I've been meaning to write this post the whole month but naps and brain power haven't been coordinating lately! I started my blog when I started to get into jewellery making (remember that ;-) ), it's always been a journal of my creative adventures. Now I'm really into gardening I want to share what I'm doing on a regular basis.
I find being in the garden such a joy, I love watching shoots appear magically from the ground and I'm also really enjoying learning something new aside from being a mama. This will be the fifth summer I've had a garden and through trial and error I feel I've got enough experience to start recording what I'm doing (you can see the before garden here). If like me you LOVE flowers and dream of having buckets full throughout the year, then I hope this post will help get you started. January is a busy time so lets go...
Order dahlia's - If you're on Instagram then from late July onwards you won't be able to miss the endless stream of cafe au laits and other beauties. I had mixed success with growing dahlia's last year but I'm determined to get a better crop this year. 2018 tubers have been released so it's best to order now to get your favourites. I've gone for Ice Cube and Penhil Watermelon plus mix bags from Poundland which I intend to put in my cut flower beds. You can read my Dahlia Experiment post here.
Sow sweetpeas - I love sweetpeas, they are the first flower I had some success with. I've always grown High Scent but had an amazing crop from a 45p packet from Lidl. I've got a few seedlings already from a batch I planted before Christmas but intend to keep planting a few seeds in my very cold greenhouse every month until early spring. This year I'm going to plant smaller varieties in pots, for the taller ones I intend to invest in some kind of frame and grow in the garden.
Weeding - Not a glamorous job but strangely satisfying. There is so much bindweed in my garden that I'm making the most of the damp soil to pull out as much as I can. If there is anything you want to get rid of, now is the time. I've also been cutting back a spiky hawthorn and taming some wild roses whist I can get to the beds.
Dream about roses - I used to spend my online time dreaming about shoes now its all about roses. After poppies, garden roses are my absolute favourite, I bought Lady of the Lake on sale and its doing so well in a shady corner. My aim is to fill every fence with roses so the garden is some kind of rose cocoon - I might order some more of these to cover a newly installed fence. There are so many I'd like to add that I'm carefully planning before I make a considerable investment.
Plan cut flower beds- I had two cut flower beds last year, one in the garden and another at my mums allotment. This year I'm planning on turning another bed in the garden into a cutting patch for larger plants like cosmos and sweet peas and keeping my smaller beds for new to me and more delicate plants (they are currently full of anemones and ranunculus). I've gone through all my seeds and seed catalogues and ordered some to trial (I'll share my seeds another time as I'm still waiting for some to arrive). I've drawn up a rough plan of where I'm going to plant everything so I know how many of each to order, with time limited I want to focus on a few favourites that I know I can care for rather than an over enthusiastic ramble. I feel much more confident to just go for it this year and I really recommend reading The Cut Flower Patch if you're just starting out.
I'm planning to post more to my gardening instagram account Lottsinthegarden if you'd like to follow along. Until next time happy growing! xx
No comments
Post a Comment