Buddleja – the new patio plant?

Purple Leaf Blackthorn shares her Suffolk garden, on a rural windswept site, with chatty cats, free-range chickens and ducks as well as a rich local fauna of birds, rabbits, rats, moorhens and deer.  With a focus on diversity, scent and colour – foliage or flower, whilst competing with the strong prevailing winds … it’s a survival of the fittest approach to gardening.

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All is growing in the garden

Because March was so mild everything in the garden is moving on at long last, but because the soil is still quite wet and cold below, night frosts are still around so it is important to take great care.

So far on my allotment I have direct sowed onion sets, making sure I sow them into the driest soil. I followed with a sowing of radish seed. The radish germinated after 14 days, showing some warmth is finally getting into the soil. Other vegetable sowings will be made from April when the soil is warmer; sowing seeds into cold soil is pointless as germination will be erratic and poor. The first things sown will be parsnips, carrots, beetroot, peas and broad beans.

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Wet start to the year – unruley weather

Despite the wet start to this year I have still managed to finish my winter digging. Despite the allotment site being clay soil, my plots have had so much organic matter added to it over the years that it makes digging easy. I hardly have to put my foot on the spade to get it into the soil.

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Much to do before festive break

December 2013
Well I can’t believe that the festive season is nearly here but there are still a few jobs to do in the garden before the end of the year, weather permitting.

I have tidied the shrubs and perennial borders, old perennial stalk pruned back and, where required, shrubs pruned to shape. I like to freshen up the borders by lightly forking over the soil and adding a few autumn bedding plants into any gaps. Most of the bulbs were planted between October and November, but any I have left will be planted in the next couple of weeks.

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Water, water, water keeps the garden rosy

I love to see the sun as much as anybody and it certainly makes the plants grow, but they could also do with a shower of rain from time to time.

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