Eimear Hutchinson: Finding joy in your garden

I ADORE the month of February, it can be hit and miss weather-wise, but it feels like the world is awakening after the hibernation of the winter months.

It is such a simple pleasure to get back into the garden between the February showers.

I am really pleased that I managed to organise myself in the autumn and planted lots of different bulbs around the garden that are bringing me much joy as they begin to peek out from their wintery homes.

There are purple and yellow crocuses currently starting to flower along with daffodils. I am, however, hereby making a mental note to plant more daffodils next year because they are a great perennial early spring flower to add colour to the garden from January onwards each year. I also have hyacinths, narcissus, and lots of tulips in beds and pots that I can’t wait to see come to flower very soon.

From early January, I’ve been so eager to get sowing seeds, from flowers to vegetables, because there is nothing more satisfying than a colourful, fruitful garden. 

We didn’t have our greenhouse until later in the season last year, so I am looking forward to getting started with some seeds earlier than ever this year.

My favourite thing to grow in the garden is tomatoes and the greenhouse really took growing them to a whole new level of satisfaction. I have my first set of seeds on the windowsill in the utility room that have all germinated nicely. I have started with the Moneymaker variety this year, which I have never done before, they are a reasonably sized tomato so I hope to do some smaller vine tomatoes too for variety. I had six tomato plants in the greenhouse last year, but I plan on doubling that this year because the six plants were stripped daily of their offerings.

I have started my vegetable seeds in the last few days too. I put in two rows of early cropping carrots in the greenhouse so we’ll see how those germinate.

I have not had much luck with carrots, but last year I got a lovely crop in the greenhouse so I hope I can replicate that luck in 2024.

I also put in my first row of lettuce – I love the cut and come again varieties because they last for weeks on end. I am not sure if I am a little early in planting them straight into the ground in the greenhouse - but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I have some courgettes, cucumbers, and aubergine in trays inside on a sunny windowsill so I am hopeful those will germinate nicely too. I love courgettes and cucumbers – they are so simple to grow and from just a couple of plants you will get a healthy harvest for months on end, plenty to feed a family of six.

I am soaking mange tout and pea seeds in water to help kick-start germination and I might plant a few rows straight into the ground in the greenhouse, like I did last year for an early crop. Once the weather improves, I’ll plant peas and mangetout straight into the ground outside to make room for my tomato plants in the greenhouse.

Each year, I challenge myself to grow something new, so this year leek is the vegetable I’ve opted to try out. I planted the seeds in a tray in the greenhouse and will plant outdoors when the time is right. I should be able to hopefully harvest them from August onwards.

During the breaks from the rain at the weekends, I’ve been weeding and tidying my flowerbeds, which is a great way to work up a sweat and a hunger.

I have spent the last few years trying to fill out the beds with perennial flowers, grasses and evergreen shrubs, so I am hoping that this will be the year I can largely sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labour of previous years.

There is one flower bed that was home to wildflowers the last couple of years and this year I am hoping to fill it with flowers that I will grow from seeds saved from last year’s garden – poppies, calendula, snapdragon, lupin and honesty.

Last year, I grew sweet pea for the first time and it is a truly beautiful flower to grow. It is the plant that keeps on giving because I had a fresh bunch of highly scented flowers every couple of days for months. I saved a lot of the seeds and sowed one round of seeds in autumn and housed them in the greenhouse over the winter. Those plants are ready to go outdoors in a couple of months when the risk of frost has well and truly passed and will hopefully have a head start on the second round of seeds I have sown in the last few weeks.

I’m still deliberating over the best place to plant them this year as sweet peas need plenty of sunlight to be at their most productive. Aren’t these wonderful dilemmas to have!?