Snail trouble

For the previous two seasons we've been lucky enough not to suffer too much from slugs & snails. I think this is partly because the beds we've been cultivating have been cut into closely mown grass & have been rather bare & rather inhospitable to molluscs. But now there's year round cover on the plots & so the little horrors have places to hide, from which they emerge to devour our seedlings.

Here's a courgette we've just planted to replace one that the slugs ate earlier:

One of the multicrop sowings has been doing well, here the different varieties are mainly brassicas, but there's some chard in there too:

Multicrop in foreground, blue phacelia flowers to right, broad beans under hazel wigwam to rear

The other multicrop sowing has been hit hard by slugs & snails. As you can see in the photo above, we've put our bean wigwams in place ~ the hazel rods have lasted quite well from last year.

We've planted french beans on the wigwams, hopefully these will establish quickly before our slimy friends can guzzle them:

Here's a picture of one of our perennial beds, the globe artichoke to the rear is looking particularly magnificent:

Globe artichoke to rear, lettuces (red & green) in foreground with rhubarb to right; rocket flowers in midground

Flowering brassicas & much, much more

The fields of oilseed rape around Gloucestershire are echoed with some of the flowers in the Annecy Gardens. Plants of the red curly kale, 'Redbor' are flowering now & the pale yellow flowers are very pretty:

Red curly kale 'Redbor'; you can also see potatoes emerging here & lettuce

Looking particularly striking at the moment is the variegated kale, 'Creme Chantilly', where the cream flowers tone in with the pale yellow leaf margins:

Brassica 'Creme Chantilly' in flower

The seakale, Crambe maritima, also has attractive leaves (no flowers on our plants) that look much like kale; although I believe exceedingly tough if eaten at this stage, it is generally recommended to eat the blanched young shoots in early spring. We've given it a little sign as last year it was being picked at this stage ~ which will only weaken the plant & provide the picker with something horrible to eat.

Crambe maritima

This year we're having a go at polyculture, sowing seeds of a number of different vegetables as a mixture; it is suggested that doing this might provide heavier crops through more intensive use of the ground; also help reduce pest damage ~ for instance, growing a mixture containing both onions & carrots may reduce carrot fly damage as the onions will mean the carrot flies cannot smell the carrots to lay their eggs on them. Well, that's the theory.

Seedlings germinating in the polyculture

The echiums are now in flower. Both blue Echium gentianoides & red Echium pininana x wildprettii, the bees in particular love this latter, when we were at the garden there were masses of bumble bees of a number of species visiting the plants; also honeybee visitors too.

Echium pininana x wildprettii closeup

Echium pininana x wildprettii, the whole flower spike; all the flowers open at once making it very striking; & a bee magnet

Echium gentianoides, detail

Echium gentianoides

Chervil

Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) is a pretty little culinary herb, an annual with white lacy flowers ~ it is, after all an umbellifer. It looks like a small version of cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) & it is indeed a close relation of that beautiful hedgerow plant. Chervil is not much grown, but it is particularly nice with egg dishes.

Chervil, Anthriscus cerefolium

Also flowering now at the Annecy Garden is lamb's lettuce, Valerianella locusta. This has been growing all through the winter, forming little rosettes of leaves with a delicious nutty flavour, a fine addition to a winter salad. The plant is a winter-growing annual & the flowers are now here, very unspectacular, the pale blue of skimmed milk, but charming nonetheless.

Lamb's lettuce, Valerianella locusta

Another salad plant now flowering is land cress, Barbarea verna. This is recommended as a substitute for watercress in sites that are too dry for watercress to thrive & while the plant grows easily, the flavour of the leaves is rather strong & peppery. But the flowers are pretty now:

Land cress, Barbarea verna

Also looking pretty in the beds & an unexpected over-wintering survivor are the Virginian stocks, Malcolmia maritima. This plant comes from Greece & seems very happy in the warm, dry, sunny conditions of the Annecy Gardens & there are many self-sown seedlings:

Virginian stock, Malcolmia maritima

This is the third year of Transition Town Cheltenham's Growing Group working the Annecy Gardens & some of the perennials are now forming very substantial clumps, not least the globe artichokes, Cynara scolymus.

Lorraine standing next to monster clump of globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus

Plant sale

We had a plant sale on Saturday ~ one way of raising money for new seeds & equipment. One requirement in the next few weeks will be for more hazel rods to create wigwams for climbing beans. The sun shone on us for the sale & we raised over £100, so we shall be able to afford all the poles we need.

We did a steady trade, but there were enough of us that we were able to perform routine gardening tasks while keeping an eye on the sales table

Here also some pictures of the broad bean seedlings we planted a couple of weeks ago now establishing nicely:

The red & green oakleaf lettuces are also coming on:

The rhubarb is coming into flower, we should remove the flower spikes for stronger growth (I always leave the flowers on my allotment plants ~ they're rather magnificent):

A beheading!

While there've not been any blog posts for a while, the Annecy Gardeners have not been idle. Over the past few weeks we've been tidying up the beds after a winter break in our work sessions, we've also been sowing seeds & planting seedlings. We've also been spreading well-rotted manure on the beds, the manure a gift from kindly Cheltenham Borough Council.

The dark areas on the beds are where we've been spreading well-rotted manure

We've been fortunate at the Annecy Gardens not to suffer much from vandalism, we've been pleased with how people have engaged with the plantings while treating them with respect. So a little saddening to see that one of our Echiums by the front gate had been beheaded.

Here's the intact one:

Echium pininana x wildprettii ~ the flowers should be opening within a week or two

Here's its unfortunate sibling:

However, aside from this warm weather & adequate moisture means plants have been growing at quite a rate. There are also many spring flowers, including Brassica 'Red Frills', apple blossom (even on our newly planted 'Hunt's Duke of Gloucester' maiden tree) & Wisteria on the pergolas surrounding the garden.

Ribes odoratum 'Crandall', a selection of buffalo currant & apparently this will produce a crop even in a very shaded spot (such as it enjoys at the Annecy Gardens)

Wisteria, just coming into flower

Apple 'Hunt's Duke of Gloucester', the tree was only planted in February

Brassica 'Red Frills' in flower



Finally, a date for your diaries: we'll be having a plant sale at the Annecy Gardens from 10am till 1pm, this coming Saturday 3rd May 2014. All kinds of plants including veg & bee-friendly, all very modestly priced.

Visitors from Sweden

At the end of March 2014, we had a group of visitors come from four different Transition Town projects running in villages in central Sweden. They were doing some very interesting things, such as sharing a cow between 7 families, with each family being responsible for ministering to the cow & milking it one day a week; another project involved restoring a derelict flour mill & growing the grain to provide raw material. While in Gloucestershire the group visited a number of Transition initiatives, including the Sedgeberrow Energy Project, and also the Annecy Garden. Our visitors were very enthusiastic participants & required no encouragement before they were setting to on the weeding. They were also amazed at how advanced the season was (about 7 weeks ahead of their area in Sweden); growing conditions in Cheltenham are certainly a lot easier, our visitors were relating that they expect their last frosts on the year on about the 21st of June & their first on about the 18th of August ~ so that's a 2-month growing season (here I'd expect to have to have the 6 months May to October more or less frost-free).