Saturday 30 April 2011

I'm sure it's summer really

The lottie is looking very pretty, but it is desperately dry. The pond is missing about a foot of water and I've almost emptied one of my waterbutts already watering the greenhouse.



Germinating my sweetcorn at home was a good idea - all 45 have now germinated, they are looking great ... have to keep reminding myself it is still only April - they'll stay in the greenhouse until at least mid-May. I'm really short on plant pots as I used a lot for the plant sale last year, so I've had to resort to recycling plastic cups !



I've also got around 100 beans germinating in plastic cups in the attic at home ... only I forgot to put drainage holes into them doh !

Here's my melon - it is looking very healthy and started to grow, so I've potted on into a bigger pot.


Needing to make some space, I decided to plant some stuff into the greenhouse borders - the season really feels to have got going early this year. Here is my pepper:



... and a couple of cucumbers - surprisingly I've only lost one to date - well if you don't count the 8 that didn't germinate !



Nick suggested that I'll have better results with my aubergine if I give it plenty of ventilation, so I've placed it in front of the vents ... will be interesting to see if it makes a difference:



Some of my squashes - the third sowing has proved successful thank goodness - some of them are really starting to romp away:





Oh dear, a very sad looking globe artichoke .... c'mon buddy, I'm rooting for you, you can do it !! In the meantime, thank goodness for Waitrose - we had some chargrilled artichokes with garlic, chilli & oil for tea yesterday - truly delicious !



The mint is making the greenhouse smell mintilicious :)
I am beginning to regret not containing it in a pot tho ...



My peas ... whooohooo !! Hurrah. They've not been eaten by the meeces or the pigeons. I've made them a super pigeon proof cage today - hopefully it won't be a human proof cage, like it was last season !



This is my spinach - the variety is Bordeaux. I'm hoping it's not going to bolt, but with the hot spell we're currently experiencing it's probably unavoidable. Looks like it's going to have red stems. We eat tonnes of spinach, so hope it is successful .. it's not looking like the spinach we buy in the supermarket tho:



My beetroot seedlings are just coming through - red and yellow. Must remember to keep watering them:



My garlic is looking pretty amazing, if not a bit leek like ... can't wait until it's ready to harvest:



My potatoes have all started pushing through the soil ... I may earth them up tomorrow, but they've put on so much growth they'll probably suffer if we get any frosts:


Most of my herbs made it through the winter - this is lemon balm and green sage:


I love that there are always flowers in bloom at different times around the lottie - it not only brightens the place up, but brings in the wildlife too:





Bluebells in the UK are in full bloom - the road verges and woodlands are glowing with their dazzling colour:


How amazing is this - my sponsorship total for my 26 mile walk in aid of Breast Cancer is now at £570 - I'm completely overwhelmed with everyones generosity of spirit ! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2 comments:

  1. It's all looking great, your sweetcorn have germinated well, I'm struggling with mine, not as many as I would have liked have come through yet, fingers crossed they'll appear soon.

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  2. Somene on our site has planted out sweetcorn but it is still a getting quite cold at night-time and danger of frost hasn't passed so he's risking it!

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