Well I’m really not doing well with keeping up with the blogging, it’s the end of April already! It’s been unseasonably warm and dry, and I haven’t had a single bit of slug damage this year to anything I’m growing *Touches wood furiously*. Last year I used slug nematodes which did a great job, but last spring it rained constantly.
I put my early potatoes out under fleece about 6 weeks ago I think, and removed the fleece this week as they were pushing it up and growing fantastically. Also out since end of March has been all of my brassicas, cabbage, cauliflower, sprouting broccoli and sprouts, all netted as the white butterflies were out early too due to the nice weather! At a customers garden this week I was shocked at the amount of large white butterflies drowning in buckets and caught in spiderwebs in the stables. Then I remembered that in autumn last year there were caterpillars crawling all over the buildings, thousands of them, due to their being a mustard cover crop sown in the farm fields all around the property. These are newly emerging from cocoons in the buildings. So I have all their brassicas securely netted too as it will be an Armageddon otherwise!
Most things are growing very well, although tomatoes feel a little slow, and I’ve been trying to grow lots of things from old seed packets a friend gave me, with varying, generally disappointing results. I have some apple trees that I grafted 2 years ago (Millicent Barnes and Fiesta) that have an abundance of blossom, I won’t let it all go to fruit but I’m still so happy to see them thriving! The pear tree that lost all of it’s blossom last year in a storm and only produced one pear is looking spectacular this year. I have copious amounts of flower buds on my grape vine which has never happened before, I bought it 2 or 3 years ago so hopefully it’s now of an age that I will get some fruit from it! I have some lovely volunteer seedlings coming up in the veg plot, I threw out some very old beetroot and chard seed that I wasn’t going to get a chance to plant, thinking if just a few take over winter I would be happy with that. Looks like I have at least 30 coming up in random places, which is fine for me! I have some clearance plants I bought in autumn that have not survived the cold winter which is a shame, I have to stop trying to rescue every sick plant, I’m still clinging on to the hope that the jasmine will survive but no leaf buds on it yet 🙁
Work wise, I attended a dahlia propagation workshop with the WFGA, and came home with two cuttings which are rooting up nicely. I also attended a fabulous behind the scenes tour of Dibley’s house plants in Ruthin, which was a very enjoyable day, from which I came home with a couple more houseplants that I can’t fit in the house!
Work in clients gardens has been mostly weeding, lots of scarifying and lawn care, and planting up new bedding plants to make the most of the nice weather.
