Growth and seedlings everywhere

It's lovely to see seedlings coming up, isn't it? Went to check on the little things after several days of cold wet weather.

The sweet peas are doing well! They were stunted for a couple of weeks, but I tied them to the frame and now they seem to be finding their way up. 

Similarly, the strawberries look healthy. I think I need to start thinking about laying some hay and find some sort of netting for the plants that I have further up the garden. Don't want those pesky birds to steal any! I already get them bird food. 

Got some dahlia tubers from Sarah Raven. The varieties are Gerry Hoek and Jowey Mirella. I was tempted to get a third one, but thought I would see how I go with these two and maybe invest in another next year. 

This is what my flower patch looks like at the moment. I have some strawberries growing, which will hopefully get some protection from the birds when the flowers grow taller. I also have some heather, but it's not working too well for me... Not sure what I am doing wrong there. Stalker Cat likes to rub her face in it...

I divided the plot into lines and sowed a mix of seeds in there. They are all starting to come up now, but I am actually thinking whether it would be best if I had just let them fall wherever and raked over. I might just do that for next time.

In the greenhouse I have some seedlings growing as well. I have some courgettes that are my fallback should the direct sowing fail. I'll let these grow a little more and then I'll have a look in the garden, see where I can plant them out. I might actually use the "wild part" at the back of the garden! We'll see. 

I also sowed 3 sunflower seeds that have just started sprouting. I sowed three directly, but it's a no-show at the moment. You can see 2 huge seedlings in the small terracotta pots, the 3rd one is about to break the soil level, I checked today!

The other two pots contain kale and some recovering winter pansies.  

The rudbeckias are looking good! the dianthus are also getting stronger after a leggy start. Will be potting them on shortly, to fewer seedlings per bigger pot. I am giving some to a friend in a couple of week. 

I'm so happy with these 4 pepper plants!They are looking nice and healthy and can't wait to start seeing little peppers growing! Peppers are easily the vegetable we eat most of. It's ironic because I hated pepper as a child, I didn't want to go anywhere near it. However, the boyfriend is a fan of pepper, and is one of the few veg he will eat so I caved and I am so glad I did! So tasty.

I couldn't end the blog entry without a word of warning. I underestimated the weather and assumed people exaggerated when they said we could still have frosts late April. I had these poor geraniums outside when the frost hit and this is the result. It does not all look like that, but I was sad to see the white specks :( that'll teach me to listen to other people. Happy gardening!

Snippets of Spring 19.04.2015

Until I developed this hobby, I didn't care much for spring. It was an annoying season which brought on hayfever, pollen I was allergic to, etc. Now, however, I find something to get excited about every day. How fast a tulip can bloom, some seedlings can grow. It seems so simple, but one single seed has what it takes to produce an amazing result of nature, and we shouldn't take that for granted. Since growing my flowers and veg from seed, it has changed my perspective on a couple of things; living in the moment is more important than wishing the days away until the weekend, until the next holiday. In a way, it has helped me take a decision that I will delve into closer to the time.

For now, however, here are some snaps that I really, really like.

Rudbeckia, scabiosa and dianthus that I pricked out and potted on. Some will stay, but a couple will be for friends. No more info in case they are reading!

Double tulip. They have become one of my favourite flowers.

 Hyacinths. They have got so heave I have had to stake them!

Some nice, traditional daffodils

Loving the contrast between the brick and the muscari.

Felt a bit let down by the narcissus at first as the flowers are tiny! But I have grown to love them.

My father-in-law gave me this hydrangea last winter, it has started to grow! If you know what that grassy plant is, do let me know. There are clumps all over the garden.

After the initial shock of being outside, the sweet peas have started growing up the wigwam (or, teepee, as I like to call it). I did have to loosely tie them to the structure as they were too short and floppy at first and I had noticed some snail nibbles!!

The diantus is looking promising.

And the violas are still quite happy.

I bought these winter pansies in, well, winter. They had grown a little leggy and bare and was about to through them out when I noticed there was new growth. So I pruned them, took them out of the pot they were in (where salad leaves now live) and I now have them in the greenhouse chilling for a little while until they look healthy again to go out and play. 

Finally, we have one of the two M&S daisy buckets I bought a month or so ago. It sure is looking promising. 

 

Tending to the front garden

I feel front gardens are often overlooked. People seem to pave over them and prefer to park their cars. However, the front garden is, in a way. the first impression people get of your house. I had personally never thought about this as I grew up in a block of flats (typical in Spain) and as a child I had never paid attention to my nan's front garden as, perhaps following the tradition of the 50's and before then, we went straight to the back door.

However, over time I have noticed that my nan took grate pride in having her box hedge pruned properly, and she liked having some roses there too. When it is warmer, and in the next pay day or two, I want to invest in a couple of large plant pots to have outside the door, for example. In the meantime, I have added some friends for the dianthus to grow with. I bought the "Snake's Head" Fritillaria at my local garden centre, and my partner's parents bought me some fragrant viola's as a gift when they visited last weekend.

I think I have kept the Fritillaria in the greenhouse for a tad too long as when I looked at them yesterday they looked a bit thirsty and in fact a couple of flowers had shrivelled up. I watered them and asked them not to die. I left them out overnight, and seeing them this morning gave me an idea. I had left a pot on a step, and it looked rather pretty. Thinking of placing my geraniums on the steps when I can have them outside in May.

I love anemones. They are looking healthy and I love purple.

Tulips are growing nicely. No buds yet, but I am excited to see what colours come out!

My planter is also growing nicely. I have found a new plant that I like. Hyacinths are lovely.

Finally, I have noticed some life with the potatoes! A tiny weeny green thing has given me hope as I was starting to think nothing would grow.

I have been weeding a lot today. This week that I have off I need to really tackle the unruly growth that's happening at the moment.

Weekend jobs - Saturday 28.03.2015

This weekend has been a productive one. I have been pottering around in the garden and then in the greenhouse when it started to rain. Here are some of the things I have done.

Yesterday I weeded this bed. I am slowly making my way round the garden doing some weeding every weekend. To be honest I wouldn't be that bothered if it were my own garden, but our landlord is adamant that we keep them at bay. Similarly, parts of the garden are quite bare and make the weeds more obvious, so hopefully once we get more stuff growing we can relax a bit with those dreaded weeds.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a couple of heather plants. I am worried that the one I bought in Autumn is either dying, or I have pruned it at the wrong time, so I thought I would get another two to keep it company as it is looking rather sorry for itself.

I had bought a couple of tulip pots at the garden centre last weekend. I still have a lot of learning to do in regards to what to plant with what and when, so it'll be through trial and error that I get this art down. In the meantime though, I decided to pot 2 anemones with one tulip pot, and plant the other bunch on tulips in a random spot.

I also planted some dianthus Doris in the front. I would like the front "garden" to look nice too, but there's so much concrete everywhere that I would have to invest in a lot of big pots, for example. My in-laws brought some violas as a gift today so I might plant those out around the dianthus.

Once it started raining I worked in the greenhouse a little. I repotted these geraniums. I was hoping to be able to have them outside soon,but the seed packet says they should be kept inside and then gradually harden them off late spring until they flower in June. I'm considering not growing them from seed next time; I think it was Alice over at The Edible Garden who considered only having perennial flowers and not annuals. I have not made up my mind yet but we will see.