Hooray! Tulips in bloom! The bright pink one that might be called Angelique, and also the Queen of Night, in its velvety black-purple. (Queen of Night is suffering a bit with aphids, I had to chase the little sap-sucking buggers off with the hose.) Around the garden I can see other tulips with reddish bulb tinges ready to go off... I may miss those as they look a few days away yet.
I'm glad the tulips survived the winter after their unexpected unearthing in December by some demented squirrel.
Other flower news - the Honeoye strawberry plant has two flowers on it. That means two potential strawberries! Not enough to make jam with but good news all the same.
The apple tree definitely has blossom pending. I sniffed at the little red buds and they smelt lovely, not appley but very nice all the same.
And now for the "It Lives" report from the greenhouse:
- 11 tips sprouting amongst the two types of sweet pea (sown 23/03/09 - fast!)
- 4 Echinacea, some celeriac and 1 lonely chilli (sown 13/3/09)
- 3 teasel, 7 zinnia, 1 Roma tomato (sown 10/3/09)
Manny is always keen to help out when he can.
My greenhouse is now almost full, as I got full swing into seed planting early today seeing as how this is my last weekend around the garden before my holiday. Today I planted:
9 x Meteor Peas (in the cardboard centres of toilet rolls - to give the roots more room to develop, Amanda tells me); 10 x beans: 5 each of Opera Dwarf and Fasold climbing (irrelevant aside: fasol is the Russian word for bean. At work there is an Italian consultant whose surname is Fasola who I now always think of as Mr Bean); a pot of snapdragons (why use the very dull latin name of Antirrhinum?); Heuchera pulchella (which I am disappointed to see is green, the whole point of Heucheras is the beautiful range of non-green colours they come in, but then I bought the seeds so I must have known what I was getting?); Helipterum Pierrot; Achillea Summer Berries (one of my very few perennials, I should grow more perennials); a selection of Rudbeckia from a multi pack bought at the 99p shop who knows when: Gloriosa Daisies, Marmelade and Rustic Dwarfs; 2 types of Cabbage: Savoy King and Red Jewel; patty pan squash Sunburst; and two more types of sweet pea: Royal family and Royal blue. 
Helipterum seeds - cute little fluffy bundles!
That's just the greenhouse! I then went out into the garden proper and planted up two pots of specially sieved soil with parsnips (Avonresister: which makes me think of Blake's 7) and Carrots (Chantenay - received free with a Boden catalogue). I have already had to move the carrot pot from its intended resting place because the cat was about to mistake the pot for a nice place to sit.
Down in the patch between the established raspberries and the bottlebrush, I planted up still more seeds: a row each of Spinach tetona, Scarlet Kale, dwarf green Kale, Sweet william and some nasturtiums.
There is still no action in any of the oca beds. I cut back the rainbow chard that is growing around one of the oca beds - I think the chard is about to go to seed, it's looking not very good.
I repotted the bay tree, it's been looking a little shabby lately and that could be either that it's quite rootbound in its pot or because it has some kind of insect making nice homes amongst its leaves. I chopped the poor thing back quite a bit to get rid of the insect infestation, but I think it can take it. There are loads of leaf buds all over it so it has plenty of scope to generate new leaves.
I did some weeding along the shady side of the garden; didn't get very far but then I did have an almighty battle with the couch grass and the grape hyacinth. Who planted the bloody grape hyacinth in this garden I don't know but the blasted stuff just spreads and spreads and is not particularly attractive so I rip it up as much as I can but the thinness of the stems means they are more likely to snap when pulled, in which case you've left the bulb in the ground and the evil plant can continue to grow and propogate itself.
The penstemon on the corner of the pond where the lavender used to be has been struggling a bit since I moved it. I've built a nice little wall in the dirt around it now, so that when I water it, the water won't just run off down the hill but actually pool around the roots and do some good where it's needed. I did some weeding around the pond too, but unhappily, on the path side there is nothing growing but weeds, so once they're gone the area just looks bare and empty. I threw some marigold seeds in near the penstemon, so it won't feel so lonely and exposed on the corner.
Actually, I have referred back to my planting map and identified the seeds that have sprouted in this same area and they are the nemophilia.
And by this time it was almost the end of the day and the sun was still shining so I got out the lawn mower and gave the lawn the first cut of the year!
I spoke to Amanda and she cheerfully told me that her asparagus plant is doing well. I went and checked mine again and there is absolutely no action coming out of that trench. Then I noticed some marks on the fence next to it and realised I had found the shitzu entry point! A few pieces of scrap wood slotted into the gaps should fix that. But maybe not fix my asparagus if it's had evil shitzu jumping onto it several times a day. Still I live in hope that the seeds in the greenhouse will germinate and one day I will serve home grown asparagus at the dinner table.
Notes for self on return from holiday:
- Plant more carrots, plant more lettuce, plant more beetroot, plant more spring onion.
