I started by checking on the progress of various young perennials in the borders - all seem to be fine with the definite exception of the Echinops, with only one out of the five planted hanging on in there grimly - but I have grave doubts about it's survival - I think I'll dig up a few plants from a large clump in one of my other gardens and transplant these more mature specimens where the dead youngsters were supposed to grow. All the other youngsters look healthy enough though so no worries there.
After checking on the greenhoue and giving everything a good soaking, I filled the bottomless Morrisons flower buckets with growing medium taken from grow-bags, and planted the tomatoes up. We have Gardeners Delight, Tigerella, Golden Sunrise and Black Cherry, though the latter did not perform well last year and this yearsfresh seed showed a poor germination rate and the plants are not as strong as those of the other varieties. I have a few spare plants in case things go awry again.
Also in the greenhouse, the dahlia tuners are only now beginning to produce shoots so I have bben taking cuttings each week for the last three weeks but there quite a few to take this week - again, all down to a bit of heat and some bright sunshine. These are being placed into pots filled with a mix of MP Compost and Perlite and seem to be doing well touch wood......
Back outside in the garden, I got the Mantis out and after raking away a load of debris and dead vegetation from below the hedge that defines the path below the lower of the two herbaceous long borders, I rotavated a strip the length of the border and planted out the "Lupin Wall"
Not the clearest of photos, but there are 42 lupin plants all grown from self saved seed. These have been grown on in 3" pots and the roots were showing through the bottom, so out they went at 18" spacings. They were given a good watering in so hopefully they'll like their new home and produce a lovely wall of colour later this year.
After this, and given the good forecast for the coming week, I decided to plant out the Runner Beans. They are a variety called Achievement and they too were given a good soaking in after planting.
With all the rain we have had recently followed by these exteremely hot dry days, there is a definite crust on the soil and as a result, weeding the veg bed is not so easy as large slabs lift up at once, potentially damaging young seedlings,so I decided against weeding the veg and started again on weeding the herbaceaous borders.
There are several slashes of colour in the border now, which is just as well as most of the tulips are now going over.
We have a number of Oriental Poppies in bloom, the first peonies.....
the first lupin is now in colour.............
and the first of the Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker) is showing itself................
Anyway, here is this weeks piccie from the Potting Shed..............
and to finish, here is a photo of an unwelcome guest in the potting shed - suffice to say that it ain't there any more..............
That's it for this week - but there will be another blog entryr before next weeks gardening entry, as Saturday sees the 2012 Scotsburn British Eventing One Day Horse Trials and with the good weather forecast and the fact that the previously poor weather has cancelled or cut short many of the events due to take place prior to this one, we have a full entry list so it promises to be a good day - even it means only a couple of hours kip after I get in from the Club on Friday night / Saturday morning.
Byeeee
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