Auchincruive Newsletter
05/10/2013
April 2013
Broad beans get their own support
It has been another busy month at Auchincruive and it is encouraging to see more colour appearing around the garden, with daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, primula, forget me nots and violas all in bloom. As well as indoor sowing and planting, we have also been busy outside. We have transplanted our onions (grown from seed), the broad beans are also in the ground and a plant support constructed around them! Sweet peas are now in the troughs on the terrace and they should give us a lovely show once the daffodils and wallflowers have finished. Now that the weather is improving and the soil is heating up, we are continuing with the process of hardening off, therefore space is at a premium in the cold frame!
Sowing in the Stovehouse
Plant sales continue to go well. There has been an increase in the number of salad bags provided to the poultry shop each week and we have harvested and sold the first of the carrots grown in tubs in the stove house. There has been more hard work done to the Stovehouse border. We have been raking …. and raking to produce a fine tilth as we intend to plant up the border with annual bedding plants. Apparently, this was common practise by SAC staff over the years www.sruc.ac.uk . We would also like to thank the Balfour brothers for applying the much needed shading (cool glass) to the Stovehouse windows!
The terrace is in the process of being tidied as we work towards opening the garden on Sunday 26th May for Scotland’s Gardens www.scotlandsgardens.org. This will be an ideal opportunity to show the work that is done at Gardening Leave.
Working the soil outside the Stovehouse
Evelyn and Victoria attended the Ambassador Bowling club in Prestwick www.ambassadorprestwick.com and delivered a presentation about Gardening Leave to the Auchincruive floral arts club. We would like to thank the group for their kind donation of £500.
Victoria attended a course on willow weaving at Lambhill Stable www.lambhillstables.org The day went well and she returned to the garden with her creation, which was a very professional looking plant support. We hope to use this knowledge and make some of our own garden sundries with the willow that has been stored at Auchincruive.
We have a couple of visitors (of the feathered variety) to the garden this month, a mallard duck nesting on the terrace wall, and we welcome back the swallows!
Pamela
