Mice, slugs and Spring blooms

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I had a mammoth seed sowing fest - and have these shelves up now in the barn to accommodate all those new seed trays. I had the seed and even if i don't know where I'll put all the plants I couldn't face not growing them this year.

The weather has been quite warm during the days for a while, so I've also been hardening some seedlings off outside.

I thought, with the weather warming, that I wouldn't have a problem with mice anymore. If you remember, they ate some broad bean seeds - from the pots - back in February.

Alas, I underestimated the dedication of mice to finding a good snack. Stupidly, I'd put some seeds on the bottom level of the shelves and that proved too much of a temptation to Mr / Mrs / Miss Mouse.

I noticed on Thursday that I'd lost some cauliflower, calendula, sweet peas, sunflowers and nasturtiums. I've had to re-buy the nasturtiums and sweet peas. I have reserves of the rest.

If you look closely at this pic you can see that Mr Mouse likes a nibble of nasturtiums, but won't finish the lot!

On Thursday I also noticed that the broad beans I'd put out this week have started to get slug damage.

You can see it here on these leaves. I did a night time patrol yesterday and caught three big slugs!

Yesterday, Frenchie the chicken had a relapse (she was a bit poorly over Easter - but improved again). The vet thinks it's a gut infection. So, we've had to separate her, so we can give her medicine in her water. She isn't impressed. We put Madelene(the friendliest and daftest chicken) in with her at night to keep her warm and cosy.

Here's Frenchie this morning in her makeshift little pen.

Hopefully, thats all our 'bad luck' for now (I'm trying to not even think of the ongoing planning hold ups - we're now waiting on the reedbed report, which we need before we can make our next submission. We were meant to get it three weeks ago - but it's hard to hurry anything up in Leitrim - even if it drives you daft waiting!)

Anyway, it's a new day today and I have some replacement seeds ready to sow.

Our potatoes are starting to make an appearance now in the bags.

My red lettuce if finally turning red (after being green with nasty dark blotches).

Outside, work goes on clearing the drive at my aunts.

I even got her a couple of herbs for the sunny south facing bed, which should be done soon.

For myself, I couldn't resist a wee anemone that will probably come to Leitrim with us. It's always out so early in the year, I find it really cheery.

Outside we have some willow cuttings that I'll try to plant up.

They are this years prunings from the teepee we made a few years back.

Out in the lane, the spring flowers are well underway. Here's the aconite (?).

and here's some wood anenome.

I'm not sure what this is, but it's growing up the wall of my aunts house. Small, but beautifully formed.

Here's her Camellias, just coming into flower now.

Even her redcurrants and showing signs of life.

I've even taking some cutting some rose prunings. It's a big, old fashioned, shrub rose. I'll pot it up soon and see if it 'takes'.

The Edible Garden and seed sowing

There is a very interesting programme on the tv tonight (BBC2 at 8pm) called The Edible Garden. It seems just my sort of thing. As I may have said before, I love the idea of having edible gardens and landscapes, especially forest gardens. I'm hoping this programme will give give me some ideas and inspiration (and eye candy!).

It seems that the presenter, Alys Fowler (as seen on Gardener's World I think - didn't have tv on site so am out of the loop on such things) will attempt to live off home grown vegetables, without turning her garden into an allotment.

I must admit to secretly dreaming of living mainly off my own produce, but I think it will be a gradual process. For one thing, I'm vegetarian and have had a difficult time trying to get soya beans to germinate for me this year. I had planned to try some in the tunnel, but that is no longer an option. I think I'd starve if I had to rely on my own resources for soya. Mind you, I do have a plentiful supply of protein from eggs.

Anyway, I digress. I do love the idea of integrating vegetable growing into the garden as a whole, rather than in lines or rows - or even formal beds. Now, I haven't quite managed this in the tunnel last year. Yet, looking back, I did integrate some flowers in with the veg.

I had a herb and flower patch by my folding chair.

The flax had beautiful blue flowers (gone to seed in this photo) as well as giving me edible seeds.

I planted nasturtiums on the edges of the borders, but they are thugs and did take over in some places. The worked really well in with the leeks. Here they are at the base of some sunflowers.

Nasturtium and flax made a good combination.

Of course, some vegetables look very ornamental and pretty anyway. Climbing beans are an obvious example, but there are others, such as these onions below.

I do plan a mixed cottage garden / herb garden which should have some veggies dotted around the place, but I'm wondering now if there is a way to grow the majority of my veg 'in a garden setting'. Hmm. Since the tunnel came down, the beds there are looking VERY linear. Yes, lots to think about.

As well as such musings, we (well Sam actually) did some more 'weeding' of the drive at my aunts (after a couple of days where wind and rain stopped play).

I decided to tackle some more seed sowing. I'm not 100% of this years 'revised' plans yet, as we still can't be sure when we're back on site (so don't know when we can plant down there) but I can also give away any excess seedlings.

Inside, I have my 'pet' peanut - I grew it as a trial, from supermarket raw peanuts. I'll try it on a windowsill this year.

Here are some basil and celery that I started a while back.

Here we are today, in my aunts barn .. which is slowly being taken over by my plants and seeds - oops.

On the ground are some mini salad leaves I started in January (they were a bit sulky after spending too long indoors on the windowsill).

Here, left to right are my tomatoes and melons, onions and salad and todays mixed sowing of all sorts (marigolds, rocket, celery leaf etc)

Here is a cucumber (from an early test to see if the seed was still viable) and a tray with oriental leaves (up as seedlings) and some new sowings - leeks, lettuce and other goodies.

Here are some onions I started from seed earlier in the year. Even if they don't grow full size, I find them useful as small onions.

Here's a close up of the melons and tomatoes (from seed testing earlier in the year - I just can't bear to throw them out if they germinate - so I'll have to find some cover for them this summer).

Here, I've decided to test some potato planters and I have put 2 first earlies and 1 second early in today. It's a little late, but better late than never. I'm unsure if I'll get a good result - and generally find spuds good for breaking up new ground, but, this year planters are an easy was to get a taster of home grown spuds.

The browny orange bags are also 'planters' and, getting desperate to get planting I thought I could start some things off in them and they could later come down to site with us. Have to decide exactly what to put in them now.

Tempted by the seed packets?

Tempting? Oh yes, the lure of the seed packet is very strong right now - as the wind howls outside.

These seeds were a welcome Christmas gift, but I must confess, they have unleashed the budding gardener within far, far too early.

Every fibre of my being wants to rush out and get planting - but, as my brain knows well, that not a clever move - yet.

Apart from broad beans and onions I'm gritting my teeth and biding my time.

If I start the sowing spree too early I'll have a rake of seedlings going leggy on windowsills and having to be coaxed to survive until it's time to put them in their final growing places.

So, what to do to satiate that lust to get planting? Well, I could sprout some sprouts on a windowsill for a VERY quick crop, or even attempt some indoor cut and cut again seedlings, but, luckily I found a diversion. Get planning.

Oh yes, time to channel my energies into getting organised for the coming season.

So, I've been looking at my gardening notebook from 2009 - and noticing that I didn't plant ANYTHING (apart from broad beans and windowsill basil) before the first week in April. Granted, that was because there was nowhere to put any seeds until the shell of the house went up in March 2009.

Anyway, it was really helpful to look back over the timings, successes and failures of last year. The tomatoes grew fine despite a late start. It's just a pity they got blight in mid September. Most things did really well. We had great sweetcorn, peas, cucumbers, sweet potato, salad leaves etc.

I have learned a thing or two along the way. That putting up a polytunnel with two people is indeed possible, but quite silly; that squashes are thugs that need constant attention(hacking back) unless you want them to smother everything in sight; that chickens are devious and will find a way into the tunnel if at all possible; that there really is NOTHING like the taste of the first broad bean, pea or corn of the season. I could go on... but I digress.

I have the planning bug big now. I did start in the autumn with an outline plan for the polytunnel.

I already have a crop rotation system underway in there and have some oriental leaves, salads and brassicas overwintering already. The radishes I planted at the end of August, between broccoli seedlings, were very yummy, so that worked well .. and we still have nice salad leaves etc

Anyway, in my growing enthusiasm, I took the big plunge .. and started to plan out the 'kitchen garden' aka the vegetable beds that will be right at the back of the house. I had a rough size and shape but hadn't got around to planning exactly what I'd put in them.

Successional planting is key for me. I want as much home grown produce as possible as much of the time as possible. I've never really tried to grow food on a 'large' scale before. Before setting up the polytunnel I'd just been dabbling really - trying a few things here and there.

When I stopped to think about it, there is a lot to consider. How many potatoes or cauliflowers or peas do we eat in a year? How much space would that take up? How exactly do I manage to have cabbage all year round? I still have a lot to learn. To be honest, the more I thought about it, the more complicated it seemed to become.

So, I turned to my trusted companion - Joy Larkcom's "Grow Your Own Vegetables" to look at her planting ideas. Noticing that the kitchen garden plot is a similar size to her sample plans, I have very strongly modeled my plan on her 'gourmet plan'. I've substituted a few things and made a few additions, but otherwise it's a straight copy. Actually, it's a great way of learning about successional planting and seeing first hand crop rotation in action, so thank you Joy, you've made that much easier for me, on paper at least.

I must admit that, although not sowing seeds yet, I do have the urge to buy a few more, in preparation. I do notice though, that I won't always use the full amount of seed I get in a packet. I'm hoping that some of last years spare seed will still be viable, so I can use it this year. Even so, it gets me thinking about seed swapping - even 1/2 packs. It seems a great way to try new and different things. I'm sure there are schemes for it out there. I will check it out.

Meanwhile, if anyone out there fancies swapping some seeds, just get in touch. Leave a comment or email me (ferrisjay@gmail.com).

Still on the subject of seeds I'm pondering this year's system for propagating. Last year I took full advantage of my neighbors airing cupboard - and it looks like I may be going down that route again (sorry Jenny) to get chillis, tomatoes etc started. Then I kept them in the shell of the house until the polytunnel went up in mid May. I did try my invention of the hot water bottle propagator, which was rather ineffective to say the least.

Well, for 2010 I have a new plan. As we won't have mains electricity in Spring, I can rule out a proper heated propagator or heat mat for starting off seeds OR keeping them happy until outside temperatures warm up. So, undaunted, I have a new plan. It will involve a 12 volt electric blanket and a car battery. Watch this space.

Otherwise, I'll try using a cloche at night in the polytunnel if temperatures drop.

Also, while I ponder the balancing act of when to start seeds so that a) they aren't so early that they go leggy indoors or could get too cold in the tunnel or b) they aren't too late to produce well ... I'm leaning towards starting them later and trusting they'd catch up with any riskier earlier sowing ... heres a picture of the hens having a holiday in the snow.

Have a Happy New Year everyone. Here's to a fabulous 2010 for us all.