Secret Garden
Despite the fact that as I write this we’re in the depths of winter, I actually managed to get out and do a bit of gardening at the weekend – and what a lovely feeling it was! I’d had delivery of 15 bare rooted Rosa Rugosa ‘Rubra’ plants to finish hedge-building around our recently constructed Secret Garden and needed to get them into the ground without delay. The sun even came out for a little while! The ground wasn’t that cold but it was very wet – not surprising after all the rain we’ve had over the last eight months or so…
Asparagus and Globe Artichokes
Our three raised beds lay fallow but I have imminent plans for two of them: one will soon become home to the thirty or so asparagus plants that I have grown from seed (currently languishing in pots in the unheated greenhouse) and the other will accommodate a Globe Artichoke plantation(!) – albeit a relatively modest one to start with, consisting of six plants recently acquired from Victoriana Nursery Gardens (but I understand they’re wonderfully easy to propagate…)
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
Already Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is peeping up through the earth – it’s one of my all time favourites and of course a great favourite of bumble bees too. It’s amongst the very first plants to appear in the Spring and one of the very last to finish late into the Autumn. I’d say excellent value for money except I grew it from a root cutting so it didn’t cost a penny!
Peaches, figs and grapes…
The bare branches of the Avalon peach and a Brown Turkey fig fruit trees are starkly contrasted against the white south east facing wall against which they’re trained, but give them a couple of months and buds will start to appear… the peach performed particularly well last year so hopefully we’ll have more of the same in 2013! Meanwhile, our two leafless grape vines cling to their trellis against the fruitcage – waiting for Spring. This will be their second summer, so I’m optimistic we might be rewarded with some sweet juicy grapes later this year – fingers crossed for plenty of warm sunshine!
How is your garden this week?
About Bridget Elahcene
Up until five years ago I had no experience of growing vegetables other than encouraging my young children at the time to take an interest in GYO for a couple of years – mainly in an effort to get them out of the house and into the fresh air.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice job on the espalier pruning of those fruit trees!
It’s good to get out into the garden in the winter months isn’t it?
We’ve had another unseasonably warm winter so far over here on Cape Cod. It will be interesting to see how it affects this coming season.
Thank you for your kind comments! I am lucky enough to have a perfect wall for training fruit trees against AND a very handy ‘other half’ to put the wire up for me!
Hey Bridget – how easy were the asparagus to grow from seed?
Good luck with the globe artichokes, but watch out as they grow huge! And then they’re a nightmare to move as the root gets very big.
They look stunning when they flower in the summer though. A beautiful, deep purple.
A breeze – almost all germinated and grew on to become healthy young plants. The foliage has died back now so fingers crossed green shoots will appear in due course! I plan to plant them out in March, weather permitting.
I understand propagating globe artichokes is very straight forward – apparently you choose the plant that produces the best ‘globes’ and remove any suckers with a bit of root on and plant. Hey presto.
Like you say, I shall leave the odd few to flower though..
Can’t wait!