Monday, April 27, 2009

Female logic applies here

The past weekend was much drier than I thought it would be given the forecasts. There was some rain on Saturday morning but it had stopped by the time I emerged. No rain on Sunday I don't think.

On Saturday, I really had to sort out the small triangle of earth in front of the house. To ease me into that though, I headed over to the local garden centre as I wanted to top up my supply of bamboo canes (for pea wigwams). However, I also came back with some half price flowering bulbs. That means that I actually saved some money ;-)

I weeded our triangle of earth, removing lots of grass and pinching out the old, dead stems of the lavender. I rediscovered the lemon balm that I put in there last Autumn as it is started to regrow. The sage is started to take over. It is turned into quite a fragrant little corner. The tulips are flowering nicely too though the ones that were pure, bright orange in previous years are now flecked with yellow. Not a problem but I might try to source some pure orange ones for pots next year. In among all that, I planted some orange and yellow begonias (some of the half price tubers) to flower in late Summer.

I did pop over to the plot where I bumped into Bramble Man. We had a nice chat while I checked over my plot. Then we went over to his to admire his salad leaves which looked perfect. I rushed back home after watering the parsnip bed (fingers crossed for some sign of growth this coming weekend).

On Sunday, I meant to sort out the back garden but I didn't get round to that. I headed over to a huge car boot sale where I found some brand spanking new wine boxes. I snapped up 4 of them to plant mushrooms (more on that another time) and things like salad leaves. A few months ago, I had asked a nice wine merchant if she had any boxes to give away but it turns out that they are quite valuable so not something that is typically disgarded.

Back home with a cup of tea and the sun shining in the garden, I got on with some much needed sowing. I sowed the following:

- sweetcorn (F1 hybrid 'Northern Xtra Sweet')
- courgette ('Striato D'Italia', F1 'One Ball', 'Calabacin Di Nizza')
- squash ('Lady Godiva', 'Tromboncino D'Alberga')
- pumpkin ('Llena de Napoles')
- cucumber ('Miniature White', 'Marketer')

The pumpkin had pretty pink seeds.



I also repotted the tomato and sweet pepper seedlings choosing the ones with the thickest looking stems. There are now lots of pots around on windowsills.

The rain came in today and there is lots more to come tomorrow. I have no problem sitting in an office watching the rain come down and thinking of the allotment getting a good soaking.

2 comments:

Shaheen said...

Just the way I feel, when i am at the office watching the rain come down. I went over the allotment today to water the plants in the greenhouse and on my way out I noted that some of my early potatoes are starting to come through.Yay.

I have the same problem with sage, it has taken over, so has the mint.

I am looking forward to reading how you are going to use those wine boxes for mushrooms. In fact I am quite intrigued.

FlowerPowerGirl said...

Great news about your potatoes. I know that potatoes are quite reliable but it still a relief to see them poking through the soil.

As for the mushrooms, watch this space as they say ;-)