There really is only so much you can do in January.

Nevertheless, the (comparatively) warmer weather that was forecast for the last few days got me out to the garden, mostly in a desperate bid to curb the burgeoning slug population. I just knew they'd be out and about and ever so active as soon as the temperature would hover around 10ºC. More of the cheapest possible lager from Lidl, this time offered in a variety of receptacles was again very popular, but at the same time I worry it'll have made hardly a dent to the teeming, slimy masses closing in on my few ailing brassicas - and the Digitalis.

The top plate sits on the sticks.

I've also sorted through my stash of seed packets and sowed some; a few perennials, sweet peas, and a winter lettuce. They're all in the little completely unheated greenhouse outside for now, while I figure out a way to cat-proof a window sill: being sat upon or dug at will not improve chances of germination.

~~~

I'm on Suttons' mailing list, and today they entice me with this:

Ribes aureum 'Fourberry Black Gem'

Apparently it'll only grow to 1.2-1.5 m tall, with presumably similar spread, so I just might have room for *one*. I'd dearly love to have some soft fruit, but space, especially sunny space, is an issue. Shall think upon this.

Whilst procrastinating...

...over my remaining exam revision, I've started to poke about with Google SketchUp again. My word. This'll be a steep learning curve from zero knowledge of CAD of any kind, but so worth it.
And nerdy kind of fun. No, really.

This is the first of the series of "getting started" videos:

Also...

The bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica, almost certainly) that came with the garden are well on their way up. Perhaps this year I'll replant some meaningfully.

Right in front of the greenhouse, too.

Plus there's a mouse frequenting the bird feeders. Not looking forward to dealing with that one.

Revision time

The skills test for the Practical Horticulture module is tomorrow, so I used the need to practice as an excuse to get outside.

I mixed a seed sowing compost from a Lidl general purpose compost and horticultural sand for some green manure seed. I sowed them by the book, except for sieving the compost for the lack of a soil sieve. The green manure seeds sown in the back part of the garden back in October mostly went for the birds again, so if the weather holds I'll be able to plant on some seedlings instead.

They might even germinate!

The wonderfully deep magenta christmas hyacinths from Ikea had gone over rather, but I want to try to get them bloom outside come spring next year.

*wilt*

 Thusly, as a second practice, I made a bulb planting compost mix from:

1/6 horticultural sand

1/6 vermiculite

4/6 compost

A pinch of seaweed meal

Vermiculite & sand

A very free-draining mixture, this.

I wanted to separate the bulbs, but, well...

Pot pound, much?

For the compost part of the mixture I went for half Lidl general purpose, half B&Q house plant compost. The latter is stored indoors and I didn't want to give the roots too much of a temperature shock (this is VERY IMPORTANT. anything unable to regulate its own temperature can die from a fast change in temperature even when it would survive both temperatures, given a chance to acclimatise.).

Potted with some pebbles at the bottom of the pot for drainage, slightly deeper than originally. I've no idea if that's the right thing to do, but they'll be planted even deeper when they go out. Once the weather's reliably a bit warmer I'll harden them off via the greenhouse and plant them in a corner somewhere.

Sorting through my stash of seed packets probably wasn't strictly necessary for revision. Also, there are now all of three Roosters chitting on kitchen window sill for my "learn to grow potatoes in case of an apocalypse" project. Heh.

Projects, I can haz them

Three of them. My own back garden (there isn't a front one) and two very different gardens belonging to family members.

My garden is a small urban garden at the back of a small Victorian terraced split-level house. Such as of yet nebulous plans I have! There will be food crops, and pretty flowers, and bird feeders, and room to hang out laundry.

April last year, just after we moved in.

The other ones are a Celtic Tiger commuter belt housing estate back garden (henceforth referred to as "K2") and a large rural garden on a mountain side. I'd love to do the bigger garden at the "prairie" style of Piet Oudolf, since it would work with the scale of the place as well as the location,  sloping towards some fields. I've yet to pitch this to the owner, but who would say no to something like this, hmm?

Source: oudolf.com

...not that I'll have quite this much to work with. Thank gods.
For further inspiration, here's Piet Oudolf's flickr stream.

~~~

The most obvious challenge at K2 is the heavy clay soil. Whether it's top soil brought in or the original greenfield ex-stud paddock soil I don't know, but if it's at all wet, I'm not heavy enough to sink a spade in, even if jumping up and down on it.

For the "Mountain Prairie", the exposed location will be an interesting aspect to work around. Other than that, We Shall See.

Plant ID Portfolio - some final notes

The posts with the "plant id' label constitute my Plant Portfolio for the Plant Identification and Classification module on year one of my BSc of horticulture studies at ITB.

This turned out to be quite an undertaking, as I checked the RHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants for each one of the plants - as well as my 1998 copy of Hillier's for all trees and shrubs (see Bibliography). The final descriptions and cultivation notes are based on those, and my lecture notes.

The sizes are as listed on the Encyclopedia and refer to mature plants - though it's well worth keeping in mind that in many parts of Ireland the growing conditions are sufficiently better for the ultimate size of many plants to be remarkably larger from the one listed, even in an "average" location.

I've also included additional notes on various topics for a smattering of plants, mostly out of my own interest.


Observations and reflection:

While the required 120+ plants only scrape the bloom of the surface of the continuously growing number of garden plants in cultivation, I've noticed that I'm already able to identify the vast majority of the shrubs and hedges I see anywhere I go. This, however, says a lot more about the variety of plants people go for (and/or garden centres sell!) than my abilities or knowledge level.

In any case, it's already obvious that there's nigh unlimited scope for educating the plant purchasing public to broaden their tastes. Perhaps the impending and encroaching climate change will help there, making consumers more open to new solutions.

I think the blog approach was probably the right one. The process was slower than I expected (all that leafing through books turned out to consume a lot of time!), and I did learn a lot as I went along. I haven't yet fully utilised all the features the medium offers; I haven't, for example, linked to external pages with more information for most plants. On the other hand, adding material in the future will be easy - as well as finding all this information! It won't languish at the bottom of a bookshelf but can be accessed from anywhere.

Plant ID - Bibliography

Bibliography

Beazley, M. (2002) The Royal Horticultural Society Essential Gardening Techniques. London: Octopus Publishing Group Limited.

Brickell, C. ed. (1996) The Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited.

Brickell, C. ed. (2006) The Royal Horticultural Society Gardeners’ Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers. 4th Ed., London: Dorling Kindersley Limited.

Flora Europaea Search Results (2011) [online] Edinburgh, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Available from: http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/feout?FAMILY_XREF=&GENUS_XREF=Primula+&SPECIES_XREF=vulgaris&TAXON_NAME_XREF=&RANK= [Accessed: 26th Nov 2012].

Grounds, R. (1998) The Plantfinder’s Guide to Ornamental Grasses. Newton Abbot, Devon, England: David & Charles Publishers.

Hessayon, D. (1983) The Tree & Shrub Expert. Waltham Cross, England: pbi Publications.

Hillier, J and Coombes, A. eds (2004) The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs. Newton Abbot, Devon, England: David & Charles Publishers.

Hillier Nurseries (1998) The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs Pocket Edition. Newton Abbot, Devon, England: David & Charles Publishers.

Hughes, G. ed. (1996)  A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Kitchen Garden. Godalming, Surrey, England: Colour Library Books Ltd.

Key, H. (1997) Ivies - A Wisley Handbook. London: Cassell Educational Limited.

Lipanovich, M. ed. (2002) Landscaping with Ornamental Grasses. Menlo Park, California: Sunset Books Corporation.

Plants (2012) [online] London, The Royal Horticultural Society. Available from: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants. [Accessed multiple times].


NB: This bibliography does not include the resources linked to from the individual posts.