Hi All,
I've just come back from a couple weeks in Mexico and can't believe how much the garden has grown. Apparently we had a warm spell for the first week I was away, thankfully I had someone to water the plants and top up the pond (loads of tadpoles splashing around) and the micro pond (tiny tadpoles in here as well which I am pleased about as I wasn't sure they would survive. Anyway, I digress. The second week I was away it rained quite a bit so everything has shot up. When we arrived back, before unpacking, it was straight out into the garden!
Probably the most dramatic is the onions which have grown over a foot and secondly the potatoes which, in the two weeks since I planted them, have sprouted about 6-7 inches so my first job was to raise the soil around them and I had to do it again yesterday...they are obviously happy where they are. Thankfully the pigeons didn't eat all the grass seed so the lawn is looking lush and green; the peas and sweet peas seem to have come to a standstill but hopefully they'll start growing again once the weather warms up; the garlic is taller and thicker; the leeks and beetroot in the veg patch are slow to come through...definitely not growing as fast as the weeds!
The plants in the greenhouse just about survived our rigged up watering system. The Japanese squash have grown about 6 inches; the leeks looked good and so did most of the flower and the tomato plants. One strange thing.....I can't find the pepper seedlings. I hope they don't look like zinnia seedlings otherwise they'll be growing in the front garden. The propagator parsnips have come on well compared to the seeds in the veg patch which aren't showing any signs of growing yet.
So...it's been a busy week catching up with the garden in between life as we know it. I have cleared a lot of the weeds from the veg and flower beds, potted on the squash and tomatoes, hardening off the zinnia (and possible peppers), cornflowers, globe thistle and flax, planted out the greenhouse grown leeks and sown the carrots in between them, fennel has been sown as has more beetroot. I went into town yesterday and bought some plastic plant pots for the veg and I have sown spicy salad leaves, spring onions and radishes, little gem lettuce, basil and parsley. In the propagator I have more peppers, chillies, cucamelon, courgettes, gherkins, cucumber and runner beans.
The blue tits are busy flying in and out of their bird box. The other bird box and robin box remain empty as does the bee house but early days.
Rain has been forecast today and still not arrived...looks like I'm on standby to water the garden later...
Enjoy your bank holiday weekend and catch up next week,
Take care,
DD
