28th April, 2008

My parents visited at the weekend. They like to keep busy so obviously I engaged their help in the garden. Whilst my dad mowed the lawn, mum and I did some therapeutic pricking out of a lot of snapdragons which I hope will make a splash of colour in the front garden.

Sowings

I gave up on my early sowing of carrots under cloches and will try again next weekend, I think it has been too cold even with the cloches. I did sow some Autumn King carrots in the bucket though which I have high hopes for this year.

I also sowed some more beetroot, cucumber and some more chilli peppers. I seem to have a slug in the greenhouse since only one chilli pepper and two melon seedlings remain. I also put some early pots in two buckets which I hope will produce some nice salad potatoes.

I pricked out the tomatoes into individual pots and what with all the sowing, the greenhouse is looking quite full now and that is how it should be of course.





The recent warm weather has at last got the plants growing. Both the apple and peach blossom are looking good.

Apple blossom



Peach blossom



The broad beans are making lots of flowers, but the plants themselves are a bit small so I'm not sure how big the pods will get.



Even my onion sets I planted at the end of March are showing now.



The close up above really shows how stony my soil is, and this is a bucket I collected earlier with help of my kids; still plenty more to go.