Day 9 of the Advent Season

The First Visitors Arrive

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The girls after their bible stories on the right got the new characters to put into their Nativity scene.

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I thought it would be nice for me to teach them some Christmas carols as well, so to go along with the theme today I searched on You Tube for the carol 'Away in the Manger'.

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We had great fun learning it but it made me feel rather homesick for a Trinidad Christmas, for at this time of the year the radio stations are not only playing regular run of the mill music but also a large amount of Christmas carols and local Christmas music. So with that in mind I searched out another song 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' but sung by a Trinidadian calypsonian Baron which tells the same story of 'Away in a Manger'.

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I plan to try and feature one Trinidadian/ Trinidadian sung Christmas song per posting till Christmas, why? because.... I want too ;)

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. Away in a Manger

Oh Come All Ye Faithful by Calypsonian Baron

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Just want to add, this is what what was delivered to me today by a freecycler who answered my want ad for blue water pipe and damp proof membrane. I plan to use the pipe to create supports for my nets which will protect vulnerable plants and the damp proof membrane will hopefully create a water tight layer for at least one green shed roof project (I have three to cover).

Really Great Weather

Well we are in for our first week of great weather with temperatures in double figures, lots of uninterrupted sunshine and light breezy and at times warm wind forecasted, so I supppose spring is definately here and there is no turning back.

I'll let this post cover the whole week, adding to it a little each night on each days events.

Monday

Saw my first wood anenome in the woods today when I was going to collect Nathifa from school and the sweet violas are also blooming beautifully although not yet in my garden :( and on the way home from dropping Thifa at brownies I saw my first dandelion, I will have less of these in my garden this year as there is less uncultivated land available for them to grow and when I finish laying my brick paving down there would be no where for them to grow, maybe I'll leave the odd corner for them to ocupy and just forget to weed it from time to time, the trick to stop them spreading all around the garden is to not let the flower heads set seed but that doesn't stop them coming over the fence on the wind >:(.

Why keep them you may wonder, well I am also into wild foods and they make a great tea, can be used in salads (blanching the leaves while growing with an upturned bucket helps to reduce their bitterness), the bees and other beneficial bugs such as hoverflies (whose larva eats the nasty plant sucking aphids which attacks my veges) enjoy the pollen and nectar from the flowers and we enjoy the flowers both in salads but mainly lightly fried in stir fries.

Anyway down to what I have been achieving thus far today:

I cleaned up the flower beds, removing spent seed heads which I leave as a source of food for the birds over winter, cleared the beds of all the autumn fallen leaves and any weeds that may have established themselves early autumn. This allowed me to remove numerous slugs & snails and caterpillars or other grubs that would eat my plants, giving the birds easy access to said pests as there was less hiding places for them. Any plants that did not survive the winter were also removed and everything was dumped into my compost bin which as you can see I have almost filled up, though with mainly dry brown waste but this will balance out later in the season when more green wet waste is added.

It was truly a whole day job what with stopping to feed the smallest offspring and having to also pick up the oldest from school I was unable to finish and so will have to leave the relaying of bark chipping to the paths for Tuesday when I would also be tiding up the herb bed.

Germination progress noted for today IE what has begun;

• The tomatoes.
• The onions.
• The nasturtiums.
• The spring onions.
• The ochro seedlings are now four.

Here are some other photos taken today:


Tuesday

Oh! what a beautiful morning, oh! what a beautiful day :)

Well I got to sorting out the herb bed as you can see, cutting down last year flower stalks, pruning and cutting back small shrubs to encourage fresh growth to use when cooking and a general tiding up.

Everything appears to have survived the winter with all but the arnica already producing young shoots. Some are on escape missions namely the oregano, lemon balm and the mint (which in all truthfulness had escaped but I was able to curtail its plans). I introduced some lawn edging boundaries to make this job easier in the future, this will help too in finding plants in the following springs when their shoots have not yet emerged.

With the reigning in of the mint and the oregano I ended up with lots of rooted cuttings which I have planted up for a couple friends and family, with the majority going to my local area freecycle group, well its them or the burn heap which as you can see is more than ready to be reduced but I will do that at the end of the week when all the tidying is done.

The herb bed took much longer than I ever anticipated to so the flower paths still did not get relaid but as they say tomorrow is another day.

One of the joys of being outside at this time of the year is the wildlife just listen to what accompanied me during most of my time outside today, yep bird song, the one we are listening to is by the mistle thrush.

Today I saw my second flowering dandelion and was lucky to have my camera, so you can see it too.

Germination progress today is as follows;

• The squash and pumpkins have started.
• Along with the purple basil.
• There was some signs of one cabbage sprouting so far.
• And some germination of the dwarf scabosia.

Here are some other photos taken today:

Wednesday

I finally relaid the footpaths between the flower beds with more bark chipping and looks so good. Checkout the before and after photos of the flower beds area.

Some sowing of seeds were done, namely dun dun duhhhh!!!! BRUSSEL SPROUTS. None of really care for them but i would like to see if by being homegrown and freshly picked, if that would make a difference in the taste. So with every one's general dislike in mind I'm growing a red variety that remains red to see if the eye could help sway the brain in to enjoying them. if i am successful in reintroducing Brussel sprouts to the family's diet it will be added as another veg in the winter veg list.

Germination of the green basil was observed.

Today I made my first harvest of the early purple sprouting brocolli, it went down a treat.

Here are some other photos taken today:

Thursday

Well what can I say about Thursday, it started of with some evidence of night time frost the bird bath surface was frozen as well but the sun was making an appearance as you can clearly see. The temperature was also mild with promises of more warmth.

But then at about 11.30am the sun disappeared and the air got really icy cold. I was outside when the change in the weather occurred, I was planting up my second early potatoes; five of Smile, five of Pixie and 3 of Nadine.

After that I pottered around removing the last overwintered weeds from the beds and some spent overwintered beetroot which didn't account to anything, they all ended up in the compost bin.

I was planning to get more done but none of the planned work was going to be heavy sweat producing work and it was getting too cold so came in for lunch and called it a day. Its funny, when its a warm day and I can feel myself getting hungry and I mentally tell my stomach to leave off and the hunger simply goes away and I blissfully continue gardening for hours on end (almost resenting any breaks I have to take) but a day like this and there is no way I'm able to ignore my hunger.

I noticed though that one of the containers with first early planted potatoes have the beginnings of potato plant foliage starting to peek through the soil surface.

Here are some other photos taken today;

Friday

Today the sun returned with all its brightness and warmth but I'm afraid my accomplishments were small. The day was filled with so many interrupting mundane tasks that in the end I felt like I was running around like a headless chicken.

I did though get to plant my Oca and Ulluca tubers and with all the rushing around I even forgot to take a photo of what they looked like chitted with the starting of their new growth. But they all went into individual pots and I'll show you them once they start to put on some foliage.

Two jobs I really wanted to get done today was the cleaning of the vege pond and the burning of my bonfire, the pond job simply eluded me all day and I completely forgot to start the fire this evening >:(.

Now to top it all off I haven't even taken one picture to mark today and it was a nice day.

Any hoo! that's it for this week's jobs, hope to get a couple things done tomorrow morning, we'll be off to visit and overnight by family till Sunday late and according to the weather forecast things are to go downhill from there so I'll see what next week brings in relation to jobs in the garden.

The Sun Has Put His Smile On, Hip Hip Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Oh what a beautiful daaayyy!!!!

Yep you guessed right it was a beautiful sunny warm day today just as they forecasted.

The morning started with evidence of ground frost even the water I put out for the birds was frozen over.






After getting Nathifa off to school I went outside to get a little gardening done. There were two main jobs I wanted to get done today.

1. Was the sowing of some seeds that could remain in the greenhouse to germinate. I was not able to get all done (I still have to care for Na'imah from time to time, LOL) but got most sown even with a little help from the little miss.

The seeds I sowed were:

• Lettuce by 4 varieties; Little Gem, New Fire Red, Buttercrunch and Pandero.
• Par-cel, this is herb with a taste halfway between celery and parsley. I have never used it before and it can also be used in companion planting.
• Turnips, another new one for us to try and again if we like it, it will add to out winter croppers.
• Pak choi, a mixed coloured pack.
• Mizuna, another Chinese vegetable that I am used to eating as part of salad bags but plan to let it grow larger and use in stir fries like pak choi.
• Sunflowers were sown by the little miss and will be used for their prettiness and to attract pollinating insects (which is another aspect of companion planting).

2. My other job was the splitting of my chive clumps in the kitchen herb patch/ bed. Chives may start with just a few bulbs but every two to three years the clump can become congested and so to keep the plants healthy its good practice to split the clumps into smaller pieces and replant. This is the same for most clump form perennial plants. I shared my surplus plants with members of the Maidstone Freecycle Group and replanted the original number 0f fourteen clumps.

Now for a quick germination update:

• The teasel germinated on the 27th of Feb but yet to show their leaves just signs of a root going into the soil.
• The lemon grass began to germinate yesterday.
• And the melons began today.

Last but by no means least here is picture of my garden's first daffodil of the season, it started blooming two days ago.

The Beat Goes On.

The sun has been attempting to break through all day but has only managed a hazy appearance as you can see.

Nature though sure appreciated the slightly brighter and warmer day and after days of keeping their buds shut the crocuses were blooming again. The yellow native primroses on the left has also burst into flower for the first time this year and a dwarf iris on the right decided to show off its blooms.

A sure sign that spring is on its way for me was my first sighting of bumble bees I saw three in total two queens and a worker. They were working the crocuses in my garden and a flowering shrub in my neighbour's garden.

I also took advantage of the milder brighter day and got some seeds sown, tidied up the broad bean bed and harvested some fresh herbs for this evening dinner.

The seeds Riesenbutter (a giant radish) were sown directly into the vege bed. I prepared the area by raking in a little blood, fish and bone fertiliser into the amazingly crumbly soil, sowed the the seeds and watered them in. I then covered the area with some corrugated plastic to help the area retain heat and moisture which should help the seeds to germinated successfully.

The broad bean area was planted up mid autumn with 18 plants, which were all doing well till the snowfall early January. I think because the snow stayed on the ground for such a long time the plants got bent under the weight which caused their stems to become too damaged to continue growing (see the picture on the left). I was left with one plant that was healthy and upright (see the pic in the middle) and there were a few plants which appeared to be shooting up fresh shoots (see the picture on the right).

After removing all the dead plants and mounding the soil around the surviving plants (a measly four in total), I resowed eighteen seeds in cells in a seed tray which have been placed in my permanently open mini greenhouse. they can be sown directly into the soil at this time but it increases the risk of mice talking the seeds and or the seeds rotting in the ground due to cold and damp. As soon as they are all germinated and develop a decent root system I'll pop them into the ground, that way hopefully they will grow up tough which in theory is suppose to make them more resistant against blackfly, this is the reason for autumn sowing over spring sowing.

The seedling update is as follows; non of this week's sowings have yet germinated but at this time I have;

• 100% germination of my melongene seeds.
• 90% germination of the annual salvia.
• 75% germination of the celeriac.
• 25% germination of the torsha.
• 75% germination of the hot pepper.
• 25% germination of the sweetpeppers.
• 66% germination of the rudbeckia.
• 22% germination of the echinacia.

So once I don't kill these seedlings I should have something to plant out early July.

And to end my day in the garden the local Robin decided to give a song and oblige me the opportunity to take a picture of him doing so.

The day ended with the collection of two benches from a freecycle member for our dining table. Although I told the lady the size bench I was interested in they still turned out to be too small for the space. Never mind the would work in the interim and when we get or build the size bench we need I'll pass them on via freecycle too.

Freebies

Well today was absolutely glorious with clear blue skies and warm sunshine (although a little chilly in the shade ). I would like to say that I took advantage of the beautiful weather and got some work done in the garden of which there are loads but circumstances proved that goal to be unachievable but not unproductive.

Now not sure of how many of you have heard of the organisation Freecycle before but in their own words "The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,684 groups with 6,463,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills" http://www.freecycle.org/ .Well I stumbled across this group last year May'08 when I had surplus young vegetable plants and was looking for a way to rehome them. Those plants went like hot cakes and I decided to explore this group further with great success and received a few choice items that I have since used to improve my garden.

This week I saw in the postings that there were some paving slabs available to a good home and I luckily was chosen as the recipient . They turned out to be seven very large, very thick and very heavy slabs, plus a further six smaller but still quite thick and heavy slabs. The person home was very far from the road so we had to go home for a wheelbarrow as they didn't have any, plus to not damage the car's suspension we had to carry the slabs home in two trips (picture a not to happy husband ). I now believe I have enough slabs to pave the area around my compost bins, which will have to wait till another day after I level the area. In the mean time all my free slabs are neatly stacked.

Though the day was taken up with this task I was still able to enjoy the lovely weather and the warm sun had crocuses blooming every where we passed including ours.

The primroses which have been in bloom since December seem to shine with fresh beauty in the bright almost spring sunshine.

The seedling update for today is; the celeriac seeds (on the left) started sprouting yesterday and I noticed the melongene seeds (on the right) have started to sprout today as well.

There is some damping off occurring with the thyme seedlings, hopefully most of the seedlings will survive, if not I will have to resow. Damping off is the term used for a number of different fungal caused ailments which can kill seeds or seedlings before or after they germinate. The warm, wet conditions which speed up germination and seedling growth are also conducive to fungal attacks. A given seed can become infected with a fungus, often causing it to darken and soften. This can kill it before the seedling emerges, or cause the seedling to be weak, sometimes getting "wet" patches on it which decay until it falls apart. Likewise, a seedling can be infected after it sprouts, before it leaves the ground, or even after it appears well-developed, the latter often resulting in the plant mysteriously thinning right where it touches the ground, until its stem at that point rots and it falls over (as in the picture shown).

One last thing I lost my sweet potato tuber which I was attempting to grow some slips (ie young plants) from it. For what ever reason it rotted off in the water so it has been added to the compost bucket . I won't try again this year as this crop needs a long growing season and I was really hoping to have some slips potted up by now. For next year's crop I will try to start earlier like in December.