Happy new year, fellow garden denizens!

I've had a couple of extra tenants on my patch recently. My redcurrant bush has been host to a blackbird nest with two cute wee fledgelings, and it looks like today is going to be a big day for them!

They're out of the nest for the very first time, looking rather apprehensive,  and mum is calling them right now from the peach tree across the way. Good luck little ones!

I'd love to know what influences birds to feed from certain crops or not. The redcurrant bush is currently laden with fruit, and the raspberries next to it are still doing pretty well too, but the birds never seem to go for my berry crops. (Even when they're living there, it seems!) Yet I have several friends who have to net their berries assiduously every year to get even a few for themselves.

I count my blessings in this case, but what gets hammered in my garden instead is peas and lettuces. It's the sparrows that do 'em in, and I must say I don't think it's very neighbourly behaviour (sniff). Unless I net the pea plants from day one the poor things never get a chance to grow - they're just eaten down to nubs. If I net them until they're flowering they survive, but they still get ripped to shreds, reducing their crop significantly.

Oh well. I'm glad it's not the berries, anyway.

Poppy love

One of my favourite garden flowers is the poppy. Left to open pollinate, the range of colours and shapes that appear every season is stunningly varied.

I think this may be the most richly coloured, velvety poppy to open in my garden yet. The bumblebees are in love!





Love it too? You can nab my open-pollinated, gloriously varied Poppy Mix in my Felt shop today.

Ooops

Tactical gardening error: mulching the sweetcorn bed with straw my friends the chooks haven't inspected first. Baby barley looks remarkably like baby sweetcorn. (Funny that, them both being monocots and all.) Ah well, I guess I'll just have to wait until they get a bit bigger!

Hey, I wonder if the sweetcorn would coexist with the barley? I could have a mixed grains bed - and produce a teeny tiny amount of grain. :-)

I should run masterclasses

Gardening pro tip: if you're in the glasshouse watering stuff, a spur of the moment decision to try and hose off some of the guck from the ceiling will result in said water coming back down. Gosh, who would have guessed? Off to blow-dry my fur now.

Oh Phacelia, you're breakin' my heart...

Not really. Phacelia's lovely and not at all heartbreaking, though I do have an earworm in my twitchy ears now!

Phacelia can sprawl a bit, so sometimes she needs a bit of support like the one growing outside my burrow door:

This is an excellent flower to grow for feeding our friends the pollinators and other beneficial insects, and isn't it just gorgeous? I've still got some in stock here, so nab some quick!

He ain't a looker, but he's a goodie

Want to try something new? Well, it's actually a very old vegetable, but if you haven't grown it before, I'd recommend adding salsify to your repetoire of roots. This ugly but tasty vege needs to be planted in spring for a winter harvest, but it's well worth the wait. It's sometimes called the vegetable oyster because of its delicious savoury taste, and it's gorgeous in a gratin. As you can see in the images below, it has a lovely flower too if you let it go to seed.

Have I tempted you to try them? Get your paws on some salsify seed here!

Planting time!

Spring is well and truly here in all its rain/sun/rain/sun/rain/sun glory. In my little corner of the world the soil is finally feeling light, warm and friable under my paws, so it's time to get my first round of direct-sown seeds into the garden beds.

I'm planting carrots (of course!), peas, parsnips and beetroot first - these guys cope well with the iffy weather of spring and won't be bothered by any late frosts.

Before planting, though, feel your soil. That may sound a bit dodgy, but that's exactly what you need to do. If your garden's soil still feels cold, wet and claggy, it's too soon to plant. When your soil is warm enough for seeds, it'll suddenly feel a bit lighter, warmer, and crumblier.

I've got five varieties of peas to go in this year, as I love them all and can't choose between them. My favourites for garden snacking are my Goliath snow peas, mange-tout fellows that rarely make it to the kitchen, they're so yummy. They also seem to be a bit less prone to mildew than other varieties, so if powdery mildew is a problem in your garden give these a try.

I'm also planting four varieties of shell out peas: the robust Victorian Adlerman Tall peas, the pretty purple-podded Dutch Blues, my Prolific Pink Podding peas (which really live up to their name and also produce the most tendrils I've ever seen on a pea plant, so they climb really easily) and some dwarf shelling peas for areas I don't want to add a pea frame.

My top tip for today is to soak your peas (and beans) for 12-24 hours in room-temperature water before you plant them out - this will really accelerate their germination time. I've always done this for sweet peas but it never occurred to me to do it for other legumes too - it really works!

As far as beetroot goes, my absolute favourite is Bulls' Blood, with its dramatic dark red leaves (pop some small ones in a salad) and good-sized roots. I can't wait for them to be ready...

And finally, if you're looking for colour and scent, don't forget some sweet peas! I have a lovely range of colours in my heritage mix and there's still time to get them in, so grab some now!