Nature, gardening and beautiful places
It’s that time of year with the sap rising and all sorts of wildlife starts to show itself. One of the delights of living in Scotland is that we often see hares in the fields and glens. These two fellows (or possibly lassies) were spotted on a country lane in Glen Lyon; possibly the best photo I’ve ever taken of these lovely creatures.
I visited the Snowdrop Festival at Cambo Gardens in Fife. Lovely gardens that stretch down to the North Sea. Snowdrops as far as the eye can see. Cambo have a lovely snowdrop themed shop and café too.
I usually come home with some pots of snowdrops. This year I bought ‘Brin’. This is a lovely tall upright variety. The bulbs are quite expensive and there were only three in a pot. It is going to be quite a few years before my gardens looks anything like Cambo.
Cobaea Scandens
Today, as it was such a beautiful day, I went into the greenhouse and sowed some Cobaea Scandens seeds. I had these seeds soaking in the kitchen in lukewarm water for 2 hours before planting. They are quite large seeds and need to be sown individually, vertically and on edge, and then just covered with compost. I covered them with clingfilm before putting them in my heated propagator. They are quite slow to germinate, from 21-30 days.
Cleome
I love these for picking in the summer. It is a shame that they have thorns though! I have the seeds in the fridge at the moment – they need to be there for a week before sowing. The seeds then need to be sown into individual pots on the surface of the compost. Do not cover them with more compost as they need light. Place the pots in a heated propagator during the day and then at night take them out and place them somewhere cool – I put mine in the kitchen overnight. The seeds need the extremes of temperature to germinate. Only water them from the bottom of the pot. I know that this sounds a bit of a faff but it is worth it!
I wandered round the garden today trying to find what is looking good…..I think that this witch hazel, Diana, fits the bill. Lovely colour and beautiful scent. Make sure you plant it where the scent can be appreciated on a winter’s day.
Some of our sweet pea seeds were started off last October. They were planted individually into cardboard toilet or kitchen rolls and then stood in supermarket fruit punnets. These were then left in our cold greenhouse over winter and they are now coming along fantastically well.
I sowed a second batch of seeds in January but these are a little leggy and have had to be pinched back today. We only grow really super scented sweet peas like Windsor, Prince Edward of York, Fragrant Skies, Nimbus and Cupani because I love picking the flowers for the house and if they don’t have a scent, they’re not worth growing! Prince of Orange, Heaven Scent and April in Paris are new varieties we are trying this year. We are looking forward to vases of sweet peas throughout the summer.
I started off the seed potatoes in egg boxes on the dining room window sill. I’ve chosen a first early – Maris Bard – and a second early – Kestrel from a selection at our local garden centre. We have grown Kestrel before and it’s a very tasty potato, but Maris Bard is a new one to us. These are going to stay indoors until the weather warms up in April when I can then plant out the first earlies in the raised beds in our vegetable garden. Any that won’t fit in the beds will go into containers. I have covered the potato beds with plastic, weighed down with some large stones, so that the soil warms up before planting.
Welcome to my blog in which I will be posting articles and photos from my gardening year and also of visits to local gardens or places of interest.
Chigley Green is a medium sized garden on the east coast of Scotland. We have a vegetable patch consisting of 18 raised beds. We have six small fruit trees; a Victoria plum and five apples, and there are lots of flower borders.
We have been working on the garden for a few years and now have an unheated greenhouse and cold frame. There is also a small meadow which is very much a work in progress. I have managed to get yellow rattle to establish and hope it will weaken the grass and allow other meadow plants a chance.
The weather is fairly temperate although we have the occasional heavy snow day in winter. The site is very windy. We have a hedge and a hazel hurdle fence, but these only provide a little protection from the westerly winds.
Chigley Green 