ahead of me, - would I rather get rid of my 2 week flowering wonders?

NEVER!

Lots of Dahlias for full vases of late summer colour

So the boy finally went back to School after the Easter Holidays today. - Not that either have us have been idle while he's been off, as we've had Dahlias to sort over the holidays.

Dahlias can be planted as Seeds, Cuttings or Tubers.

Last year I just did Tubers, and they were badly munched by slugs, although as you can see from the picture above, I did get some rather good blooms. This year, i'm trying all 3.

Last week though was the turn of the Tubers. I've ordered some in from JP Parkers, and then i've Split and potted up mine from last year.

I stored mine overwinter in wood shavings, in my greenhouse. - They all seem to have come through very nicely, although there is evidence that they were sharing the bedding with something (mouse?) at some point during the winter.

I'm potting them all up and letting them shoot in the Polytunnel for the next few weeks until the danger of Frost is past, - you can see that the Tubers already have lovely fat buds on them. If they produce more than a couple of stems, then i'll take cuttings, and root them as well, - however with 110 pots of Dahlias already in the Polytunnel I won't need too many more. I've also grown from seeds, and the seedlings are coming up nicely in my greenhouse. - My previous experiences of seed grown Dahlias is that they are usually single flowers, - great for the bees, but not so good at lasting when cut, So we'll see.

We've finished making 46 planting beds and the perennial border now, a massive boost by a big team of family and friends on Saturday, and a finishing off session with my boys on Sunday means the bulk of the hard labouring is done, - so the beds just need a good topping of Organic compost to be able to plant into.

and a big shout out to Brandon Hire in Guildford who have been so helpful to me with the kit that i've hired over the last couple of months. - Great Service, and keen prices, which really help when you're doing a big project.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day April 2013

I reckon my garden is about 2-3 weeks behind this time last year, - but with the sun over the weekend, there are at least now flowers showing, and there is scent from lots of Hyacinths, that i've been adding.

The Euphorbia Robbaie and Hyacinth combination is shamelessly plagerised from a suggestion in Sarah Raven's Bold and brilliant Book, - Excellent for in the dry shade of my Evergreen Magnolia.

The Primulas are doing brilliantly, and are now spreading them selves round my garden, - including in the lawn, which hasn't yet been mowed this season (to be added to the list for an evening this week), the blue behind it is Brunnera Jack frost, which I love as an early flower, and a summer foliage.

The Hyacinth and Daffodil combo i'm not sure about, but they do add a splash of colour to the kitchen. This Purple Hyacinth is Woodstock.

- Additional, - i've now tried it with White Leucojum and Scented narssisus, and I much prefer it.

 

 

Sweet peas and summer flowers

I'll admit it, - i've got a bit of a sweet pea obsession going on at the moment.

I've grown them for years, but never had them at show standard by the time our local garden society show takes place in mid June. - This year, I want them flowering their socks off by June, and in large numbers, with long stems and beautiful scent, and all in a year when we've had January weather for the last 4 months!

But, at least I've now got my Polytunnel, and as you can see, I've been quite busy the last couple of days.

The Sweet peas that I wrote about on my  blog at the end of January now have fantastic root systems and have been grown really hard, so will survive if the temperature falls again overnight this week. So they were all planted along the centre of the Polytunnel, with some very handy fencing for them to grow up.

i've already planted up most of the side border with some of the flowers i'm hoping will provide a mixture of early blooms in a range of colours. Cornflowers, Gypsophila, Larkspur, Calendula and a selection of herbs have been planted, and i've found a few ranunculus that were looking rather windswept, and i'm hoping they'll like the warmth of the tunnel.

The next big task for the Polytunnel is going to be potting up all my Dahlia Tubers.

Let Polytunnel growing commence

This weekend has been one of great leaps forward at Hill top farm, and i've still got today left to add to the success list.

My first yipee, was this modest bunch of February gold bunch of Narssisus. Small, but all grown by me at Hill top farm, so the first of my English grown flower harvests.

The next was that at the eleventh hour, my Polytunnel planning permission came through, - so we've spent the weekend erecting a 40ft Haygrove tunnel.

Day one was all about Metal work. - Which went together very easily, and just needed a Spanner and lots of fiddly finger work.

Day 2 was about the cover, - which we put over cushioning hotspot tape which protected the plastic from the metal. Yes we did have help for this bit, - our friends David and Dana Leigh arrived just at the right time.

Clever clips and crocodile wire means that it is held into place with no nailing or splitting the cover, and meant that by early evening it was all up and water tight (or snow tight, as that  is snow on the picture! - 30th March!!!!!!!)

Yesterday, we put in my lovely potting benches, (including one at William's height, so that he can help me with planting up and sowing seeds) and tidied/ tightened up some of the clips.

So now I have 12m x 4m of insided growing space. - Sweet peas are first on my list, - what would you grow?