Spring update

The sun is now in Taurus and the beds are beginning to fill.

The plastic bed has elephant garlic, leeks and chives growing.
The spaces are filled with pots to stop the squirrels digging!

The big bed is nearly full of broad bean plants with a few pots covering the spare patch at the end. 

I am expecting French beans to go in there.

Beetroot in bed

I planted the betroot seedlings into their bed yesterday.

6 sweet peas are getting daily outings to harden off now and my French beans are getting the same treatment. Days are very warm but nights are still really cold.

The conservatory varies from 38º down to 10º and the greenhouse from 30º to about 6º.

Another warm day

And in the greenhouse first seedlings of basil and coriander are up. In the veggie beds swede and carrot seedlings are up.

The cucamelon seeds have not germinated - so I sowed another 2 pots today, 3 seeds in each. These are in the conservatory in a covered tray.

The second rocket plant is out in the bed, covered by half a tonic bottle.

Still sowing

Today's sowings included 2x15 trays of nasturtiums, 1x24 + 1x9 of marigolds, small trays of catnip and valerian, all outdoors.

First candy tuft seedlings up today in the greenhouse.

More seedlings

Cosmos and kale both made their first appearances yesterday in the greenhouse, cucumber in the conservatory.

I potted up the Tumbling Toms ready to go out but kept them in the greenhouse so far.

Squash and beans

The squashes were all up yesterday in the conservatory and the French beans (at last!) made an appearance. I moved them to the conservatory about a week ago to give them more warmth. It took 24 days for them to show.

The first rocket (just 1!) went into the ground on Tuesday covered by a top half of a tonic bottle.

Second Rocket.

Rocket sown 8th April is up today in the greenhouse. I put it outside to get some sun. The larkspur, spring onions and earlier rocket sowings also get their daily outing.

 

Above: Seedlings in the sun

Below: Spring onions, 17 days after germination.

Potatoes

I planted my potatoes on Monday. 3 x 3 King Edwards and 3 x 3 Rockets in potato bags 3 x 2 and a 1 rockets in pots. The rest of the rockets went into my turf pile and the spare King Edwards went into my waste soil pile. Pots and bags had a sprinkle of Growmore too. Bags had multi purpose peat based compost. Pots had a bag of topsoil. let's see how they all compare!

Flower sowing day.

Today (Saturday) I sowed lots of modules of flower seeds. Cosmos, 36 cells; Viper's bugloss, 12; Nigella, 12; Candy tuft, 12.  All are in John Innes seed compost in 24-cell module trays. There's nearly a whole 24-tray of larkspur growing in the greenhouse and 6 pots of hollyhocks from seed sown in September outdoors.

Big sowing day

Warm weather and things are getting moving. The beetroot are all up in the greenhouse.

Today's sowings:-  Basil 6, Coriander 6, Kale 12, Squashes 3 ea of 3 types, Courgettes 6, Cucumber 1, Cucamelon 2, second sow of Rocket 6.

First outdoor sowings Carrot 1x16 square, Swede 2 x 9 squares.

More movement

A sunny day today (Easter Monday)  - at last! Two parsley seedlings up in conservatory and 4 out of 6 of the second sowing of sweet peas. Disposed of the 3 pots of first sowing that had not germinated. The single early seedling went into the bed two days ago.

First planting out.

Good Friday! The leeks are now in the ground. They went into one of my raised beds along with a generous helping of garden compost.

Larkspur are up in the greenhouse  and most of the spring onions are showing now.