Busy week....

Hi All,

It's been a busy week in the garden with loads happening. The dahlias have broken through and are growing nicely, the zinnia's now have four leaves and much sturdier but will wait a couple of weeks before planting out.  The Japanese squash....well... I came down the other morning and one was just breaking through the soil in the propagator, by the time I arrived home it had grown over an inch and joined by another so they are now replanted into pots and in the greenhouse. The globe thistle are slowly but steadily growing. Seem to behaving a bit of a problem with the sweet sultan but maybe they'll shoot up soon.

Tomatoes are looking very healthy, I will replant them in a couple of weeks time and the yellow poppies have put on a spurt. The peas and sweet peas went in on Saturday and protected from the pigeons by netting and old cd's hanging off the netting because I don't want birds too get caught up in it but.....I also don't want to scare off the nesting blue tits. And talking of the nesting blue tits....a huge bumble bee flew into the bird box earlier today and about 10 seconds later beat a hasty retreat!

In the greenhouse the acer is producing some lovely burgundy fern-like leaves, it obviously prefers it in there than outside and so does the lemon tree and olive trees for the time being. Parsnips were sown in the ground on Saturday but could take ages to germinate - I have also put some in the propagator to see how quick they grow.

Next door said a heron has been hovering around our pond despite the fact we have an ugly plastic one as a deterrent...maybe it knows it's only plastic! Anyway, we have recovered the pond with raised netting so the frogs, when they develop, can get out although at the moment they are still tiddly tadpoles.

Everything in the garden is loving this summer-like weather; the onions are coming on well, the fruit trees are budding and the first tulip (yellow) opened up today!  The garden had a good soaking this evening and I have mulched a lot of it to retain the moisture as there is some very un-April weather forecast. Job for tomorrow is to put on the grass seed - thank you Monty for your reminder.

Well, that's about it for this week, have a good week and catch up soon,


DD

Just to Prove my Garden Does Exist!!!

Hi All,

Hopefully (fingers crossed) I am about to add some pics of my garden.....
Pic 2 is where I have planted four types of onion and there is now beetroot, parsnips and leeks as well.
Pic 3...the daffs and aubretia are just so pretty - not sure the pic does them justice!
Pic 4 is the early peas in the greenhouse...I have planted them outside this morning and also the sweet peas.
Pic 5 is the first bud of apple blossom.
Pic 6...these are the tadpoles before they dispersed into the pond...an absolutely amazing sight!
Pic 7 the sun is shining and the runner bean frame is up and ready

Not so sunny today but I've still been out there for about 5 hours, time does fly when you're enjoying yourself :-)!!

Take care,


DD

Exciting Times...

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter gardening in the sunshine in between eating chocolate.  We managed to get quite a bit done this weekend: the front garden has been dug over, a couple of hydrangeas taken out and replaced with ground cover conifers and a lavender from the back garden. I am going to put in a rockery as well at some stage. I also planted a lovely lilac ground cover anemone, sowed some deep red flax seeds and finally planted the hundreds (or so it seemed) wallflowers that have sprung up from the seeds I took last year. I also planted four seedlings labelled unknown so watch this space.

The onions have already started growing and I've mulched then to keep the birds off and the moisture in and the garlic is doing well. Beetroot, parsnip and radish seeds sown and spinach sown in a tub to see how it grows. Seed potatoes have been planted, this is my first time with these and I am growing then in potato bags so fingers crossed. The lawn has had it's first cut, the apple tree has it's first blossom and the plum, pear and cherry have sprouting leaves. Him indoors has erected the runner bean frame so it's all systems go. Everything looks amazing and yes, I know I keep saying it, but I will get some pics on here soon.

The pond has a new pump...I'm glad I wasn't around whilst it was being fitted as I gather he got wet quite a few times!  And talking of the pond....yesterday I noticed that the water lily is sprouting and it has revealed literally thousands of tiny tadpoles resting in the pot just under the water..it was an absolutely amazing sight - isn't nature wonderful!

Have a good week, let's hope it's a sunny one,


DD