Monday, April 28, 2008

Gardening Day


A teaser from the spring flower show yesterday, a Tulip in the Daffodil and Tulip Competition.
I spent today shopping for more compost, bought some new pots for my Chilli plants and the Mallus Braeburn.
I bought a Tomato plant for 75 pence, as mine are slow in germinating. Cat wanders how I can be so patient pulling weeds from the allotment, yet be impatient for things to start showing signs of growth?I wanted to watch a Tomato plant grow as my seedlings develop.
The weathermen said it would rain heavily today. So I stayed way from the allotment and concentrated on the garden. It did not rain much at all!
The Apple tree is now in a large deep pot with its new leaves fluttering in the wind. I repotted the four Chilli plants that needed it and put in big canes to tie the main stems to. I rehoused the Courgettes that had filled their cells totally with roots. My dozen Cabbages have been repotted to hopefully increase their size prior to planting up at the allotment. I planted all my Strawberry plants into the Polythene hexagonal planter like a Victorian Strawberry pot.8 plants have gone in the outside pockets, and 5 smaller ones on top of the planter.
The garden has two potato grow bags with six plants between them.The African Bag garden seeds are germinating now. Mixed Lettuce, Beetroot, Spring Onion, Spinach Beet, Mustard Greens, and Rocket. The dwarf French beans have not germinated yet. The hessian sacks are marked with 7's to show me where to cut to put plants into the sides of the bag to expand what can be grown.
My tomato seedlings have germinated but are small still.The Cucumber seedlings are growing on too.
The first sown cabbages and Courgettes are growing on ready for allotment planting.
I have triedsome organic slug traps, two pots tonight filled with beer as I noticed my Daylily plants have been hammered by them. Only one is a good size, the other three clumps have been demolished.
Any tips to stop them? I have used slug pellets before but I worry about the Birds eating the poisoned slugs and snails!
My first Chilli plant has got five Chillis growing. It does not look like a Friars Hat though, as the Chilli is long and thin at the moment.
Its a thrill though to see the fruit develop on a plant sown from my hands eight months ago! The Chillis have survived a damp flat and moving house with me!
I just watched Gardeners World on BBC i player. I saw Joe Swift has an allotment in North London. He planted Swift Potatoes, Jeruselum Artichokes, and Goji berrys plants from Tibet. I saw the Goji berrys at the spring flower show.
Back to work for me tomorrow before hopefully (rain permitting) allotment planting on Wednesday. I planted a beautiful Black leaved Sambucas Niger today in the left border. It will hopefully give me lots of Elderberrys in the Autumn.
The Raspberry Canes have flower buds growing now so they will fruit which suprised me, as they were 30cm tall and woody. New growth is coming from the base and thats what I will tie to the metal mesh behind the plant.
As April draws to a close the Garden speeds up its growth and time spent in there gets longer, and time blogging diminishes. There is a lot going on in Snappys garden. Its hard to know what to blog about with so many projects for the the garden, and allotment, plus visits to flower shows which were spectacular.
Today was just a Gardening day :)

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