Donations gratefully received!

While we were working in the Garden this week, Daniela & Ella, Cheltenham residents originally from Romania, very kindly gave us some seedlings for the Garden:

Daniela & Ella with capsicums, squashes & tomatoes for planting in the garden

We are always happy to receive plants for the garden, we like to keep the planting as diverse as possible.

The garden is looking very pretty at the moment, with many plants in flower ~ amongst the most spectacular are the rhubarb plants:

Rhubarb flowers in the foreground, with yellow mustard flowers behind & the silver leaves of a globe artichoke at the rear of the planting

Rhubarb doesn't really thrive here in the garden, as it's a plant that likes cool conditions & plenty of water (cultivated rhubarb is derived from species originating in Siberia) ~ the Annecy Gardens being iu the middle of town & surrounded by buildings are warm & dry & the rhubarb tends only to make skinny stalks. But the flowers are still beautiful.

We have planted some lettuces:

Red salad bowl lettuces

Lettuces are quite hardy & are unaffected by the cold nights we have experienced recently ~ we are waiting for the warmer weather before we plant out seedlings of tender crops such as runner beans, climbing french beans, squashes, courgettes, tomatoes & sweetcorn.

Last year some of the most striking plants in the garden were the Echiums by the main gates ~ these plants are monocarpic, meaning that they died once they had flowered. But there are plenty of seedlings now appearing in the beds. Slightly less showy than the Echium pininana x wildprettii we had last year is this:

Echium x scilloniense ~ I collected seeds of this plant in September 2013 from plants growing on waste ground on the island of Tresco; this is the only survivor, most of the other seedlings we planted of this died during the winter

We will be having a plant sale on this coming Saturday morning (23rd May 2015), between 10am & 1pm ~ please do come & say hello if you can ~ there'll be a range of vegetable plants available, as well as a wide variety of wildlife-friendly flowers for your garden.

Things grow fast at this time of year!

We didn't get a chance to harvest many rhubarb stalks before the plants rushed into flower very early - perhaps because of the warm dry weather in April. Never mind, the flowers are worth having too.

Rhubarb flowers are rather splendid

 

 

Late last summer we sowed miner's lettuce seed. It has certainly made itself at home! This little plant has many names - winter purslane, claytonia, spring beauty and the Latin montia perfoliata. It is a mild tasting cool weather salad plant, rich in vitamin C.

Miner's lettuce overwinters here with no difficulty

Houda and her Mum and baby sister joined us in the garden this week. With no garden of their own, they love spending time here.

Houda enjoyed helping us

Starting another year at the Annecy Garden

Just three years ago we met for our first session in the Annecy Garden. The beds had been prepared for us by the Council and were completely empty apart from some stepping stone pavers.
Today it's a very different picture...

Plenty growing here!

The two middle beds of perennial vegetables and herbs are almost full and need little attention. The other four beds also seem quite full. The self-seeded salads - rocket, lamb's lettuce and land cress -  have been very productive all winter, and are now flowering and preparing to produce yet more seed. 

Rocket in full flower, globe artichoke behind.

People often tell us how much they enjoy coming to the garden. At this time of year the abundant flowers of the wisteria on the pergolas beside the vegetable plots are an added bonus.

wisteria is always spectacular.