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<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\nT<\/strong><\/em><\/span>HE VILLAGE GARDENER<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Things Are Starting To Grow<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n A cold start to March held back seed sowing, unless you had some form of heat to help germination. Now with longer days and a little more warmth things are starting to grow and seedlings catch up quickly. Patience is always the best way forward to get things done. With young plants we have to be aware of their needs, by protecting them from cold nights and most importantly, be very careful with watering. Too much and they will rot in the trays or too little and they\u2019ll wilt. Try to check on them each day, it will be worth the effort.<\/p>\n Snowdrops, crocus and daffodils are the first to go over. A few steps now will guarantee a good display next year. As soon as the flowers die back, cut them off or they will try to set seed which will take energy away from the bulb. Do not cut back the foliage until it dies back, the leaves are where the bulb gets its nutrients from to store energy for next year.<\/p>\n Weeds will, without doubt, be growing faster now than anything you\u2019ve planted so keep on top of them, or they will smother any young plants or older ones given the chance. Mulching around the plant is a good way to suppress weeds but only if you put it down at least 3\u201d thick. Old compost is a good mulch, better still, if you see any of the tree surgeons working around our community, ask them for the stuff they are chipping, it\u2019s perfect and they will be glad for you to have it. If you feel that you must buy some, get a few bags of bark from British soil in Wenvoe. Don\u2019t buy that scrulch from garden centres, it\u2019s only straw and an expensive waste of time and money. If you want straw, buy a bale from a local farmer or Arthur Johns in Cowbridge. Honestly, just lay cardboard down on the soil, with some old compost on top and the job is done.<\/p>\n On the allotments, Bernard has put up a tent like the ones you see on crime dramas when a body has been discovered. It must be a new method he has worked out to get a better crop of something and he\u2019s not willing to share it yet. It\u2019s not anything sinister, as you can hear radio 4 being played from inside. The site is looking great with freshly dug ground and gardeners busy planting their young crops. All early potatoes are in and trays of young veg under cloches. Do not even contemplate planting runner beans yet, you need to wait for the ground to warm even more for this tender king of crops to have a fair chance, remember patience is key.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget to come along to the Tuckers Wartime Plant Sale on 10 May in the church hall. There will be a good selection of plants, wartime recipes to sample, a good quality raffle. More details can be found elsewhere in this edition of the Wenvoe What\u2019s On.<\/p>\n Happy gardening.<\/p>\n THE VILLAGE GARDENER Things Are Starting To Grow A cold start to March held back seed sowing, unless you had some form of heat to help germination. Now with longer days and a little more warmth things are starting to grow and seedlings catch up quickly. Patience is always the best way forward to get things done. With young plants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[421,77],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-3ZP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15040,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15040","url_meta":{"origin":15365,"position":0},"title":"Happy New Year Everyone","author":"Alan Williams","date":"9th January 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER Happy New Year everyone This time of year, I love to look through seed catalogues, wondering if the plants will ever be as good as they look in the pamphlet. They never are. Don\u2019t start trampling all over the soil unless it\u2019s dry as compacting it now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14424,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14424","url_meta":{"origin":15365,"position":1},"title":"The Humble Hoe Is Your Best Friend","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th July 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER The Humble Hoe Is Your Best Friend\u00a0 The humble hoe is your best friend when it comes to keeping weeds under control during the Summer. On dry days just run the hoe between your flowers or veg beds. Not doing this at least a couple of times\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14044,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14044","url_meta":{"origin":15365,"position":2},"title":"Don’t Be Fooled By A Couple Of Nice Days","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th March 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER Don't Be Fooled By A Couple Of Nice Days Let\u2019s not be fooled by a couple of nice days tempting us to believe Spring is here. Things are starting to grow a bit now, but March can be cold and frosty on times so don\u2019t be tempted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5703,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5703","url_meta":{"origin":15365,"position":3},"title":"RHS tips for April","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st April 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 THE VILLAGE GARDENER March and April bring out the usual pests like slugs and snails. While difficult to deal with, we seem to find a way. But the other pests prevalent at this time of year have two legs and come aggressively knocking at your door, offering to clean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15144,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15144","url_meta":{"origin":15365,"position":4},"title":"80th Anniversary Of VE Day","author":"Alan Williams","date":"8th February 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER 80th Anniversary Of VE Day This year sees the 80th anniversary of VE Day. May 8th 1945 was the day the war in Europe officially ended. I\u2019ve been thinking of plants to grow to remember that time. As we know most gardens, parks and open spaces were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/rosebay-300x276.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9733,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9733","url_meta":{"origin":15365,"position":5},"title":"Village Gardener Tips for June","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th May 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER Stella Gardening Tips for June Tips from Heulwyn Davies of the cherry tree garden. Grow more veg in pots, it's so easy and tastes better than flowers. Think of the future and put in some raised beds. Sow pansies for Autumn flowering this month. Gardeners will always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/waterCan-2-257x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15365"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15366,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15365\/revisions\/15366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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