Seeds and weeds

My seeds from Thompson and Morgan arrived at last on Friday, but inclement weather on Saturday (horizontal hail?) stopped me from doing anything out in the garden.

Sunday I got out during one of the brief sunny spells to plant some beetroot seeds (two rows of red, one Detroit and one anonymous supermarket packet and one row of Burpee's Golden). I also threw in some spring onion seeds down next to the gooseberry bush. (So didn't actually use any of the T&M seeds yet!)

I started to weed the shady side of the garden. There was an awful lot of moss there! I have a very untidy carnation that is growing wildly but not happily, as it never seems to flower and so many of its branches seem to be damaged and broken. (Although this could be attribted to visits from the shitzus - more shitzu leavings have been found and thrown back over the fence.) I probably need to apply myself diligently to tying it up or building a little structure for it.

The Lidl pear tree, the Beurre Hardy, is really not looking well. I tested one of the most shrivelledy looking branches and it snapped off cleanly, brown inside, brown outside. Lidl are doing fruit trees again later this week, £9.77 this time. The ones in the picture on the website have leaves on them. I am wondering if I should consider the Beurre Hardy a goner and invest in a new tree?

While rearranging the patio for maximum viewing enjoyment from the kitchen window, I found a small pot with mint growing in it. This is great, because I thought I'd killed all the mint, but it turns out this one was just sleeping. My next thought was - Summertime Mojitos!

I transplanted the little tomato plant that was growing in with the kitchen aloe vera, and moved it in it's own pot into the greenhouse, where I hope it will grow and flourish.

The next anticipated event will be the flowering of the tulips. Some plants have flower spikes already and I can see hints of pink around the green flower buds. I wonder what the chance is on them all being in flower while I'm away on holiday for two weeks at Easter?