Chopping, sowing, mowing and making space...
Hello friends!
Thanks so much for all your lovely messages last week. Looks like the idea of a little 5 minute gardening recipe bundle is a good one and I'll get on with it asap!
My five minute gardening forays this week:
Monday I chopped the flowers off my rudbeckia. Once you move a perennial it's vital obviously, to water it in well, but if you want the roots to go great guns and really get a foot hold before winter sets in, then you must stop the plant from setting seed, which takes up lots of energy. Chopping off the spent flowers will re-direct all that energy back into producing roots, so you have a better plant next year.
Tuesday. I finally sowed my sweet peas for next year! It's unlike me to think ahead as far as this, but I had to get through this last summer sans sweet peas. I didn't DIE, but, well, I really really missed them. No-fuss five minute sweet pea sowing technique below. It really does pay to sow them now rather than in the Spring, as sweet peas are naturally adapted to germinate in autumn. Graham Rice wrote a great guide in the Telegraph which said:
Wild sweet peas originate in Sicily, where the summers are dry and the autumn rains initiate seed germination. During the winter, their roots head deep into the soil, but top growth develops slowly. In spring, stem growth speeds up, flowering takes place in May and June and seed ripens in the dry season. So sweet peas are naturally adapted to this autumn-to-summer cycle.
Wednesday. I mowed. that's all. I've said it before, but mowing is rapidly becoming my favourite form of meditation. It takes zero brain power (A Good Thing) and the rewards are great. Any mess you might have (and I have MUCH MESS) is mitigated by a pristine lawn. Go forth and mow.
Thursday. I began the process of making room for bulb planting. The space IS there, but in order to access it you need to do some staking. I dislike staking intensely, preferring instead to chop my perennials early in the year so that they don't get too tall and floppy. Ultimately though, there will be - if not flopping - then certainly LEANING, augmented by blowier conditions, as autumn whistles in. If you take five minutes to stake everything that's leaning over (use bamboo canes, twiggy branches, or those specially made plant supports) then you'll pretty much cut your bulb-planting time in half, because you'll be able to see the spaces so much more clearly and you'll know where you need to create more. I also moved another rudbeckia and one more iris sibirica to a different part of the garden that I am getting increasingly excited about.
Friday. I had pneumonia a few weeks ago. That didn't stop me doing five minutes of gardening...but I have finally met my match with the common cold. I would go on, but I've never signed up to a newsletter to hear anyone wax lyrical about their various ailments sooo.... Suffice to say, no gardening happened today.
Sowing sweet peas - the five minute way.
1. Don't think about it!... Do it!
2. Grab some deep containers (preferably rootrainers which you can get here if you're on Amazon prime) or if you can't wait then do a whip round with your neighbours and get as many loo rolls as you can. If that's not an option then choose pots at least 12 cm deep and put the seeds around the edge of it, leaving say 5cm between each seed.
3. Get some seed compost and add some perlite to it. If you can't get perlite then use multipurpose compost with added grit. You want the mixture to be light, not claggy, but you also want enough nutrients in it to get the plants through to spring. Fill your containers with the mixture and tap lightly on a hard surface to make sure there are no large air pockets.
4. Soak your sweet pea seeds overnight in warm water (optional, but I always do it)
5. Poke each seed into its container, up to the first joint of your pointing finger. Pinch the compost over the top of the hole you've made.
6. Water gently and carefully
7. Put the whole thing somewhere sheltered. An unheated green house is good if you have one, or a cold frame, or a clear plastic storage box with a lid. Once they've germinated, keep them in the fresh air (i.e. keep them by an open greenhouse window or keep the lid off the cold frame. By January they'll be ready to pinch out (I'll give you a nudge)
8. If all that is too much for you then just order Autumn sown sweet peas when they come up for sale in the spring. Nothing wrong with that...but obvs they'll cost you more.
Five minute things I might do next week
Finish my space-making and start my bulb-planting
Order some compost to add to some of my beds that have 'sunk' since being created. This will involve removing all the plants and could take a few days.
Start mulching with manure
Add some more wire to my shed for the cobaea which is growing apace.
All the good things, always
xx Laetitia
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