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MY WEEK : 9 ( 26TH FEBRUARY )
Hello and welcome to this week's update of my progress at the Kitchen Garden. Once again it has been a very busy week and although the weather has been a bit unsettled I have still managed to get plenty done.
The week started at the Kitchen Garden with the job of removing the dead Box plants from the hedges and replacing with transplants from the two hedges that will be replaced and from spare plants that the previous gardeners had planted in one of the beds. It is very rewarding to see them looking so good now that they have been restored.
Because of the slope in the Kitchen Garden the height of the soil at the bottom ends of the two large beds is too high for the pathways now so next week we will be having retaining walls built to prevent the soil from slipping down and onto the pathways which is why the previous Box hedges died, the owner and myself went to a massive nursery where I was amazed to see 7 acres of 1000's of different varieties of plants ready to go out to all the garden centers, I've never seen so many plants all in one place, fortunately we are able to buy from them direct which will enable us to obtain any plant that we want from one place rather than scouring around all the garden centers. We got all the Box plants that we will need to plant the new hedges, obviously they will take time to get to the size of the rest of the hedges but that is all part of restoration.
Because the weather is so mild I have planted some of my Shallots early, I have 5kg of Jermor Shallots for this season at the Kitchen Garden, in a few weeks time I will have the Banana Shallots that are germinating well to plant. The sets were planted 6" apart with 1ft between the rows and deep enough so that the tips were just showing, I will have to check them as Blackbirds love to pull them up to see if their are any worms hiding underneath them, once they have rooted then they will be fine. I also sowed a double row of Broad Beans this week, I have erected the supports that the plants will need so that I do not disturb their roots at a later date, the seeds were planted 8" apart with 8" between the rows and 2" deep, at the end of the rows I have planted a few spare in case they don't all germinate and also some of the seeds might be eaten by the mice.
The propagating section of the Glasshouse is starting to get into full swing now with sowings this week of a range of Herbs ( Green Basil, Purple Basil, Thyme, Marjoram, Dill, Chives, Curled & Flat Leaf Parsley ) which will keep the Chef supplied with a wide range of fresh herbs and also enable me to plant up a Herb bed in the Kitchen Garden. The Romanesco and Cabbage seedlings have been moved into the cold frames to grow on in cool conditions as we want good strong plants for planting out that will withstand the colder weather that we may still get during the rest of the Spring.
I have also taken cuttings of Rosemary as they would take too long to grow from seed, when the Mint starts to shoot I will do the same, the new pants will have much more vigour than the parent plants have at the moment. I have also started to take cuttings from some of the Herbaceous plants around the grounds to try to provide new plants for use in a few seasons time if we need to replace the parent plants, the cuttings above are from a Red Edge Hebe which look stunning when kept as nicely shaped domes rather than the straggly plants that these cutting were taken from.
This week I pruned the Pear tree on the front of the hall, this tree must be in excess of 50 years old maybe even 100 and although I knew to remove any dead or diseased wood and reduce the spurs to 2 or 3 buds it was very nerve racking doing it but I know that later on I will be rewarded with a good crop of Pears, I also pruned the Quince on the front of the hall just removing the new growth down to a bud above the flowers, the new growth from these will be what next years fruit will crop on.
The Orange tree in the Glasshouse has really perked up since I fed it with a high Nitrogen and Iron feed as advised by the local garden center ( Ashwood Nurseries who are renowned for their Hellebores the world over which is where the ones that we have here at the hall come from), with plenty of new green growth, fruit & flowers being formed and also the existing fruit is starting to mature and ripen well.
Well that is it for another week I'm afraid, I hope that I have given you a flavour of what is going on at the moment and even though it is only the beginning of March there is plenty to tell you about. Have a good week regards Steve.
Hello and welcome to this week's update of my progress at the Kitchen Garden. Once again it has been a very busy week and although the weather has been a bit unsettled I have still managed to get plenty done.
The week started at the Kitchen Garden with the job of removing the dead Box plants from the hedges and replacing with transplants from the two hedges that will be replaced and from spare plants that the previous gardeners had planted in one of the beds. It is very rewarding to see them looking so good now that they have been restored.
Because of the slope in the Kitchen Garden the height of the soil at the bottom ends of the two large beds is too high for the pathways now so next week we will be having retaining walls built to prevent the soil from slipping down and onto the pathways which is why the previous Box hedges died, the owner and myself went to a massive nursery where I was amazed to see 7 acres of 1000's of different varieties of plants ready to go out to all the garden centers, I've never seen so many plants all in one place, fortunately we are able to buy from them direct which will enable us to obtain any plant that we want from one place rather than scouring around all the garden centers. We got all the Box plants that we will need to plant the new hedges, obviously they will take time to get to the size of the rest of the hedges but that is all part of restoration.
Because the weather is so mild I have planted some of my Shallots early, I have 5kg of Jermor Shallots for this season at the Kitchen Garden, in a few weeks time I will have the Banana Shallots that are germinating well to plant. The sets were planted 6" apart with 1ft between the rows and deep enough so that the tips were just showing, I will have to check them as Blackbirds love to pull them up to see if their are any worms hiding underneath them, once they have rooted then they will be fine. I also sowed a double row of Broad Beans this week, I have erected the supports that the plants will need so that I do not disturb their roots at a later date, the seeds were planted 8" apart with 8" between the rows and 2" deep, at the end of the rows I have planted a few spare in case they don't all germinate and also some of the seeds might be eaten by the mice.
The propagating section of the Glasshouse is starting to get into full swing now with sowings this week of a range of Herbs ( Green Basil, Purple Basil, Thyme, Marjoram, Dill, Chives, Curled & Flat Leaf Parsley ) which will keep the Chef supplied with a wide range of fresh herbs and also enable me to plant up a Herb bed in the Kitchen Garden. The Romanesco and Cabbage seedlings have been moved into the cold frames to grow on in cool conditions as we want good strong plants for planting out that will withstand the colder weather that we may still get during the rest of the Spring.
I have also taken cuttings of Rosemary as they would take too long to grow from seed, when the Mint starts to shoot I will do the same, the new pants will have much more vigour than the parent plants have at the moment. I have also started to take cuttings from some of the Herbaceous plants around the grounds to try to provide new plants for use in a few seasons time if we need to replace the parent plants, the cuttings above are from a Red Edge Hebe which look stunning when kept as nicely shaped domes rather than the straggly plants that these cutting were taken from.
This week I pruned the Pear tree on the front of the hall, this tree must be in excess of 50 years old maybe even 100 and although I knew to remove any dead or diseased wood and reduce the spurs to 2 or 3 buds it was very nerve racking doing it but I know that later on I will be rewarded with a good crop of Pears, I also pruned the Quince on the front of the hall just removing the new growth down to a bud above the flowers, the new growth from these will be what next years fruit will crop on.
The Orange tree in the Glasshouse has really perked up since I fed it with a high Nitrogen and Iron feed as advised by the local garden center ( Ashwood Nurseries who are renowned for their Hellebores the world over which is where the ones that we have here at the hall come from), with plenty of new green growth, fruit & flowers being formed and also the existing fruit is starting to mature and ripen well.
Well that is it for another week I'm afraid, I hope that I have given you a flavour of what is going on at the moment and even though it is only the beginning of March there is plenty to tell you about. Have a good week regards Steve.
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