An Ugly Frame For A Pretty Picture - Slow Gardening

We had been thinking of ways in which we could improve our garden for wildlife and hatched upon a plan to entice the shy wrens that flit along the hedgerow at the bottom of the garden to adventure closer so that we might see them more often. We had been deliberating on winter-flowering honeysuckle to extend seasonal forage for pollinators so, we were taken in hand by Alys Fowler's Gardening Advice Saturday 26 December about wintersweet and winter-flowering honeysuckle. The read proved a resolute decision-maker... we're sorted.

We chose the more compact Sweetest honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima as we planned to use a 1.8m length of A142 rebar mesh we had left over from a project to build a trellis on which to support it. On Alys's ingenious suggestion we also planted a cultivated blackberry, ‘Loch Ness’ AGM as it is thornless. This will provide forage for the Speckled Wood butterflies that frquent the garden and provide pickings for our favourite recipes. Frankly, we've not foraged for years as we've been horrified by the increasing number of foragers who strip baby buggy loads of pickings from the wild places nearby. We don't want to be seen to be encouraging or endorsing their plunder by picking any for our own consumption.

We would have been even happier if we could have been sure the plants were peat-free.

The box the plants were shipped in has been employed in keeping the kitteh from rain-induced cabin fever by giving her a den from which to scowl at the damp, soggy world yonder.

All Is Quiet

The gloomy morning was spent on garden odd jobs. These onion and garlic nets* were upcycled into barley straw bales to prevent hair-like blanketweed in our two ponds and the water container garden.

It is best to thread the string through both ends of the tubular net, tying off one end before stuffing with barley straw. Leave the ends of string long as they can be used to tie the bale to a half brick. This will help to submerge the bale discreetly in the pond otherwise it will bob on the surface.

*Apologies in advance but this is a niggle that infuriates us on a daily basis: this type of over-packaging of supermarket consumables is a flagrant disregard of the impact of product end-life on the environment. Since retailers will continue to do so with impunity we feel that it is up to consumers to spend their earnings politically. By upcycling these nets we are trying to make good out of others' bad and are not encouraging new purchases.

The sweet pea shoots were topped to produce side shoots. Tomoto seeds were sowed: Pink Zebra, Green Zebra, Garden Grape, Zapotec PLeated all from Populuxe Seed Bank, Garden Pearl from our Cultivate Waltham Forest 2015 seed pack and Black Russian and Ananas.

Let it be a long, sunny summer.

Peat Free

So starts the sowing of seeds. We would have to drive miles out of our way to find a retailer that sells ready mixed peat free seed sowing and seedling compost so the alternative is to continue to reconstitute coir compost blocks...which is easily done.

In our experience we add half the suggested amount of water to get a dryish substrate into which we can evenly mix additives such as biochar, rock dust, grit or vermiculite depending on the seeds we are are sowing. That said we are not sure about the true ecological impact of using these mined & processed minerals, though logically it can only be negative. So we're going to use the very last from the bottom of bags from the years of yore and then experiment with garden soil, watching for damping off and germination rates. Hey ho.

Lovely stuff

RHS London Early Spring Plant Fair

We were sorely tempted by the streptocarpus and alarmed by the Rex type begonias (especially the hairy one) if only because they ought to be whimsical beasties found in an Edward Gorey book. Frankly all requirements were catered for, from garden sundries to ...

... the outré - Pycnoporus sanguineus

The breadth of choice offered by the exhibitors at the RHS London Early Spring Plant Fair was overwhelming. The jostle of the marketplace made it a bit difficult to stop, peruse and assimilate - which is how we roll. The copious swathes of spring bulbs and double-flowering plants were a little hot-housed for our taste - we like our Spring familiar and stock, straggled, hardened and raw. Though that is not to say once we've got the garden to a point where it is keeping itself that a little pot or patch of something précieux might be cherished.

Carnival Capers

The annual caper to @KewGardens for the #KewOrchids show is a much anticipated dose of polychromatic goodness. This year's flamboyant Brazilian carnival theme cranked up the cheer-o-matic-ometer to fantastically festive; 'The Hips' may have even tried to make like Renato Sorriso the 'Samba Sweeper' when everybody else was busy looking at the spectacular displays. The festival is on until the 6th of March.

The cockles were further cheered by the Spring serenade of the robins in the Palm House and the signs thereof all about.

So this is how it's done. The bar has been set- some care will have to be put into crafting our own plant supports back at Plot57b.

Ta Da

More Hippeastrum Happiness

Hippeastrum Orange Sovereign in all its glory. Thank you J.

Hippeastrum Happiness

Gong Hey Fat Choy

May it be a prosperous Red Fire Monkey Year.

Seedy Sunday @SeedySundyBton

The Seedy Sunday Brighton event is a white stone day in our gardening calendar. The day approaches with a slow, pleasurable accretion of anticipation over the growing year: seeds sowed; seeds collected and dried; seeds sorted and packaged. The event never fails to exceed expectations and culminates in a friendly scrum; seeds swapped.

The swag - for the plot57b pollinators. May 2016 be floriferous.

Not put off by last year's returns we are chitting up these Vittelotte, early main (waxy) and Shetland Black, 2nd early (floury). Yes that is a yacon start, an unassuming little lump - looked it up on the internet back at plot57b HQ and nearly fell over backwards on seeing pictures of the size of the plant. We may have to negotiate with the neighbours to grow this one out in their garden.

Imogen was braved to plant the purchase of Wild Ramson starts immediately on return home. These red artichokes & some comfrey bocking 14 will be dug in on the weekend.

This week the sweet peas and some Purple Cayenne and Peruvian Lemon drop chillies will be sown.

Imogen Huffs and Puffs

#WorldWetlandDay 2016

Wide skies and the wild heronry on a walk organised by the London Wildlife Trust at the Walthamstow Wetlands to celebrate #Ramsar World Wetlands Day 2016.

Walthamstow Resevoir is currently being transformed into a wetland nature reserve, it is undergoing habitat enhancement work and restoration and development of a victorian engine house as a visitor centre. We are gladdened by the foresight and conservation efforts of London Borough of Waltham Forest in partnership with Thames Water and key stakeholders including the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Greater London Authority. The area has SSSI (Sites of Special Scientific Interest), SPA (Special Protection Areas) & Ramsar designations and is an ecologogally important site both locally and internationally. We can't wait for the Walthamstow Wetlands to be opened to the public in 2017 when it will be operated by the London Wildlife Trust.