Sweet Peas and some other things under glass

I decided to post some hopeful gardening signs during lockdown so am beginning with the anticipated beauty of sweet peas.

This year is our (my husband's) first attempt at growing sweet peas in the north west.  We bought our packet of semi-dwarf (container) sweet peas at the local garden centre and he sowed them in proper seed compost in the greenhouse.  This was the closest we have to the recommended October sowing in a cold frame.  Most of them are now up and under sheets of glass recycled from old fridge shelves and other sources.

I am amazed, although I should not be, that they germinated successfully and look so strong.  We even found that there were more in the packet than anticipated which leaves us extra for a spring sowing in March/April.  

Joining them in the cleared greenhouse is our culinary herb container, thyme and mint, our 'rescue' jasmine which has been root pruned and regenerated and our latest experiment - a verbena which grew from a wildflower seed mix up through the rhododendron in the front hedge.  I rather roughly extracted this and replanted it in a pot.  It will die down eventually, I will cut it back and hope to see it shoot again.

  

From 'pets' to wildlife

There was a moment this summer when our blackbird population reverted from 'pets' to wildlife.  No more chucking crumbs, summoning whistles, endearments and baby names.  By their actions they proved to be what they are, wild birds with an appetite for fruit.

Of course we knew this was true of the soft fruit which was why we annually netted the blueberry, raspberries and blackcurrants and moved the gooseberry in its big pot closer to the house, where unfortunately it nearly succumbed to gooseberry sawfly.  Sawfly larvae were relatively easy to deal with, picked off by hand and thrown over the hedge.  Apple trees needed nets.

This had never happened on such a scale before.  We had had the occasional peck at our 'Discovery' a beautiful red early ripening apple.  Now it was more like an onslaught. And once ripe apples have been pecked it is not long before the damaged fruit starts to brown and rot.

So Discovery, to the amusement of our neighbours, was swathed in net curtains, weighted down at the edges, clipped together with clothes pegs while the lawn beneath them grew long and a hiding place for frogs.

We picked at the end of August.  They do not store so we ate them week by week or gave them away.  The odd pecked apple which had evaded my checking went into apple and blackberry muffins.

We left the Scotch Bridget until the end of September.  We had waited five years for the full cropping of this lovely apple which is a dual purpose cooker and eater.  Foiled on their attempts on Discovery the blackbirds unexpectedly went for this one too hence the nets which went up a little later but stayed up for over a month.  

Now both nets are stored away.  The Scotch Bridget, which may last until November is stored in the pantry in stacks of supermarket cardboard trays.  My husband has cut the long grass with hand shears and the frogs, I presume have gone to hide and hibernate.  The blackbirds have returned to the lawn for worms.

Polyanthus in the right spaces

We are now on smaller scale gardening activities in our city's autumn lockdown 2020.  Plants that had been shoved in (by me), plants that had grown beyond limits, plants that were once acceptable as ground cover but uninspiring - all these were evaluated in September and cut back, moved or thrown away.  The irises from my family went to a sunny spot in the back border where they should both 'bake'  and flower in future years.  A rather nice lily now has an unimpeded space of its own to the approbation of the donor; the big white daisies that remind me of our childhood have been split.  A fuchsia 'Tom Thumb' propagated by my husband has been moved out from the clutches of our mint and a new one, 'Genii' from the local garden centre is doing nicely in a sheltered partly sunny spot.  

Then one of the free advertorial magazines came through the door with an article on planting a winter tub.  We went to the local garden centre again and I purchased a bag of daffodil bulbs and three polyanthus.

In years past I would have rescued polyanthus, as when we bought three trays for 30p from a local superstore.  At times I have split our own, or driven to one of the larger garden centres and spent money.  On my 60th we went to our distant cousins' place out by Tarleton, now sold and demolished, and bought cyclamen and hellebores for winter tubs.    Those days have gone.

I put two polyanthus in the gaps left by the daisies.  There is space around them and the hellebores and I added some small daffodil bulbs.  I dug up two white heathers -  offshoots of a rescue plant, some vinca -  it was here when we arrived  -  and moved a cyclamen corm.   As instructed by the article I also sunk some daffodil bulbs under the planting for spring.

My tub does not look like the picture.  It has no conifers, skimmia or pansies from the recommended list.  It does not resemble anything my husband would have put together.  However, he has kindly said it looks fine.  Plants will grow and then we will have two more heathers, vinca that can re-join the rest under the front hedge, and a red polyanthus that can be planted back into the bed.