Progress report

I needed to get on with repotting some tomato and cucumber plants this weekend so I was a bit concerned about the forecast of rain (yes, I’m a fair weather gardener, I can’t deny it..). But as it turned out, we had beautiful blue sky and sunshine this morning and I managed to get quite a bit done between the showers. 

Glad I went out there early on though as it has been raining sideways this afternoon and is
currently pouring down. There must be a rainbow somewhere near though as the sun is still shining!

A couple of my repotted tomatoes went very floppy and were looking sorry for themselves, but they have perked up again now they’ve been back in the warm for a while so hopefully I haven’t killed them off.

There are several trays of peppers at various stages of growth:

 

After the peppers, I pricked out some of my antirrhinum seedlings – I do love the bright colours of snapdragons but think I got carried away when I was sowing them as I have 24 in one tray, plus 13 in little pots and that only got about a third of the tray of seedlings done.
Anyone want any snapdragon seedlings, I may have a few left over..?!

 

That’s in addition to the (mostly) marigolds on these trays:

I may have to get the under-gardener to dig me another flower bed…

Delighted to see that one of my Crystal Apple cucumber seeds has sprouted:

Hoping to put this marjoram out in the new herb garden when it has come on a bit more:

The cold frame is full, with lettuce, mixed leaves, rocket, coriander, peas in pots and some little fuchsia plants waiting to go into hanging baskets. The house is also just about full of plants and seedlings now, not a spare windowsill to be had. I’m getting an old table in from the garage to put up in the spare room so I can give everything a bit more space and importantly, a bit more light. I’m going to have to look up leeks, I haven’t grown them before but this tray has suddenly burst into life:

 

Once I’d done all my repotting and pricking out, I had a quick peep outside at the raised beds – the garlic that went in last October is coming on nicely:

 

The onions, broad beans and strawberry plants out there are also looking good but the rain poured down as I was about to take a few more photos so I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word for it… 🙂

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Busy day in the garden

It wasn’t quite the sunshine day we were promised but it was relatively warm and it didn’t rain so that was good enough for me! Really lovely Saturday, starting with a lie-in and coffee in bed followed by breakfast out at a garden centre near where we live.

I’d spotted some hellebores for sale and really wanted to add another one to the garden – this one was my favourite:

I had just the place in mind for it so straight in it went. We also had a quick look on the
reduced shelf and were absolutely delighted to pick up this mahonia for £1.50 – what a bargain! The colours are stunning and I’m hoping it will like its new spot in our garden.

 

More bargain hunting then as I was on a roll – wanted some colour to tide us over until
summer kicks in, so these gorgeous flowers from the reduced section fitted the bill. They are all now in situ, some in the front flower bed (after I pulled up dozens of chives to make room, how on earth have they found themselves in my flower bed?) others filling a few gaps in pots and troughs and I’ve made up a hanging basket with the pansies.

 

 

Once everything was planted, it was time to look at my seedlings – the marigolds have come up well so they went into my little pots, two trays filled so that’s 40 plants if they all survive. The stock seedlings look quite healthy but I’m going to give them another week. Also potted up yet more chilli peppers – I’d sown some more as I thought the previous ones weren’t going to germinate but now they’ve all popped up. 

Nothing to be seen from my cucumbers, coriander, nasturtiums or leeks yet, but plenty of time…

I’ve now filled up the bit of greenhouse staging in the dining room:

 

Now, what can I sow next…?

 

Not just vegetables…

I’ve loved growing flowers too – marigolds are one of my favourites and these lasted really well, photo taken at the end of October 2013 and they were still going strong. Sweet peas and snapdragons were successful too.