Pruning Early Flowering Shrubs & Taking Cuttings

With the first flush of spring behind us it is time to cut back the winter early spring flowering shrubs like this forsythia and some of the shrubby honeysuckles. 

This is also a great opportunity to increase your stock of the plants you like by taking cuttings. I now have half a dozen forsythia scattered around the place but only bought the first one; the rest have come from cuttings taken at this time of the year. But don't go mad - you don't want to end up with a garden crammed with only one or two plants that only flower for a few weeks of the year! We once bought a house with a long rectangular lawn some 10x3m lined on three sides with rows of alternated weigela and potentilla. I have refused to have either in any garden since!



As well as the forsythias I need to cut back a glorious winter flowering honeysuckle fragrantissima, planted outside our bedroom window so we can enjoy the intense fragrance in December and January. Not a total success as the windows are mostly closed in the winter, but it is worth standing in the morning sunshine and breathing in the scent. It will often be visited by bumble bees out for a mid-winter wing stretch and refuel.

The second honeysuckle, a Tatarian Honeysuckle, is a deep pink flowered one, the flowers and leaves coming out together in March. It can be invasive so needs to be managed to prevent it escaping, another reason for cutting hard after flowering to prevent the spread of berries by birds. Apparently it will also reach four metres if left to grow unchecked; I wish to keep it compact so it will be pruned hard in the next few days.

Sowing in Trays Versus Modular Sowing in Individual Pots

Although some plants hate being disturbed so need to be sown direct - carrots and parsnips for example - many benefit from being sown in a protected environment away from predators or extremes of weather. In this way we are more likely to have a high germination rate and higher survival rate. I know from experience here that if I sow a row of lettuces directly into the ground, the slugs will devour the seedlings as they emerge or flea beetles will wipe out most members of the cabbage family before they reach the true leaf stage. 

 Of course other gardens and environments will be different, but this is why we see flowers that produce thousands of seeds - if they all germinated and survived to maturity the world would be overwhelmed with, say cosmos. Would that be such a bad thing!

Jobs for the Month - April

April is a transition month, and a very unpredictable one weather wise, with anything possible from snow to heat waves. 

During March I sowed seeds like mad (and still am) and come early May I will be hoping to plant out everything into the garden. So in April I will need to bring on my tender vegetables - tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and the rest - from vulnerable seedlings to plants that are robust enough to survive life outside planted in the ground. This process, called hardening off, needs to be taken slowly. Young plants used to living indoors will really suffer or possibly die if they get plonked straight outside into the ground. Just imagine how you'd feel - duvet and central heating one day, cold feet, driving rain or intense sunshine the next! Yes, we need to get the plants used to sunshine as well as the cool.

I use a small blow away greenhouse as a half way house, and much of April is spent doing the In Out Plant Shuffle. Initially I'll choose a warm and sunny day to move all the plants out into a shady and sheltered spot for a few hours. I don't put them into full sun: the leaves can scorch and small pots can quickly dry out. In the first year we were here I put a tray of chillies out onto a windowsill and was then side-tracked by a friend arriving with beer. A couple of hours later and there was nothing left but a few shrivelled and crispy remains!

The plants will come back in to the house at night and after about a week of this they will advance to spending their nights in the little greenhouse and some part of their days in the sunshine. It is essential to keep the growing medium moist, but not wet and to avoid getting water on the leaves, as this can make sun scorch much worse. Eventually the plants will be used to living outside day and night, rain and shine. You must watch the weather during this process; any plant that is not frost hardy must come in at night, however tough they've become; my green house will not provide enough protection, or at least not without extra plastic or bubble wrap. And remember if the plants have to spend more than a day or two back inside, the hardening off will have to begin again!

In addition to the In Out Plant Shuffle, April sees continued repeat sowing of 

• turnips 
• beetroot 
• lettuce 
• radishes 

Plus bulk sowing of

• red & summer cabbage 
• carrots 
• cauliflower 
• courgettes 
• perpetual spinach & leaf beet 
• climbing & dwarf haricot (French beans) 
• kale
• peas
• parsnips
• sweetcorn
• various basils, other herbs & flowers as the mood, time and available compost takes me!

I'll be carrying on cutting the grass and the edges of the grass paths in the potager; the grass will be used as mulch on the beds and around both newly planted shrubs and hedges and those that are well established.

In April we will continue enjoying the short asparagus season, and possibly the first globe artichokes of the year, too. We should have lettuces and the last of the leaf beet, too, but otherwise April can be quite bleak in the kitchen garden!

We will also still be under le confinement due to covid-19 until at least the middle of the month and probably right through to the end. In practical turns I am so lucky to have my own garden to sit and work in, to contemplate the incredible quiet, and in which to be distracted from the current situation. 

Stay safe & healthy everyone, and please stay at home!

March in the Garden & le Confinement

We have been in Covid-19 confinement in France since mid March and although some jobbing gardeners have been out at work, we have been following the advice to stay at home. This means that for possibly the first time, I'm largely getting through my weekly gardening to do list and not rolling over too much. I've also had plenty of time to take advantage of the mostly sunny weather (we won't talk about the snow this morning) to take and organise some photos.

Pear Blossom

From a single plant, the coslips are slowing spreading themselves around.

A warm day brings out the butterflies, perhaps this scarce swallowtail likes the warmth from the tyre?

Daffodils at the start of the month, now long-finished.

This new border on a steep bank has railway sleepers at the bottom and is now planted up with (very small) old French roses - hopefully there'll be some progress pictures later in the summer! 

Never forget the birds - will anyone nest in this smelly old boot?

Jobs for the Month - March

March can be a bit of a treadmill - sow seeds, prick out seedlings, pot on young plants, and repeat. I love it! And all the spring tree blossom that is everywhere, too.

Into this frenzy of activity we have to fit in the first cuts of the grass, although as both January and February were so warm and dry, many have already started around here. 

And Sow it Begins! Chillies.

This week is chilli week, a highlight of my seed sowing calendar. I love French food and cooking, but when it comes to buying chillies we are pretty much limited to Espelette, the Basque red pepper which have a pleasant enough flavour, if not especially fiery and the doux de Landes pepper, doux meaning soft or mild in this context ... The large supermarkets in the big smoke of Tarbes may have habaneros from time to time, but the supply and quality is unreliable so not worth the trip. Growing chillies it has to be!

Chilli pepper growing is a huge thing, even for non-gardeners so there is a massive amount of (sometimes conflicting) information out there. As a consequence I'm just going to be sticking to what I do; I would recommend reading around the subject if you wish to become an aficionado! Many people grow, not necessarily for the kitchen, but as a horticultural challenge, and sometimes, I suspect, for the kudos of having the hottest chilli in the world (currently one of the nagas, I think) or the funniest (the peter pepper - look it up with care) growing in the greenhouse. Personally, flavour comes first and second; I like a hot chilli, but it has to have flavour as well as heat. Indeed, I'd rather have something mild and tasty, over one that just blisters the mouth!

February - Jobs for the Month

February always feels like the last calm month in my gardening calendar - from the end of the month until the heat of the summer in July I will be dedicating almost every free moment to the sowing, potting on, planting out and caring for my tender vegetables. This month can give us anything from heavy snow to almost summer like conditions, so be prepared to grab the chance to do the important stuff when you can. So if this sounds like me getting my excuses in early for the paucity of new posts, you could be right.

Once we hit July the focus will switch over to preserving as much of the harvest as possible for the winter months; we don't buy in much veg beyond the potatoes and onions which I struggle to grow, so if the harvest or my ability to preserve it fails, then we could be reduced to a very limited winter diet. This is partly choice; we eat seasonally and also try not to buy food that has covered great distances, bananas and the occasional pineapple excepted. Consequently  we don't eat warm climate veggies such as tomatoes, peppers or courgettes right through the year. This keeps our small housekeeping budget in check, reduces our carbon footprint and makes the first freshly picked tomato all the more sweet!