Hi everyone,
It's the very first blog post!!! Yayyyy!
I'm going to use this blog area for all the goings-on within Wylde Florence. Garden related (mostly). I'm hoping it will be beneficial for me and my sanity (note keeping) but hopefully for other growers too. I'll try to add in the important things - sowing dates, when to order bulbs etc. It might be a good resource for florists to use to see what's coming into season etc.
It'll also be a general diary for me, what I'm excited about, what didn't work, new things I'm trying. Just to warn you now :)
Where I'm at right now... In the interest of transparency, I'll give you a bit of info on where I grow currently. I'm growing in my garden, around 1/3 of an acre but on a slope so not all of the space is utilised. I reclaimed half our gravel drive earlier this year for raised beds surrounded by wire (to keep the deer away) from my roses and tulips. My soil is heavy, acidic clay and we get very wet winters, I do think we have a great microclimate here, I get lots of tenders surviving in my garden. For example, salvia Amistad and lemon verbena do just fine outside over winter which is amazing for Scotland.
I have extended the beds that were here and added lots of new ones, focusing on building up soil health. I've planted things like peonies, bearded iris, smoke bush, bistort, penstemon and Astrantia - the deer don't like these. I live here with my husband, my stepdaughter and our three younger girls, we also have five hens and a cat called Pan. She lives indoors, our neighbour's cat is the helpful farm cat chasing all the mice (thank you Baby the Cat). I have a greenhouse here that I use that to start seed, propagate, start dahlia tubers and generally hang out in when it rains. I make my own compost, comfrey and nettle teas and feed with seaweed feed once a week during growing season.
I'm in the process of clearing the best of this year's flowers to make way for hardy annuals and spring bulbs for next year. The dahlias are still going strong at the moment and the chrysanthemums are just kicking off - everything's been pretty late for me this year.
I also have a new growing area, a ten-minute drive from my house, around another 1/3 of an acre. I'm currently prepping the area, building the raised beds (to aid drainage), enriching the soil and prepping the polytunnel space (which is a new growing environment for me). I have loads of new exciting goodies to fill the area. A lot of new perennial plants and shrubs. Lots of spring bulbs to be planted too. Oh and I'm maybe most excited to get gorgeous Italian ranunculus and colibi poppies planted up... or maybe most excited about the roses... or a rainbow sweet pea row... I'll cover what I'm planting in the next post...
So that's where I'm at!!!
Jenn x