It poured down for about 12 hours last night through this morning and the garden is like a bog so nothing done on the veg plot today. I would have planted some spuds as the tradition goes but no chance with all that rain.
I got a few indoor jobs done in the morning and by 2 the sun started to poke through so I grabbed a couple of hours out in the garden. The daffs are finally in full bloom and looked great in the afternoon sun (you can see the tulips in the background, they’re some way off yet).
The greenhouse is getting full so I set up the mini-greenhouse that I bought last weekend. I put it against the back fence which is south facing and gets full sun all day. It’s tied to the fence and I’ve also driven in two iron rods which I’ve hooked over one of the tiers so there’s no chance of it blowing away (famous last words!).
I potted on some Arabis, Erysimum, Gazania, Antirrhinum, Impatiens and Sweet Peas which pretty much filled it up. In the greenhouse there’s calabrese, cauliflowers, leeks, broad beans, red orach, nasturtium, french marigolds, more sweet peas, sunflowers, dahlias (from seed and tubers in pots), primroses, a blueberry, onions, little gem lettuce and carrots (Amsterdam Forcing) all coming on nicely.
On the plot I noticed that my long carrots have started to germinate. They’ll now grow on for a while before I thin out to the strongest seedling. The onions, shallots and garlic are all sprouting. The spring cabbages are showing signs of life and the salad veg has all germinated. Still nothing from the PSB, how much longer do I have to wait? The overwintered lettuce is starting to thicken up, I’m sure if I’d have deployed the plastic bottle cloches before the snow it would have been ready to pull up by now!
My chillies and peppers have germinated but it’s slow going, no true leaves yet. I paid a visit to B&Q last weekend to see what they had and bought a Scotch Bonnet plant marked up at 78p. When it went through the till it came out at 21p so I went back and bought another 10 plants, yellow bell pepper, Californian Wonder and Fresno Supreme. At that price I thought it was good value as they each have half a dozen leaves on them.
Indoors the plants are coming on well. Chillies, peppers, courgette, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, pansies, asters, marigolds and sweet peas. Just waiting for Cerinthe to germinate. And last of all I love the flowers on this Fritillaria meleagris.
Hopefully the plot will dry out soon and I can get those spuds in!!
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April 2, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Sue
Potatoes are on our list of things to do soon.
Lovely to see the daffodils out isn’t it? We’ve just come back from the New Forest and it was lovely to see swathes of daffodils along the roadside!
April 2, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Damo
yes I love daffodils and it’s great to see them finally after a hard winter. Where abouts in the Forest did you go? We’re going there on Sunday for a nice long walk.
April 3, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Sue
We stayed in St Ives near Ringwood. Spent a bit of time walking in – is it Avon Heath Park – with the dog. We were just over the road from there.
We did go into the new forest proper for the days and onto HUrst Spit which was blowing a gale and freezing.
We would have visited some other places of interest but the dog wasn’t allowed and we could hardly leave her in a strange house!
April 3, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Damo
it’s hard finding places where the dog can go too. I love Hurst Castle spit and the walk over the marshes from Keyhaven to Lymington followed by fish and chips is a favourite of ours, more of a summer walk though as it’s very exposed as you found out!
April 3, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Sue
Um everywhere seems a bit dogist and she is really well behaved and cleaned up after any accidents. We are in the NT but the number of places we can visit with the dog are minimal. Just notiiced you live near Salisbury – we drove through on the way to Stonehenge. We had to peer through the wire fence though as again NO DOGS ALLOWED!
April 3, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Damo
yes there’s a mini-war going on in the new forest between dog walkers and others, as always it’s the minority of irresponsible owners that ruin it for the rest who have dogs under control and clean up after them. Ah Stonehenge I went there years ago as a child (when we lived up north) and the only time I’ve been inside since is Solstice night when you can actually touch them if you can get past the druids!
April 3, 2010 at 12:19 am
Carrie
you left a comment of my blog a while back and I thought – hold on, I don’t know this nice chappie I nest visit him, but I forgot….
But here I am!!! Lovely simple blog with lots of lovely writing and pictures. LOVE your daffs, the wind damaged a lot of mine, well the neighbours compost bin really did the damage – ggrrrr!
Will be back again, xxxx
April 3, 2010 at 5:58 am
Damo
Hi Carrie, thanks for visiting and your comments, glad you like it. Flying compost bin, that would have really tested my neighbourly relations! Hope some survived, the colour at this time of year is fantastic.
April 3, 2010 at 7:39 am
Jo
You managed to get loads done. Here it was rain, rain and more rain. I did see my first daffodil yesterday, though not in my garden, they’re still not in bloom. I was hoping to get my spuds in the ground yesterday and follow tradition but it wasn’t to be.
April 3, 2010 at 8:37 am
allotofveg
Hi Damo
That’s a lot of plants!
Oh I feel so behind. I had a seed sowing session on Thursday so at least I’m making progress.
Beautiful daffs my favourite sign of spring.
Happy Easter gardening.
J
April 3, 2010 at 10:28 am
Damo
Happy Easter! I’m running out of room fast and just brought home a few more today!
April 3, 2010 at 10:26 am
Damo
we got lucky as it was dry in the afternoon, shower dodging today but everywhere is sodden.