Muck and Magic Nearly Organic Gardening Co.

11/01/2021

What to do in your garden in January and February

Well, here we are again! We don't think any of us could really have imagined, last March, that we would still be here battling this crazy pandemic. We really hope this post finds you all hanging in there and managing to maintain your sanity. For those of you working in the NHS, and all other keyworkers, there really aren't enough words to express our gratitude and admiration for your continuing dedication in these dystopian times. For all parents attempting to homeschool children whilst also working from home, we send you strength and patience!

January and february are months for resting, taking stock and preparation in our gardens. Most of our plants are dormant but that doesn't mean that nothing is actually going on. Beneath the soil there's still plenty of activity going on – the worms have pushed themselves deeper into the soil where it's warmer but they're still busy turning all of those fallen leaves into beautiful humus, releasing the nutrients so they're available for our plants to take them up through their roots. Fungi are still very much active in the soil, creating the amazing networks that help to link our plants into one great invisible ecosystem. If you still have leaves lying around, make sure they're not sitting thickly over areas you know contain small early bulbs like snowdrops and crocuses, which can struggle to push through a heavy layer of soggy leaf matter. It's fine to leave some leaves to compost down in the border but less good on your lawn areas.

Rainy, sleety days are perfect opportunities to light the fire and do some planning. Perhaps you spotted a plant you fell in love with in a friend's garden, or have been meaning to take cuttings from a favourite shrub. Perhaps your seed collection could do with some new stock. Since sales of seeds rocketed during March and April last year, why not get ahead of the game and order yours now? We have no idea what the spring might bring this year so it's as well to think ahead. One of the things that was wonderful about last spring was the way many communities helped each other by sharing seeds – food security has been thrown into sharp focus during this pandemic and saving seeds of favourite varieties that you know do well in your particular microclimate is an incredibly useful way of helping to preserve those varieties.
On those days when it's mild and you are going a bit stir crazy, there's still plenty to do outside – shrub and tree-pruning, mulching your borders with lovely compost and getting early seeds sown. If you are itching to get planting to cheer yourself up, you can make a start with tomatoes, chillies and sweet peas. It's also still the right time for planting new fruit trees and bushes – since getting to the shops is not the straightforward venture it used to be, why not consider which of your favourite fruit and veg you could be growing yourself and order them online? We all know how expensive tiny punnets of berries are, some of which have been transported hundreds of miles before they get to your local supermarket, so why not grow some yourself? It goes without saying that a warm raspberry picked and eaten that day is a thing of beauty, and a few pounds spent on some new raspberry canes will provide you with free fruit for many, many years.
If you have ornamental grasses in your garden, february is the ideal month to give those a good cut back, taking off the dead material to make way for this year's growth. If you grow pampas grass, make sure to keep the fluffy seed heads somewhere for the birds, who love to use them to line their nests. Speaking of birds, don't forget that this is a lean time for them. Many of their favourite berries like pyracantha and rowan will already have been stripped clean by now so don't forget to keep your feeders well-stocked. The loud chattering of house sparrows in the garden raises a smile on even the darkest of days, when they're tucked into the hedge bickering. Nesting season will soon be upon us!

If you are looking for a good book to get your teeth into this winte 'Entangled Life' by Merlin Sheldrake is an absolutely fascinating read. It will change the way you think of fungi forever!

Other than that, make the most of those clear-skied winter days to get out for a little walk within your local area, Covid-guidelines permitting. There is nothing better for your mental health in these troubling times. If you have been feeling isolated and alone this past year, why not find out about any community groups in your area – they can be an excellent way to meet new people, make new friends and contribute to something worthwhile in your local area.

Plant of the month: the humble snowdrop, of course!

On another note, if you live in the Chorlton/Whalley Range area, there is a new organisation looking to get people growing trees with a view to creating a new urban forest. They will supply you with seeds and compost to get you started. You can find out more here:

https://www.facebook.com/UrbanForestUK/

Urban Forest aims to create a new woodland in South Manchester. With our FREE tree planting kit you can grow saplings in your yard, alleyway or garden to enhance the green space around you home and in our area.

25/02/2020

To cheer you up, here are a few photos of prairie planting we did in 2018, looking resplendent in spring last year. It'll be interesting to see how they do this year after almost 9 months of rain...

25/02/2020

Rainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrain.....
Is it ever going to stop?
We were genuinely hoping that, after last summer's Northern Washout, we were in for some good snow and snowman-making opportunities but alas, this "winter" has, frankly, not been any such thing - four or five frosts does not a winter make! The weeks are slipping by alarmingly quickly and the daffodils are out already! Normally at this time of year we would be cheering their bright yellow jauntiness yet, somehow, it feels as though we've been cheated. *Sigh*
2019 was one of the strangest we've experienced since Muck and Magic began. Intense, unseasonal heat early in February to April followed by a mostly miserable summer proved tricky in your gardens - there were weeks when it was just too wet and soggy to mow. Fortunately our clients are an understanding bunch - it was mostly too wet to be out enjoying their gardens anyway, other than through the window, cup of tea in hand. A barbecue summer it was not!
So here's hoping with all our hearts for a warmer, drier season this year. The birds are getting a good headstart, if the activity on our feeders is anything to go by. There should be no shortage of worms. Unfortunately the extreme wet and relative warmth this winter probably means an abundance of slugs to come too...
News for this year. We have finally replaced Henry, our trusty van, with a newer, younger model, to be collected imminently.
Also, our oldest client turned 100 in 2019 and will soon be 101! We have been gardening for Mrs Corteen in Chorltonville since the inception of Muck and Magic and wish her many happy returns on the occasion of her 101st Birthday (and 2nd telegram from the Queen!)
Perhaps this year will be the year of the Bog Garden...judging by the state of Sophie's garden in Whalley Range, a large pond is definitely the way to go...
In summary, it's not very summery! Fingers crossed the sun comes out soon...

29/11/2018

Dear all, well what a crazy old year it's been. The spring/summer drought proved to be extremely trying in some of your gardens, and those of you who have shady gardens certainly fared better during those months with no rain.
Like gardeners all over the country, you may now be looking at areas in your garden in a new light and thinking about how you can make it more drought tolerant, if predictions about our future climate are correct.
One of the more popular movements in gardening over the last few years has been prairie planting. Championed by Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, prairie planting meets two of our modern gardening problems: how to create a garden that is self-sustaining and drought-tolerant and how to increase biodiversity in our gardens. Studies have shown a catastrophic decline in invertebrate species all over Europe in the last couple of decades, which has a knock-on effect on all of our other wildlife that feeds on the insects at the bottom of the food chain. The fewer insects there are, the fewer birds, small mammals and so on.
Prairie planting is based on the North American prairies but can be easily translated into a European meadow-style by choosing species and cultivars that are better-suited to our climate and don’t turn to mush into our cold and often wet winters. The essence of it is a mixture of grasses and nectar-rich perennials to produce a multi-season, multi-layered display, ensuring there is almost always something available for the bees, birds and butterflies to feast upon. The result is a swishy, colourful chaos of soft grasses punctuated by star- or globe-shaped flowers and fluffy spires all swaying in the breeze. It’s intensely beautiful and, best of all, requires almost no maintenance, once established. The perennials and grasses emerge, have their moment of glory, then fade away to be replaced by the next gem or ripen to an architectural and interesting form that will survive into the winter months, when they’ll be a joy to behold in the glittering frost. Seed-heads are left on for the birds to use, then the entire thing is cut down in late winter-early spring to make way for the new season’s growth. The bed is therefore insulated in the worst of the winter months by the dry matter left in place, which also provides plenty of overwintering habitat for invertebrates.
Although it’s a style of gardening that really wows on a large scale, this effect can be created in less time and in a much smaller space by buying in or raising plants yourself from seed and choosing varieties that are right for your available space and soil type. Autumn is a great time to do some major garden rejiggling so if you have a tired old border that seems to need constant weeding and the plants are past their prime, why not consider treating yourself to some new plants and installing your very-own biodiversity booster bed?
You can get masses of inspiration online by searching for Piet Oudolf and prairie-style gardens .

Here is a list of plants ideal for use in a prairie-style scheme.
Grasses: Stipa gigantea, Calamagrostis acutiflora Karl Foerster, Deschampsia ‘Goldtau’, Molinia ‘Transparent’, stipa barbata, stipa tenuisssima
Perennials: alliums and camassias
Verbena bonariensis, Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’, achilleas, heleniums, eryngiums, sansuisorba officinalis, veronicastrum virginicum, scabious, agastache, Echinacea, centaurea

We have just planted a handful of new prairie-style beds for clients this year, so we'll post up some photos of those when they're in full swing and looking glorious next year.

07/03/2018

Oh, the joy of Spring! The fresh juiciness of the new leaves, tinged with pink as they emerge into the March air; The smell of the first mown grass; the abundance of blackthorn and plum blossom leading the charge inexorably onwards into the sunshine. It's a time of excitement and preparation, as the days lengthen and warm and conditions are right for germination.

Get into your flowerbeds early to deal with weeds: clear out any remaining dead matter and give the beds a mulch now, to give the nutrients plenty of time to work their way into the soil, but being careful around bulbs still emerging. If you love summer-flowering bulbs like Gladioli, you can also get those into the ground or into pots for something to look forward to later in the summer.

If you have a vegetable patch/raised beds, make the most of any dry days to get those ready, clearing out any leftovers from last year and digging any compacted areas to get some oxygen into the soil before working in some compost. You can then start your growing season with onions, shallots and some early potatoes, while the later potatoes are chitting nicely.
Once you've prepared an area, if you know you won't be planting it up for a month or so, you can cover it with something to protect the soil from heavy spring rains flattening all of the air out of it again. Your freshly-turned soil will soon start to fill with weeds germinating from last-year's (or earlier's) seed. If you are going to be growing plants from seed in this area, you can use this is to your advantage – allow all the early weeds to germinate before hoeing them all off (the 'stale seed bed' technique) and then raking to a fine tilth. You can then sow into clean soil.

If your garden is on a modest scale and you have lots of plants in pots, now is the perfect time to give them some TLC. Look at the base of the pot first of all to check whether or not it needs repotting – if there are lots of roots coming out through the holes in the bottom, then it's time to move that plant into a larger pot, or into the ground. You should be looking to repot into a pot that gives an extra 4-5cm all round for the root ball, possibly a bit bigger if it's a large plant that you don't want to have to repot again for a good while. All of your pots should have the top 4cm of old compost removed and be top-dressed with a good mix of slow-release feed and compost, allowing a gap of couple of cm above that for watering. Any pots of early bulbs that have finished their display should be rested in a bright spot to allow all the foliage to die down. Snowdrops do best if they are moved/replanted 'in the green', ie whilst they are still in leaf.

If you have a pond that is in need of a little tidying up, make sure to do that before the middle of this month when the frogs start spawning.

There are lots of wonderful flowers to look forward to in March and April, including the velvety Pasque Flower and the often undersung Pulmonaria, but for us, we just adore a Hellebore.

30/06/2017

Wild orchid in the sculpture trail of Crich Tramway museum, deep in the Peaks!

25/06/2017

Soft colours and abundance in June in the Peaks

25/06/2017

Visiting friends in lovely Derbyshire and was charmed by this rose, England's Heroes (i think)...

22/06/2017

Some exciting news! In fact, two bits of exciting news for us here at Muck and Magic.
Firstly, one of our gardens is going to be featured in the new series of Cold Feet! We can't disclose any more than that at present as we are sworn to secrecy, but will update you further once the new series begins!
Secondly, Muck and Magic are now the official gardeners for Unicorn Grocery in Chorlton, so we will be gently tending the organic wildflower garden there. The nature of the garden designed and installed by Grassroots is that it's mostly a self-sustaining little entity, but we'll be doing our best to keep it looking tidy and giving it whatever maintenance it requires throughout the year. So if you're out doing a spot of shopping and you spy us amongst the undergrowth, do give us a wave!

28/03/2017

Tulip Ballerina is filling us with joy. Happy Spring, hurray!

08/03/2017

Hello all! So, spring has finally sprung and we're champing at the bit to get cracking in your gardens. It's time to get a headstart in on the weeding (they start early!) and the mowing regime will begin in earnest any day too. This season we have some interesting projects in the offing alongside our regular maintenance round, so if your garden is looking a bit sad after the winter and needs some TLC, get in touch. We're full of energy and ready to go!