Wednesday 19 April 2017

Peas and good will

I'm not feeling very peaceful at the moment, if Brexit wasn't bad enough now there is a general election designed to confirm Tory dominance for another five years whilst they rip everything apart in pursuit of their own careers.

Please, if you have a vote, use it tactically to prevent Theresa May's cronies from turning the UK into a dictatorship which is happy to ignore  or even trample on the wishes of half the people. If you don't know which party to vote for in your constituency have a look at this resource here and consider donating to Gina Miller's initiative to support MPs who promise to work for a fair solution to the Brexit problem.

It's no better in France with the far right and far left setting up for a stand off in the elections here and the more or less centrist candidates losing ground to both.

Sweet Cicely

Anyway, to the garden.

It's slow work, and I've not really written down a proper plan this year. Consequently I wake up in the early hours in a cold sweat remembering some project that should have been started three weeks ago. To add to this mice developed a taste for the tender new leaves of tiny seedlings and chewed nearly all the tomatoes down to stumps. Since I was late getting started anyway this is a major setback. None of the peppers have come up. Things are not progressing well.

Wood from a fallen apple waitng to be split

Today I thought I'd better get sowing some peas - most people would have been sowing successionally since March, not me however. And I have so many peas to sow. This year I'm growing Carlins, Irish Preans, Magnum Bonum (which were great last year), Salmon flowered (more for the flowers than the peas) and a sugar snap Sugar Ann which I hope will satisfy my need for juicy pods to eat whole. Which means several peas will have to wait until next year for a chance.

Most of the potatoes are now in and the Red Duke of York are already showing some growth above ground. Still have a couple of rows to plant, mainly Sarpo Mira which I've come to love more and more. We are still (just) finishing last year's crop of them and they've kept brilliantly.

Onions and garlic are in place. Seedling tomatilloes  seemed to have avoided the mice so that should be o.k.  I need to get more herbs sown and work out which squashes and pumpkins I want this year. Also need to choose beans from the 10 or so that I keep seed from. This really is a stream of consciousness post.

Pelargoniums, Lavender and a Ceanothus - Easter garden centre haul


And the Ocabreeders continues to take my time. We've closed for new members now but there are group emails to write, websites to maintain, databases to create and I still have a lot of plants here to look after.

Friday 7 April 2017

Words, who needs 'em?


A foggy start

Dandelion clock

Sour cherry blossom

Seedling tree - probably Aesculus flava

Apple stump

Skirret

One of the last Whangaparaoa Crown pumpkins, still in good nick