h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Wildlife Gardening - The Winter Border - A1000161
Author: Mina - U290

I've been clearing up my 'dead' border today, and I thought that I'd share my winter routine. I do nothing. Your garden will benefit, honestly.

I've called this "Wildlife Gardening - The Winter Border" so that it will fit with the project that I did about 18 months ago.

Any extra tips will be very welcome, and I might even put them in the entry. I wrote this very quickly, so things might need to be explained more than I have done here.

Nice article Mina
Very timely as well, given that I spent a couple of hours in the garden this afternoon doing some of that early spring tidying up of the stuff I'd left in the borders for all the reasons you quote

Not much else to add really, except maybe that the old stalks and seedheads give the winter garden a bit of structure and look particularly good in the frost and snow. I know you're writing from the wildlife gardener's point of view but still means we can enjoy what makes the garden look good and works for the birds and beasties.

Have you thought about including something about what to do with any ponds you might have? Or are you wanting to keep the focus on the border plants?

I noticed a couple of typos but a quick run through with the spellchecker will sort those out a lot quicker than me trying to remember and list them.

Good piece of work this - will it get linked in with your Wildlife Gardening university project articles?

Thanks.

I ran it through a spell checker ( well, I did say I wrote it quickly!), and added a paragraph at the end about structure and looking good in the frost and snow.

I'd rather concentrate on the border in this entry (I'm not really sure what to do with my ponds in the winter!) - I've linked to one entry in the project, but I'm not sure that they will be able to be linked to this one. Maybe I can squeeze them into the references. But then - they have a category all of their own, so maybe I don't need to.

Looking good
Not to worry about the pond stuff - I was just curious cos I don't know either!

Have you got a pond? I just stick a football on each of mine to stop the ice covering it completely. And I don't even have any fish!

Looks good to me, Mina.

Thanks very much.

As usual, another splendid entry on the garden from Mina. It gets my

Thanks very much - it's not generated a lot of interest so far.

Good: there's an uncontensted pick for me next month then!

PS: have you got your seeds in yet? All mine went in this weekend.

Good: there's an uncontested pick for me next month then!

Bugger, how did that duplicate posting happen??

Have I got to wait a month?

I put some in last weekend. I was going to do some more this weekend, but I was busy repotting some of the small plants that I had delivered some time ago. They weren't doing very well in tiny posts.

I have got soem more to sow, but because I can't devote a huge amount of time to looking after them, I'm going to sow them in stages so that I haven't suddenly got 300 seedlings to pot up, and only Sunday afternoon to do it.

No, you don't have to wait a month. I've found that I'm still managing to keep a grip on the important things of life (i.e. h2g2) while dealing with its ongoing irritations (stupid Welsh families and self-destructive parents).

My missus has decided to take on an allotment for her pains. So my job
is to provide lots of tiny seedlings to grow on it. We've not had an awful lot of rain in Nottingham at the moment. In fact, I could have sworn that Saturday was the first day of summer, not spring. I spent some time with her digging and weeding. I hope it works out for her because I can't imagine anything more morally (and gastronomically) satisfying than sitting down to a meal of your own home-grown veg. It makes you feel so flaming self-righteous.

I tried to grow a bit of veg last year, but what didn't disappear into thin air, I didn't really enjoy growing. I might try again with carrots and peas this year, so I should sow those again soon, but an allotment sounds like far too much work!

I did think that I'd like to grow corn, simply because I think it looks good, but I haven't decided yet. It's a shame to grow something I'm not sure I'll eat. I wonder if will eat it?

I think will eat anything. If you want to be really cool, you could grown some of the blue corn that they sell in Sainsbury's. I'm sure Chiltern Seeds will have some.

Now the greenhouse is up and running I think I'll fill it with tomatoes. NOTHING tastes like a home grown tomato, period. The ones you get in supermarkets are half ripe and have the texture and taste of a mixture of ground-up traffic cones and cavity wall insulation. Mmmmmm!

I don't think supermarket tomoatoes taste bad untill I start to eat home grown. MMm..... This year I've got bush tomoatoes, so I don't even have to pinch out the shoots! I've got nearly 30 seedlings, so I'll have tomoatoes to last all season. Although not all those will stay with me of course, I have to pass them about.

You can make tomato chutney. When the season comes to an end, you're also left with loads of green tomatoes. My grandma used to make green tomato chutney with the unripe leftovers.
I intend to have a go at growing some more unconventional stuff this year. Okra seems like a nice prospect, as I like gumbo. A lot of this stuff looks interesting too: http://www.edirectory.co.uk/chilternseeds/pages/default.asp?Query=ON&scn=7&qt=SC
Also, I'm going to have a go at growing my own melons; these taste infinitely better when grown in a greenhouse. At this rate, I'll have to extend the greenhouse, not the family home.

I thought about chutney last year, but I was told it was very difficult to make, so I just chucked the unripe ones on the compost heap.

Nice link - too much veg though.

I'm trying to grow some pumpkins from the seeds from halloween, but they don't seem to be doing anything yet. *waits* if not I might buy some, I fancy having those, as they sound very decorative.

Extend the greenhouse? I'm still making do with my small one that I can't even walk into. If I wasn't communting, or was still working part time I think I'd have got a big one by now, it's always full! The sweet peas have gone in the ground already, they were sown in the autumn.

Are we still talking in the PR thread? Oopps...