A beautiful blanket of frost coated Ryton Gardens this week turning it into a winter wonderland, which certainly put me in a festive mood. You can see my photos on Flickr at the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gardenorganic/sets/72157625423351643/
The only problem was that we were all unable to do anything with the plants. Planting and digging out have certainly been off the cards for over two weeks, so I spent my time between sorting out seed orders and planning what to do next year. I’ve grown a fascination with edible flowers and have decided to plant a patch in the Cook’s garden in the spring with flowers ranging from Hollyhocks to Violets, and will place recipe labels amongst each species. It’s such an unusual concept, especially as most people don’t know which are edible and which aren’t, but I think flowers can make a meal look and taste wonderful, and so should be enjoyed as much as vegetables!
This week we’ve mostly been ‘moving gardens’. The new Pest and Disease garden is being amalgamated with the Allotment, so we’ve all chipped in with day-to-day landscaping, including installing a new fence-line and stripping off frozen turf, or should I say turf-bergs (which we now want to be introduced into the Oxford Dictionary). With these turf giants we constructed what can only be described as a mountain in the composting area, which will eventually turn into loam. I’m really enjoying learning new practical skills; especially with landscaping… you never know when you’ll be called upon to build a fence! Next week it’ll be slabbing!
