The proverbial British weather.

I love clear frosty mornings,

 

not only does the sun lift your spirit, the birds sing, the air is clear and you know that any aphid that is silly enough to have thought spring was on the way has been given a shock.

On the other hand I know that the grey, dank, gloomy days one can get in January and February are, to use a wonderful word, lugubrious .  It is on those days that working in the glasshouse can lift your spirits, as there is nothing more inspiring than seeing seedlings emerging.

Also, when I take a tea break in the afternoon, I top up my good mood with a cup of 3pm tea, the sheer warmth and aroma of the peppermint warms the cockles of one’s heart.

I can hear you all muttering that I am having a senior moment, well may be, but seriously there is nothing more inspiring than raising plants.  So top tip for the next few weeks, prepare some plug trays or a small pot, fill with seed compost, water in well, then sow the herb seeds of your choice, cover with perlite, not vermiculite. For those that don’t know the difference, perlite is the white light product and does not hold water

and vermiculite is the beige product that does hold water.  Only water again if you find that the compost is drying out and, if it is a salad herb, the seed will sprout within a week.  At that point it is crucial not to over water.  So a good tip is to water in the morning before you leave for work, not at night so that the seedlings do not go to bed wet.

Happy sowing.

On the Farm in late November

For the last few weeks I have been battling with the propagation schedule for 2012.  When one grows  annuals, perennials, shrub, woody, tender and tropical herbs in a comparatively small propagation area, it is rather like doing one of those impossible jigsaws.

We have just finished all the root cuttings so that the seed sowing schedule  can start next week.  Priority goes to the  Chelsea annuals that have to be in flower for May, what a thought just 24 weeks until we deliver , no pressure! We will do two sowings, one now and one in a month’s time, this second sowing  will catch up, but we need the  insurance so that can  we guarantee, as much as possible, that the plants will be as near perfect  for those unique days in May at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

So the headache is that I need to get x amount of trays through the house in December and  January, when the light levels are low and the day and night time temperatures are erratic so making it nearly impossible to schedule. Where as the April schedule for plants, sellable in July, is much easier  as one can actually forecast  how long a plant will take from seed to sale, which on average is 6 weeks.  So to help me concentrate and to stop me feeling uptight with the computer I am drinking my 3pm tea and when things get really bad, I go and find Hampton, my dog, and walk the farm.

I have made an interesting mistake with my own garden, I

put these pea seeds to dry on the table near my house, before storing, then forgot them, and it rained, they have now germinated .  So I have potted them up and we will shortly be having pea shoots in our salads.

Despite our first frost, of the month, last night it has been incredibly warm.  This I am sure accounts for the infestation of aphids  still being rampant on our outside stock.

These black aphids are making a meal of  garlic chives.  We spray with a soft soap solution, please do not use washing up liquid as this is not suited for use on plants .    This solution is readily available from any good hardware store or garden centre.

So now I have finished the propagation schedule it is off to the seed shed to clean all the seeds we have harvested this year, get them labelled and filed so that we can find them quickly once the season is up and running.  It’s a great job to do and the smell is amazing and, even better, it takes me away from the computer.