Free plants (well sort of), softwood cuttings

I love this time of year all the garden centres and nurseries are awash with bedding plants. This year I've toned down my bedding plant buying and have sown a lot of seeds and the plants I have bought have been from small local family run nurseries. I've decided to stop buying plants from big garden centres, I want to support the smaller places and not give my money to the big boys. So I'm avoiding the garden centres and stocking up at nurseries, gate side stalls and village fetes. I'm very lucky to have the amazing Hill house nursery close by and they sell the most amazing selection of everything all grown on site. Anyway I've veering of point.

So bedding plants, about now they would have put on a lot of growth, if you want really lush, full plants instead of long leggy thin plants, cutting them back with encourage lots of side shoots and lots of good growth. It may seem drastic to hack back your newly bought plants (especially if they have flowers on them) but trust me, you'll be glad you were brave in a months time when you hanging baskets look gorgeous.
Now this is the really cool part turning you little plant in lots of little plants.

Softwood cutting tutorial

Lots of people find propagating plants a bit of a mystery, something only old men in green houses do (I was always a bit daunted by it when I started gardening) but it's really easy.

So Here is a lovely little cherry red million bells, lots of nice growth perfect for taking cuttings from.

So you need to cut the plant near the side shoots (this will encourage the little side shoots to grow on the plant, giving you lots more flowers)

so this is what you have to work with.

Trim the bottom of the stem to just below the two side shoots, this is where there roots with grow from. Remove the leaves

Its a good idea to remove the top shoot, this will help the cutting put its energy into forming roots instead of top growth,

Then its a case of filling a pot with nice damp soft free draining compost (add some grit to prevent the compost getting waterlogged and the cuttings rotting) and making a little hole using a plant label of chopstick or knitting needle (something long and thin) and inserting your cutting, don't just push the cutting into the compost as its quite delicate and you can damage the base. I rarely use hormone rooting powder, but you can, it contains fungicide to help prevent the cutting rotting.

if you put the cuttings around the side of the pot they stand a better chance of the roots striking, as the roots hit the side of the pot they will branch out and grow stronger. Also you can fit quite a few in a pot and save on space. Try to avoid the cutting touching each other.

If you have a lot of large leaves on your cuttings (like with these mint cuttings) cut the leaves in half. This will cut down on water loss from the leaves (OK science bit coming up.... the cells in the leaves put a pressure on the roots to suck up water, respiration. buy reducing the surface area you reduce the force of the pressure.)

You need to keep your cuttings moist until the have formed roots (to check gently turn the pot upside down and you'll see little roots poking out the bottom) They need humidity to keep the leaves moist (look out more science.... the leaves in plants are surrounded by an invisible film of moisture, when this film is lost they put pressure on the roots to replace it and your little cuttings haven't any roots yet so it will be curtains for them) mine are in my little greenhouse or you could put a clear plastic bag over the pot kept secure with an elastic bag, make sure the cuttings don't touch it.

So heres my little collection which hopefully in a few weeks will be ready to be planted out.

I even used the mint leaves I removed on the cuttings to make a cup of tea
which was lovely except for the bits of compost floating about in it.

Jess x

Hello my name is Jess and I'm a plantaholic!

I love plant shopping in particular buying them from small family run nurseries, garden gates and village fetes. Last week I went to one of my favourite fetes where without a doubt is the best plant stall I've ever seen. About 5 tables laden with plants that have started life as cuttings and seedlings from peoples gardens. I think the lovely lady who runs the stall actually provides all the plants herself. It always has a real eclectic mix of things some of which you'd be hard pressed to find in some of the big garden centre chains.

Now sorry but I neglected to take a photo of the stall before the fete started(wished I had) because the act of buying is planned like a military operation.
So we get to the fete about 1/2 hour before it starts and eat our picnic on the village green while keeping an eye on whats being put on the table, then we (me mum and the kids) wonder over to the tables and cast a closer eye over the plants making a mental list of what we want. As soon as the fete is declared open I position my niece and nephew at strategic points and start putting the things I want by their feet, mum will keep shouting over to me saying "whats this", "how big will this get" or "can i plant this with such and such". When I'm happy I got what I want I add up my total and hand over my pennies (all proceeds go to the village hall and church).

Now the reason for the organised operation is the fact that it can turn into a bit of a scrum and fights have been known to break out (mainly between my mother and me) so planning (and small children) is key. Husband then takes my babies back to the car rolling his eyes and muttering. I do of course go back a few more times to check I haven't missed anything.

So this is my haul



So I think this is pretty modest for me. If you interested I bought:
Verbascum, persicara, sweet cicley, saxifraga, 3 different hardy geraniums, acanthus and a houseplant but I lost the label. All off that cost me under 8 pounds.
These little chaps will have to sit around till the autumn when I dig up my herbaceous border and give it a major overhaul. But I'll keep them well watered and fed and I'm pretty sure there will be more plants joining them waiting for planting soon.

More seed sowing

So I'm busy busy busy in the garden right now, I'm pleased to say that I've pricked out and potted on all the baby seedlings, only for the flipping slugs (or snails) to come along and nibble all the lettuce and basil seedlings, thankfully that's all they seem to have eaten so far (fingers crossed x).
So I've sown more of the above and started on the may seed sowing. I try to be organised with my seeds I have an old small drawer that they live in with dividers for each month, anything that needs repeat sowing like beetroot or rocket can be moved up the drawer for it's next sowing.
Today I've sown courgette seeds I've chosen a yellow and a green one, a small tricolor ball shaped one, and a climber called black forest. I've also sown some pumpkin (jack be little), Marrow (not quite sure why I've sown that) and some gherkins. On the flower front I've sown some nasturtiums and moulin rouge sunflowers.
Because of lack of space and the fact that the courtyard looks like a seedlings waiting room I tend not to worry about later sowings, they all seem to catch up.
Next week I'll start on beans.

Talking of beans (and peas) so far I seem to having bad luck with them, first all the broad beans I did last autumn all rotted off at the base in February, then my spring sowing got eaten my mice so I've succumbed to buying baby beans from the garden centre, something I don't like to do but they were only 20p each I also had to buy some peas for my raised bed only a few though as only 6 have germinated and I need to plug the gaps.

I'm also getting excited for two of my favourite events coming up in a few weeks, firstly It's the chelsea flower show , and for something closer to home, the wonderful Devon county show, I love the county show can't wait.

Ohh some breaking news, so the swallows arrived about a month ago (summers here almost?!)and yesterday not only did I see a swift but I also heard a cuckoo.
And an update on the sparrows, well as I type I can hear the chicks squeaking in the wall behind me.

love jess xx

£20 is not enough

So at the weekend I convinced husband to take me bedding plant shopping, now I love bedding plants I get all excited at the beginning of April planning containers and colour schemes for the window boxes and baskets (hey it keeps me out of trouble) so off we went to (nearly) all the little local nurseries. One of my favourite places is hill house nursery. Its a fairly small place tucked away in the south hams with old greenhouse's stuffed with their own grown plants, total plant heaven. Anyway husband set me a budget of £20 to spent which was a nightmare because i could spend a fortune there. So i got my mix of bedding plants but sadly had to leave behind a Melianthus major that i really wanted and a clematis viticella "purpurea plena elegens" that i also really wanted to replace the clematis that the naughty puppy decided to chew through. So a return journey is on the cards.

so here's my stash of bedding plants

Now there are still a few more I need like some white and purple geraniums and some trailing plants for the window box and basket at the front door

this year I'm going to have yellow, pink and blue at the front. The sun disappears at lunch time so the yellow with brighten it up. In the back garden I'm going for pinks and purples mixed with lime greens and orange. I like a bit of clashing

I love these Nemesias aren't they gorgeous, berries and cream on the left and blue buttons on the right, and they smell lovely.

Rain

Finally it's raining, ok so I've been loving the sunshine we've had these past few weeks everything in the garden has been loving these warm sunny days but I've noticed a few plants looking a bit droopy so hooray rain, no need to lug the watering can around.

But boo, because now I have no excuse not to catch up on all the housework I've neglected. Also double boo because I'd planned on sowing more veg and doing some much needed pricking out of the veg seedlings fighting for space in my little plastic greenhouse.

This year I'm starting a new veg garden in a stolen part of my mothers garden, the area she's kindly donated to me used to hold a swimming pool (one of those giant upright inflatable things) so digging the ground is seriously hard work and incredibly hard soil so hopefully this rain will soften it up a bit too. Hopefully I can post some before and after photos soon (and hopefully the baby seedling will have a home soon as well).

So I'm off to do some boring housework and then plan my summer bedding schemes after having an exciting day yesterday buying bedding plants. Hopefully the rain will stop later or all my tulips will fall over.