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Wales, United Kingdom
Documenting one couple's attempts to live a more self-sufficient life.

Friday 14 February 2014

Cultivating plants: Sagina subulata

I'm using the Latin name for this plant because the common name, Irish Moss, is doubly confusing. Firstly, it's not a moss and secondly, there's a seaweed that's also known as Irish Moss. I am not attempting to cultivate seaweed, though we have enough water at the moment. In fact, we've had so much weather this week...


Too much weather

... that it was only the prospect of writing this blog post that made me get of my backside and get out into the garden for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. Excellent! That is the point of the blogging challenge.

I've written about this plant before, amongst others, in the context of ground cover for the terrace. Well, sorry to be boring, but I'm doing the same again. About a year ago, I wrote about feeding the terrace - adding a thick layer of mulch to top up the level - and at that time I was waiting anxiously to see which plants would survive the treatment. Suffice to say, I now know how to kill buttercups. I spent last summer with a brown terrace.

The terrace has continued to sink down so this year I've fed it again, but this time I'm topping it with a thin layer of soil and replanting. I haven't got very far with this job, and I'm not sure how thoroughly it will get done, but I have made a start.


Replanting the terrace

The scrubby-looking plants in the middle are Sagina sabulata. There are some buttercups to the right and in the foreground, there's Germander speedwell. It's a well-established plant with long runners that I've tried to pull up through the mulch and soil as I've applied it. Hopefully all three will spread over the surface of the terrace, with or without the top layer of soil.

Other garden tasks this week
While I was outside I finished weeding the second asparagus bed (of three and a bit) and spread some seaweed over it, plus some compost from the heap. This should have been done in the autumn, but better late than never.

Also harvesting this week
Leeks
Parsnips
Ground elder
Celery

Also eating
Potatoes
Hazelnuts

Also drinking
Dandelion wine
Oak leaf wine
Beech leaf wine
Hopped ale

Cultivated plants challenge summary page here.

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