Gardening with Brendan Week 5: Moving outdoors and 10 edible flowers plan

The day before a yellow wind warning was probably not the best time to erect a small plastic greenhouse outside. Especially when your garden is in a wind tunnel with gusts strong enough to unhinge wooden gates on several occasions in the past. I took my eye off the ball and forgot to check the latest forecast at the weekend before the easy enough assembly, and it is already looking a bit battered but thankfully has remained intact through the stormy weather earlier this week.

I haven’t had great luck with cheap greenhouses – the wind has ripped previous plastic ones to shreds- but this one is well tethered with tents hooks and cords wrapped around fence posts in a more sheltered spot and seems to be better quality. If it flies away it may have to take the fence with it. And it was reduced down to £30 so even if it lasts a few months I’ll be happy enough.

This has also freed up space in the house and there are now dozens of little plants relocated out to it. And that space is needed as I’ve hundreds more seeds sprouting up in trays and nowhere to put them if I transplant them into bigger pots. I’m now banking on the weather forecast being right and on getting some batches moved out permanently into the soil and into big containers in the early part of May if the ground dries out long enough to be tilled.

Update and companion planting:

It’s now over two months since I first started with a modest few packets of seeds and all in all I’m very happy with how things have progressed to date. It’s strange how when you start growing your own plants you come to appreciate the sheer amount of effort that goes in to having a beautiful garden, successful plot or allotment. It’s nice too that people you meet will share tips with you and relate their own experiences the odd time.

As I’ve mentioned before I’ve never been able to grow a single sunflower from seed. But I’m not one for admitting defeat so I bought some fresh giant Mexican sunflower seeds and some mini ones too. God loves a trier. Other seeds I’ve started indoors include what is known as ‘companion’ plants such as cornflower, tiny white alyssum, more calendula (a ‘neon’ orange variety), more marigolds and more nasturtiums. These plants are, according to those who know about these things, exceptional at bringing beneficial insects into the garden so they should make great garden bed buddies for vegetable crops, tomatoes and other fruits. The big oxeye daisies, strawflowers (Everlasting), Sweet William, chamomile and 30 Pieces of Silver (Lunaria/ Honesty) seedlings sown recently are now emerging and like those just mentioned are also a magnet for pollinators. We’ll see if they all come up, survive and if it all works to create a buzzing open-air bug restaurant this summer.

A few of the brocolli seeds I planted out weeks ago have proved hard as nails and some even survived Storm Kathleen. The Alpine strawberry seeds haven’t made an appearance yet, while the first few cold-stratified lavender seeds have poked through the soil over recent days. They took their time but lavender are known to do their own thing. The tomatoes are thriving in the window sill.

Over the next week I’ll be planting them in their forever homes – big containers of compost mixed with dry plant food and topsoil, maybe with a few wee marigolds for company. They’ll stay by the glass doors so they can get light and the heat they need from the house.

The only seeds I have left to sow now (until some new seed packets accidentally fall into a shopping trolley no doubt) are brussel sprouts, delphiniums and some cosmos seeds.

One thing not doing so well is the blueberry bushes. One looks dead and the other’s leaves are turning red, which I looked up and is said to be a sign of stress. Maybe it can be rescued, maybe not, but I’ll feed it with some specialist fertiliser and see if that has anything to do with it, although the cold wind and incessant rain is probably not helping matters. Any tips welcome!

Edible flowers and shop bought poppy seeds

Did you know a lot of the most popular flowers people use in summer are edible? I didn’t until recently. I knew about lavender but it turns out calendula (pot marigold) leaves and their bright orange and yellow petals are edible, as are many varieties of pansies, hollyhock, rose petals, nasturtium leaves and flowers, chamomile blooms and California poppy petals- most of which I am already growing. So I’m setting myself a challenge to create a colourful 10-flower salad if I can get all the seedlings to that stage this summer. But a note of caution! A lot of plants are extremely dangerous, poisonous and some can be lethal if eaten. I’ll only be trying those I have thoroughly researched as some varieties in the same family can be edible while others may make you violently ill.

One other experiment I’m trying out while I wait for the sun to arrive in our corner of the globe is to scatter sow some shop bought poppy seeds. They might work, they might not. Sure, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Get in touch- if you’d like to share any tips or ask anything about starting out (I’m no expert but I can share what I’ve been doing) e-mail me at [email protected] and please mark your e-mail subject line ‘Gone To Seed’.