Clearly I have been spending too much time in the garden scouting out goodies for the Six On Saturday show. I should have been cosy and warm inside reading the seed catalogues. This has now been rectified and some seeds are on their way. But it was the snow that arrived on Wednesday.
One
Wednesday was also the day scheduled for the builder to come and destroy the brick walls of the old compost heap. Bless him! He did come and the walls are no more. I have three wooden bins ready to be installed but they can wait for warmer weather. It was good day despite the snow. All the garden rubbish went into the skip plus plenty more from the house. The builder did not get frostbite and I didn’t run out of tea or milk!
Two
We moved to this house in 2016 and the garden was in need of a good weed and the addition of some new plants. Each year another little patch of the garden gets my attention. Last summer I managed to get this corner trellised and planted clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’. It was a lovely surprise this week to see it putting on new growth and buds.
Three
For some unknown reason I missed planting out shallots and autumn onions. Last year’s weather and lack of watering on my part did not lead to a bumper crop and the last few from the store have gone soft and been consigned to the bin. The shallots did store better and they have encouraged me to try again. A visit to the nursery is now urgent if I am going to get some purchases made before they sell out.
Four
I have been muttering for weeks that it is time to sow some sweet peas and as February approaches I feel that I might actually do it. I find I always start talking about sowing sweet peas early but then actually do it a bit later. These are my first two choices for this year but I am on the look out for a couple of extra packets, just in case.
Five
It’s still too early for me to be sowing tomato seeds but this year I do have some! Last year in a bid to increase the number of varieties grown but decrease the number of plants I limited myself to six plants bought from my local plant sale. This year I want to try ‘Green Zebra’. For more variety I chose this seed collection which gives ‘Marmande’, ‘San Marzano 2’ and a new (for me) yellow variety to grow – ‘Golden Sunrise’. The ‘Green Zebra’ had to be bought separately. I’m also looking forward to trying ‘Tigerella’.
Six
Here’s the compost area without it’s walls. Once the bins are constructed I will see what tidying up I have to do round the edges.
All done for another week, Mr P will be showcasing his goodies plus links to posts from around the gardening world. Stop by and take a look.