The simplest of cutting gardens for complete newbies!
Hello friends!
Looooook! the crocuses from my bulb lasagne (made during days of YORE) have come up! As always I've LOVED reading your brilliant, creative and FUNNY messages. Reading and responding to them is the the highlight of my week, so do hit reply if you've got anything to ask, say, or rant about - there are NO rules...
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Here are my five minute forays this week:
Monday - I put more mulch on the beds. This is an on-going job and it's important to get it done before the bulbs start coming up in earnest. I deal with it by emptying one bag onto the garden every day. It takes one minute, and I smooch the muck about with my boot, making sure it gets into all the right places. I also do a bit of soggy leaf-clearing from the pond (or is it a pool?) Anyway, I get lots of old leaves out, and some pondweed too, which I leave on the side so the small creatures can crawl back in.
Tuesday - I pull the old leaves off my hellebores. Some people like to cut off all the leaves from their hellebores once the flowers begin to emerge - it's a great way to allow the flowers to show themselves in their full glory, and it also prevents disease (to which hellebores are prone) from spreading. I can't quite bear to remove all of those beautiful leaves though, and so I content myself with only taking out the crispy dead ones. It makes a huge difference.
Wednesday - An entire day of rain. It pelts. I rush out when it abates for a few moments to go an sniff the daphne. No gardening.
Thursday - I order some stuff that I don't need but desperately want. This happens to me a lot, and I resist the temptation nine times out of ten. This is mainly because deviating from a reasonably curated palette of plants is a sure-fire way of turning a five minute garden into a ten minute one, particularly if what you acquire is destined for containers, but you know, sometimes we just need to give in to our desires. I miss my cutting garden terribly, and although there is plenty to pick from what I already have in the borders, there is still a cutting-garden shaped hole in my life. I flick through Sarah Raven's website, lust after everything, fill a basket with about 30 things and, ninja-like, whittle it down to two! See below for a simple cutting garden starter list, along with some simple timings and tips to get you going.
Friday - a thing called life got in the way. No gardening.
Cutting garden starter list
I don't have a dedicated pickery any more, as I've streamlined my garden in line with how much time I can give to it. Sadly the cutting patch had to go, but that doesn't mean I don't grow flowers for cutting! Whether you have a bit of space just for a cutting garden or just want to use the available space in your existing flower beds, here are my must-have good-doers.
1. Nigella: A brilliant and prolific self-seeder. Beautiful seed heads as well as flowers.
2. Cornflower: Hard to think of a summer without these.
3. Stock: Absolutely amazing scent, gorgeous upright blooms
4. Ammi majus: Prettiest of fillers in a vase - white, etherial umbels
5. Snapdragon (Antirrhinum): Perfection in a vase - wonderful scent
6. Cosmos: Never not chic - lovely simple relaxed blooms
7. Euphorbia oblongata (for foliage): acid green foliage - delicate too..
And then there are these...
8. Dahlias: The ultimate cut flower - a gift that keeps on giving
9. Sweet peas: No introduction needed. If you only grow one plant for cutting this year, let it be sweet peas.
10. Cobaea scandens: Climber that looks fabulous in a vase.
If you're just starting out, I would urge you to pick no more than four things from numbers 1-7 on the above list. I promise you, you will be thrilled. There is nothing worse than being overwhelmed by too many babies. NOTHING...believe me, I KNOW. Everything on the whole list except dahlias can be grown easily from seed (you get dahlias in tuber form). I always help myself out though, by ordering half my plants as ready-grown seedlings - order now to get the widest choice. This means that the work of nurturing the babies from seed is done by someone else, and they arrive at your house all ready to be potted up and grown on until they're big enough to plant out.
My list this year
I already have autumn-sown sweet peas, and I'll be sowing more cobaea scandens and nigella. I've also ordered three dahlia tubers (these, from Sarah Raven) which I plan to grow in containers. I do want to mention that this is FRIGHTFULLY restrained of me, and it hurts not to order ALL OF THE THINGS...just so you know I understand!
Cutting patch method
Don't even think about direct-sowing any seeds until April, and your patch feels warm to the touch, and by which time your seedlings will have arrived. You need an area in a sunny site. I would suggest at least 1.5m square, and I would sow seeds onto half of it, and use the other half for ready-grown seedlings. You need nice crumbly weed-free soil.
April/May: Sow into pre-watered soil in straight lines, 8cm apart - it makes weeding easier. Sow as thinly as possible and about 1.5cm deep. As the seedlings appear, thin them out in stages until you end up with the preferred distance (look at the back of the packet). You can reduce the preferred distance by a third or so, as you'll be cutting the flowers as soon as they appear.
April/May: Plant your seedlings, again, reducing the preferred planting distance a little. Water well. Put any left-over seedlings into containers or elsewhere in the garden.
Keep watering and weeding and most importantly, keep cutting! Every time you cut a flower, the plant is motivated to produce more, so keep those snips handy.
Autumn/Winter: Depending on your choice of flowers, you can start clearing the bed now, and as you do so, I would urge you to plant masses of tulips, alliums and daffs. Plant the bulbs in straight lines, and then you'll know where they are when next spring comes, and you're beginning again. At the same time as you plant your bulbs, get hold of some wallflowers and put them in between. These will give you something to cover the bare earth with over the winter, and flowers in early spring.
Good luck! I'll be sowing cobaea soon, and nigella a bit later on, and potting up my dahlia tubers too, so why not do it with me?
All the good things, always
x Laetitia
PS I have a blog up right now on my favourite winter scented beauties that no garden should be without. You can find it here if you're interested.