Mild January means getting ahead in the Gardens

Saturday and we headed in to Edinburgh Botanic gardens to meet up with David's brother Ian for lunch and a wander around the gardens. Its two years since I was last in the Botanics, thanks covid. Great lunch, plenty squirrels, sun, rain and searching out winter interest plants. As I keep saying, its amazing what plants have interest even in the depths of January. A large area of the gardens around the glasshouses is now fenced off in preparation for the new Biome project which you can read about here - RBGE Biomes

Blechnum magellanicum

Liriope

Meconopsis dhwojii

Betula

Ophiopogon and snowdrops

Rock garden

Herbaceous border

Seed heads

Seed heads

White vinca

On Sunday I drove through to Stonehouse to visit my friend Sarah-Fiona. It was great to catch up after so long, and we enjoyed a lovely walk through the fields and woods around her Dad's farm and down to the river. An afternoon of lunch, potting Aloes and talking all things gardening. So it really was a gardening weekend, lol, no getting away from it.

Monday and back to the nursery. I spent the day weaving willow, watering the tunnels and greenhouse, potting lily bulbs and some admin. The weather was dry and ridiculously warm for January, between 8 and 11C! 32 feet of willow woven, its great to be back in the nursery getting on with work. 

I wish I could weave as quickly as my speeded up video, lol. Sound on.

Some plants that caught my eye in the area of the garden I was willow weaving on Tuesday. A frosty start to the day but it was dry so another 40 feet of willow was woven. I also gave the greenhouse a quick tidy through, removing old leaves and watering the Pelargoniums

Cyclamen hederifolium

Tellima Grandiflora Rubra group

Equisetum hymale

Another 40 feet of willow woven

Useful Plants from the garden - Origano onites (Greek Marjoram)

I could be addicted to new potatoes cooked like this, I could eat platefulls of them We had these with a beetroot and grilled feta salad.

Greek Lemon Potatoes with Garlic & Oregano

Serves 2

Ingredients

300g new potatoes Extra virgin olive oil

1 Garlic clove, crushed Lemons

Sea salt Fresh oregano leaves

~ Preheat the oven to 200C. Clean the potatoes and then slice in half. Lay out cut side down on a baking sheet. Drizzle over the olive oil, add the garlic, half of the oregano leaves, sea salt and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper. Bake potatoes for 15 min.

~ Add the lemon juice and bake for another 5 minutes or until potatoes are cooked and have nice golden brown edges. Sprinkle some fresh oregano on top and serve immediately.

#usefulplantsfromthegarden #cookingfromthegarden #cookingherbs

Origano onites

Wednesday saw another productive day of willow weaving and another 50 feet done and the first side finished! I also cut the plants in the office border and cleared away all the leaves and debris ready for it to be top-dressed with compost. 

Before

I cut back and tidied this border on Wednesday and put some of our own made compost on as a mulch. It might be a small border but it has interest most of the year. Starting with the Hellebores in flower in late winter, three alpine clematis which flower in spring, Geranium ‘Mrs Kendall Clark and Phlomis russelliana in early summer, Persicaria ‘Firetail’ in late summer then the show stopper finish by Aconitum arendsii with its vivid blue flowers in autumn. It’s a great way of showing how much you can get from a narrow very shady, dry border as its under the over hang of the office.

After

In other news we hired a skip this week and on Thursday David came in to help get everything from the damage by the tree fall into it. What a difference, our work area behind the office is clear of all the damaged glasshouse bits, a squashed polytunnel and all the broken pots, trays and “stuff”. We can finally draw a line under that disaster and move forward. With the tree and the polytunnel down we have discovered a big light area of useable space. I’m claiming it for a vast proper tool and storage shade before David gets any ideas.

First side of the fedge finished

Riverside reflections

Winter is an ideal time to get on with maintenance, hard landscaping and odd jobs that there just isn’t time for in spring and summer. Having had to be away from the nursery on Friday morning I decided to spend the afternoon on a few smallish tasks and get them out the way.

First was to widen the path into the orchard, this has always been too narrow. I bought some everedge metal edging which is very thick (and heavy) so will cope with the foot fall. Having hammered it in to the required height I filled in the gaps at the edges with some of the soil from the drain I dug before Christmas. I levelled the area off using some old loam based compost and in spring I will sow grass seed and we will have a much better path into the orchard.

Next was to winter prune the apple trees. Because I gave them a very intense restorative prune last year, I haven’t done much this year. I’ve cut out any dead and diseased wood, any branches growing towards the centre of the tree and then reduced the leaders and new side growth which will encourage fruiting spurs to form.

You can read more about winter pruning here on the RHS website.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/apples/winter-pruning

Metal edging in

Soil in and levelled ready for sowing grass
seed in spring

Winter pruning the apple trees

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