There is always a job to done in the garden and I admire those who systematically list them and then work through the list. But I suspect many gardeners set out to do one thing and get waylaid into doing something else. Fortunately, sometimes it is possible to do the original task and the silence the siren call of the new job. Last week I set out to pot on the tomato seedlings, the sun was shining and it was impossible to avoid noticing the shabby state of the potting shed. The five minute job I set out to do became a mornings’ worth of sweeping, sorting, reorganising and throwing out the debris of last season. But it was one job done from my mental list and the seedlings were potted on.
One
Here are those tomato seedlings which will eventually go into the greenhouse. I shall be sowing some extra seeds for a few outdoor tomatoes in the next week or so. This first set have moved on from the sunny windowsill above the radiator and are now colonising a sunny spot on a bedroom floor. I was a day behind in my plan to pot them on and I swear they grew at least an inch taller in that day.
Two
I’m a little shamefaced to show you this one. It is remarkably similar to a photo that graced this blog a year or so ago. The slabs were from removed from another spot in the garden and were stacked in front of the compost bins waiting to be used to even off the site. The end of the wait is in sight. I now have someone lined up to do the work. I have spent the odd moment here and there this week turning out the contents of the bins into builders’ bags so that I can move the bins and leave the builder with a cleanish site to work with. I have one more bin to empty. Two jobs for the price of one. Compost gets a turn and the site is cleared.
Three
It may have been cold and windy this week but when the sun did shine there was some warmth to it. The anemone blanda are just opening up here and are filling in the gaps among the primroses.
Four
The warmth seems to have finally encouraged last autumn’s planting of camassias to make a showing. These are camassia leichtlinii caerulea. I heave a great sigh of relief here. Autumn was so wet and when I planted them they were pretty much sitting in water. Winter continued to be wet and I thought they may well have rotted away. Some camassias like it damp and I am hoping I chose the right ones for this patch of the garden. The camassias elsewhere in the garden are already several inches taller.
Five
In the now pristine potting shed there remain two trays of foxgloves. I use the potting shed as a cold frame over winter, this year home to delphiniums, aquilegia and several trays of foxgloves. Two trays have gone out into the garden already and these apricot ones will go out next week if all goes to plan. The delphiniums are staying inside for a little longer but they have enjoyed a few hours outside on the warmer days.
Six
Last November I bought up half a dozen packs of tête-à-tête daffodils as an end of season bargain. I planted them all in pots so that I could move them out into those empty spaces that become all too apparent in Spring. They are just coming into bud now, well behind my older plantings of tête-à-têtes. I have put a couple out into the land grab border and I’m pleased to say they came out of the pots very well. At least half of the remaining pots are destined for the front garden. The rest will probably go into the western end of the north facing border but I have to keep their cheerful yellowness well away from the apricot foxgloves that are destined for the more eastern end. This will be my conundrum for next week’s gardening.
I suppose the upside of these strange times is that there is a little more flexibility in my week which does allow me to fit in a few gardening jobs. I am not sure that today’s sunshine and showers will fall at the right time but I am waiting with trowel and spade to hand! Happy gardening to you all, and to The Prop who manages to garden and run with great abundance. Take a good look at his website this week as it also holds the link for his fund raising for Macmillan, the cancer charity. As usual the links to other SOS posts will appear on his website.
n20gardener 
I have foxglove envy. Mine have seeded themselves around the garden for years but I think I’ve only spotted one plant so far. The anemone blanda is lovely.
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I collected the seed and sowed in pots because I was having a foxglove clear out from certain corners…the plants are all in their new homes so we shall see how the new plan works.
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Your tomatoes look good! They like the beautiful sunny days and the warmth in the greenhouse ( despite too many showers and wind gusts though …)
But I don’t know how to but it’s pleasant in the greenhouse: 24° this afternoon … Not easy to go home
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Oh yes, the gh is warming up and it is a lovely place to be when the winds are still quite cold. This week has been sunnier (I am so late in replying) and temps have made it to 31degrees!
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Wow ! Beautiful spring weather here too. Good vibes for our gardens !
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I couldn’t agree more that one task is so frequently upstaged by another in the garden. Impressed that you got your potting shed cleaned and tomatoes transplanted. I was delighted to hear about seedlings in a sunny spot on the bedroom floor. So I’m not the only one whose house becomes a makeshift potting shed and greenhouse in the flurry of spring planting? Your foxgloves look very healthy. When did you sow these?
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I think I sowed the foxgloves in August – I remember it was just at the end of the recommended sowing months. They have done very well in the potting shed and I have planted them out this week. Filling the house up with seed trays is not a popular thing but needs must!
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Apricot foxgloves – how wonderful. The tomato seedlings are looking very good. They must be getting enough light in that sunny patch. The anemone must make an attractive combination with the primroses.
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I am so late replying, but yes the primrose patch is looking lovely, especially in the sunshine that has been around a little more this week. I am hoping that the apricot foxgloves work well, we shall see!
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Foxgloves are wonderful plants. Yours will look so beautiful when they come into flower.
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Even your late potted Tete a tetes will surely be well over before the foxgloves flower, so there shouldn’t be a colour clash should there? This end of season cheap bulbs thing is good, a fraction the price and an extended flowering season, it may be all the bulb buying I do in future.
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Yes I was thinking that the colour clash might be avoided – I will find out, foxgloves are in the ground not a stone’s throw away from the Tete a Tetes! I’m definitely keeping my eyes on those late season discounts for next year.
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This is me: I suspect many gardeners set out to do one thing and get waylaid into doing something else.
YEp, I have a long TO DO list and it’s just as long despite working all day in the garden.
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I was only thinking yesterday that I couldn’t believe how much there is to do even though I have been out in the garden quite a bit. What have I been doing !!
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Last week I was so engrossed in the garden I completely forgot it was Saturday!
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I’m forever going into the garden to do one thing and spending hours sorting something else out that I saw on the way to the original job. I also confess to being a list maker but spend most of my time adding to it rather than crossing things off. I have Foxglove envy. The wet seems to have claimed most of my self seeders this year. Time to start anew.
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I always feel a bit of a cissy for sowing and overwintering foxgloves inside but they have survived particularly well this year. Now I am just hoping they are all white! But I also sowed some apricot ones for the first time. They will be interesting to see.
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There’s something quite aesthetically pleasing about your stacks of slabs – it’s looks a bit like an abstract art installation.
The tomatoes look good – very healthy!
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They were beautifully stacked – not by me. Perhaps that is why I have ignored them for so long. The job is underway now as I write – all very pleasing.
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Oh, tomatoes! Ours should be growing in the garden already. Sadly, I have no time for the garden this year. It is so inconsistent with my lifestyle. I will likely put some zucchini out there soon, but only because it can take care of itself, and be satisfied with water that drains from the automated irrigation above. By the time I am able to get back to the garden, it may be time for cool season vegetables.
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You’ve gotta grow what suits you haven’t you. And zucchini do take care of themselves.
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Gardening suits me. The lifestyle at the moment does not. It should get easier through summer, but by that time, the season will be half over.
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You know it’s a great relief to hear another gardener say it: you set out to do one thing and end up spending hours doing something totally different, unable to resist the thing that stares you in the face when you go outside! Something deeply satisfying about your potted on toms and your foxgloves, they look tip-top.
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It is the story of my gardening! I still have some of last year’s perennials to cut back because I am constantly distracted by something else! Foxgloves are in the ground now 🙂
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I suspect that you’d not have gone gardening if clearing the potting shed were on your list of jobs! Great to have a big job done almost by default.
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You are so right! The potting shed is ready and waiting for seed sowing to commence so it was a good job to do!
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