Slowly but surely my garden is emerging from the snow and ice. Some plants have died while other brown slimy parts remain. One of the plants that has not died is a herb and it is already showing some bright green new leaves.

I am talking of course about mint (Mentha). Moroccan mint is great for tea, peppermint is good for tea and in cooking and spearmint is a milder version of the other two. Now there are lots of different kinds mint, all with their own strengths and uses. For example, mountainvalleygrowers boasts seventeen varieties.

Mint is vigorous but also invasive. If you let it, it will take over your garden in a heartbeat. Of course you can always sow or plant it in pots to keep its roots contained.

Luckily, for the moment I have the space to let it take its course and I can’t wait for it to start growing again. To me, mint symbolises summer, sun and warmth. Sitting outside at the end of a summer afternoon with a tasty mojito, eating couscous with mint or yoghurt mint sauce with a baked potato, spending a lazy warm afternoon reading a book with a big glass of mint tea…

Glimpsing these small bright green leaves gives me joy for things to come!

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SPRING!

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain and when I looked outside I saw that a lot of the icy snow has melted. I got up quickly with thoughts racing through my head. Like a mad woman I ran around yelling at the cats keep away because there I had no time to lose. Spring had arrived and I needed to get to the garden centre to buy seed compost, seed potatoes – and I really need a few propagators!!

Plastic Trees

We have one big garden centre nearby, right on the border with Luxembourg. It’s a fancy one (expensive too) but they sell good quality stuff and apart from anything else, they’re pretty much the only garden centre around. There is a small one in Bastogne but I am afraid to go inside. I find the big plastic trees with flickering lights rather off-putting.

I drove the twenty minute journey to the garden centre on the border with Luxembourg. The car park was deserted except for piles of snow. I got myself one of those big trolleys and went inside. Right at the entrance, in the pond section, they were re-decorating and the people looked up with wonder and shock as I entered. Ignoring their surprise, I continued pushing my trolley through the store. Immediately the cold hit me. It seemed it was colder in the greenhouse section than it was outside. It was so cold that I found it hard to stand still long enough to admire the plants – my hands freezing as I gripped the trolley bar. I continued along and noticed that the section that normally housed vegetable plants was now occupied by big bamboos and palm trees. Shrugging my shoulders in indifference (and also to try and stay warm) I continued on my way. Rhododendrons were on offer- buy 2 get one free – but I could see why, they looked a bit sorry for themselves…

Seed Potatoes and Christmas Decorations

Thank goodness the shelves were well stocked with seed potatoes and onions so at last I could allow myself to go berserk. Now in my trolley I had two little sacks of potatoes and one sack of red onions, rather a pathetic sight. On I went, losing the feeling in my fingers, to the house plant section where to my surprise, I saw Christmas decorations boxed up in one corner. A little flicker of doubt swept over me, but since it was a lot warmer in the house plant section and I was still busy waving my arms around to keep warm, I chose to ignore it and carried on my way.

At the end, near the checkout, I picked up two 40 litre sacks of seed compost. Feeling a little bit more satisfied that my big trolley no longer looked so ridiculously empty, I went to pay. There was no one there and there was a sign that I should ring the bell to get service.

It finally hit me, although I am totally ready for the growing season to start, it seems that no one else is. Slipping and sliding on the ice I steered my heavy trolley to the car, hauled the contents into the boot and with a slight feeling of embarrassment, drove off as soon as I could.

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Bird Varieties

All female chickens lay eggs with identical nutritional content, but some bird varieties have been bred especially for their egg-laying capabilities and are therefore superior laying chickens. For example, Rhode Island Red hens are excellent for consistent, nearly-daily laying and produce about 300 eggs per year. Not all breeds perform this well though…

At the Villas we have seven laying hens and a cockerel. Two of our hens (Pinky and The Brain – named after the TV cartoon characters) are Buff Orpingtons that we bought as week old chicks but the rest are home grown hybrids. Bee the cockerel keeps them all in check with aplomb and they clearly love having him around!

Seasonal

Something I never realised before we had chickens is that you don’t necessarily get eggs all year round – a bit like fruit and vegetables, they can be and in our case are a seasonal commodity! Our chickens stop laying in October or November and we have to manage without eggs (or admit defeat and buy from the supermarket) until late January when the nights start to draw out again. Apparently it’s all down to the number of daylight hours.

The age of the hen is also a factor as egg numbers decrease with time. At the moment ours still reward us with an egg a day when they are in egg laying mode but maybe next year one or two of the older ones might start producing an egg every other day… and so on and so forth.

Selling eggs

Although we sell the odd half dozen to friends and neighbours we are all too well aware that we haven’t entered into egg production to make our fortune! Last year I carried out an experiment to find out whether our flock could at least pay for its own keep. We put to one side all the money we made from egg sales and whenever we needed to buy more chicken food we had to use this money to pay for it. My aim was to sell enough eggs during the laying season to pay for their food throughout the winter months but it turned out there was a significant shortfall, bless ‘em!

Love for Eggs

Most importantly I find that keeping hens makes us appreciate eggs much more. Not necessarily knowing how many we will be blessed with from one day to the next – and at this time of year whether we will get any at all – means we place a higher value on each and every one of them and losing or wasting one would really jar. I believe this is a healthy attitude towards something that in my opinion is a minor miracle – a completely natural convenience food, pre wrapped, endlessly versatile and packed with protein!

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Before you continue, I have to warn you, this story is smelly and dirty and a bit nauseating. I still hope you will continue reading…

So, composting is about balance.., here’s why:

Pallets

Last year my amazing husband collected a few pallets for me and dragged them to the back of the garden and made a compost bin for me. Full of enthusiasm I started mowing the grass ( it is not a lawn, it is just grass) and got heaps and heaps of clippings on the compost heap. It started to heat up really well and you could smell that sweet hay smell. I was soo exited.

Improvising

We live in a temp house right now, awaiting the build of our house. We have placed this temp house about 70 meters from the road, behind the build site on the agricultural side of our plot of land. With no running water, no electricity and no plumbing we had to make do with what we could do ourselves, like collect rainwater and pump it into the house and connect a water purification system and ask our very nice neighbors if we could tap electricity from their shed. We dug out a drain field for shower and sink water and we got ourselves a composting toilet.

Compost Toilet

Now there comes the smelly and dirty part, this composting toilet “the nonolet ” works like a charm, I do have to admit that but it is total horror to clean it out, at least it is for me. The poo is collected into bio degradable sacks which you can chuck into the compost heap and it will just compost….

Now some people got put off by the idea that you are composting the garden with your own poo. I didn’t mind that idea, what I did mind is that it takes a long time to compost, and every time I turned the compost heap these sacks and especially the contents of the sacks would stare me in the face. EEEWWWWW!! To be honest, after that I started to dig holes and burry the poo. I will grow Helianthus and Cannabis Sativa on the designated poo area. Two plants known to clean up contaminated soil.

Greens and Browns

So grass clippings and poo do not make a very good compost, not even if you add kitchen waste. I totally forgot about the browns! A successful compost heap has an equal amount of greens and browns.  So off I went to the nearby forrest because I don’t have any browns, I just have grass. I got well rotted leaves and twigs and layered this in the compost heap. It worked!

My good friend and co-blogger Bridget suggested I start using the big green plastic composter I brought with me from Rotterdam and compost the kitchen waste in it, So now I have two compost bins and they are producing lovely smelling compost.

Here are some do’s for adding to a compost heap/bin;

• Greens: grass clippings, nettles, weeds, comfrey leaves, uncooked kitchen waste
• Browns: well rotted leaves, cardboard, sawdust, twigs

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Cold

It seems that I am not the only one who has suffered these last few weeks during the cold. Yesterday, when the temperature finally came above 0 degrees I had a walk around the garden. My brussels sprouts had died and my kale is looking rather dreary as well but the saddest thing is that my purple sprouting broccoli looks like they are not going to make it.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

I have cared for my PSB since early summer last year, taking out the pesky catterpillars, clearing out the dead leaves and weeds, watching them grow strong and tall. My PSB was meant to overcome a little bit of the hungry gap. That time of year in the garden when the winter brassica’s have finished but before the seedlings turn into producing plants.

Fence

My garden is very exposed, we have created one fence on the south side but the north/east side is fully open. In the last weeks we have had strong cold winds coming from the north/east which not only froze our waterpipes but the vegetables as well. Let’s say I have learned from this experience, once the weather turns and the ground is not frozen solid then one of the first things I am going to do is build more fences.

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No Time

Just a few more days and then the worst of this cold spell is over. It has occupied me so much that I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time with Sow and So. For now we live in a temporary home made of a couple of units on our land in the south of Belgium while our house will be build. Normally we have a very comfortable time in this temp house but with temperatures below -10 degrees for more then two weeks it has been a challenge. Water pipes got frozen, as well as the drain for the toilet, this week I had to fix a leaking water pipe and I had to get up every couple of hours to put wood on the burner.

Camellia

Between all these inconvenient circumstances I saw a few Camellia plants on sale at a local supermarket and on a whim I bought them because I could use a little flowery happiness right about now.

Camellia’s are originally from east to south east Asia. From the Himalaya’s to Korea these colorful bushes can be found. They are usually white, all kind of pink colours and red. The yellow flowered Camellia’s can only be found in South China en North Vietnam.

Not only are there ornamental Camellia’s. One of the best know Camellia’s is the Camellia Sinensis or tea plant. As it implies, they make tea from the leaves of this one…

The Camellia’s I got are the regular bright pink Camellia and the white Camellia Nobilissima. I haven’t planted them out yet because of the extreme cold.

Camellia’s prefer acidic soil and need lots of water and some shade. They grow fast and big, some up to 5 meters and the best part is;

They flower from February to April, right when you could use a bit of color in your garden!

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If you want to get a head start on the growing season, if you want to extend your growing season, if you want to eat your own vegetables even in wintertime, if you want to grow fantastically hot chillies or juicy melons, delicious aubergine and tomato’s and you live in a seasonable climate then you need to grow under cover.

Cold frame

A cold frame is build directly on the ground, it is a usually made from wood with a glas top. Cold frames are easy made yourself with an old window and some wooden planks. The sun can warm up the soil through the window and the soil is furthermore sheltered from the elements.

It is therefore possible to start sowing earlier in spring, seedlings will get a jump start before they get transplanted to the garden. You can also leave the seedlings in the cold frame to grow, for example winter lettuce. You need to ventilate frequently and of course place the cold frame so that it will benefit most of the sunshine. If you are interested in building your own cold frame than the diynetwork.com has a good example.

Greenhouse

For people with some space in their garden a Greenhouse might be good idea. There are a lot of different greenhouses. Traditionally a greenhouse is made from glas but nowadays they are made with plastic as well. The principle is the same as a cold frame but this time the sides are from glas or plastic as well. A greenhouse can dramatically extend your growing season and you will be able to grow sun loving vegetables and fruits like peppers and grapes.

There are  many possibility’s to make greenhouse growing as easy as it gets. There are all kinds of accessories to make your greenhouse life as easy as it gets. They of course come with a price tag. There are greenhouses with an electronic systems for opening and closing windows, you can get a heater, shading cloths, benches and shelves and mechanical watering systems.

Polytunnel

Polytunnels are plastic greenhouses, they are easy to set up, cheaper than the glass greenhouses and you can get them from small to amazingly big. The plastic that is used is polythene, it is one sheet you pull over a frame. You will need to change the sheet once every 5 years. A good website to have a look is firsttunnels.co.uk.

It takes some planning and getting used to growing in a polytunnel. I am planning on buying one when the house is finished and I bought already a book about How to grow food in your polytunnel all year round written by Mark Gatter & Andy McKee. I am half way and will write a book review when I finish.

If you have a very small garden you can opt for a small plastic greenhouse. I have had two for years. It has been used and abused ( my upstairs neighbor at the time through something of her balcony landing on my greenhouse and ripping the plastic.) They are inexpensive, about 20 euro’s and easy to set up. These are some examples on amazon.co.uk.

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Utility Land

We moved into the Villas in Autumn 2007.  The 450 square metre plot behind the house was referred to by the Auctioneers as utility land and it bore no resemblance whatsoever to a garden, having been brutally stripped of its trees by the property developers who left no trace of any lawns, paths or beds.

The only evidence that it had ever been used for the purpose of growing were the lengths of fraying orange rope and umpteen plastic compost sacks, long since emptied, that we went on to unearth as we rotivated the ground. There were countless swathes of stinging nettles and in one corner a thriving patch of Japanese Knotweed.

Zones

We found the only way to turn this utility land back into a garden without spending a fortune was to take it slowly and in stages. We split the area into three zones – zone one being the area closest to the house, and zone three the area farthest away. Doing this made the task more manageable. Focussing on one zone at a time, we drew up plans from which to work. Our priority was to get started growing crops so first of all we constructed several raised beds together forming the shape of a grand piano. We then mirrored this grand piano shape with a rammed earth Eco-Shed topped with a green roof and between the two a lawn was seeded and a decking path around it was built. The farthest and largest raised bed has more recently been converted to what is now a major part of the hen run. Zone three also contains a small orchard comprising three apple trees and the greenhouse.

Next we tackled zone one. This part of the garden is mostly paved with two raised flower beds, a sunken patio, a lavender border and fruit trees (peach and fig) espaliered against a South East facing party wall. On the opposite side of zone one is our boat shed which is a simple wooden structure. The roof is supported by eight wooden posts and the gaps between the posts are filled in with vertical timber planks- perfect for climbing plants such as evergreen honeysuckle. Beside it runs a man-made but natural looking track allowing vehicular access from the large drive at the side of the house to the Eco-Shed.

Almost done

Four and a half years later we are about 90 percent of the way through re-designing our back garden.  By the time we finish, about sixty percent of the ground will be garden and the rest cultivated.

We are now making good progress landscaping zone two and will have it finished by the summer. We already have a fruit cage in this part of the garden against which, facing South East, we are growing two grape vines – one red and one white. Just outside the fruit cage we are growing a privet wedge-hedge – Michael fancies having a go at topiary and apparently privet is very forgiving! Another part of zone 2 will become my secluded ‘secret garden’ although it’s very early days we will have to wait a couple of years for it to live up to its name!  I only planted it out two months ago… In the centre is a young Populus Tremula Erecta tree and the boundary hedging  consists of cherry plum, cluster colourama, trailblazer, ballerina fucshia and wall fuchsia – all fast growers and a haven for insects and birds.

This is a post from Co-Blogger Bridget Elahcene. Bridget writes about her Life At The Villas. Follow @lifeatthevillas

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It is February and in Europe we are paralyzed by a cold spell. Early morning temperature here dropped to -14,5 degrees Celsius which is bad but not as bad as in many other European country’s. My green fingers are itching to start sowing my onions, aubergines and chili peppers because they need a long growing period but even with the propagator I have bought it will still be to cold inside our temporary home.

Instead I have a winter flower to show you, found on the inside of our bedroom window. Although the landscape looks beautiful with crisp sparkling snow I really am looking forward to the first signs of spring. Not only for my green fingers but also for my cold and frozen fingers.

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5 Easy Steps

When you are new to gardening and are planning to do your gardening organically then this is a great book. Bob Flowerdew (fantastic last name!) writes in an easy manner in five easy steps how to grow your vegetables, fruit, flowers, bushes and trees organically.

Lists

The book is colorful with great photo’s and drawings. There are a lot of lists, I love lists, they are easy to turn to when you are in doubt or need to reread something without going through the whole book. One of my favorite lists and one I have marked is “the companion planting for vegetables”. It sums up which vegetables goes well or does badly with other vegetables. Other great lists are two pages of which plants you could plant to attract beneficial insects and the advantages and disadvantages of different types of mulch.

Seeds

There is a big section about what kind of vegetables you can grow and Bob Flowerdew gives some suggestions of which seeds you could buy, which is great if you are not sure about what to choose when you are looking through the seeds catalogs for the first time.

Although I am not a novice gardener anymore, I am pretty sure I will turn to this book this year when I need to remember which plants are beneficial or great companions for my vegetables or to identify a weed that has come up or which kind of fertilizer I should use.

Maybe in a few years I know all this by heart but for now Mr. Flowerdew’s book will remain my source and guide.

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