A Little Update - Garden Matters

When I first started writing this post it was a wet and dreary day here in Peterborough and it was damp and very chilly.   It was a day to finally pull all the pieces of the garden together that I have arranged for so far; on paper at least so that I can see my plan slowly come together. I am waiting for various deliveries of plants from Rocket Gardens UK.  I have already had deliveries from Waitrose and a partial delivery from Organic Gardening.  In the interim I am trying to sort the garden a bit more and also get the greenhouses/growing houses better sorted.  They need to be moved from where they are in the garden but at least the plants are under cover or will be when it is sorted.  

For this year I have chosen in any event to order some plants in, and others I will grow myself from seed.  Next year will be different and I will do more of the seed sowing myself as I will be better set up and organised and will hopefully have a heated propagator or growing system to bring the plants on with. Oh to have a couple of Polycrubs for all year round growing and the land to site them on!  One of the reasons for me ordering in is that I do not really have a lot of space to grow seeds and grow plants on and I thought that buying in the plants to start with would move me that much more forward and able to harvest earlier as a result.

I have on order from Rocket Plants the following:

First Order

3 x Lemon Verbena

3 x Pot Marigold

3 x French Tarragon

12 x Mixed Courgette collection

3 x standard Sage

3 x Purple Sage

3 x Chocolate Mint

Second Order

3 x Summer Savory

3 x Chervil

3 x Apple Mint

3 x Lovage

3 x Comfrey

5 x Gardeners Delight Tomato

5 x Moneymaker Tomato

10 x Roma Plum Tomato

5 x Outdoor Girl Tomato

5 x Marmande Tomato

Third Order

2 Fig Trees

Sweet Pepper Bell Boy 3 plants

Sweet Pepper Lemon Dream 3 plants

Sweet Pepper Tangerine Dream 3 plants

Chilli Pepper Early Jalapeno 3 plants

Padron Pepper 6 plants

Chilli Pepper Biquinho Yellow 3 plants

Acroclinium Grandiflora (Straw flowers) 10 plants

Cottagers Kale 10 plants

Chamomile 3 plants

Lemon Balm 3 plants

Potatoes both new and main crop are "chitting" and I would like to have a go at creating some slips.  I have never done this before let alone grow sweet potatoes.

Strawberry plants have been potted on as they are bare rooted plants and need to bring them on a bit before locating them in their fruiting positions.  A bit of work needs doing in the garden before then.

Am still waiting for the 15 Asparagus plants.  These have now been received but I need to clear the part of the garden where they are going.

I am also considering buying in some sweet and hot peppers and also a couple of fig trees.  I have since placed an order and am also waiting for this.  I love fresh figs and for quite a few years had some standards in pots that used to provide a nice little crop of fresh figs.  

I have since received the delivery for gardening items from Sostrene Grene.  I have two types of planters that have hangers on in order that you can hang them off things or over the fence.  There are four single pot ones and then there are four mini basket ones as well as four trays x 3 pots for adding individual plants into.  I am pleased with these.  I am also pleased with the four Herb driers.  With all the Herbs I am planning I am going to need a successional way of preserving the herbs and saw these hangers and thought that they might be the most cost effective way of preserving them without using electricity.  Oils in herbs are volatile and too high a heat could leave them losing those essential oils and their goodness. I do tend to airdry herbs where I can.

Back to present day

Yesterday I received the first order as above from Rocket Gardens.  Today is Saturday 26th April 2025.  I will be potting on quite a lot of plants to start with to buy me some time and putting them into the greenhouse.  I have other things to deal with first, but if I can get them potted up it will help a lot.

I like the fact that the service that Rocket Gardens offers is excellent.  The plants are always of a very good quality and their packaging is eco-friendly as well.  I personally think their plants are top notch and the service is excellent.  I have used them before.  This is not an advertisement just something that I have paid out for privately and found very good value for money.  They have full growing instructions on their website.

What the contents look like when you open a box.

The Marigolds.  In total there were 14 plants.

All potted up for the time being as once the garden is cleared they will be going out.  However am growing on for time being as end of Frosts is usually about May for here.

Re-cyling Egg Shells.  Saved, washed and dried in the oven to give plants an extra calcium boost and to hopefully stop slugs and snails.  It just costs me a little time and effort and puts something less into landfill.  Something that is good for the soil. I have just sprinkled around each plant.

The Lemon Verbena.  This can be used dried for adding to tea infusions and you can also make cordial/syrup, liqueur and use it to flavour jellies, adding to potpourri etc.  I did not have enough compost to pot these on today.  They will be going into a big pot each, the idea being that come Winter they can be over-wintered in the Greenhouse in readiness to be put out come next Spring.  That is the plan in any event.

Proper French Tarragon.  I do so love this herb, but it has to be the French version for me as it really does have a lovely flavour for chicken and fish dishes, and makes a superb vinegar which can be used as a base for a salad dressing.  I also make my own prawn cocktail sauce and a dash of my homemade Tarragon vinegar goes into it.  It lifts the dressing.

The Courgette Collection.  I was surprised how big some of the plants were but very pleased with them all the same.  There are three plants of each variety,  Details of the varieties below.

All of the varieties into a very large greenhouse tray.  These are all going into large pots for placing around the garden once risk of frost is over.  I therefore need lots of compost.

Today I have potted up 14 Calendula (Pot Marigold) plants; three Courgette; three Yellow Courgette Atena Polka, three Courgette Green Bush; three Courgette Tondo Chiara di Nizza, three Courgette Tromboncino Albenga.  These are all Summer Squash.

As a result of this, I needed to get the greenhouse/growing houses sorted out well one at least and I did manage to get this cleared and the plants I had re-potted in there.

The second order will be delivered in the next few weeks and the third before the end of May.

I now need to go and buy compost as planting up this afternoon has used quite a bit of what I had to hand. Hopefully that will get sorted soon.

I must say that I have enjoyed my afternoon/early evening in the garden.  It has been very peaceful where I have been able to be in the moment, potter around grounding myself with the soil, and getting things that needed doing done.  Not what I planned to do but it needed to be done to get it out the way with.  If I can get compost tomorrow, then I can get the rest of the herbs potted up.  I have three Lemon Verbena, three Chocolate Mint, three French Tarragon, three ordinary Sage and three Purple Sage.  I just need to get hold of the variegated one as well and then will have a full set on Sage.  I use a lot of this in cooking in any event as I make my own stuffing mix.

I will then have a look at my seeds and start getting these sown.  Tomatoes, peppers sweet and hot are all due in the second and third deliveries.  I am therefore going to concentrate on getting the garden cleared as best as I can and the greenhouses re-sited so that I can utilise what garden I do have.  I also intend to get some potato bags as well.

I do have some Angelica seeds to plant and some Cayenne Pepper seeds.  I also have some troughs in which I am going to plant things like Spinach and Pea shoots for use in salads, as well as different mixed leaves and individual lettuce species.  I also need to get Cucumbers on the go as well as lots of other stuff.  I have a lot of work going forward in the garden and hope to get stuck in quite a bit this week.  Looks as though the temperatures are rising again.  Hopefully I will be able to make the most of it.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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