Sun At Last!

Mmmm lovely sun shine, how I've missed you! Its warm enough to walk to work without a coat at the moment! Its been so nice to stroll down to the greenhouse after breakfast and have a look at how the seedlings are getting on. Their doing pretty well actually, even the onions have finally made an appearance!



The Garlic is also rampaging away in its sink...



And as the weathers improved a bit I got some of my Victoriana Nursery's Spinach seeds planted, they are also in one of our freecycled sinks!



As the Pea seedlings are coming on so fast I thought I would take the opportunity to get the pea bed ready for them. I'm using the same bed as last year, I know your supposed to rotate the beds to stop problem build ups in the soil but the end bed is so handy for peas as it narrower that the others and I can get at them from both sides.
For the last 2 years I have used the method of burying a layer of corrugated cardboard about 2 foot down to act as a sponge layer, peas really don't like to dry out so this should mean that the card retains any moisture in the soil so the peas roots can borrow down and get at it. Now in theory this works fanatically well, unfortunately the last 2 years have been a total washout as far at the summer was concerned, so dried out Peas really haven't been an issue! But I believe firmly in forward planning and every man and his dog recons this year will be a scorch so here I am yet again digging a bloody big hole...



Then lining it with cardboard, a layer of wood ash from our stove (quite a big layer, I really must empty it more often!) and a layer of worm filled compost from one of our bins...



Then the fun job of back filling it, my thighs are still aching 3 days later!



Hopefully all this effort will give the Peas and Squash the best possible conditions to give us loads of lovely veg this summer.

I love this time of year, so many things are sprouting and showing tiny bits of green, our All Gold Raspberries are just starting to shoot, they where a huge success last year apart from it being slightly too wet for them meaning quite a few of the fruits went moldy before they had even ripened.



So generally the whole garden is looking pretty promising right now!



Apart from all the fruit and veg we grow I try to grow as many flowers as possible, not just because they look nice but to attract the insects, especially the Bees which seem to be having a very tough time of late. I like to try and grow flowers for cutting as well, money being so tight means cut flowers from a shop are an unaffordable luxury right now, so to make sure I can have flowers over the summer I'll be planting my favourite Sweet Peas in tubs on the patio by the front door.
I managed to buy another old galvanized tub the other week for a mere £3, so Rich kindly drilled some holes in it for me...



then it was filled with wild flower seeds and will hopefully also have the Sweet Peas planted in it but the end of the month.



I put it next to the pond where it should end up covered in Dragonflies like the pots I had there last year did. I already have my Pansies planted up which the Bees seem to like.



So a pretty productive day Sunday, its so nice just to be out a working in the garden again. Who needs foreign holidays when you have all this on your door step...