Things are happening!!!!

Well as a complete novice to gardening, I have to say that I am thrilled with what is happening in my garden. We have had some good weather for the last couple of weeks and all the seeds that I have sewn have started to germinate.

So far I have got all of these flower seeds germinating:

Sunflowers, Alysum, Lobelia, Cornflowers, French Marigolds, African Marigolds, Asters, Calendula, Dwarf Dahlias, Popom Dahlias, Verbinas, Mesymbryanthimums, Petunias, Snap Dragons, African Pinks and Impatiens. All of them doing well.

Got some buch Fuschias, trailing Begonias and trailing Petunias as small plugs which are doing well too.

Vegatables I have sewn from seed:

Broad beans, Runner beans, French beans, two types of carrots, Raddish, Lettuce, peas, cabbage, sweet corn and spring onions. Sewn some early spuds. Bought one strip of small plug Broccolli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. All of them have more than doubled in size since I bought them and potted them on. I have three different types of onions all grown from sets

All of the cucumber seeds I have sewn have germinated and are showing their first true leaves. I have six melon plants that are just breaking the surface today. Good job I have a big garden. All of my bush cherry tomatos are sprouting up nicely as well.

Already found out one mistake I have made. I am definately going to have way too many plants for my own needs. I am thinking of potting on any spare that I have and taking them to a boot sale. Maybe I can recoup some of the money I have spent on seeds and plugs.

I really never thought that gardening could be so rewarding. Spent a bit of time today trying to ressurect a flower bed. Loads of weeds and grass sprouted up in what used to be a nicely shaped bed. As I am still nowhere near as strong as normal, (Heart attacks do that to you!!), I just took it steady and spent an hour with a fork. Amazing how much difference it can make to the garden and best of all NO STRESS.

Chopper.

 

I find that after a rubbish day at work, going out into the garden and having a potter around is a great de-stresser. And if you need to work off anger, digging vigorously beats anger management any day!

Enjoy Chopper and don't worry about making mistakes. We all do - its part of the learning curve

 

You have got it absolutely right Chopper! And I would agree with JWK, its always worth having too many plants to give away, or to replace losses. The other thing is that if you have too many it gives you lots of options and makes it easier to plan your border as you want it, rather than just filling in holes with whatever you have got left over.

 

Thanks Peter. Must say that some of the comments and replies to my questions here are quite inspirational and encouraging. Nice freindly forum, unlike some of the biker forums I am a member of, where new people often get a rough ride.

Not really got a plan for the borders this year. All I want to do is get lots of colour this year. I spent ages looking through seed catalogues and internet sites to try and decide what I liked the look of. Colour and variety are the criteria for this year. The idea being I will have something to see for my efforts, (Hopefully) and then be able to plan some sort of theme for next year. Also looking at some pernnials to start off this year once all the seedlings are planted out. Like the idea of always having something on the go.

Its all about experimenting and learning this year to see what I like and what works, leaving a bit of space to try things I haven't thought of yet.

regards

Chopper.

 

Hi Chopper. It seems that you've got things pretty much in hand :thumb: For me, this is year 2 growing stuff 'proper'. I had an allotment 20 years ago which I'd worked for probably 2 years but never really got to grips with it. I never really had the time to tend to it properly, watering was always a problem and I had to drive to get there. It's so much better to have my own plot now, where I can keep my eyes on it, and work it whenever I want. I can fully understand your obvious enthusiasm. Just this morning, I spotted the first of this years carrot seedlings, which is something I'm really looking forward to. Fresh carrots, aint nothin' quite like 'em, yummy Keep up the good work Chopper. Cheers...freddy.

 

Chopper - you are doing exactly the right thing by looking through catalogues and internet sites. I have done, and am still doing, plenty of that and I think that's the way to learn. Another suggestion is to look through books with pictures of gardens and try to decide what style you like - be it formal with straight lines and neat individual plants, or informal cottage look with close planting and bags of colour, and what sort of colours.

Another suggestion, similar to looking at catalogues is to have a look at this site http://www.cgf.net/plants.php Its run by Bob Brown, a Chelsea gold medal winner, who knows what he is talking about. He used to be a schoolmaster, and he marks plants on a scale from 1 to 10. I have found it very useful. For instance under perennial Geraniums, I selected four with the highest scores. Patricia, Rozanne, Anne Folkard and Dusky Krug. I have been very pleased with them. The first two are sterile hybrids and consequently flower for an extremely long time. Plants flower in an effort to produce seed, but once fertilised they have no more need for the flowers. Sterile plants can't produce seed so they just keep on flowering in a vain effort - cruel. :D And he put me on to Aster fricatii 'Monch'. It flowers twice as long as any other Aster.

If you like to always have something on the go - give a thought to biennials. I have just started to grow these and find them quite exciting. They grow in the first year, but don't flower till the second year, then they die. They are a bit like an annual but take two years to grow. The reason I like to grow them is that having grown in the first year they often flower early in the second year when there is not much else. Then they die, and you can dig them up and replace them with late flowering plants like Dahlias. But you do have to keen regrowing them for the next year - I keep them in pots till its time to plant them out properly in the autumn of the year in which they were sown.



This is one of my favorite biennials - Salvia sclaria.

 

H Peter

Thankyou for that link. I will have a good look at it later today.

Must admit that I had never thought of looking at biannuals. Been looking at some perennials though.

Definately like formal gardens with neat lines, I guess thats the engineer in me and the fact that I was a member of The Life Guards, Household Cavalry. However, I live in deepest Zummerset and have a big garden, (Lucky me). So what I would like to do this year is cram in as many bright, colourful plants as I can. Then I can see what I like and don't like. I am aiming at planting big blocks of the same plant where ever I can so that I get bold lumps of colour. Straight lines would look out of place, except in the veg plot.

That Salvia Sclaria is just the sort of plant that I would like in my garden. I will do some research on it.

Thankyou for your reply Peter.

 

Go for drift planting with perennials - the bonus with them is you can always dig them up if you decide they don't work and plant them somewhere else, and after a couple of years you can divide them and hey presto, new plants, free!

I only started gardening properly a couple of years ago too and this year the perennial borders should really come into their own. Its hit and miss with them though - some stuff doesn't always come back, others don't do as well as they should and others explode everywhere. But that's part of the fun

 

Yup things are on the up now.
The daffs are mostly in bloom now and today I found a snakes head frittilery. aubretia is out now and the dwarf polys are looking great. The Hostas are showing their heads and a few other things thought dead by the frost have made it (not the cyclamen though :( )
Three cuttings from my sempervirem Jackson which rotted off in all the wet have made it through as well and will go into my new sempervirem pot/bed when hardened off.