Get Planting

Well, that's exactly what I've been doing the last couple of weeks. I've planted some parsnip seeds outdoors, rather than in the greenhouse, and dotted radish seeds in with them to mark the rows - good idea mum! These should be ready to harvest fairly quickly and therefore won't stump the parsnips.

I've also transferred some of the bigger carrot seedlings into the ground outside. Everyone said not to move them as you'll damage the tap root, but we'll wait and see! I've watered the patch and checked the broccoli and spinach but no growth yet.

After worrying about the bottom of the broad bean stems becoming black and soggy, they seem to have re-awakened, and are now strongly producing flowers.

...how does your garden grow?..

Well, I'm rather pleased with how the plants are progressing. the broad beans, which at one stage looked rather waterlogged and bendy, seem to have righted themselves and are making steady progress towards the sky, with some beautiful flowers too.

The newly planted broccoli and spinach seeds, well, they're poly-tunnelled in so I will just have to wait and see what happens with those!

As for the cabbages, there are now many more leaves and they are growing taller every day, as you can see from the before and after shots below. I think I'll have to remove the fleece soon so they don't get squashed!

And the onions? well, they're beginning to recover from being squashed by the snowstorms and the garlic is sprouting higher every day it seems! I didn't think about planting them in stages when I begun as I was so excited to actually be plating anything! No I wish I'd plant a row a week for a steady crop alter on, but hopefully, the onions and garlic will keep in the garage anyway! Will wait and see!

Sunny and Springtime

Had a great weekend pottering about the garden. I neatened up the raised beds area and tried to get rid of all the rubble and mess and put weed-netting down, then covered with slate chips - a much nicer look than before!


I also spent several minutes watching the tits at the bird box on Saturday and Sunday morning.

I re-dug a couple of beds and planted broccoli and perpetual spinach seeds, so I'll let you know how they get on. Thought I should perhaps cover them with plastic tunnels to help them on their way!

Fire burn and cauldron bubble

We finally managed to finish the bonfire we started a few weeks ago! The leaves and branches had dried out sufficiently for my boyfriend to sneak all the cardboard recycling outside and use it as accelerant! When I saw the rather large plumes of smoke, I raced up the garden to check all was well, which it was, just about! The wind made the fire rather unpredictable, but the space was large enough to cope, and the hosepipe was on hand, just in case. Then began the rain and attempted to put an end to the fire, but my boyfriend had made it so well, nothing could stop it.

An hour later, when he went out to check, it was still bubbling away and began to burn happily again when more wood was added. Having just heard the pounding of the rain on the roof, though, I think I can say with certainty, it's definitely out now. Well done hun, at least that growing pile of garden rubbish is finally out of the way! And the forced rhubarb - forced because it was desperately trying to find a way through to the light, rather than because we'd tried an experiment - might begin to grow!

Seedbox

This is something every gardener should have, but if every gardener should have one, then every gardener also needs my dad! On Christmas morning, my last present (the one that used to be hidden behind the curtains by father Christmas!) was this, handmade by daddy! He loves woodwork, designing and making things, but on the whole, all will testify, these projects take much longer than expected! Many nights dad spent in the garage making this from the various odds and ends of wood he has accumulated over the years. He then waxed it to a beautiful finish.

Well, the hard work was worth the effort. As well as the many various sections, the box also has two little boxes inside to hold the seeds from the packet. You can take just the seedboxes out with you or the whole case, useful for carrying all those other things you find yourself needing as you begin to plant: string, trowels, dibbers, etc. I can't wait for my little plug plants to arrive and for the time to plant my seeds out so I can make full use of all the compartments!

Thanks dad x

Weeds

I've noticed the weeds are really beginning to grow and spread and have realised I need to do something about them now! First, I'm trying to kill them all off, then have bought some weed netting to spread over the top. Next, I've got some 'walk-way' to go between the raised beds, but it all needs a bit of a clean, so must get the hosepipe and bucket out.

I just popped into the garden this morning and found the onions sprouting in the greenhouse so have had to find yet more space for them - have planted in between the beans at the moment! We're going to have loads this year I think!

As for other plans, the cabbages are in, the carrots are just beginning (they were an experiment really to see if I could get away with planting them so early, so I'll keep you posted), onions and garlic are in and growing vigorously and the rest of the beds have all been allocated their share of summer veggies. The current problem is that the daffodils are growing in some of the beds too! Oh well, will have to wait before planting - don't know how the veggies will get on with them, especially the sweetcorn, but we'll wait and see!

Found them!

No, not the parsnips, I already found those last week! I was looking for an alternative to fleece as I had sort of made my own fleecy tunnels to protect the new shoots. The wire I used, however, wasn't strong enough and the shoots kept snapping, so I was looking for a low-cost alternative. There are 'proper' tunnels with hollow metal tubes, but these cost about £30 and with the amount I've already spent, I couldn't really justify it.

So I popped into Poundland! I know, but they had exactly what I was looking for: Polytunnels with cheap plastic and studier wire than I already had - perfect...I erected them as soon as I returned home and just hope they haven't blown away in the strong wind we had last night: I haven't had the opportunity to go out and check yet.

I also bought several bags of compost to get things started, before I move onto my more home-grown version, and three huge bins of it at that. I also weeded the vegetable beds and began the chitting of the the potatoes! My most exciting time, though, was using the new leaf blower / sucker! I bought it as I got fed up with not being able to see the flower beds and borders as the leaves are beginning to mulch and it seems they will never go, so I had great fun moving them from place to place then sucking them up and shredding them! A big tidy-up is required this weekend if the weather stays fair - garden and house I feel.