Reflections on Winter 2024-25
- clarazwetsloot
- Mar 26
- 5 min read
We have had a very busy few months since Christmas. As the sun grows stronger and the days longer, we have been preparing our beds and working spaces as much as possible before the spring bulbs begin to bloom and the need to pick and sell flowers takes over.
Throughout these months, we have been in a constant battle with every creature, great and small, who seem to be intent on devouring our spring crops. We’ve had rats in the greenhouse knocking over pots, pulling seedlings out of their plugs to dry up and wither, and nibbling on the tender new growth of seedlings. Slugs have slimed their way over entire trays of sweet william and stocks in a single night, leaving newly emerged seedlings leafless and coated in mucus. Deer have literally smashed panes of glass in a craze to get at a crate of tulips left unnetted. Teaming up with the squirrels, they rummaged in the crates, upturning every bulb, taking a bite out of them or reburying them elsewhere. We’ve even had neighbouring pigs escaping their stock fence and rooting up turf and beds, leaving incriminating trotter prints in the upturned clods. Our growing areas now resemble an army training ground with double fencing and netting over the individual beds and crates.
Now it is March, the pressure of their hunger has eased with new growth elsewhere and we are cautiously unnetting tulips and opening up greenhouses to let the cooler air in. The slug attacks have taught us the some plants like linaria and antirrhinum are very keen to survive and send up tiny leaves at the base of the bare stems.
In January, we pruned our roses and replanted them all to give them a little more space and airflow in the polytunnel. After floating around in flood water in September, we pruned them hard to remove any fungal disease and give them a new lease of life. We’ve underplanted them with salvia to deter blackspot. Now in March, the new deep green-red rose buds are swelling and unfurling and looking beautifully healthy.
Since January, we have sown and potted on thousands of seedlings: antirrhinum, tanacetum, larkspur, stocks, helichrysum, limonium, annual sweet william, campanula, rudbeckia, bupleurum. The cold nights have slowed their growth but they are beginning to grow strong now in the warmer sunshine of spring. Over the last couple of years, moluccella has proved to be a difficult seed to germinate despite our various attempts at freezing seed, cold water soaking, surface sowing, covering with soil, excluding light and including light. After much experimenting, we’ve finally found a method that actually seems to work: lay the seed out on damp kitchen roll in a sandwich bag and stored in the fridge for 1-2 weeks and then bring the bag out and leave on a windowsill or under grow-lights. They begin to sprout within days and can then be transferred to a plug tray.
Self-set seedlings have been a pleasant delight this spring; we have taken advantage of hundreds of larkspur and orlaya, transferring them to new beds.
In the hope of early flowers and with the risk of frosted plants, we have started our dahlias early. Every windowsill in the house is filled with tubers sending up shoots ripe for cutting. The chrysanthemum are following close behind. Gambling with the frosts further, we have sown our first succession of sunflowers outside and under just a thin layer of fleece. If they survive, we could have sunflowers at the end of May! (I am proof-reading this a few days later and the sunflowers did not survive. But it was not the frost! A little mouse visited every seed and split the shells in two, devouring the sunflower hearts tucked inside. They have since be resown again.)
Much of our work has taken place in our peony and perennial field. We’ve cleared the remaining section of scrub and pioneer vegetation with the digger and rotovated the ground to prepare for planting. We’re conscious that there are still a lot of bramble roots and perennial weeds in the soil and so we are trying to mulch thickly with soil improver and manure (thank you, family, for having horses, and thank you, local council, for free soil improver!) and plant through fabric if the crop allows it. We’d like to eventually move away from fabric but the weed pressure in this newly cleared space is far too high for us to keep on top of without fabric to suppress at least some of the weeds. We learnt this lesson last year with shoulder high weeds competing with the sunflowers!
To keep the rabbits out and the labradors in, we’ve been putting up posts around the perimeter to build a permanent fence. The posts are long and the work heavy but the purchase of motorised post-driver has made the work easier and the posts straighter. Last year, the rabbits were total vandals, needlessly digging up young plants to shrivel under a hot summer sun, chewing through string (string they could hop under) delineating the beds and even chewing through plastic fencing. Whilst the fence is still incomplete, we have built low tunnels over almost every crop this year because the one texture the rabbits seem to dislike is fleece.
Our perennial beds suffered severely last year with drought because our water source was temporarily shut off due to a leak. We ended up being without water in this field all summer and so besides a handful of watering cans, the perennials had to survive with only intermittent rainfall; our lovely silty soil turned to dust under the intense midsummer sun. This winter, we’ve been mulching them well, hoping to not only feed them but also create a soil structure that will retain more moisture between watering and rainfall. More perennials have been planted besides, including geum, sedum, agastache, campanula, asclepias and crocosmia.
Besides mulching beds, we’ve been covering paths in a thick layer of fresh woodchip; this is mainly to supress weeds but it also acts as an indirect, slow-release fertiliser and source of organic matter for our soils. Collecting woodchip has also meant plenty of opportunity to gain confidence driving our new van on country lanes ahead of driving into the chaotic city to our farmers markets.
On the rainiest winter days, we revisited our website after neglecting it all summer last year. The logo has been refreshed with a new (albeit very similar-looking) font and new little rudbeckia emblem drawn with my inexpert hand on procreate on the iPad. It looks at least a little more professional now and the hope is that is can transfer well to large banners, small stickers and embroidered workwear.
The narcissi, anemones and tulips are now beginning to bloom and the ranunculus are sending up lots of buds. The winter work is slowly shifting to spring weeding, feeding and planting. The avalanche of summer flowers will soon be here!
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