Today was a day off! I know it sounds odd, but I tend to have the third Monday of the week off at the moment (I’m sure that’ll change soon), so as the weather was fabulous again I went back out into the garden to finish off those things I couldn’t get done yesterday.
Sutton Seeds very kindly sent me some free onion sets, because they used one of my videos in their onion blog. There were two different varieties “Red Ray” and “Hysky”. Neither variety have I grown before. I’m growing my own onions from seed this year, so it’ll be interesting to see which ones do better. My onions that I sowed from seed are still in the greenhouse in their individual pots and won’t be planted outside until about May time, but the onion sets I got from Suttons I have 6 or 7 rows planted next to my garlic that I planted late last year and is growing well.
Once those were done, I sowed one row of Spring Onions “Guardsman”
And a couple of rows of mixed Carrots. The packet says “Paris Market Atlas”, but I know I mixed various other varieties in there as well, so it’ll be interesting when I come to harvest them, and hopefully pull up lots of different colours, shapes and sizes. But harvesting is a long time away, hopefully July time for the first one.
I’ll keep readying Lottie and Dottie Sow Carrots to make sure I’m looking after them properly.
Once everything was in the ground I gave everything a good water. The soil is damp, but quite dry on the top, we’ve actually not had rain for about a week and the sun is now starting to get very hot so I’d better start watering.
I checked the seedlings in the greenhouses and the brassicas have started to appear, but they’re still far too small to prick out, that will have to wait until next weekend. By that time
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Just a very quick IAVOM post from me today, a teeny Bretby Pottery salesman’s sample jug, with a posy of common double snowdrops, Galanthus ‘Flore Pleno’. They may be ‘common’, but that doesn’t stop them being exceedingly pretty, with their frilly white tutus and generous green markings. And if we are going to use a double domino as a prop, let’s have a double six!
Inspired by the lovely pink pussies of Salix gracilistyla ‘Mount Aso’ featured in my last Six on Saturday and a sudden glut of blooms on Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’, creating today’s vase began easily. Selecting stems of the former that wouldn’t detract from the shrub and reaching flowering stems of the latter proved a little challenging, but it was easy enough to choose additional material to complete the contents, with witch hazel H vernalis ‘Amethyst’ and foliage of Pittosporum ‘Tom Thumb’ providing different degrees of pinkness.
AS SHE OFTEN DOES, naturalist and nature writer Nancy Lawson—perhaps known better to some of you as the Humane Gardener after the title of her first book—caught my attention the other day.
This year, when gardeners look at plant and seed catalogs, I think they will be inclined to go for the safe and familiar. After all, even optimists need a sense of security. It will probably be a banner year for roses of all kinds, with reds selling well. The ongoing vogue for cottage flowers will probably continue to be strong. In fact, the wildest thing many people will invest in come spring will be a few of the more bizarre coleus cultivars.
Lately, it seems like every time you turn on the local weather forecast, the meteorologist is talking about drought conditions. If you are in a severely affected area, or under water restrictions, this doesn’t mean you have to give up gardening. By following some drought-wise garden water tips, you can have your water, and your garden, too.
Tender climbing perennial plants which are free flowering and suitable for growing in pots in the greenhouse, or for planting out of doors. They are closely related to the Snapdragon (Antirrhinum), to whose family, Scrophulariaceae, they belong.
I am not quite sure where the thoughts of the Orient came from, although the witch hazel at least has oriental ancestry – it may simply be that the yellow, cream and yellow-green contents brought this little perfume bottle to mind, thus bringing thoughts of the Orient to me even if no-one else…
Some people get their kicks from designer labels, others from rummaging through flea shops, or collecting obscure Japanese comics, vintage tractors, handbags, dolls, beer-mats, Star Wars merchandise or whatever else. Me, I get mine from ordering seeds.
Today I turned forty mumble, mumble, mumble today. A fabulous start to the day with the kids coming in early with some wonderful pressies. I got another t-shirt (garden themed of course), some unusual fruit teas which most are very difficult to get in the shops, a wonderful new note book to write down any novel idea I have (I’ve got a few notes to do on my first novel, but am thinking about what happens in the second book already), a couple of fabric head bands, The Greatest Showman Bly Ray (it’s one of those films, when I’m feeling a bit weird and not myself I’ll sit and watch. I think I’m over the top of the hill with the weird feelings, but it’s taking a long while to descend the mountain), the Sarah Pinborough novel Behind Her Eyes, if you’ve not seen the 6 part drama I suggest you give it a go. And finally some new slippers that are so cozy to put your feet inside, and the softest dressing gown I have ever felt and some money from various other people.