In with the old-out with the new!
Seed thrift for the new year…..
After yesterday’s fun and games at dismantling one of my polytunnels (30ftx10ft) on my own in the wind and fading light I can now turn my attention to what I am going to put in it once I have put it back up.
As always I am keen to look through new brochures and order all sorts of weird and wonderful things which, inevitably grow out of control and whose taste can sometimes be described as ‘different’.
Not so this year (I lie) for I intend to make good use of last years leftovers before purchasing anything else and today is stocktake day. I have three tins full of seed packets from herbs to fruit and vegetables. There are strange beans from a trip to Singapore, salad leaves from Germany and some green papaya from Thailand which I intend to try in the new hot house.
I shall sort them in order of sowing dates, due to circumstances beyond my control I have missed the deadline for a crop of wild garlic that I really wanted this year so will stick with standard and elephant bulbs instead.
Two years ago I had a bumper chilli crop and I am considering doing this again with different varieties, some for drying for use in chilli pastes, others for pickling and maybe one or two because they are so hot I dare not do anything else other than photograph them!
I have allocated a twenty five by eight foot plot for essential kitchen herbs and two six foot beds for one or two unusual varieties I have never grown before. Sowings of savory, thyme, fennel and chervil go without saying. A bay tree transplanted last year continues to thrive as do a couple of cardoons for the purpose of a natural border/photographing and then eating.
If I write about lots of new seeds I have bought in a later post feel free to remind me about this post and shame me in cyberspace-you know it’s going to happen!
Miles
fantastic - I’m jealous of your setup but happy not to have to dig it
Is it time I started clearing mine kitchen garden out ?
The book I looked at suggested spring time ?
Rod
January 13, 2008 @ 10:26 am
Rod,
Clear anything past its best and dig over, leave the frost to do its thing and then weed over in the Spring ready for planting.
Miles
January 13, 2008 @ 10:52 am
Miles,
My wooden rose arch has finally bitten the dust so it’s back to the drawing board to see if I can replace it with one that won’t rot. Meantime it’s time to clean the algae off the walls of the back yard before painting. Soon I’ve got to decide which way to go with a planting scheme. On the one hand there’s the New Zealand fern look and on the other hand there could be an evergreen ‘bring on the worst of the British winter, see if I care’ type. On the whole I don’t like padding things out to keep the frost off, it never looks good and sometimes I get it wrong and the plant dies. So the sensible way would be to plant the hardy varieties but my heart is yearning for a tree fern. Only time will tell if my herbs have survived the building work… think I would miss thyme and chives most but they will be easy to replace. It’s all exciting stuff this garden designing, I feel like Diamuid Gavin …. so what’s new I hear you say
Cid
January 13, 2008 @ 2:30 pm
Cid,
Oh, the agony of choice! Forget plants and have one big kitchen garden with colourful chards, cabbages, beans and squashes. You know it makes sense
Miles
January 13, 2008 @ 3:57 pm
Miles,
This is a timely reminder for me to do the same but not quite on your scale. I find half packets of seeds a year later and when it is too late to sow. In fact, you have inspired me to do it now and make a note in my garden diary, thank you.
Here is wishing you a great gardening year.
Elsie
January 13, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
Miles,
As usual you’re quite right, pumpkins are the way to go…. only I can’t imagine having to go on a midnight slug hunt like someone who will remain nameless, did last year
Like my wardrobe I expect my garden will be an eclectic mix of the fabulous and inappropriate 
Cid
January 13, 2008 @ 8:14 pm
Elsie,
Thankyou, I hope you don’t miss your planting ‘boat’
Miles
January 13, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
Cid,
as for your wardrobe, well, I couldn’t possibly comment!
There will always be someone out there to take an interest to the extreme
Miles
January 13, 2008 @ 10:55 pm
Miles,
I am afraid that I am not so terribly organised as you and Cid. I visit the plant nurseries from time to time, buy some colourful plants, the odd herbs or anything that takes my fancy and fill any gaping holes I have. Then I might fill a pot here and there and that is me, finished.
A bit of watering and weeding keeps me fit and the garden nice.
January 14, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
Christine,
I envy you! Nothing wrong with that. A coupleof years ago I had pots everywhere which proved a nightmare for watering, it’s okay with polytunnels because they’ve got overhead sprinkler systems. Watering by hand is a chore!
Miles
January 14, 2008 @ 4:09 pm
Miles,
Do you think if I string hosepipes with holes in it across my back garden like washing lines and attach a timer switch to my outdoor tab, I too will have a sprinkler system?
January 14, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
Christine,
I’m not particularly organized but I feel I missed my vocation as a garden designer and like to dream that I can make something out of nothing. I was lucky enough to visit a friend in Japan and one of the gardens we admired couldn’t have been more than 3m square, if that. Images like that tend to stay with me and subsequently I am rather drawn to small gardens/yards… well anything really that is aesthetically pleasing. I like pots but mine are a bit of a mixed bag so this year I may have to weed a few out and stick with the ones that suit the garden I haven’t started yet
Cid
January 14, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
Christine,
Er, possibly not! Have a go but don’t blame me for anything!
Miles
January 14, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
Oh god! It is that time again, isn’t it? Here in California we can start things early because we have such a long growing season. I too have several tins of seeds and need to sift through what worked an what did not. Just remember: You cannot have too many sweet peppers, but you can have too many hot ones. And repeat after me: Do not grow more than a handful of zucchini plants…
January 15, 2008 @ 9:19 pm
Hank,
Never has a more true word been spoken! I had big ideas about growing red hot chillies until they all fruited and I wasn’t man enough to eat them! Zucchini-don’t get me started!
Great comment, good to see you back.
regards
Miles
January 15, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
Cid,
.
I have reduced the number of my pots because of watering commitments.
I envy you the trip to Japan. To go there when all the trees are in bloom. .. The garden designs are special. Years ago I was into Ikebana. I still like the effect of simple but stunning (well, that is me, really
January 15, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
Christine,
I think Japan could be the one place where having a guide is almost essential. The people I was travelling with weren’t keen for me to go incase I inadvertently offended someone by keeping my shoes on etc. I loved it though and formed a friendship with the Japanese woman sent from the office to accompany me. Many years later we still correspond and she has visited me here…. this year I hope she’ll return. It used to be extraordinarily expensive but the world has changed a few times since so perhaps it’s more feasible now.
As to ’simple but stunning’ ….I’m more chaotic and quirky
Cid
January 16, 2008 @ 9:05 am
Cid,
Travel does widen ones horizon and to be able to form a friendship abroad can make it very special.
Your comments reminded me of Ikebana and other foreign styles and influences to be appreciated.
Christine
January 16, 2008 @ 9:44 am
Christine,
I bought a wooden chopping board from Ikebana in Nottingham-is it the same thing?
Miles
January 16, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
Miles,
Hm, no. Ikebana is a cheaper way to make your flower arrangements: a couple of twigs and one flower, one pointing to heaven, other to earth and the flower in the middle. You can do it, just pick from your garden
Christine
January 16, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
Cid and Christine,
.
You remind me of my Bonsai days that never materialised into much. Still got the odd pots and one privet outside
Being “In with the old” perhaps I should bring it in?
No good for Miles’s kitchen garden though.
Elsie
January 16, 2008 @ 3:30 pm
Ladies,
What a sophisticated bunch of women we are …. if I mentioned Ikebana to my lot here, they’d think I was referring to ‘The Girl From…. ‘ or Copacabana
Now, with all his other accomplishments I reckon the art of Japanese flower arranging is well within Miles grasp. We ought to encourage this as part of his ’sensitive male’ reputation… although have you both seen the chocolate fondant?… I’ll say no more 
Cid
January 16, 2008 @ 6:05 pm