Monday 2 March 2020

Hoping for some dryer weather

under the sunlamp

After the  three consecutive weather events in Febuary, all of them wet and really quite windy with barely a let up between them I'm thrilled to announce that March is pleasing me much more.

Today is the first day this year I've been able to dry washing on the line and it was pleasant enough outside to plant the onion sets which have been waiting patiently for several weeks now.

The picture shows seedlings mostly started in January, chillies and pelargoniums, which are making reasonable progress under a growing light.

Time to start the tomatoes.


Tuesday 28 January 2020

A few photos

winter aconite

Small signs of spring are emerging in the existing garden; along with these winter aconites are some purple croci and quite a lot of snowdrops in various places, including across the road outside the house in the ditch which must surely be feral escapees.

garden primroses

I planted a few primroses in this shady spot by the gate, later in the year it will be a bed of ground elder but I'm ok with that given the position. I'd rather have put wild primroses there but we'll see how these do.

project

This is the big spring project. An old polytunnel previously used to raise lambs so it's never had plants but the frame is rickety and it will be difficult to cover. It might be easier to build a whole new kit but it seems a shame to waste the start given here.

snowdrops

These are the snowdrops, very double but a quick whisk around the interwebs suggest they are only the most usual double Galanthus nivalis Flore Pleno, which can arise spontaneously but because I can only find this form in the garden must have been original plantings. I'm toying with the idea of getting some singles although I've never been a keen collector before.

Thursday 23 January 2020

Too.Many.Seeds

striped bunch bean

The days barely seem any longer but the pull towards starting the next season of seeds is building up. As a first step I thought I'd look through the collections of seeds from years past and find out what needs urgent regeneration.

the jersey bean

Inevitably there are far more bean seeds for consideration than anything else, and many of these are so old that it's doubtful they are still alive. I plan to do some germination tests of some of rarer geriatrics and see if I can bring them round. It will be fine to grow out many french beans but I'm already panicking at the difficulties surrounding broad and field beans which cross easily.

mayflower bean

I've found some 'not-too-old' chilli seeds that were gifted to me and put to one side during the move so I shall start those this month along with some aubergine and other tender vegetables that need an early start on the year. It will be good to install the grow light that I bought three years ago and get some use out of it.

Pink Fir Apple

The seed potatoes are bought, luckily none of them looking like the mad Pink Fir Apple above, and some spring planting garlic. I am concerned that I can't find my tomato and pumpkin seeds though, let's hope they turn up when I do some more unpacking.

Here's to the new vegetable patch!

vegplot