If you are a returning visitor you might like to read the Autumn 2011 Update and Tour – this will take you on a tour around all the articles that were changed at the end of 2011.

If you are a new visitor, visiting for the first time, you might like to start with the About page

If you are looking for something specific please try the Blog Index.

To try to make it easier for returning visitors I’ve created an “Autumn 2011 Tour”. If you follow the link it will take you to the first revised article, read (or scroll) to the bottom, and then there is a link to the next updated article. I hope you find it helpful, the links will bring you back to this page at the end of the tour, or you can skip back to this page for an “2011 Tour Index” of the revised articles.

If you want to follow the Autumn 2011 Tour please start with This Link

Index of the articles changed for Autumn 2011:

Ponds – still not finished the surround of the final pond.
Shrubbery, [2011 Tour]
Herbaceous Border – this will become a “Hot” / Red border in 2012 (no updates for 2011 Tour)
Building a Garden Extension – this has evolved into these separate topics:

• Centre Court [2011 Tour] Tennis court removed, grass sown, Topiary planted
• Cross Walk [2011 Tour] Grass sown, Lavender plants raised
• The Long Walk [2011 Tour] Hedge planted
• Holm Oak Walk [2011 Tour] Hedge planted
• Hydrangea Walk [2011 Tour] Two Pigs are digging it!

Exotic Garden [2011 Tour] Plants raised and Site prepared

The Vegetable Patch has been productive and kept us in vegetables for about 10 months of the year, and the Greenhouse has been busy with 2,000 Box cuttings I took in Autumn 2010, and 200 Lavender plug plants to extend the Cross Walk. The Replacement Front Hedge has had its first light trim. There are no specific updates for the 2011 Tour.

I have written a description of some gardens we visited this year, and posted some pictures:
East Ruston Old Vicarage – visited for our second year. Some additional photographs.
Sissinghurst [2011 Tour] Not our cup-of-tea, but liked the Nut Garden
Great Dixter [2011 Tour] Loved the Exotic Garden, and the Topiary (these two are very close, so can both be visited on the same day)
Will Giles exotic garden [2011 Tour] amazing town-house garden in Norwich, and the Exotic plant nurseries Amulree and Urban Jungle which are nearby.

Christmas Vegetables 2010

Parsnips have been particularly good this year. Celeriac mashed with some stored King Edwards and garlic, plus Sprouts, Leeks and a Squash …. the assembled masses thought it tasted excellent.

Emptied out two bags of potatoes grown in the conservatory – 3 seed potatoes each, lots of compost, although not a lot of care and attention! quite a lot for a couple of handfuls of new potatoes for Christmas lunch, but they tasted great.

Christmas Spuds

Ponds the final pond, of three, has been lined
Shrubbery the 2010 season
Herbaceous Border the 2010 season
Building a Garden Extension – plans for a radical change to the Woodland Garden
Building a Barn – an impulse purchase at an auction!
Versailles Planters – Making cheap but smart planters for the front of the house
Pergola Project – re-erecting a Pergola that I blagged!

There are also changes to Vegetable Patch, Greenhouse and Replacement Front Hedge, but they are not ready yet, sorry.

I have written a description of some gardens we visited this year, and posted some pictures:

East Ruston Old Vicarage – truly inspirational
Hidcote Manor Garden – less impressed than I thought I would be
Kiftsgate Court – gardening on a cliff face! Make sure you visit both Hidcote and Kiftsgate as they are within a stone’s throw of each other

I have no idea what I thought I was doing – brain in neutral!

I sowed a bunch of seeds last week Broccoli, Calabrese, Cauliflower, Courgette, Kohl Rabi, three types of Lettuce, a couple more types of Melon, some Swedes … AND …3 sorts of sweetcorn. All in my new trusty propagator.

I’d like to say I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night worrying about it … but that sort of thing doesn’t really happen, does it?! Although … when we were on holiday a couple of weeks ago one night I couldn’t sleep because I kept dreaming I had bought the wrong sorts of vegetable seeds and the turmoil kept waking me up. Now that at least was true – some sort of Altitude sickness apparently – well, something beginning with “A” anyway!! But I digress …

I realised that the last thing I should have done was sow Sweetcorn in a propagator – I should have just “chitted” the seed on wet kitchen paper in a tray and then planted in pots the moment the roots had appeared. I looked in the propagator and the shoots had just appeared – panic!

So I “dug” them up with my trusty pencil (called “Dibber”, like all good gardener’s pencils) and planted them in some paper pots I’ve been trying this season. I formed them about a WD-40 tin, which has a nice concave base which shapes the “pot base” nicely, and as luck would have it I also had a slightly narrower spray paint can with a nicely rounded plastic lid – which I could use to ram the base and tighten it up. I couldn’t believe how long the tap root was of the Sweetcorn in only 3 days – these paper pots, which are 13cm high and 6cm diameter, are going to be much better than regular 3″ / 9cm plastic pots.

Sweetcorn seedling 3 days old

Sweetcorn in paper pots

Update : 20 April 2009

Sweetcorn in Newspaper Pots - 18 days old

Update : 05 May 2009

Well, they have got too big, so I’ve planted them out. I try not to plant out anything tender until 1st June to be sure I have missed the last frost. I have made a note on my Crop Plan to sow later next year.

Sweetcorn in Paper Pots - roots at the base

Sweetcorn in Paper Pots - paper needs more layers

Sweetcorn in Paper Pots - roots at the base

Even though it looks a muddle I managed to tease the roots apart and plant them out, but time will tell how they fare.

I have planted some in the greenhouse

Greenhouse Crops

and also a few early climbing French Beans

Greenhouse Crops

which join some Lettuces and Leaf Beet planted earlier, and the tubs and gro-bags of First Early Potatoes.

04 July 2009

I picked the first Mini Pop Sweetcorn (the unripe ones that kids love) from the greenhouse. The kids thought they tasted really good (compared to the ones from the Supermarket). Definitely going to do that again next year.

The other greenhouse Sweetcorn (Swift F1) are nearly ready too.

I think the whole “Plant in a block” thing needs thought. I think being told to plant them in a block, rather than a row, encourages sowing the whole packet in one go. I’ve got 15 plants in the greenhouse, and 21 outside (from the same packet’s sowing) – so I could have wound up with 36 plants. The plants are producing two cobs each, and the harvest will last, start-to-finish, what? a couple of weeks, three maybe? That’s between 3.5 and 5 COBS A DAY!

Next year I’m going to sow in succession, 9 plants at a time – the previous batch will probably still be producing pollen when the next batch is ready to be pollinated

The Swift F1, in order to crop within the UK Summer, are quite dwarf, and have worked well in the Greenhouse – just reaching the roof. The Mini Pop, on the other hand, are an old fashioned variety and have hit the roof! I have removed the male flower from the top, to prevent them pollinating, which had reduced their height by a foot or so

This is how they looked on 02-June:

Greenhouse 02-Jun-2009

The male flower appears on the Swift F1 on 02-June

Sweetcorn Male Flower

Growth rate is amazing, this is 6 days later – 08-June-2009. View from the door:

Greenhouse 08-Jun-2009

and view towards the door:

Greenhouse 08-Jun-2009

Melons near the window, Tomatoes on the right, Peppers (both Sweet and Chilli) will be planted between the two shortly

Melon and Tomato 08-Jun-2009

The Mini Pop are shooting up too – they are an old fashioned cultivar, and therefore not as short as the new-style short-season Swift F1

Sweetcorn Mini Pop 08-Jun-2009

The plants elongate, but even so the Male flowers, on the Swift F1 (being shorter, to mature during a shorter growing season), are held proudly without the plant hitting the roof! (my greenhouse has a shallow pitch, and the eaves are relatively low)

Greenhouse Sweetcorn Swift F1 18-Jun-2009

Sweetcorn Flower Male 18-Jun-2009

Sweetcorn Silk 18-Jun-2009

The Mini Pop, however, being an old fashioned variety are heading straight for the roof!

Sweetcorn Mini Pop 18-Jun-2009

11 days later, on 29-June, the growth rate is still hard to believe – you can just make ou the Mini Pop at the far end of the greenhouse, on the left

Greenhouse 29-Jun-2009

I’ve now planted the Peppers between the Tomatoes (left) and Melons (right)

Tomatoes, Peppers, Melons 29-Jun-2009

The Swift F1 look about the same, but I’ve been pollinating them by shaking the plants each day (around noon, there doesn’t seem to be much pollen first thing in the morning, or last thing at night)

Sweetcorn Swift F1 29-Jun-2009

Quite a lot of pollen is collecting on the leaves. I wonder if I could use this and transfer it to the silks? Its very sticky, so hard to actually remove from the leaves, and as such this effect probably occurs more indoors, than outdoors – where wind pollination will cause the pollen to drift further

Sweetcorn Pollen 29-Jun-2009

Slight aside: the Climbing French beans I planted in the greenhouse look very healthy, but have barely flowered, and have even-more-barely set any bean pods. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but I expect they will come the same time as my outside plants, and make an even bigger glut!

Climbing French Beans 29-Jun-2009

The Mini Pop have well-and-truly hit the roof – and this is after I have removed the male flowers from the tips – which would have added 12″ – 18″ more!

Sweetcorn Mini Pop 29-Jun-2009

Oh! and a sneaky photo of the Cucumbers too. They are cropping really well (I aim to grow two plants, but as they are reputed to die so easily! I have three this year just-in-case). All the neighbours are about Cucumbered-out already, and I think I may have to get a market stall … you can probably just about make out the clear plastic mold on one of the fruit; this is a gimick I bought (at VAST expense last year from Japan) which makes the Cucumbers grow heart-shaped; the kids think it is amusing, but the mold is a little small for a full sized cucumber, so I start them off using it, then let them mature without the mold – they still, sort-of, hold their shape.

Cucumber Bella F1 29-Jun-2009

Oh, and we’ve got some Sweet Peppers coming along nicely too

Sweet Pepper 29-Jun-2009

This is how the Swift F1, planted outside the same day as the greenhouse crop, are looking

Sweetcorn Swift F1 29-Jun-2009

and, likewise, the outdoor Mini Pop crop

Sweetcorn Mini Pop 29-Jun-2009

• Planting seeds for the vegetable garden – determined to have a decent plan and crop this season
• The “Plant Greenhouse” is now erected, and raising vegetable plants has begun
• Training the Pleached Lime Hedge has begun
• and we are planning to plant the Herbaceous Border this Spring

Monday 02-March-2009

Added a blog entry about a Garland Super 7 Propagator I bought

Sunday 05-April-2009

Averted disaster with my Sweetcorn seedlings (article now moved to 2009 Sweetcorn Crop Notes)

Wednesday 15-April-2009

A way to use Wudnerground.com to work out the (average) last frost date, or a suitable date to start hardening off plants, based on Personal Weather Stations in your area

Wednesday 06-May-2009

Scroll down for new posts:

My 2009 Sweetcorn Crop Notes link – plants have outgrown their paper pots and my greenhouse trial (I have also updated my Growing Sweetcorn article). [Updated on 04-Jul-2009]

I built some netting over the Brassica bed to keep the Cabbage White Butterfly off my Brussels Sprouts, Cabbages and Cauliflowers.

Updates to Articles 6th May 2009

• Updated the Greenhouses article with details of the salad crops
• Embarked on clearing the Shrubbery of weeds, and some pictures of spring flowering shrubs
• Lifted and transplanted herbaceous plants from Front Hedge project and prepared the original bed for sowing grass
• Planting of the Herbaceous Border has been mostly completed

Thursday 18-June-2009

Added a blog entry with a Crops Update

The greenhouse plants were sown 01-Apr and planted out 04-May. They were intended to be an outdoor crop (but came on more quickly than expected) so next year I plan to sow a few a couple of weeks earlier specifically for the greenhouse.

Greenhouse Sweetcorn

Sweetcorn Tassel

I’ve also got some Mini Pop in the greenhouse. These aren’t a new fangled F1 variety, so are the traditional tall type. The kids love them so I included a few plants. They don’t need to be pollinated, so the fact that the leaves are hitting the roof probably doesn’t matter – I should just be able to harvest the immature cobs as they form.

Sweetcorn Mini Pop hits the Roof!

The flowers on my Aubergine have started to set. This is good news as I am pretty sure they took ages to start setting last year, and they were only planted out (into the greenhouse border) a couple of weeks ago.

Aubergine Fruit has started Setting

I had really early fruit off my Cucumbers (sown 02-March, first fruit 16-May and planted out in the greenhouse border on 25-May), but I have since read that if you don’t take the first few fruits off the plant then stalls for a while. That’s definitely what has happened as its now about a month without any fruit.

Cucumber Fruit Setting

I harvested a few Chilli “Hot Stuff” (Sown 15-Feb, planted out in greenhouse border 12-May) and they definitely were not “Hot Stuff” !! so I’m going to let them turn Red and see if that helps.

Chilli Hot Stuff

I reckon the first Sweet Pepper (Sown 15-Feb, planted out in greenhouse border 12-May) will be ready in about a week

Sweet Peppers

I’m going to have the first Tomatoes tonight (Sown 15-Feb, planted out in greenhouse border 26-May). Yummie!

First Tomato

The first few Melon have set (Sown 01-Apr, planted out in greenhouse border 26-May). Still a way to go before they are ripe, but they’ve set by themselves as I haven’t had time to stop them, train laterals, and all that paraphernalia – maybe I won’t need to?!

First Melon

I bought some Debris Netting off eBay. I selected 3M width as my raised beds are 4′ wide – so that means a clear height of “(3 metres – 4 feet) / 2 in inches” which Google tells me is 35 inches.

I had a roll of 1/2″ Blue MDPE underground water pipe (the Black above ground pipe would be better, as it has UV resistance), so I cut that into 3 Metre lengths, less about 6″ to be able to anchor it down, and stuck some canes in (I cut some 4 foot canes in half, about 2 foot pushed into the ground, and 2 foot sticking out to put the pipe onto. One “hoop” every 6 feet, or so.

The job only took a few minutes, much easier than I expected.

Brassica Netting - Materials

Brassica Netting - Pipe Cut into Section

Brassica Netting - Pipe Pushed on to Canes

Brassica Netting - Net Placed over Pipes

Brassica Planting under the Netting

Brassica Netting - Done

So here are some steps to review the temperature in your area using wunderground.com – hopefully not too nerdy!

wunderground.com has weather data recorded by personal weather stations. You can find one near you and see what the temperature has been in previous years, and form a view on when the majority of the nights are warmer than, say, 5C and then choose that as your point to put your plants out – on average there will be relatively few nights afterwards when you will have to cover them, or bring them in. Keep an eye on the forecast though!

First you need to get to the Wunderground Personal Weather Station Map page – I suggest you Right Click this link and choose “Open in New Window” so that you can toggle backwards and forwards between these instructions and the wunderground.com site (or print out this page)

You should see a map that looks like this:

Wunderground.com Personal Weather Station Map

• 1) Use the controls to pan the image, or click-and-drag
• 2) Use the + / – controls to zoom in

Pan and zoom in on your local area (more stations will appear as you zoom in)

Map legends

The “flags” show current temperature (Number degrees C) and the wind direction (number of bars on the the wind direction tail indicate strength).

Major weather stations

You may have some major weather stations near you – they have a weather symbol next to them. There are a couple of air force bases near me – they are likely to have data going back further, historically, and will probably have more accurate measuring equipment and one would hope better procedures!

Anyway … click on a suitable flag near your location.

Weather Station Details

Details of the weather station should appear in a “speech balloon” with:

• 3) The Station’s name
• 4) The Station’s code with a link to the detailed data (click on this)

Click on the code link (4)

Daily Summary Data

You should see detailed data for today

• 5) The data shown is the “Daily” data (for the date above, which should be today’s date)
• 6) We need to choose a Custom data range – click on this.

Click on the “Custom” tab link to the right

Choose Custom Date Range

I have chosen a date range from March – 1st June in 2008 to review.

• 7 ) The Start Date
• 8 ) The End Date

Its worth noting how far back the select list for the Start Year lets you choose – generally this is the range of historical data available, for this station – if it is too recent you might want to select a different station, maybe a bit further away, that has a history going back for more years

Press GO

Find a Different Station

If you are viewing a Personal Weather Station (rather than an airbase or similar) there will be a “View Interaction WunderMap” link (9) in the right pane which will return you to the map to allow you to choose a different station.

Scroll down a bit to see the Temperature Graph for the date range you have selected:

Temperature Graph

The Temperature Graph is a bit titchy (maybe there is a way to get just the temperature, and with a larger image?) but it should give you an idea of historical temperatures and help work out when the majority of nights are above a given temperature – such that you cold put plants out, and bring them in only on odd occasions. Don’t forget to check the weather forecast though!

Looking at this graph 20th April looks to be the date that temperature stayed above about 5C – which would be warm enough in my cold greenhouse for my Tomatoes. There was a cold snap around 18-21 May though. But so long as I kept an eye on the forecast I could take care of the occasional cold snap.

I could look at previous years to see how they compared:

2007 Temperatures

For 2007 20th April looks to be about right too – and that year there were no later cold snaps.

Courgettes raising the roof!

Kids left the camera in Black & White mode – wait ’till I catch them …