Monthly Archives: March 2014

And now I’ve seen it all…

31 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in climate change, news

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sunflower1
Just when you thought there was nothing new under the sun, they go and invent a sunflower that’s actually a table lamp.

Well actually it’s not that new, as it’s the same technology as you used at school when you plugged a couple of electrodes into a potato and made a little lightbulb glow. In every piece of vegetative matter there is a chemical energy created by photosynthesis which can be converted into a small current: which is why you can make an electric circuit out of a potato, or a tomato, or a sunflower.

Anything green can be persuaded to generate electricity: even grass clippings. In 2012 some scientists in America created a solar cell from a few fragments of vegetation. The technical term is biophotovoltaics.

sunflower2

I can’t pretend to know much about the science, but I do know this is pretty cool: the electricity you generate from plugging into a sunflower is enough to charge a mobile phone battery, or a computer (after a while, I’d have thought). Imagine what a field of sunflowers could do. Looks a whole lot nicer than a power station, too.

I may be acquiring one of these from those nice people at Thompson & Morgan later in the summer, so I’ll let you know what happens. Should be electrifying (sorry, couldn’t resist).

**STOP PRESS**: Have just heard that T&M are so taken with this particular technology breakthrough they’re going to start a new energy company to harness all that sunflower power. Word has it the new company will be known as Avril Fuel. Now that’s one to watch out for.

This week in the garden: Going to sow a meadow

24 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in cutting garden, garden design, my garden, wildlife gardening

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meadow

This is my little meadow area at the top of the terraces. It doesn’t look very inspiring at the moment – there are some crocuses and hyacinths and a few old gold heritage daffodils on the way but I’ve only just begun to build up the bulbs quotient so a few years to go yet till it’s the sheet of spring colour I have in my head.

The sheet of summer colour it will become is very much a recent memory though: this is what it looked like last year:

meadow_2013

And from the other direction across to the lane…

meadow_2013b

I’m sowing the same mix – Pictorial Meadows short annual mix – and have tipped in a couple of packets of Ladybird poppies I got for free in magazines, just for fun.

Second year sowing isn’t quite as straightforward as the first year, when it was a matter of broadcast-sowing across a patch of virgin ground. Now I have bulbs to avoid, and a few weeds, and some self-seeders from last year’s meadow which I don’t want to disturb.

So I started by weeding out the dandelions, cleavers and creeping buttercup seedlings by hand. Then I divided the area up into four.

I weighed my seeds and divided that in four, too: you can also mix them with silver sand which means they’re a bit easier to handle and you can see where you’ve sown. I put each batch of seed into a teacup, then went out and dealt with just one quarter at a time.

My small-headed rake was perfect for raking in between other things, so very gingerly I raked up the topsoil to loosen it, then broadcast sowed as evenly as I could. Another light raking to mix them in with the top level of soil and you’re done.

Repeat for the other three quarters: the timing is also crucial. I’ve put off sowing this for a week now, as the weather has been so dry; yesterday, though, it rained, nicely damping the soil, and it’s forecast to rain again later today and tomorrow, then we’re in for a patch of showery but not too cold weather next week. Perfect for germinating seeds. Can’t wait to take the pics this summer: I still have passers by telling me how lovely my meadow was last year, and this year’s is going to be even better.

November garden: Herb garden

21 Friday Mar 2014

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[Editor’s note: I discovered this post unpublished in my drafts folder today. I had meant to finish it off at some point last November, but then November turned into December which turned into January and then… well, you know how it goes. So rather oddly, here’s a post about my garden in November. Even though it’s now March.]

herbgarden_achillea

Some of the achillea from the cutting garden I’ve been clearing on the terraces has made its way in here. Achillea – yarrow – is one of those mediaeval herbs which has fallen out of fashion nowadays, but in its time it was indispensable: most notably for its ability to heal wounds, as it’s antiseptic and relieves pain, too.

herbgarden_bergenia

I have kept a clump of bergenia that was here when we got here, not because I like bergenia – I’m definitely in the Christopher Lloyd camp and dislike the particularly sickly shade of pink of its flowers. But it’s such a useful ground cover, and turns fetching shades in autumn. Nevertheless it will eventually be evicted: possibly in favour of Bergenia ciliata, which is a bona fide medicinal herb so earns its place here.

herbgarden_geranium

My collection of scented-leaved pelargoniums is kept in the herb garden: I’m particularly fond of this oak-leafed pelargonium, Pelargonium quercifolium, which smells sweetly of woodland floor when you rub the leaves. No frost yet, but these are coming in to the greenhouse very soon.

herbgarden_hollyhock

The hollyhocks are still determinedly flowering, ragged petals or no: these were from seed saved from my mother-in-law’s hollyhocks and they’ve done beautifully this year, not a patch of rust either.

herbgarden_rose

And another plant which just won’t give up. I’m sure I don’t remember roses flowering in November and December when I was a kid but it seems to be a commonplace now. This is one of what I call the ‘grandma roses’ in the garden: planted a couple of owners ago, they’re a bit old-fashioned (and not scented) so will have to go, but I’m enjoying the colour for now.

herbgarden_top

The herb garden, once a rockery, always scruffy at this time of year: and I must do something about the bronze fennel, which is a magnificent plant but is reaching forest proportions. Editing out around half of the clumps should do it.

And this is how this area looked when we moved in three years ago. It’s a slightly different angle but reminds me how much we’ve done: both those looming conifers at the back have gone now, as has the out-of-control fuchsia. It may still be looking scruffy, but perhaps not quite as scruffy as it was…

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