Mid Season

This is the hard work time of year. The easy bit (plant seeds and sit back for a week, two weeks while they hatch) is done. Now there is a whole nursery fully of baby plants that are crying for attention.

However some plants are already doing their thing - as the pic of the Honeoye strawberry shows. We've had our second harvest (second ripe strawb) from this plant this morning, and still more to go.

New in town this week, hatchings from the cucumber, squash, sweetcorn mangetout and borlotti bean seeds.

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V borlotti bean triffids

I have been vigourous in my potting on of seedlings... more or less. Chillies, tomatoes, patty pan squash and the asparagus have all been moved into bigger containers to help them develop. The asparagus are doing OK. I should really do something about getting a bed for them but the area I was considering needed a run over with the strimmer (whipper-snipper) and I ran out of strimmer string today.

In the garden bed, there are now only four cabbages remaining. The sweet peas are not dying, but neither are they gaining in size. The peas I so carefully grew in the toilet rolls have been reduced to sticks by evil snails (liberal application of slug pellets seems to have cured that problem.

I need to get on top of the weeding - there are weeds taking over all over, and bindweed coming through the fence from next door. Today I took the unusual step of weeding my plants-in-pots (I'm not usually so diligent) so the poor plants can breathe a bit. (There were all a bit swamped).

It's not too far off raspberry season - the first of the berries is already faintly pink. Looking forward to that. However I think only the old bushes will fruit this year; the Lidl "from stick" canes are growing well but probably not up to fruiting much this year.

And we have blueberries! I did wonder if they were fruiting but while checking the pots today I saw that yes, there are some blueberries. And here is a picture to end on. (Sorry about the fuzzy focus).

Planting out

Last Saturday I planted six Savoy cabbage seedlings out into the garden proper. Today I went to water then and found only five!

I've planted out about 20 sweet pea seedlings in various spots around the garden. Some are doing well, some are looking a bit brown.

The oca are doing well - seven plants up at the back, and at least five up in the other two beds. I didn't earth them up; mostly because I'm not sure what earthing up is?

The leaves on the Williams Red pear are still curled. I hope it doesn't have some sort of "leaf curl" problem.

Four of the purple passion asparagus seeds sprouted. I've potted them on into individual pots but for the sake of preserving them, I had better get an asparagus bed sorted in the garden soon.

The helipterums need to be planted out soon - they are outgrowing the seed tray.

I transplanted some of the beetroot seedlings on advice from a friend. There are about 20 of them in the garden now, they're doing OK. Give them another week to see how many survive.

Last weekend I planted up more seed trays: sweetcorn, cucumbers, borlotti beans and pumpkins/squash. None of the beans I planted earlier have done much. Of the two beans I got from Amanda, one has been eaten to death and the other one is struggling.

The plastic cover on my cheap Lidl greenhouse is splitting (already). When I do up or undo the zips on the plastic roll at the front, the zip splits a bit more from the plastic, so there are huge gaps letting the cool air in.

The Honeoye strawberry has one big fat red strawberry on it. With luck, and if the snails don't get there first, it will be ripe for the weekend!

Good, bad and ugly news

Its great to come back from holiday and see how much things have grown... or not...

My great find the night before flying out was to discover that my cheap Lidl pear tree, the one I had been whinging about, is not dead! I had been studying the woody stalks branching out from the main trunk - and truth be told, I do think they are all dead. What I hadn't been looking at was the trunk itself. And there, lo and behold, is where the leaf buddage has been occuring!

There were several other happy things to return home to.

Tulips! Still in bloom, lots of them, although by now they are starting to look at bit tatty but the black and white (purple and cream) ones looked stunning at their peak. They probably had a name, I may even still have the bag with the name on in the shed, but for now I am not going to bother with names.

Oca! Tough clover-leafed stalks are now poking out of the ground, signalling that my yams are starting to grow under the soil. All three types have sprouted, but I'm only seeing evidence of two or three in each bed. Better than none I suppose.

Asparagus! Not in the trench, but the seeds planted in the greenhouse are starting to sprout. Or at least, two of them are. Only tiny now, but in three years time, they will be featuring heavily on my dinner plate.

Strawberries! It's not quite Wimbledon yet, but by the time it is, I'm sure these Honeoye strawberries will be long gone. Thankfully all the strawberry plants look to be thick with flowers, so lots of yummy red fruit to come....

Now for the bad news: the zinnias all died. I don't know why. They were looking good when I went away, but I came back and they were all shrivelled into brown plant corpses. But I won't be deterred - I will plant more seeds. I will have zinnias!

The ugly news: with the onset of spring proper and the bursting of new growth came the return of the unholy trinity: the gastropods, the bindweed and dandelions. Yes, as fast as the little seedlings are poking their heads up out of the soil, the snails are appearing and chewing them down to ugly stumps. From a relatively bindweed-free garden two weeks ago, the weaving weed is wriggling its way up through the heucheras, the strawberries, the lavender - even appearing in the lawn! Dandelions - while I've had some luck pulling plants out with roots intact while gardening after rain, I can't see I'm ever going to beat this problem while my neighbours yard is awash with dandelion puffballs and yellow flowers.

As predicted, the chard has gone to seed and been removed. This is all part of the plan, because the chard was growing over one of the oca beds, so now the oca can grow freely.

I have savoy cabbage seedlings and peas and sweet peas all ready to plant out. I think I have the tallest savoy seedlings in the world - not sure how they will heart up but we'll give it a go. Some of the tomato and chilli seeds have sprouted, and there is evidence that at least some teasel seed was still good.

It's a long weekend ahead, I hope for lots of sun so I can get lots of weeding and seed planting done.