Thursday 18 December 2014

December gardening and thieving mice.

Posted by Rosie

This has not been a week for getting out in the garden ... or rather when it was good weather I was otherwise occupied and when I had the time it was chucking it down.  That said I have managed to get a few more things knocked off my December To Do List:

The corner of the polytunnel with the cold frame in it is now looking all nice and tidy and ready for sowing in next year.  I have a plan on how to get on extra early but that will have to wait for another post.  However that is parsley you can see there in the bottom left of the picture rather than where it should be i.e. in the freezer.  On the plus side you may remember I bought a peanut plant back in the spring and this week I harvested our crop and blogged about it here.


I also got on and sorted my seeds out and discovered that it was not actually necessary to have searched round half of Normandy to find onion sets as I had already bought them in England and but had completely forgotten doing so.  Oh well, I've planted most of them now and all things being well, we should have plenty of early onions next year.


I've also sown four short rows of broad beans and have put the seeds twice as close as normal. At this time of year germination can be a little sporadic and some seeds can rot in the soil. Mice can also be a problem, stealing seeds, so I have hedged my bets and sown extra seeds.  If they do all germinate I'll take out every other one and transplant that into further rows but if they don't all grow hopefully I won't have gappy rows of beans.

The mice had also been busy in the house and back in late October had stolen a whole tray of my drying bean seeds.  I was furious!  However all is not last and today, whilst having a mega sort out in the loft room, I found 3 stashes of my stolen seeds including this one on a shelf behind a box I moved! 


I did manage to get one or two things done outside (mainly because I was so embarrassed how little I had done) - I added a bit more manure to an empty bed and cut back and covered the gladioli and dahlias before adding a generous mulch of old hay which I am hoping will be enough to protect them from any hard frosts we have. The sticks mark where the dahlias are so I will know where to look for new growth next spring. I may need reminding to remove the mulch though.


Have you managed to get anything done in your garden this week?  If not, see who has over at Annie's gardening linky, How Does Your Garden Grow.

Simple Wanderlust

9 comments :

  1. Now I know why you always have such amazing flowers and vegetables - you prepare ahead. (Some day I tell myself) All I did this week was get rid of the weeds growing all over the patio!

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  2. looks like you have been busy prepping. you are so good like that!

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  3. You are very well organised! Those mice are pesky aren't they, but at least they kept the seeds in a stash for you to find easily :)

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  4. Your seeds look so organised (much tidier than mine), I like that box on the right. Can't believe mice stole your bean seeds, haha! Cheeky little so and so's!

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  5. You are doing so well out there! I have no motivation to get out there at the moment, but now you're making me feel like I should!

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  6. You are so organised, I need to take a leaf out of your book! The mice stealing your seeds did make me laugh, cheeky little things :) #HDYGG

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  7. I am loving how organised you are,as always but it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one who buys things and puts them 'somewhere safe' only to completely forget about them and find them months later!

    I'm afraid my gardening skills this week have been confined to tidying up bags of rubble form the front lawn, hardly glamorous - though we do have plans to plant our Spring bulbs this weekend :)

    Thanks for joining in again, you never cease to amaze me with how much you cram into your days!

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  8. Wow you've been busy! And you're certainly not alone buying seeds then forgetting about them - I've just found the astrantia seeds I was supposed to plant about 2 months ago, tucked away on a shelf that I presumably thought was an obvious place to leave them at the time! I like your plan with the broad beans, I want to get some into the ground soon and think I'll be doing the same as the mice are cheeky at our allotment too!

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  9. What cheeky mice. No all i've done is continue to rake up all the leaves, mainly blown from nextdoor's huge oak tree #HDYGG

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