Cold frame propagation

Today I finally fulfilled another of my dreams and purchased a cold frame.  Not a very expensive one, but one nevertheless. Yay! Now I can, in earnest, join the realm of gardeners who attempt to squeeze a few extra weeks out of mother nature either end of the planting season.

Husband has never been too enthusiastic about my owing one of these.  Think he  possibly views them as another addition to my hoarding habits; rather like the amount of garden pots I accumulate, and most recently glass bottles and jars of all shapes and sizes (but that's another story in itself!).  Personally, I think he should much prefer an outdoor propagator than having the windowsills crammed with seed trays, so really I bought it as a kind gesture-honest!.

I was mightily pleased with myself when it came to assembling said cold frame too.  Having not been blessed with the greatest of spatial/logical awareness, being generally rubbish at jigsaws and such, I was the very proud erector of cold frame within a matter of minutes; possibly 60 of them but still good going I reckon!

And here is said cold frame......

Complete with cuttings; they didn't come included in the flat pack- I did those myself in anticipation!

It is quite a bit larger than I anticipated, (oops!)  in fact it is probably the size of a one man tent, which is great news for me and my seedlings; if husband is very cross about the new garden accessory, I could comfortably sleep in it!

So, now that I have a real space to begin sowing tender seeds whilst there is still a nip of frost about, what shall I plant?

At the Woodland, we are currently building a terraced area up into the embankment ,in a sheltered corner ,that I am planning to fill with herbs and such like.  So, I have taken some cuttings from established plants that overwinter quite nicely in the garden.  This is not something that I have done before but after a little reading decided that it didn't sound too tricky and, if successful, a great (free!) way to get some new plants.  I have taken a small amount, mainly herbs; mint, lavender, oregano, rosemary plus some hydrangea and clematis, thinking that I will allow them a few weeks in the propagator and if they don't appear to have died then I will consider it a success and take more!

My method;  starting with healthy, established plant specimens, I cut off several pieces of around 4-5 cms.  I stripped the lower leaves from the stem and dipped them into hormone rooting gel, I then potted them into small pots filled with seed and cutting compost and watered them in gently.  They are currently in the propagator, I will update on their progress.

Feeding the squirrels (and other animals)

 We been busy once again, planting this, time bulbs; lots and lots and lots of bulbs.

Realising it may be a little late to plant daffodil bulbs (this was in late february-think bulbs should def initley be in the ground over winter!) but finding large sackfulls heavily reduced we decided to give it a go regardless.  What have we got to lose? Either the bulbs will happily sprout their flowery heads without a care to the time of year, they will patiently wait insitu until next year, or they will be dug up and provide many a forest animal with a hearty meal.

I believe I see a pattern forming with my gardening techniques here and not a very scientific one at that.  Basically my technique involves simply bunging whatever seed/bulb/plant it is into the ground and hoping for the best.  I admit, I do actually own several great books on gardening, allotment keeping etc etc which I like having a good read through so hopefully I can't be going too far wrong - Soil (or growing substance), sunlight, darkness, water and nutrients, Right?

This is where I planted the majority of the daffodils (and narcissus).  It is a clearing set into the woods and has (in wetter weather) an overflow stream trickling down the embankment into the river.

In my minds eye, I picture it as a lovely sheltered, secluded clearing bursting with ferns and colour.  In reality it is, at the moment, a shaded, somewhat damp spot in which nothing much has been growing.  This, we believe, is due to the sycamore blocking the light and preventing growth.  Hopefully, clearing some branches has opened up the canopy and we will soon see signs of emerging growth.