Monday, March 7, 2011

Welcome to The Back Garden Nursery Blog.

This where I will tell you all about what is happening on my small private nursery that I have run for 5 years in Sandbach, Cheshire UK.
I grow 96% of all the plants that we have at the nusery, from either seeds, cuttings, division.

I  grow all my own vegetables and fruit thoughout the year. And I thought I'd like to keep a dairy of how things are going  on, on the small nursery that I run.

I am Lady Sarah Thompson I have been a keen gardener since I was 8 years old. I'm now almost 41 yrs. old.

I trained at Arley Hall Gardens in Cheshire and High Legh garden centre and ran a Hydrangea nusery and agrden centre in Marbury Park,Cheshire and  have a degree in Horticulture of which I'm extremly proud of.

I'm married to John Thompson and we have a beautiful son called Edward who is 2yrs and 3months old at the moment, we have a parsons terrier called Benji who is nuts he spends most days out with me on the nursery.

I grow a lot of rare and unusual plants as well as all types of vegetable and fruit..I am NOT a vegetarian  although I eat plenty of my home grown vegetables and fruit...

The nursery is run private, we open several times of year to the public and we attend lots of events throughout Cheshire during the year.

I am also helping out at the local allotment society as they have just aquired a new plot of land..and have quite a few novices who need help with what to do and grow on there new allotments..So that will keep me busy for most of this year.

We are hoping that in the next year or so that we will be opening up the nursery full time...but at the moment I want to keep it how it is and it does rather well...

Here are a few pictures of what I have grown.


Carex aurea
     Festuca glauca




     Thuja Golden Globe






These a just 3 of the many plants which I grow and propagate
each year.

Happy Gardening to you all. Lady Sarah.

13 comments:

  1. Wedneday 9th March.

    Hello again, I'd just like to welcome anyone who's from the Sandbach Allotment society to this blog, hope your all well and getting ready for the planting season....

    I've just added another page to this blog on how to grow vegetable sand plants which I hope you'll find useful and interesting I've tried to use simple and easy to follow instructions as they can get quite complicated sometimes....

    Anyway I decided that in a few weeks time I will be holding a plant hospital session, where you can bring along your sick or not so healthy plants along so I can hopefully give you some advice on how to look after them and amke the most of them...
    Not sure where I am going to hold this just yet but it will probably on a Saturday at the begining of April...Check on the diary page for more detials soon....

    Lady Sarah.

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  2. Thursday 10th March.

    It's very windy here today, so at the moment I'm not going out to the nursery.
    It's a bit warmer again than yesterday and the sun does keep trying to come out but there are a lot of rain clouds around today.

    Everything looks ok out there though.

    I was hoping to get outside to plant some more seeds directly in to where they are going to grow. I have some purple sprouting broccoli seeds that I'd like to get sown in the next couple of days and some spinach seeds to as I've almost run out of fresh spinach, I grow it all year round even through the winter I can eat tonnes of spinach, it's one of my favorive leaves to grow.. And very easy to grow as well...

    All the seedlings in the greenhouse are growing really well and in about 6 weeks time I willbe starting to plant them out too.. Lady Sarah.

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  3. Friday 11th March.

    Good afternoon my gardening friends...Well it's been a strange start off to the day to day, for once it was quite warm but windy again...then it went cold..and now it's not to bad at all..so I'm going to get out on the nursery very soon and get a few new plants potted up and sow a few more seeds which I picked up this morning...

    I'm going to try and have a few hours out on the nursery over the weekend and hopefully get afew more photos to put onn my blog pages.....
    Anyway hopefully the weather here should be ok this weekend and I can get plenty done out there..

    I want to get the rest of the tiding up done before the new greenhouse arrives as I have a small area for it to go in....And I need to do a bit of weeding too as I noticed some small weeds have started to appear in one of the borders..
    I will be covering that border with chipped bark later on this year as it does seem to work at keeping the weeds down and the moisture in, which you do need if it gets hot this summer..

    So I hope you'll all have a good weekend where ever you are..Lady Sarah.

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  4. Saturday 12th March.

    What a really nice day I have had well afternoon in any case...And I was very busy potting and re-potting lots of different plants and seedlings.

    It was lovely and warm out side and I got loads sorted out I planted some red onion sets and sowed some squash seeds and re-potted one of my apple trees.... I haad to water loads of plants too as lots of them had dried out due to the wind
    I also sowed some lavender seeds and verbena borenasis which I forgot to do yesterday....
    It's still quite warm outside and theres a good cloud cover at the moment so I do hope it won't freeze tonight.
    And John got the garden tractor running again as we had'nt run since before christmas it started the second time...and ran very well...we'll be moving it up to the unit soon so John can finish of the cab we've been buikding for it....
    Lady Sarah.

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  5. Monday 14th March.

    What a lovely day it has been...I only managed to get an hour out on the nursery this afternoon but it was well worth that time...
    I was very busy sowing seeds and planting up plants as well... And I've had to water quite a lot of plants in the greenhouse as they had strated to dry out as it has been very warm in there over to past few days...It gor up to 58oF today but has dropped off now and luckily there is cloud cover tonight so hopefully we wont get any frost like this morning...Lady Sarah.

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  6. Tuesday 15th March.

    It's another cold damp dull day here in cheshire uk..and after two really nice days so I have decided to stay indoors for the sfternoon...
    As it is cold I'm making a list of all the seeds I have grown this year so far and all the cuttings that have been taken up to now...and a list of what plants I want to get this year....
    And I'm also going to update my website for the whole company...mine and Johns...Lady Sarah..

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  7. Friday 18th March.

    Welcome back to the nursery blog....
    I've had a few busy days potting up and sowing more seeds and I will hopefully have ome more seeds ariving in the next couple of days....
    I have some mushroom growing as well I was very excited about them on wednesday when I found them...We have 3 so far and there are loads more very tiny ones waiting to grow....
    I have also noticed that all the summer bedding seeds have now germinated there are so many to prick out..and as for the lobelia seedlings which are about 1mm tall right now...they will have to be left to grow on for a week or two as they are much to small to handle at the monent...I will have to pot up the tagetes seedlings tomorrow before I go out there are about 100 of thise to prick out..but they will be going in to a large cell tray which I filled up with compost today ready for them to be put in tomorrow...This weekend is suposed to be very nice weather wise so I do hope to spend quite alot of time out on the nursery and in the garden too...Lady Sarah.

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  8. Tuesday 22nd March.

    Having a good day out on the nursery, it's warm and all the green house doors are open for now.
    There are lots of new seedlings in the main green house and under the covered area too... I have around 30 pea seedlings and lots of colourful oxalis too..all the bulblets have just started to sprout in the last couple of days...
    And my new seed bank should be arriving by friday for all the hundreds of seeds...plus all the new one to arrive in the next few days....
    I'm looking forward to trying to grow the coffee and tea bushes and the sugar tree too...they all need a bit of extra care and looking after as they all prefer hotter climates than ours here in cheshire, but I should be able to get them to grow with any luck....There seeds haven't arrived just as yet but should inthe next few days or weeks as they are all coming form abroad..Hong Kong and USA....
    I will be growing extra of each of these seeds so I may just have a few to sell in June....
    As they will not be ready any earlier than then... Lady Sarah.

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  9. Friday 25th March.

    Good morning / evening to you all....
    Well is going very well this week on the nursery.
    Lots of different plants are growing quite fast thanks to the weather...I bought myself another new plant yesterday a "Goji" berry...I have it inside at the moment but it will be potted up later on today...I have read that it's fruit is supposed to have twice as much vitamin C as an orange.. this I will have to see...I have never grown one of these before in fact yesterday was the first time I've seen on for sale in and shop or garden centre...So I couldn't resist getting on adn it was really cheap too only £2-99 Which is very good for a fruit bush...I'm not sure if I'll get any fruit this year if I do I'll have try the fruit when I get some ripe ones....I'm not sure what they taste of either...All I know is that they are small flat egg shaped and orange in colour...It's a very healthy plant around 18 inches in height and 10 inches across... I hope it grows a bit bigger, for now it will have to grow in a terracotta pot as tere is no space in the fruit bed... All the other fruit bushes are growing well and my Sloe bush is about to burst in to flower any day now,it is covered in tiny white flower buds....I might get some fruit if it this year too...Lady Sarah.

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  10. Wednesday 30th March.

    It's been a bit to cold again to day out side so I have decided to stay indoors for the day.

    I do have alot of seedlings to pot oin but I think there'll be ok for another few days..I have got a few more seeds to sow as well they will need to go in to the propagator to help them germinate...I going to grow a few more unusual tree seeds..They do take a bit longer to germinate than vegetable and flower seeds,but all should be growing by May...Lady Sarah.

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  11. Thursday 31st March.

    Well were at the end of March now...that's gone quickly... And I'm getting ready for a really busy time out on the nursery...as from now on everything usually starts to grow faster and quicker and will need more water... It's rather a windy day here in Sandbach ,cheshire,uk today..so I'm going to spend a short time outside in a bit, the sun does keep poping out and it is fairly warm out there too.... I'm going to pot up the golden aztec grain today as there now over 2 inches tall and are in need of individual pots... I also will have to pot up the other aubergines I'll have 12 plants all togrther now...Some of which will end up being for sle on the website...I'm going to keep 2 plants for me...as I'm not sure how many each plant will produce as I have never grown them before...Lady Sarah.

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  12. Friday 22nd April.

    Had a very busy day out on the nursery, we put in a new fence panel and I re-arranged the potting shed again...I have much more space now.

    All the plants had to be watered twice..and we've just had a really good thunder torm with lots of rain which will hopefully get down to the plants roots and I might just not have to water tomorrow...As it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm having a day off...
    We're off to my parents for our lunch and then we'll have a bbq at home later on in then evening....

    We're going to visit on of ny favorite plant nurseries while we are at my parents....

    And we might take Edward off for a wake to the local park to see the ducks and swans that they have there...

    So I'm looking forward to having a really nice day...Lady Sarah...almost 41...xxx

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  13. Saturday 23rd April.

    What was suposed to be a very happy day for me has turned out very sad. This morning my beautiful dog benji died in my arms after some one had poisioned him. He was ok running around and playful yesterday and this morning at 11-30am he died....

    He had been such a good dog and my bet friend through some very difficult times...
    At the moment I'm very angry very sad and distressed with not knowing who did that to my wonderful pet....

    We have our eye on one or two people around where we live and the police and rspca have been informed they were very helpful and supportive... but that stil doesn't bring benji back....

    So I had a very sad birthday...

    R.I.P. BENJI... My best friend and pal...we'll all miss you.... the house feels so empty even now...Still not quite sunk in either...

    A very sad Lady Sarah.x

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