Wednesday 19th March 2014 – Lots of windy Brussels Sprouts.

Posted on March 24, 2014 by clairesallotment

Another wonderful day on the allotment turning over more beds, and then manuring them. But in between all that hefty work I harvested my green Brussels Sprouts. They have grown really well this year, and there were loads of them. We do love Brussels in our house, even Mark, though he won’t admit he really likes them. What ever we don’t use in the next few days, I’ll have to freeze the rest. They do freeze really well, just remove the outer leaves. Warning, there may be gales just around our house, so brace yourselves if you visit!!

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Tuesday 18th March 2014 – Let’s dig away.

Posted on March 18, 2014 by clairesallotment

Another wonderful morning on the allotment, and this time I managed to sort out 2 beds, and cover them with manure. My lovely friend Clair got me a trailer load last year, and it’s been sitting waiting to be spread. When I run out, she’ll get me another load. She’s fabulous!! I also harvested some Sprouting Broccoli, which seems to have taken off and is doing really well, as well as a Red Cabbage, several Salsify and whilst I was digging I found some rogue Potatoes. So that’s dinner sorted for the next few days. The soil is drying out nicely so hopefully I can get as much turned over and ready before it starts to rain again.

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Monday 17th March 2014 – Wow my Leeks are amazing!

Posted on March 17, 2014 by clairesallotment

The allotment seems to have dried out nicely, so today I started sowing some seeds. But first I had to dig up all my leeks. They’ve all grown amazingly well, and I’m so chuffed. The seasons before were a bit of a wash out, but then 2012 was a very pants summer (it’s best forgotten). But the ones that I sowed last year, they were called “Below Zero” have been brilliant. I would call all but about 6 of them proper sized leeks. I put them in the car when I went to the supermarket, and when I came back to the car and opened the boot the whole car smelt of leeks. So once I’d harvested all my leeks I turned over the bed, added some manure, and got sowing straight away. I sowed 1 row of Radish “Vienna”, 2 rows of Spring Onions “White Lisbon”, and then 2 varieties of Carrots “Flyaway” and “Harlequin”. I didn’t sown the Carrots in rows, but instead I sowed them in a block. I sprinkled them on the soil, and then turned the soil over gently with a trowel. I was thinking about growing in blocks last year, so am trying it this year. I’ll let you know how they get on and whether it’ll make any difference. It will be harder to weeds, but I’ll try to keep on top of that this year. Only time will tell, but at least one area of my plots gets left to go wild. The weather looks good for tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be digging again. Oh, and I finally had to go and buy some potatoes. I’ve only got a few tiny ones left, but they have lasted us a very long time, so I don’t feel too bad. I forgot how heavy a bag of spuds is.

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Saturday 15th March 2014 – Beautiful day to be pottering about in the garden.

Posted on March 16, 2014 by clairesallotment

I have wonder for such a long time as to whether the weather would ever start to cheer up a bit, and if we would ever see the sun. I have so longed to spend the whole day in the garden pottering about giving it a tidy up, but thought that it would be a long way off. But today it happened. I spent most of the morning and most of the afternoon doing exactly that. I didn’t have a care in the world. The music was playing, my sunglasses were on, and there I was just in a t-shirt (well I had leggings on of course.) I managed to sort out every part of the garden, pruning, weeding, and generally tidying up. Once I’d finished the back garden, I them did the front garden. Now it’s all ready for the summer. I have loads of daffodils and tete a tete’s in the front garden, flowering away and looking wonderfully yellow. There are loads of varieties to choose from, so check out the Thompson and Morgan page. The tulips are starting to come up in the back garden, and the trees and bushes are starting to show their buds. My various lettuce seeds are just coming through the soil, and the greenhouse is getting lovely and warm during the day, so the door has to be opened. Life is good because I can get in the garden again.

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Orion Publishing Group Author Party, how exciting!

Posted on March 16, 2014 by clairesallotment
Snuggling close to the very slim Hairy Bikers.

Snuggling close to the very slim Hairy Bikers.

Now that I’m an Orion Publishing Group Author, I was invited to their Author party on 12th March. It was at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and there were over 700 people! The champagne was flowing very freely (I only had 2 glasses) and canapés bought round which were very tasty. Not wanting to name drop, but I saw Rebecca Front, had a lovely chat with Joe Abacrombie, Sally Gardner, Michael Palin was there, but we never saw him, and I had my photo taken with the lovely and slim Hairy Bikers! Oh they were all so lovely. It was very posh dress and I got a very special one for the evening. I caught up with my editors and loads of people from the Orion Children’s section. A fabulous night, very achy feet by the end of it though. Here’s a few pictures for you to look at.

With my wonderful editor Fliss....and a glass of champagne!

With my wonderful editor Fliss….and a glass of champagne!

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Special Offers from Victoriana Nursery Gardens

Posted on March 14, 2014 by clairesallotment

March Madness – Discounts Up To 40% Using Offer Code ‘March14’

Well, the less said about the weather in January and February the better! But at least we would have appeared to have nearly turned the corner – which means that March looks to be a ‘flat out’ gardening month, catching up on jobs left over from February as well as getting on with your important March jobs.

To make your gardening pound go that little bit further we have some great offers…

20% off all Vegetable Seeds & Flower Seeds

15% off all Fruit – Tree Fruit, Soft Fruit, Grape Vines, Nuts – the lot!

A massive 40% off the following Hedging Plants – Cherry Plum Hedging, Coral Pearl Hedging & Shrub Rose Hedging.

To claim these fantastic discounts simply use the offer code MARCH14 between now and the 23rd March.

Nursery News

Despite the weather January and February has thrown at at us, we have been working flat out at the nursery – and similarly the first few days of March have been busy too. If you haven’t already, do have a look at the video on our Home page, and you’ll see exactly what we’ve been up to – and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @Victoriana_NG for daily updates on what we’re up to at Victoriana!

So that’s it for March – the weather has changed, so it really is time to crack on!

Kindest Regards

All At Victoriana

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Friday 14th March 2014 – Brassicas and other things!

Posted on March 14, 2014 by clairesallotment

Well just before lunch I spent just over an hour in the greenhouse sowing more seeds. Firstly I had to water the Onions, Garlic, and various seeds that I’d sown a while ago, as the weather has been so wonder lately, the soil was drying out! Some are starting to grow which is very exciting. So this morning I sowed loads of Brassicas to start with: These wonderfully colourful Cauliflower “Graffiti”, I’m not sure if these will be as colourful as some wall art by us, but hopefully the Council won’t clear them away as they usually do with graffiti! Brussels Sprouts “Camelot”. You can’t help but feel like a knight of the round table when you say “Camelot!” Some “Red Arrow” Sprouting Broccoli, “Black Tuscany” Kale, which I still have some growing up the allotment, but they did so well last year and tasted so delicious, and a variety of Cabbages “Primo”, “All year Round”, which is a mixture of a bit of everything and “January King 3”. Then it was on to other things: Celery “Sigfrido” I wasn’t very successful with this last year, but will make them work this year….hopefully. Celeriac “Monarch” (will these have crowns on, and will I have to curtsy to them when I go near them). And finally Leeks “Musselburgh”, these are brilliant every year, and Kohl Rabi “Modrava”. I’ve still got loads to do, but lunch was calling, but it’s going to be a great weekend, so I may get back out and do some more.

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Monday 10th March 2014 – And so it begins again!!

Posted on March 11, 2014 by clairesallotment

What a lovely way to spend the afternoon, in the greenhouse sowing seeds. Even though the sun wasn’t shining all the time, it was lovely and warm inside my greenhouse, especially as I had a huge cup of tea with me. I’ve got loads of seeds to sow in March, but I sowed the following today: Broad Beans “Aguadulce”, which I’ve grown before and they did really well. You can sow these straight out in the soil, but I tried that last year and they didn’t work very well. So I think you get better results when you start them off inside. Also some Butternut Squash “Hercules”, which I think I sowed last year. They did really well, and it was the first year that I’d grown any decent sized ones. There were supposed to be 10 seeds in the packet, but I ended up with 13. I’m not complaining, I just hope I have enough room for them. I also sowed some Salad Leaves “Winter Blend”. It was the last of these, they make a very good selection of salad leaves, and do taste brilliant. Another salad I popped in was some Rocket “Serrata” and Land Cress. I got these free with a magazine, so hopefully they’ll grow well, and finally some more Chop Suey Greens. These worked well last year, but they need to be harvested early, as they get flowers on them, and then they get bitter. Apparently they should be on my plate in 6 weeks, but that all depends on the weather. Lots more to go, but that was all for today.

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Saturday 1st March 2014 – I hope that’s enough Onions and Garlic for this year!

Posted on March 1, 2014 by clairesallotment

I should have done this a couple of weeks ago, but life has just been really busy. But today turned out to be the perfect time. I’ve had a wonderful morning. The sun is shining, I’ve got washing on the line drying, and the birds have been singing, so what could be better than spending the whole morning in the greenhouse. First I gave it a thorough wash, with hot water and disinfectant, then I got out all the toilet rolls I’ve collected over the years and I started off the Garlic and the Onions. I’d collected quite a few, but have now run out, so I’m not sure what I’ll be starting my Beans off in later. I got 4 Garlic bulbs of “Chesnok Wight” from Mr Fothergill’s. I’ve never grown them before, I usually grow Solent Wight, but felt like a change this year. So it’ll be interesting to see how they get on. And then I started on the Onions. I get my Onions is sets, as you seem to get far better results than planting them from seed. I got 1 bag of “Certurion”, 1 bag of “Hercules” and 1 bag of “Sturton”. I got them in a pack that contains all 3 bags, so they work out cheaper. After taking just about half a dozen mouldy ones out, I ended up with 260!!! Yes you heard me correctly. I’m not sure how that compares to how many I sowed last year, but hopefully they’ll do well and we’ll have loads of Onions to take us through for a while anyway. Time now for a cup of tea and a sit down.

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Carrot ice lolly anyone?

Posted on February 24, 2014 by clairesallotment

This is brilliant! Fabulous war time spirit. Make do with what you have, and enjoy it….Carrot ice lolly anyone?

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