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
