Sunday 12 May 2013

Askham Bryan Plant Fest

A fantastic College Open Day, with plant sales, crafts & tree climbing. The boys skipped around trying a bit of everything, only lamenting they couldn't do double handed axe throwing like the 'big tree boys'.

We set up an area for seed sowing, using recycled containers, and about 50 children sprinkled, plonked and patted vegetable seeds into egg boxes, mini cereal packets, crisp tubes, juice cartons and flat sided water bottles. Debz & I cut the bases of plastic bottles into flowers to attach to lolly sticks to make plant labels, and tiny wooden stick-on ladybirds decorated each confection (& a couple of grown ups' lapels too).

In the lull, I sowed a crafty tray or two or overdue seeds for the allotment (squash, kale, corn, sorrel), using some of the compost floor sweepings. After opening a bag of compost at home to find little more than a mass of chewed sticks, the floor sweepings seem quite a viable prospect.

Meat Eaters

Gardeners are incredible generous, whether sharing seeds, plants or opinions (whether good or bad!). It is always a joy to give a little, as the rewards are many fold. Did I mention the overflowing seed box? That is the result of student seed swaps when I pick up the half opened packets at the end of the session.

I put a couple of carnivorous plant fanatics in contact with each other recently, and one, Steve Walker from Wack's Wicked Plants www.wackswickedplants.co.uk offered the boys a plant each as a thank you. They trotted home delightedly with their plants, named Clarence, Bob & Yogi Bear. Woodlice were rooted out of the paving to give to them as their first meal, and their pots were put into rainwater. Next time, we will try not to leave one in reach of the puppy, who liberated Clarence merrily across the lawn. He is having a short stay at the Plant Doctor's (our sunny bedroom window ledge), in the hope he recovers from Post-Puppy Stress Disorder.

By Royal Appointment

Huge excitement as our middle son has been excited to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Press day next week to be part of the RHS Campaign for School Gardening stand. He wants to know if he will meet "Mr Titchmarsh or the Queen", my proud mother wants to know if I will buy a new bra...

Sunday 5 May 2013

Wheedling with weeds

Why, when the sun has scarcely burst through the clouds & the rain hasn't thought about falling for weeks, do the weeds beat a military tattoo across the beds?
Whilst I accept the premise that 'nature abhors a vacuum', it still sends my heart plummeting when I make it onto the allotment after a mere 10 days away building show gardens. Where there was weathered, but bare soil, I now find chickweed, dandelion, creeping buttercup, groundsel, perennial ryegrass and annual meadowgrass bursting into flower more successfully than anything I could have squeezed into the cold soil after the snow melted.
An hour coaxing roots out of the dessicated & cracked clay soil results in two bins of weeds, and an extra minute is spent ripping the heads off any remaining dandelion flower that dares show its face. It may not stop their growth, but it will stop seeds blowing into neighbouring plots until I get more time to deal with them properly. Weeds don't respond to wheedling.

Park Life

A couple of hours spent in the local park checking ties, stakes & guards around the native saplings planted over two years ago reaped plenty of rewards. The trees have held up well, with only a couple of losses. We cleared a 30cm circle of nettles and grass around each base to help rain water to access the roots (when it finally comes).

It's incredible that such a quick & simple job is so often ignored - motorway embankments are the worst, but it is amazing how often domestic plantings have young trees straining against guards that have fused with the bark. Removing them is risky, as it exposes young, weak bark which can then be vulnerable to rabbit or deer attack, but after an original outlay in guards, ties, stakes & decent well-sourced trees, surely a moment to check them each year is a worthwhile onward investment.

Tussling with the trees almost drowned out the plaintive squeals from the overflowing seeds waiting to be sown in my seedbox at home...

Friday 3 May 2013

Looking for the Rainbow

Although it has been really tough to find many positives with the long wet summer last year & the extended cold winter, I finally found the rainbow when I walked the boys to school this morning. Because of the delayed start to the blossom, blackthorn is bursting at the same time as its leaves, softening the stark white blooms in the hedgerows. Hawthorn is following closer behind than usual, so they may even cross over, filling the boundaries with blooms.
And for the first time in over 10 years, the magnolia flowers are perfect delicate white and pink goblets: not scarred and scorched around the edges from an evening kiss of frost.