Gardening jobs for March

Empty Common Garden in late January

Volunteers are still finishing off the polytunnel (pictures to come) and doing all sorts of jobs around the Community Garden. It's quite a green space considering we are still in winter, but spring is not far now. The photo above, taken in late January, shows you how lush a winter garden can still be here in England. We had no snow last year and little snow this year.

Photo: JamesDeMers 

Today is the first of March, which is very exciting for all gardeners, whether you have a plot or a balcony to flex your green thumbs. For those who like blooms, it's time to plant summer bulbs (in the ground or in a pot). A handy tip for a heavy clay soil is to place a bit of sand under each bulb to improve drainage. Other jobs and tasks for March include:

• Planting lilies, they are generally hardy and can go in now. Other summer bulbs to grow are Homeria, Gladiolus and Dahlia (the latter is best protected from frosts and started in a pot)
• Planting tomatoes in grow bag if you have a greenhouse or conservatory
• Cutting your lawn and give it some TLC, identify and repair bare patches
• Stocking up on slug and snail control products.

Have a good weekend!

Wild garlic... green shoots of spring

Wild garlic at Empty Common Community Garden

This week I was sent a picture of the wild garlic. The team of volunteers have been hard at work preparing the ground for the polytunnel. After spending some time to get the measurements right, they dug the anchor poles in the right spots, so it should be going up soon.

New volunteers have joined in the past two months but there is still space for more helping hands. As the weather improves, there will be more to do and crops to grow. The polytunnel will really help with early growing and protect young plants from the elements and, hopefully, some unwanted visitors. 

We will publish a photo as soon as the polytunnel is up. I am also hoping to get a few photos of the garden so you can see what it looks like now.

If you'd like to join us, please refer to the first blog post, which has a contact number and a map.

Getting ready for spring - gardening jobs for February

Photo from Wikipedia

Snowdrops have been joined by crocuses and primroses in many gardens. Daffodils are going to follow pretty soon here in Cambridge. At the Empty Common Community Garden, volunteers have prepared the space where the polytunnel will be located. We will publish a picture as soon as it's up!

If you have a gardening diary, you will find that February can be a busy month. Many gardeners will be buying seeds and plants. If you came to the Seedy Sunday, you will have a big batch of seeds and be ready for action! 

You can start mowing a lawn if the weather is mild and dry or prepare the ground for a new lawn. It's also a good month to:

• plant bare-root trees/shrubs such as roses
• move deciduous woody plants
• cut down dogwood to get lovely red stems next winter. 

If you have a greenhouse or warm windowsill, you can start planting seeds, if you have not already! Hope you had a Happy Valentine's day. I always enjoy getting a plant rather than cut flowers.

Wild garlic - tough like old boots, or should we say wellies?

Wild garlic. Photo: Geograph, Creative Commons

Some of the wild garlic has grown, against all odds,  a couple of inches, even though it was only planted two weeks ago. It's in a shaded area and the ground has been virtually frozen ever since, so you have to admire the power of this humble plant.

Wild garlic in bloom. Photo: Albert Bridge, CC

The foragers among you might be interested in a wild garlic pesto recipe from River Cottage. Simone, who is of Italian origins, has a variant in mind: replace onions/leeks with basil, use extra virgin olive oil, replace walnuts with pine nuts (the traditional ingredient) or cheaper cashew nuts. A red pesto would also be very nice, add a bit of tomato puree or tomato sauce. And if you are a pesto purist, replace food processor with pestle and mortar.

Seeds, growing, snails...

Photo: Kathy Cassidy

I hope you all enjoyed the Seedy Sunday event in Trumpington. Charlotte set up a stall and some of us popped in on the day to say hello and pick up some seeds. It got really busy at one point, with adults crowding around the tables, children doing crafts with seeds, twigs and pine cones, and people of all ages enjoying the delicious cakes and savoury bites sold by the WI institute. 

Growing and dealing with snails

Now we have our seeds, we are lining up pots and compost, perhaps with some help from young gardeners. For those without a heated greenhouse, it's all about placing pots on windowsills and perhaps a sunny corner in the conservatory. Towards late May, usually after the Chelsea Gardening Show, you can start planting outside - that's what programmes like Gardeners' World advise us to do every year. Of course if you have a polytunnel (and one is planned for the Empty Common Garden) it can be earlier... 

Whether it's May or before, there is one issue that is already on our mind: snails and slugs. They are a big nuisance and if you, like me, tried multiple ways unsuccessfully - beer, nut shells, grit, egg shells, pellets (not suitable for organic gardening though), an inverted melon with flesh scooped out (yes, it sounds crazy but somebody advised that) - you will know how frustrating it is. Personally there is nothing more effective than picking snails up and disposing of them, but you have to get out early in the morning to catch them at it. Another way I discovered recently is to combine pellets with plastic bird nets, I don't know why it works, but I managed to grow salad and rocket in the autumn and throughout the winter with very little damage to the leaves.

A spot of unusual recycling

At the Empty Common Garden we have come up with an alternative solution to protecting young plants, using recycled plastic bottles. Empty snail shells are also coming in handy - in this picture of our young mulberry bush - as a top for spiky sticks. 

If you have any recycling or snail tip, we would like to hear it. Please leave a comment or a link to your blog post on the subject. Thank you.

Birdwatching Weekend & Seedy Sunday reminder

If you are a gardener or allotment holder you might consider birds as annoying scavengers and even 'pests'. For instance, if you have soft fruit trees and bushes, you might have to use nets to prevent birds from 'stealing' your fruit. In times gone by, farmers used scarecrows in their fields to scare birds off crops - they now have very noisy contractions or use cages, nets and/or polytunnels.

Many birds are helpful allies, especially in organic gardening. The Royal Horticultural Society offers advice on how to attract birds into your garden. Click here to read the article. And who doesn't welcome a visit from a curious robin?

Birdwatching Weekend

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is asking bird lovers across the country to spend one hour over the weekend of 24-25 January and record the different species of birds that visit their gardens.

You can register for this year’s Big Garden Bird Watch and report back with the approximate number and variety of birds you spot. The RSPB has been collating numbers since 1979 to help better understand which birds are on the decline and how we can help to prevent it. Since then, over 7 million have been counted. The top 10 most common garden birds spotted in 2014 were:

1. House sparrow
2. Blue tit
3. Starling
4. Blackbird
5. Woodpigeon
6. Chaffinch
7. Goldfinch
8. Great tit
9. Collared dove
10. Robin

Although the house sparrow is still at number one, this cheerful chap has remained on the red list as their numbers were still down to 62% from the first Big Garden Bird Watch. As the RSPB and the RHS point out, there are lots we can do to encourage birds into the garden, particularly in winter when food is scarce. Providing plenty of good-quality food on bird tables, and hanging fat balls is an easy way to do this. We can also help wild birds by retaining some “untidy” areas over the winter months - which encourages insects, another important source of food.

Jordan Lee, from Birstall Garden Centre, says: “As gardeners, we understand that our native birds - and visitors of course – play as important a part in making our gardens beautiful, as our plants and flowers do. So why not take part in this worthwhile project?”

Don't forget that tomorrow is Seedy Sunday! You can find information about the event in our previous blog post. Click here to view it. Please pay us a visit, we have our own table at the event. If you have kids, they get in for free and there is an activity to keep them busy!

Seedy Sunday, here we come!

Isn't it remarkable how gardening swaps can look very similar?
 Seed swap in Urbana, USA. Photo: Ryan Griffis, Wikimedia 

This year, Empty Common Community Garden will have a stall at Seedy Sunday. If you don't know about this annual Cambridge seed swap, here is the event information from Transition Cambridge's website:

Trumpington Seedy Sunday

 25 January 2015, 13:30-16:00

 Village Hall, High Street, Trumpington CB2 9HZ

Swap seeds with other gardeners. If you don't have any spare seeds, don't worry, just take seeds in exchange for a small donation. As well as the seed swap, there will be a special preview of the new film 'Seeds of Justice' from the Gaia Foundation, and a talk from organic growing expert Valerie Muir of Valerie's Veggies, plus stalls, a children's activity, and tea and cakes from Trumpington W.I. Entry £2 adults (children free).

Many of us have been there before with packets of seeds harvested from our garden or extra packets we bought but didn't get round sowing. This year we will have a stall so aside our individual contributions, we are bringing in communal offerings. I hope it will also be a chance to meet up and 'put names to faces'!