I'm Back

Well it was a great week away visiting a friend the kids played to exhaustion and a good time was had by all, I even got to do some gardening for my friend, so didn't have to experience any withdrawal symptoms.

Came back to my own garden with a little trepidation because the weather away and back at home was great lots of sun and warmth and my hubby informed me on Wednesday night that as I didn't give direct orders to water plants he didn't. So all he was doing was opening and closing the greenhouse he didn't even venture inside once to check if all was ok! The greenhouse on inspection had three casualties, my emerging cabbage and brussel sprouts went to the great garden in the sky along with one echinacia seedling. Everything else looked well though.

We arrived home with the sun still shining and the garden looking great, everything have grown so much in a short space of time, new flowers are blooming or in bud such as the violas and the cowslips which were planted last year. The tulips at the back and the wild/alpine strawberries are also blooming and the flower beds are beginning to fill out. The mini meadow area is full of all types of seedlings along with a few differing grass seedlings.

Other developments to greet me was a newly cut and fertilised lawn (thanks mum) it looks really lush and green but there are a few bare patches to resow. The tadpoles were now all over the pond's surface with no signs of spawn jelly anywhere. today on further inspection I found a few of them gobbling up a small patch of algae bloom which must have grown due to all the increased sunshine and warm temperatures of the last week. I'm hoping that their ferocious appetite will halt the algae from overtaking the pond and turning it into green soup (blech!).

The carrots and the parsnips are also up and growing well. Another asparagus plant has produced a spear and this is from one the plants that was dug up this winter. The chillie plants that were pruned and cleaned up have also shown they are still alive with new leaves sprouting on the cut stems, the second early potaoes are up and the first earlies are growing away and will soon need earthing up ie adding more soil.

So today's tasks was to water everything inside the greenhouse and outside as well as the newly transplanted veges in the beds which were all doing very well with no signs of slug damage (yah!!!).

Resowing of the killed off seedlings were also done along with some new sowings of romensco, cauliflower and kale two varieties red Russian and Nero De Tuscany.

Germination of the cornflower seeds and the onions have been observed and new shoots of the autumn sown jerusalem artichokes are beginning to come up.

The vege mini pond finally got cleaned out there were eight pond skater on its surface. I also got the opportunity to remove all the leaves from last autumn from the unpaved area of the vege area, so hopefully if there is any wind tonight none should end up in the pond.

Anyway the rain finally came as was forecasted and I called it a day, not sure if I'll get anything done tomorrow as heavy rainfall if expected, so I'll probably check back in on Monday.

Body Ache

What a week! I didn't plan to go all week without posting but in all honesty I was to knackered to post before Thursday and so decided to leave it till tonight.

Starting on Monday I decided to enlist the help of my mom in erecting the picket fencing I received from a freecycle member last summer. The fencing is to surround the vege bed area , not only would it look nice but it will stop accidents like balls being kicked into the beds and when we finally get round to getting the girls a pet dog it will hopefully keep the dog out or at least enforce a sense of boundaries.

So Monday after we spent hours of trying to figure out the best way to erect it we finally got started first with the cutting of the posts and then pounding said posts into the ground hence the title 'Body Ache' and just before dark got the first two largest panels up.

The only other gardening I got done on Monday was watering of plants. Then just as I was putting everything away for the night I dropped a seed tray full of nasturtiums and my onion seedlings. I was able to pot up and save the nasturtiums but sadly I lost all the onion seedlings :(.

PS the courgettes have begun to germinate on Sunday 29/03/09 and the yardlong beans started on the 30/03/09 and my first small cabbage white butterfly was also spotted thankfully it was on it own. Will have to start netting early this year I think against their caterpillars.

I also had my first sigting of a hoverfly for the season.

Tuesday started with me potting up tomato and squash plants which didn't get done last week as I ran out of compost, so I was glad to get that job done. I finally got round to watering some overwintered plants and composted the ones that didn't make it.

Worked some more on the picket fencing and got a further two panels up.

Wednesday I did some more potting up, this time basil, cabbage and ochro. I resowed my onions and planted out the torsha plant into a pot with its wigwam in place, it will remain in the conservatory for now till the night time temperatures remain consistently at ten degrees Celsius or more, then it will be moved into the greenhouse.

The remaining panel was put in place and the rest will have to wait till I dismantle the wooden pallets I have been collecting for this project, what do you think so far?

There was lots of butterfly activity as well, I saw the resident peacock butterfly (resident because it always comes back to the same location to sun itself) also saw my first ever yellow brimstone (sorry flew by to fast to take a picture) and my first comma butterfly (enjoy the photo) for the season. The tadpoles in my pond have finally broken free of their spawn nest and have migrated to different areas of the pond and the first pond skater of the year made an appearance.

The morning glory has began to germinate.

Thursday I was finally able to start transplanting some of the young greenhouse seedlings/ plants. I should have harden them off first but time is of the essence as I plan to be away for six days and to put things simply I do not trust mummy and Anthony to not kill me seedlings, so I figure they would be safer in the ground so the most ready plants will be planted out over the next two days and I will provide some cover to help protect them from nighttime drops in temperature. So the first ones out were the turnips.

More potting up of plants was done as well. The melons appeared to already be out growing their tin can pots so I prepared three large pots with a mixture of garden soil, compost and some blood, fish and bone slow release fertiliser and planted the young plants into them, I still have one more to pot on which I will do when its bigger.

Today Friday I aimed to get all my transplanting done but didn't >:( life sometimes just get in the way. I got the mangetout peas, lettuce and chitted parsnips in all under cover except the peas which I netted to protect them from marauding pigeons.

I also was able to fit in some sowing of annual and a couple of perennial flowering plants;

The annuals were - poppies x three varieties, calendula, California poppy and cornflowers.

The perennials were - heartease and white violas both of the same family.

The weather over the week following a crisp frost on Monday morning started strong with lots of hot sunshine all day but ended with cool foggy mornings (Thursday and Friday) and warm sunny afternoons.

Took lots of photos of the spring flowers, so please enjoy;