I don’t know if you remember January’s Garden Share Collective post from The Garden Deli. It was basically a long whinge about how wet the garden was, and how many rabbits there were digging holes and eating anything green. There’s not much change between then and now. It’s still wet, very wet and there are more rabbit-related holes than ever. But I’m not going to complain about the wet and the mud – there are a lot of people coping with much wetter conditions, and we’re lucky to have no worse than very soggy ground and puddles.
Instead, let’s focus on the positives…
Narcissus ‘Paperwhite’ potted up last autumn and now blooming in the kitchen. Beautiful flowers, and just what we need on a grey winter day. But they do smell terrible close up… ok, not a complete positive.
Also in the house now is my trusty old propagator, and this is most definitely a step forward in the gardening year. Retrieved from a shelf at the back of the garage, it’s now full of little pots sown with chilli seeds. Yes, the seed sowing season has begun again… only a few pots so far, but it’s good to have the first batch in the warm, damp compost. I’ve sown ‘Hungarian Hot Wax’, ‘Hungarian Black’, and ‘Prairie Fire’, along with a sweet pepper called ‘Tequila Sunrise’ and a pot of aubergine ‘Pot Black’. I love seeing the first signs of germination each year – it means the growing cycle is beginning again and, even better, there should be vegetables to harvest and eat later in the year.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sowing some lettuce, rocket and spinach into containers in the greenhouse, and more sweet peas for flowers in the summer.
A few years ago I bought a small pot of rhubarb from a roadside stand. The small pot has turned into a big plant in the ground, and the pink stems it produces in late spring are delicious. But the plant does have a bad habit of putting too much energy into flowering when, in my opinion, it should be making more stems. I read last year that some plants are just more prone to flowering than others. To test this out I’ve bought another small plant, this time from the lovely people at Victoriana Nursery. It’ll be another year before I can harvest any stems from the newcomer, but I’ll be looking after this one carefully and hoping there are no unwanted flowers.
There are still vegetables and herbs to pick from the garden and use in the kitchen… once the mud has been washed from them. Lots of parsley, the mild winter has suited it and I’ve been able to use leaves almost as if it was summer. There are chicory, kale and leeks too. Some of the leeks are going to be harvested and used for my son’s food technology project next week. He’s designing and testing a product suitable for selling in a farm shop – I’m looking forward to helping out on the testing side of things… And I’ll be needing some kale and parsley, along with any chard leaves I can get to before the rabbits do, for some pastry parcels with a spiced chickpea filling – our vegan dish of the week.
So that’s the garden at the start of February and my Garden Share Collective post for this month. Click over to Lizzie’s blog for a whole world of gardens being shared. It’s a good chance to forget the winter storms for a short while and enjoy a bit of southern hemisphere sunshine in someone else’s garden. Or to compare your February to do list with other gardeners on the northern side of the equator.
The Garden Deli 
How lucky that you can have some fresh vegetables in the winter. Seeing your post makes me think Spring is right around the corner.
It can’t be too long before spring arrives… although saying that, it didn’t get here until about June last year! Meantime, it’s nice to look forward to warmer weather and spring flowers as the days grow longer isn’t it?
It may be poor consolation, but the advantage of your climate is that you can grow so much through the winter, unlike here! My rhubarb has never flowered… I wonder if it’s the type or if the position also plays a role, as it is in semi-shade in spring and then full sun in summer.
It might be the position – good idea, thanks! I might try digging up part of my plant and relocating it once things dry out a bit.
Very cheering, thank you! It’s great that your son’s school seem to be focusing on local, seasonal food for their projects, my son has started food technology this year and so far it’s all been tomatoes and courgettes, not impressed!
It’s not all seasonal food – I’ve had to veto basil in December! But the project is for his GCSE and has really encouraged him to look at what’s sold in local farm shops, which has been really interesting… for me too!
This will be the 3rd year for my rhubarb, and I really hope I get a few stems from it…it may have to go to a new spot if it doesn’t do any better this year…
That last photo is wonderful – so much food to be had from your garden – in FEBRUARY! 🙂
I hope your rhubarb produces well this year – maybe the threat of a move will encourage it to grow well!
This will be the second year of growing for my rhubarb which I grew from seed. I hope that it won’t turn out to be a flowering plant because the few stems I picked last year were absolutely delicious. You’re right about the paperwhites – they were a first for me this year and I found the smell a bit off putting – mine have now faded so the bulbs will be transplanted to the garden where the smell won’t be quite so obvious!
Hi Caro, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I must admit that I dip into your blog every now and again, but haven’t been polite enough to comment so far – must try harder! Rhubarb is such a great plant to grow – a real seasonal treat from the garden. I hope yours turns out well this year and produces lots of stems with no flowers.
that beautiful white narcissus makes me think of what is to come here in hobart – in about eight months time 🙂 so pure.
you have awonderful winter garden, proof i really need to get my act togther and not ‘close up shop’ once the cold weather sets in. it’s no excuse.
your pastry parcels with kale and chard and chickpease sound delicious (vegan or otherwise)! no possibility of a recipe appearing for this?
Oops, somehow I missed your comment when I was replying to the others – sorry! My garden in winter isn’t really that great… selective photo taking is the secret to making it look more productive and attractive than it really is! And yes, I am planning to post the pastry parcel recipe soon. I need to make them again, and remember to take some pictures before they’re all eaten…
I have never seen a rhubarb go to flower. I am planting out some for the first time this year. They seem popular at farmers markets so I thought I had better learn how to grow them. Hope the weather clears up for you soon.
I hope you don’t get to see rhubarb flowering, and that your plants are well behaved and do what they’re meant to do – produce lots of tasty stems!
I think planting seeds is such an exciting hopeful job; full of promises of good things to come. Fab that you have veg in the winter. I need to start sowing seeds for that 🙂
It can be hard to remember to sow for winter veg when there’s so much going on in the garden already in late summer… sowing in spring for a summer harvest feels much more natural!
I’ve never had flowering rhubarb – curious/keen to plant different varieties now. Sounds as if we’re harvesting similar things, constantly amazed at the lush bunches of parsley I’m picking this winter too, The sort of abundance that’s great for tabbouleh etc and that you normally only get in summer.
The parsley has done brilliantly this winter, hasn’t it? I specially sowed some of the curly leaf variety because that’s supposed to tolerate winter cold better… needn’t have bothered really!
Rain and more rain! When we dig our leeks they come up with a great shlurp though as you say, it’s been great for parsley and my autumn sown rocket has been far more useful than anything I sow in the summer. Timely reminder to get my propgator out and start sowing.
The trouble with getting the propagator out is that it’s only a matter of time before every flat surface near a window is filled with pots of seedlings…
I will be interested to hear how you get on with your new rhubarb. Ours produced lots of lovely stems but also loads of flowers which after advice from a lottie neighbour I cut off at ground level, but that didn’t stop it producing more!
Sounds like our rhubarb plants might be related! I tried cutting the flowering stems out but, like yours, it just produced more… maybe I should be using it as a cut flower this year?
I can almost smell those Paperwhites; gorgeous. I’ve had just one of my rhubarb plants produce a flower and as Anne said in the comment above was advised to cut them out as soon as they appear. It’s a sign of bolting usually in dry/hot conditions. I’ve also read that some varieties are more prone to it and it’s also more likely in mature plants when they’re ready to be divided.
The dividing idea is interesting – I might try that, thanks… although it has produced flowering stems from the first year it was planted!
Love it. 🙂
Michael
Thanks Michael! How has winter been where you are – have you had the incredibly low temperatures we’ve been hearing about in the news?
Yup. We keep alternating between more normal winter temperatures and blasts of extreme cold!
Michael
I hope things warm up for you soon… spring can’t be too far away.
That’s really interesting…I have one rhubarb that produced a giant flower last year – I will keep an eye on it! (I did eventually cut the flower back, but to be honest I was quite intrigued to see what the thing would actually look like. Something from a 70s sci film, as it turns out!!) My other rhubarb (a present from my Mum when she gave up her allotment) is much better behaved. No idea what variety it is tho….
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