To start the day I weeded the cordon sweet peas and started to put the support rings on them to encourgae straight upward growth, removing any tendrils and side shoots that were already formed.
There was space above and below these sweet peas to plant out the rest of the veg, so on the top side of the sweet peas went the Black Tuscan Kale and the Perpetual Spinach (Leaf Beet) and below them went the Cauliflowers and the Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Still in the planting mood, I planted out 5 x Cobra Climbing Beans in this years veg patch along with the rest of the cell started beetroot
and the remaining 5 Cobra were planted in a hastily constructed area (3 plants) and a large pot (2 plants) either side of the potting shed arch - these will be trained round the arch as they grow and should hang straight down clear of the foliage and therefore be easier to harvest.
All the veg, as well the sweet peas and the hollyhocks were given a sprinkle of slug pellets as these do seem to be particularly tasty to the little critters. I know that there are those who advocate other methods but I don't have the time to mess about, so it's sprinkle and forget for me every time.
The first strawberry plants arrived this week - 12 Elsanta, all the way from Guernsey and I have to say they have excellent root systems on them. There are another two varieties on order which should arrive this week I hope. I have asked Sally to but some ground cover fabric and will plant the strawberries through this. This will help keep the weeds down and the fruit clean, though I shall be taking as many runners as possible this year to build up a stock.. To this end I have asked Sally to save any small yoghurt type pots as when I remove the runners I place them in a pot of water for a week or two as I find this helps the plants grow a better root system and aslo allows me to discard any unfit for stock without having to remove them from compost etc. Anyway, the Elsanta are now snuggled up in a Flower Bucket full of water until next week.
In the long borders, things have moved on quite quickly as I inferred at the start of this weeks post.
The overall view from the potting shed now looks a bit brighter.....
As you can see there are a lot more poppies out and the white geraniums that I split, split and split again are beginning to flower along the inside of the Box hedge. There are a number of other flowers blooming, not all of which are obvious from the potting shed so we now have the following in flower
Star of Bethlehem
Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis cambrica)
Garden Original Pink Rose
Lupins (many different colours)
Geum
Garden Original Hemerocallis
Richard's Geranium
Dwarf Lilac
Astrantia
Over at the fruit bed, the currants (both red and black) look like they will have a decent crop
And in the greenhouse, the tomatoes are beginning to grow away as are the mixed salad leaves. The Dahlia tubers have yielded a fair number of cuttings between them and will be planted out in the next week or fortnight.
I finished the day by weeding the lower long border - bloody annual weeds have a growth rate that would be the envy of almost every plant in the universe (with the possible exception of Russian Vine !)
So that's me for another week, Sorry it's a couple of days later than usual but the computer has been otherwise occupied recently.
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