Sow Much Spare Time!

Hello all

Welcome to blog two!!

I do hope that everyone one is very well.

In these strange times, I hope that you have had time to enjoy whatever outdoor space that you may have and bathe in the little bits of Sun shine that is being offered up to us in compensation for the world going mad!

I, for one, have been getting outside when I can.

Teaching the kids about the garden is all part of my cunning home-schooling plan!  Wife thinks I’m doing my part to educate, but in reality, I am just having quality time in the mud!

So, what have I been up too of late:

I am still sowing lots seeds in my greenhouse, and I am approaching the stage where I need to prick out plants in the seed trays. Before your imagination goes wild, pricking out is a gardening term and is where you plant the individual seedings into their own pot, in order for them to continue to grow into healthy strong plants and not have to compete with all the other plants in the tray. 

In order to do this gently hold the leaf of your plant and tease it out slowly from the soil.  If you break the stem then that plant will not survive, but if you damage the leaf it has a fighting chance of survival.  Just be gentle.

Also bare in mind that when you move the plant from the seed tray to its own individual pot old Pammy plant will be a bit startled.  She may well sulk for a bit and sit in her new pot not doing anything.  This is ok.  Give it some time and, fingers crossed, Pam will come back to life and begin to thrive again! (No idea why I picked the name Pam!)  I always water them into their new home.  This can be done by watering from above if you want to get that job done quick or be a little gentler and place the pots into a tray of water for them to soak up.

So why go to all that effort of moving the plant from tray to pot to just have to move them to the ground later, I hear you ponder. 

Think of it like the couch potato to 5K challenge that everyone considers doing at least once in their lifetime, basically it’s baby steps!

I am not sowing the seeds out in the garden just yet as the soil is still cold, suggesting that it is far too cold for seeds to germinate in the ground. How I tell when to plant seeds outdoors is a very in-depth scientific method and may take you years to fully master but here goes, get your notepad and pencil to the ready….I put my hand on the soil and if it feels cold to touch, then it’s too cold to plant in! Mind blowing stuff!

Also, another little tip…now apart from slugs (and my kids and wife) what is the one thing we are meant to dislike being in our gardens? Yep, Weeds (although I can also lecture you on the fact not all weeds are bad, but I’ll save that for another joyous time!). BUT get this…. when weeds start to grow that is another good sign that it is ok to start sowing seeds outdoors. If the soil is warm enough for weeds then it’s warm enough for seeds (bit of gardening poetry there thrown in for free).

When sowing seeds, don’t limit yourself.  It doesn’t have to be a case of once it’s done, then never again.  If it’s something you like you can plant more and more and more of it as time continues. By working like this you won’t be overloaded by lettuce one week and then digging around desperately looking to furnish your families plates with food and coming up empty handed a week later. If you sow seeds in time sections then you can have succulent salad crops all summer long. Salad is not just for summer!  You can also grow salad crops in winter, but I shall leave that for another blog.

So, I sow lettuce seeds every 4 weeks. I prefer to sow little and often. I will grow three lots of carrot seeds throughout the year and I have just planted in my early potato crop, which I plant into grow bags (these are a bit like a small bin liner, with holes already made in the bottom).  I use grow bags as I only have limited space to plant up all my dream veg so by using these bags, I can save space in the actual ground. 

I put 2 seed potatoes per grow bag, anymore and they will be too crowded out and this can reduce the number of spuds produced.

Oh look at that smooth link to my next topic….

If space is an issue for you, look about your house and garden.  I am willing to bet that you have a few containers that you can commandeer in the name of planting!  An old bucket or abandoned large flower pot is ideal for carrots.  You simply need a deep container with drainage in the bottom. 

Toilet rolls are great for seed planting, simply fill with soil, pop the seed in, water and wait.  A plastic strawberry punnet can work too.  Just think about what you are growing and select the right depth container i.e. if its something that grows under ground like carrots or potatoes then you need a container with depth.  If the plant grows above the ground like strawberries or lettuce you may need a container with less depth but space for the plant to flourish.  You don’t need to spend loads of money; it doesn’t need to be the latest garden centre must have.  Recycle what you have and use your imagination!

So here is the next important lesson.  This has taken me years to accept. In gardening things don’t always work.  Don’t be disheartened.  Sometimes they just wont grow.  I have planted parsnip seeds 2 years running and only got 1 or 2 plants from all my seeds, but last year I did exactly the same again, didn’t change my method in anyway and got more a less a full crop.  Don’t think of it as failure, think of it as learning.  Its what makes gardening such a fun challenge.  As my kid’s teacher taught her class “Do your best, and your best is good enough”

My new weekly segment…. It’s called ‘Cheeky Challenge’:

If you’re looking for something to do with the kids, or even for your own entertainment, this week, check out the latest Gardeners Question Time show on Radio 4 (Friday 10 April 2020).  There is a fantastic idea on growing Avocados from the seed inside.  They also tell you how to do this with a Mango.  I shall be trying this with my kids as our science challenge!  Why not give it a go too and see how it goes?

Hello,

Right, deep breath, give me a shove and off I roll....

My name is Mike.
I suspect that I a may be one of those rare beings who is very lucky to be working in a job that I thoroughly enjoy.
Around 20 years ago I fell head over heels in love with all that is green and natural and began work as a Tree Surgeon.  I now own and run The Tree GP, based in Suffolk, alongside my friend and  business partner, lets call him Mr C!
Now, whilst I do love a good tree and have spent years studying and working on or around them, this blog is NOT about those tall leafy things often found in forests!
This is not a Log blog! I feel you wince at that name but that was actually a possible contender for this here blog, that is until a friend made a rude comment linked to logs!

This blog has been born (or should I say "grown") as an outlet for my deep rooted and spiralling addiction......Gardening!

If I heard a yawn hangggg onnnn...Gardening is not boring!
Right now we are stuck in the middle of a massive life changing experience. 
COVID 19 is here and for those of us that can or have to, we are staying at home. 
Paint and tools have been flying off the shelves in our local D.I.Y shops as people prepared for the lock-down to begin and we finally have no more excuses not to get around to those household chores we've all been madly avoiding (sorry darling wife, too busy writing this blog to re paint the kitchen), but I have also seen Tom, Dick and Harriet wandering out of shops of late, arms bursting with trays of bedding plants and shoulders heavy with bags of soil, looking a bit dazed by their purchase, wondering what on earth they do now.  Is it as simple as whacking it in a pretty pot and letting nature do its best?

The point of this blog is to share my passion with you all, mainly because my wife is sick of me talking about my next gardening job at home, but also because I figure someone somewhere might find something I say of some tiny interest!!

So without further ado, lets all retreat to, or take the first baby steps towards, creating our place of calm and safety, to nurture something of your very own, to produce food and flowers for yourself or simply find a little distraction and make your world a greener happier place right now!

A Gardening God, I am not, but I am a trier and we all know that god loves one of those!!
My simple aim is to attempt to pass on even a little of my enthusiasm to enjoy gardening, to help you grow your own food, to give you tips on how to put some colour in your garden all year round, to revive that favourite plant that continually struggles, even just to encourage you to go outdoors, give it a go, and make that back garden a happier place.

Weekly exciting Mike Fact:  According to The RHS Garden Magazine April 2020 "Regular contact with the soil in your garden can boost your immune system and keep you healthier, by increasing your exposure to a variety of beneficial microbes."

Enough blithering. To the point, mike...

In the beginning....there were Seeds....

With the Sun finally daring to  make an appearance these last few days, and the rainbow of colour appearing around us with the Daffodils and Primrose all out in bloom, I suddenly took a moment out of work and family life, removed a child (I have kids by the way) from clambering all over me and realised we must have finally inched out of Winter and popped into Spring.  The start of new life!
So what better time to sew a few seeds.

Now my wife would say I am quite a simple being (I suspect that's an insult but I take it to mean I am low maintenance, and a joy to be around!), and this, backed up by the fact that I tend to buy ALOT of seeds, you won't be surprised to hear that I am not too fussy about where I buy seeds from! I am not really a big brand believer.  I buy what I like the look of, what I can afford and what's available to me easily (I can't be fussed with fuss!).
At this time with so many shops closed and our freedom to go out and about limited,choosing your seeds may obviously be harder, so my advice would be just go for it.  Use what you have OR buying online is currently still an option. 
Not teaching grandmother to suck eggs, or however the saying goes, but just look on the back of the pack or read online as to when they recommend the seed should be sewn (I tend to vaguely stick to this. Sometimes I like to freestyle a tiny bit and might sew a week or 2 outside of these dates!) and choose what you like. Grow what you like. Simple as that.
My Tree surgery head forces me to mention, at this point, that the Tree planting season finishes at the end of march but fear not, there is much more out there just waiting to still be planted!

Think Vegetables.  Think anything from the Brassica family i.e. broccoli, cabbage, sprouts. All the stuff kids hate!
Salad crops are ideal around now.  They can be grown in trays and then planted out later down the line. Planting out is a whole other blog, if you can stick with me!

I am lucky enough to have a good size garden (not surprisingly that was my only stipulation when we house hunted 4 years ago!) and in this I have finally built my own green house, which I use for all my seed growing.

You don't need a greenhouse though.  Seeds really just require sunlight and some warmth, so a windowsill within a shed or in the house is just as good. 
***Gardening doesn't have to be an expensive hobby where only the right tools will do, it is one of those brilliant activities where you can use your imagination to create outstanding things!

Alright clever clogs, when I said seeds only need sunlight and warmth, obviously that alone will not grow you your roast dinner veg.  A few other things are also needed and I would say that the type of compost is key!
Over the past year I have become very interested in Organic gardening.  I will never claim to be an expert, this is all just what I have learnt or found out through trial and error, and my own personal interest, but where possible, where "green" gardening is concerned, I am busy tweaking my approach to having a "cleaner" garden.

For my seeds I use an Organic Compost.  This means that it is Peat free.  Whilst peat IS a natural product and great for the garden there is not an unlimited supply of this in our world. It takes thousands of years for it to be formed so every time it is taken and used for compost it depletes the stores a little more. 
At the moment I am using a Peat free compost made by 'Growise', which I find leads to good results with my seed growth. Obviously other brands are available and its about finding what you can afford and find successful.

It is really as simple as using a seed tray (this morning I put a plastic container from some mini muffins in the recycling that would have been ideal, as long as you make drainage holes in the bottom), fill it with compost, space the seeds out as evenly as you can, cover with a light sprinkle of soil and pat it down gently. 

*Technically it is thought to be more beneficial to water from the bottom up, i.e. stand the tray in a larger container and fill that with water in order that the seed tray socks it up via its drainage holes, AND officially it should be tap water that is used as this is sterile, with less bacteria, and said to be far more beneficial to new growth, but I will tell you a Mike secret...  When i'm feeling particularly adventurous, I break the rules! I use rain water AND I water from above occasionally. Don't tell anyone. ..and guess what...the seeds do grow!  But that's our secret...you choose your journey!!!!!

It is also a great time to grow flowers at this time of year, but they can be trickier due to the fact that they need heat to germinate (still researching the exact reasons why on that!).
I love growing the flower "Cosmos". 
I do this in the way that I have already described.  Always in the green house, and more often than not to great success.  It can't hurt to just give things ago.  At best you end up with a beautiful flower or plant and at worst you have learnt to try it differently next time.

So that is a tiny little piece of my mind right there on this page. 
Give it a go. 
Get something planted.
Start small.
Try a seed you have never dared before!

If it has inspired you at all to give it a go then why not delve into the wider world.  Try listening to 'Gardner's Question Time' on Radio 4 or watch a snippet of "the Monty" on 'Gardeners World' on BBC 2.  Both are very calming, which is ideal right now, and both have some really simple, basic but hugely helpful tips.

Remember, Gardening is about relaxing, having some fun and creating something with raw ingredients. 
Producing colour and beauty in whatever space you have and even growing your own food. (it is also about getting away from the family when necessary!!)

Keep an eye out for the next exciting instalment on the life and times of a budding Gardener!!