Chelsea January 2012
02/01/2012
So a brand new very exciting year has started here at Chelsea, and it has been a busy month already. At the start of January the weather continued to be kind to us and the mild weather allowed us to get lots of practical gardening done.
We have been clearing and tidying the garden, removing the general detritus of winter, building paths and creating new borders. Slowly but surely the structure of the garden is really taking shape. Tasks this month have also included seed sowing cabbages, leeks and cauliflowers into seed trays, tomatoes into trays, carrots into pots in the greenhouses, broad beans into root trainers and even been planting broad bean seeds outside (www.thompsonandmorgan.co.uk). Our potatoes have arrived nice and early and have been carefully chitted. Our office shed provides a perfect place to let the tubers prepare for planting out later next month.
We have been preparing for planting out our edible hedging,(already heeled in) which will consist of hazel, hawthorn, elder and sloe (www.kenmuir.co.uk) and we have been busy making sure the ground is fully prepared for these great plants to be planted straight away. We have been digging and improving the soil with plenty of lovely manure!
The Royal Hospital Gardening Staff have been very accommodating and we have been really fortunate to be able to use their state of the art heated greenhouse. This has allowed us to get seed sowing nice and early, which will help us to get a head start with our salad crops, and has provided us with some extra warm work space, well and truly welcome on a busy chilly January morning. The Gardeners have very kindly donated some overgrown variegated grasses in need of some care that have now been tenderly nursed back to health, divided and given a good haircut by our veterans. We have planted these out already and they will make a great company for the edible hedging, and provide greenery, shelter and food for the birds until the hedge has become established.
It is just as well that we have been busy as just as the month draws to an end, the cold weather has well and truly set in, and the frost and snow has made the soil unworkable, so for now we will stay busy in the greenhouse and the shed with a hot brew and prepare the garden for an arctic blast. The birds are well fed, and we have our windbreaks, cold frames and garden fleece at the ready. Thank you to all those veterans, volunteers and staff who have braved the cold weather to get the garden looking fantastic, and safely weather-proofed.
This coming month we are looking forward to seeing the garden in its full winter glory, as the weather has been mild up to now, and hope that the cold snap will help to keep those aphids and other pests away. With increasing numbers of veterans and volunteers arriving each week, and as the days get brighter, our enthusiastic and hardworking gardeners are really transforming things here week by week, so once the allotment garden is fully functional, the next step will be bramble bashing in the shade garden!
Happy Gardening, and stay warm!
Tara
For more photos see gallery for Chelsea
