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.

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.

A productive evening? ...not as such

...this may not have been my precise plan for spending last night, but there you go.

Next steps: keep culling the selection until it's at least remotely realistic, considering space available.

It's just the beginning!!

After a lot of mulling over, I've come a full circle on what I want to have in/do with the back garden. Having realised that the notions of needing to grow my own (ALL of it!) at least somewhat come from the idea of it being something one "should" do (self-sufficiency ftw, come zombie apocalypse or peak oil[1]), I've now reverted back to my original plan of growing some edibles along with pretty things I like.

A secondary epiphany was that, with such limited space, there's no point in growing things that are cheap, locally produced and can be got at a supermarket (read: potatoes). Thusly, current intentions include:

Tomatoes
Legumes
A cucurbit
Soft fruit
Alliums ("Allia"?)
Lettuces
Rocket

Though I may also stick in a potato or two, just to learn how. Just in case.

[1]: cdc, wikipedia