Victorian Stumperies

With a little bit of thinking and research over the winter months, the Flower Garden team have come up with an ingenious planting idea to use the very dank and dark bed on the north end of the garden - a stumpery! Stumperies were a Victorian development to allow the imaginitive display of ferns outside. Ferns were a particular Victorian passion, more usually displayed in specially designed glasshouses. Not only will this bed be a lovely and creative use of an otherwise difficult area, tree stumps make an excellent wildlife habitat, especially for those species that love rotting wood. We are hoping to encourage some stag beetles to take up residence!

Clearing winter brassicas

The brassica patch has come to the end of its productive phase so it is gradually being cleared to make room for the new root bed. It still has one last use though! The plants are combed through for the last crop for the kitchens, and the still green leaves are separated from the stalks and taken down to the chickens and young calves, to give them a nice fresh treat before the new grass of spring comes through and the insects are thriving again. Waste not, want not!

...and the whirligig dance begins again!

It has been a really busy week here at Heligan. We've sown celery, parsley, antirrhinums, broad beans and more onions. The gladioli are going in for their lovely summer display. We have pricked out summer brassicas and celeriac and begun hardening off the early peas. The melon house is already full of seedlings, filling the air with the heady scent of new growth. Add to that the daily tasks and you can understand why we can always recognise each others footsteps - they're the ones that are hurrying! Here we go again!

Hazel Peasticks

The newly gathered hazel bundles are already being tied in place in the Vegetable Garden, ready for the early peas to climb up. This is the longest row in the entire garden at 140 feet plus (hurrah, lots and lots of lovely fresh peas!), which might explain why Clive is concentrating really hard on what he's doing and determinedly not looking up the row! See you sometime in March, Clive!

Mushrooms finally

After only two weeks, the daily misting and warm temperatures have encouraged the little mushrooms to grow! It is still the most magical sight as the tiny 'shrooms push their way through the casing, to become large enough to pick within hours seemingly. It is a great place to spend a gloomy February morning, quietly picking mushrooms in the tropical warmth, while outside the wind howls and rain drizzles. Perfect!

Anemones

Thriving in the chilly breeze, our bed of Cornish anemones are an uplifting sight, especially when so many things that have bloomed unseasonably early, have been blighted by frost. It's a hopeful sight, for those of us who are waiting for longer days, some sunshine and a chance to let our feet thaw out a bit!

Glamorous gardening!

While the ground outside remains frozen solid, there is time to continue with the cleaning and painting. These tasks, although dull, play an important role in keeping pest levels in the glasshouses low, and should therefore give the biological controls we rely on a better chance of working. This is definitely not the glamour end of gardening!

Jubilant gardener!

Despite the cold and gloomy weather, Craig here is jumping for joy! And well he might, having finally finished the herculean task of the winter double digging. He and Antony have done a great job in getting the gardens ready for the new season, doggedly digging since November to have us ready on the starting blocks, and raring to go! Now we just have to tell them that they have 30 odd rows of potatoes to plant (some of which are 140 feet long)!

Sowing Summer Leeks

With the ground completely frozen solid for much of this week, we have turned our attention to indoor sowing and pricking out. Here the team prepare the crates for the summer leeks. (the first batch of onion seed has already been sown and is in the propagation unit). The leeks and onions will be grown on and then transplanted out into the main garden. We have also pricked out the summer cauliflowers, the first batch of parsley and the antirrhinums. The water troughs may be four inches thick in ice, but there is still lots to do!

Tipping early peas

The first crop of peas that were sown in crates in early January are looking lovely! To encourage them to bush out and create sturdier plants, we pinch out the main growing stem two or three sets of leaves above soil level. This should provide us with plants of good quality to be planted out in early April.

Frost on early crops

We knew this would happen...! The intense cold of the last few days has inevitably taken its toll, and the beans sown in November are suffering greatly. They are a really hardy variety, bred to deal with these sorts of temperatures, but they were very much further on than they would normally have been. So, we can only wait and hope that they really are hardy enough to pull through.

Mushrooms!

At last the long awaited mushroom bales have arrived! The lower level of the two story building in the Melon Yard has traditionally been used as a mushroom house, providing the kitchens with oodles of freshly picked chestnut mushrooms. Originally, the heat would have been provided by fresh horse manure, but this is now a scarce commodity, so we use a modern heater. We also make sure that the humidity is kept high, by regularly misting. Once the mycelium have colonised the bales of barley straw sufficiently densely, we add a casing of decomposed peat (sounds delightful doesn't it!) to encourage the mushrooms to grow through in an even manner. Cant wait!