13th May, 2008

What a lovely weekend we just had. The potatoes were earthed up but it accentuated how quickly clay soil can dry out in to big lumps. This is the old flower bed too where the soil looks to have had some improvement, not enough though.

The warmth is making the bases swell on the overwintering onions and even the spring planted onion sets have put on good growth.





The sweetcorn was planted out as they had reached a good size in their pots in the greenhouse. It's risky as there may still be a late frost, so half have been kept back. The overwintered broad beans in the background have come on well too and are over 2 feet tall.



In the greenhouse, the tomato plants will need planting into their final pots soon, but the greenhouse needs emptying to provide the space and that was partly why the sweetcorn were planted out (without hardening off, oops).



Once the greenhouse is emptied of seedlings, the automatic watering system will be set up for the tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumber (no germination so far though) and aubergines and it is also connected to the outside for the bonsai trees. The trees look marvellous with their new green shoots (must take some photos) but are vulnerable to drying out in hot weather since they are in very shallow trays with little soil.

The early potatoes in buckets showed their green tips and were duly covered with fresh soil. Next day they had poked through again!

There is quite a bit of pricking out to do such as the peppers, aubergines, chillies and parsley but I need to buy more compost for this, so that will have to wait.

The turnips and radish were thinned out and some of the radish were eaten with a salad (delicious). Four sticks of rhubarb were pulled and stewed for dessert with ice cream.

Setbacks have been a singular lack of germination of the dwarf beans. They usually germinate readily, maybe I was too early, anyway another batch will be sown (when I get that compost). The cucumbers didn't germinate either despite being indoors on a windowsill. That's annoying given the price of the seed. Maybe I can buy a seedling or two when I get that compost. Or, I could wait for the plant swap next week at work. I have a lot of snapdragons and parsley for that.

Finally, a splash of colour; this azalea is spectacular. It was rescued from the garden and placed in its own pot of ericaceous compost. It's a pity the flowers don't last long.



As I write this, the weather has turned colder but frost is not forecast. Keep a weather eye.