Evening everyone,
Well...what a week it's been yet again. I just love this time of year. So...here goes (actually, apologies now for lack of pics - I'll sort it!):
I was working all weekend so Friday evening I watered the garden and pots and Saturday morning I watered the greenhouse and checked the status of things...no sign of courgettes or the runner beans I'd found and planted from last year's growth, despite the fact that the runner beans seeds I bought were already a couple inches tall. So... off to work I go. Came home this evening and went for a stroll to survey the progress - a couple of fennel seeds have broken through, some more beetroot are on their way (talking of beetroot...I panicked last week that I had undersown so I soaked and planted more seeds only too find a couple days later a tray of red leaves sprouting in the greenhouse so..errmmm..if anyone wants any beetroot!), the leeks are coming on nicely and so are the onions and garlic.
Went into the greenhouse and, well, do you remember playing a game called statues at school? One person stood in front with their back to everyone who had to try and reach them without being seen moving when the person turned around. Well, I think my seedlings are playing statues. As I said, there was no sign of them when I went to work yesterday morning yet this evening three of the runner beans have broken through and grown a couple of inches, the courgettes have also broken through and grown about an inch and the original runner beans are now over 6"high!
During the week I planted up the tomato plants in the greenhouse along with a marigold too keep the bugs away. I have sown kale, spicy salad leaves, radishes and spring onions. I also moved some plants from the back garden to the front as I haven't had time to prepare the bed for them (work is getting in the way - now where's that lottery ticket?) and I planted out the zinnia, flaxand the poppies and cornflowers I have grown from last year's seeds.
The potatoes...well...the maris bard are now a good six inches above the top of the potato grower, it's so exciting. The azaleas - bright red, deep purple and white - are all in flower and look stunning, I will post pic next week. Oh...and the one downer is the pesky snails ate the tops off my parsnip seedlings, hoping I can salvage them. I have also had my first success at micro greens and have been enjoying tasty micro rocket.
And to the ponds. The bigger pond is flourishing bearing in mind, as I said previously, we were unaware there were fish in it. We are now leaving the pump on for 6 hours every day and the water is much clearer...the poor fish must wonder what's going on! The tadpoles are growing nicely and it looks like there may be some newts as well. I bought a pigmy water lily for the micro pond but it's too big so I've put it in the bigger pond. And talking of the micro pond, the tadpoles are tiny and underdeveloped compared to the other pond so I'm now wondering did I do the right thing in putting some spawn in there? On Friday I was pottering and I always check on the micro pond which is now surrounded by grasses and aquilegia. Normally I approach it from the lawn but as I was at the bottom of the garden I approached it from the other side...I peered over and jumped back. Sitting on one of the small rocks was a frog the size of my palm. It looked out of place in the small cauldron but appeared happy sat there. I'm glad I didn't approach the pond from my usual direction as I would have come face to face with it and then, I'm ashamed to say, I would have screamed!!
Well that's it for this week. Off to Dublin for a couple of days so watched Countryfile earlier to see what I needed to do with the garden before I go and, of course, I need to know what too pack!
Take care and catch up next week,
DD
