The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

It was a lovely sunny day, and I started with some moving of things about in the propagatory to get maximal sun advantages. The aubergines are coming on well. I sowed them rather early in Jan, and a few times was concerned about waht I had done, but these healthy looking plants are the justification.

The toms aren’t as far on, but i am still happy with them [don’t worry at small numbers, we have about 20 toms and 10 aubergines]

we then went outside where i planted the remaining onion sets beside fruit trees. this will in the end be an all fruit area, but we ran out of money before investing in fruit bushes etc, so will put veg in there this year.
must check up on the potatoes, they are prob reasonably chitted, and the soil has warmed up here, so could go in.

Some hoeing of weeds - how do they manage to be quite so rampant? problem of a previously overgrown plot I guess. I wil prob end up hoeing the carrots away at this rate. Perhaps this year, all my sowings will be in modules to aid weeding!

the kitchen Garden magazine came today. we have bought it since its inception, and I really enjoy it. It is the only thing to have survivved the frugality order!!

oh, and the ornamental chrries are beautiful

So all the minarettes are safely planted, bring the spring on!! So in total we have 2 cherries, one self fertile pear, 4 plums/gages/damson and 3 apples.

lots of ornamental cherries flowering in the garden too. A paucity of daffodils, so this autum we will be out there with the bulbs.

In the Propagatory [Chris laughs at this term, so it is now officially adopted for the SPRING USE OF THE CONSERVATORY] i did some moving things around to free up propagator space. i sowed the last of the asparagus peas, and SB sowed the butternut squash and red pepper seeds we got from our Aztec Dinner evening. BB pulled out half the sunflowers unfortunately, replanted and may survive…

tomorrow I aim to clear a flower bed at some point, and maybe second sow some more brassicas.

so not a lot of gardening. Work went crazy [and still is] and the little beans [our kids] weren’t so well, SB in particular.

Today though, I was sooooo stresdsed by the time i returned from work, only cuddles with the girls and contact with the soil [and soon a glass of red wine] would do.

So on the veg plot front, the planted broad beans seem to be doing well. the mangetout are pretty much acclimatised, but since we are expecting a cooler bit at the end of the week, perhaps I’ll plant them out at the weekend. the weeds have also got going. SO now I’m debating whether a quick weed as i can’t see any carrot seedlings, though may decimate the radishes [but they were only in the drill for it to show up more quickly…].

on the fruit plot, the buds are coming on nicely, but not all our minarettes are planted - we had better get our skates on!

So into the propagatory. I potted up the rest of the tomatoes today. The potted aubergines are coming on nicely, and the peppers [though they aren’t ready yet for potting on. Sweetcorn germination has been overall poor - roughly 1/4 only. Was older seed, and have some this years for sowing next. Maybe should try chitting it? but not sure - maybe do an ‘experiment’ with my daughter. Speaking of experiments, the sunflowers in the large home made propagator germinated more quickly and better than those in a cheap electric one. the sprink onions have germinated well, and the leeks are just starting. The second sowing of artichokes also not germinating well. HMM! The caulis all came up, and all the salad leaves have. soon think of pricking them out to grow on. I always grow sacrifical spares, but when the time comes, my heart isn’t hard enough to not just ‘let them have a go!’
Amazingly, some of the asparagus seeds collected from the garden are also germinating - I had thought that would be a dead loss.

Today I sowed the cucurbits - I know, a bit early, but the conservatory is doing such a good job as a propagatory that I think its worth a show. So I sowed courgette gold rush, Squash Festival, and pumpkin Mars. i also sowed a tray of rootrainers with sweetcorn minipop - you know the one you are supposed to microwave to get popcorn. Should be nice.

No camera on me today - wil try and remedy that!

i think we will definitely try the North American 3 sisters thing with beans, sweetcorn and squashes and see how it goes. Probably in what will be half of the fruit bed next year.