19/3/2011

First blog of the year: first serious gardening day of the year, probably because it's the first warm and sunny day in ages.

Seeds in beds today: lettuce Salad Bowl, yellow and pink beetroots, spinach, spring onions (I haven't given up hope), kale, purple sprouting broccoli (I've had these seeds for who knows how long but planting for the first time this year!) and some random cornflower seeds.

Found some pink oca tubers while digging which I've planted in the veggie patch up the back near the red pear tree.

Also found some massive bits of concrete in the bed by the pond which we've turned into borders. I always wondered why nothing really thrived here; turns out because they couldn't put down roots any further than a couple of inches.

Most things have survived the winter: last year's green kale and the chard; the fruit trees are all at bud burst or later (the Cox already has leaves); the berries starting to shoot, even the ones we pruned a little late, and the new berries (another redcurrant and a red gooseberry - from the 99p shop!) are still alive.

My new thought for the garden this year is: if it doesn't bring joy, take it out and put in something that does. So the achillea summer berries have gone / are going. I need to get some more flower seeds or maybe even seedlings, save myself the grief of seeds not sprouting.