Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Week 1

General

Border work as usual - weeding, forking over, pruning, cutting back.

Some narrow areas of lawn had become very bare due to heavy foot traffic over the years , we decided that the best solution was to completely renew these areas. The ground was rotovated, consolidated, raked perfectly level then seeded.

All compost heaps were turned.

Allotment

Sprayed all BRASSICAS with Dipel and Savona.

Sideshooted, watered and fed all TOMATOES.

Started to lift maincrop POTATOES, some varieties seem to have coped with the wet weather better than others.

General weeding and tidying.

Reclaimed Garden

Planted out LETTUCE 'Winter Density' and 'Lobjoits Green'.

Greenhouse

Potted LEEF BEET 'Fantasia' and CABBAGE 'Duncan' and 'Durham Early' into 8cm (3") pots.

Sideshooting, feeding and watering TOMATOES.

Week 2

General

Any apple or pear trees that didn’t get pruned last month were pruned. Trained plums, cherries and peaches were pruned after fruiting.

Watering and dead heading potted plants inside and out.

We harvested any early ripening varieties of apples and Victoria plums as soon as they began dropping from the trees. These were used soon after harvesting as they do not store well.

Allotment

Lightly forked and raked area vacated by ONIONS in readiness for sowing a green manure.

Sowed green manures WINTER TARES and RED CLOVER.

Removed very last of the PEA plants.

Removed LEEKS and ONIONS that have bolted.

Prepared area vacated by POTATOES in readiness for spring CABBAGE.

Planted spring CABBAGE 'Wheeler's Imperial' and 'April' and BROCCOLI 'Rudolf'.

Parterre

Sowed green manures BROAD BEANS and PHACELIA once CARROTS and ONIONS had been harvested.

Elizabethan Vegetable Garden

Removed NASTURTIUM plants.

Week 3

General

Perennials that no longer looked good were cut back to the ground and taken to the compost heap, we only cut things back when they no longer offer any interest- many can offer interest into late winter.

Started to prune all laurel hedges, to save time this year we are cutting the sides with secateurs and the tops with a hedgecutter as the cuts on the tops aren’t visible.

Mowing, lawn edging, strimming hedge bottoms and other hard to mow areas, lawns are growing less quickly now.

Allotment

Sorted through ONIONS and separated out damaged ones for immediate use. The remainder have been put into the greenhouse to finish their drying process.

Emptied pots containing POTATO 'Burgundy Red', 'Shetland Black' and 'Salad Blue'.

Earthed up CELERY.

Collected branched from our wood and used them to stake BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

Planted out JAPANESE ONION 'Senshyu semi-globe Yellow - 2 rows.

Greenhouse

Sowed LETTUCE 'Valdor', 'Sentry', 'Lobjoits Green' and 'Winter Density' into modules.

Week 4

General

Any shrubs that had finished flowering in need of a prune were pruned.

Strimmed the wildflower area, leaving the cut material on the surface to dry for a few days before raking off and adding to the compost heap.

A large Acer platanoides was cut down, as we had decided it was shading out a large part of North/South border and the First Time Border. More of a problem was that it was also shading the lawn and taking a lot of moisture from the surrounding borders in the summer.

Allotment

General weeding and tidying.

Emptied hot box of all the well rotted manure which was spread out on vacant soil.

Dismantled sides of hot box for repair.

Reclaimed Garden

Planted out LEAF BEET 'Fantasia'.

Greenhouse

Directly sowed LETTUCE 'Spicy Salad Leaves' into large trough.

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

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