Seeds, Flowers and a book

Good Morning!!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Feels like a Monday to me as hubby was home yesterday

and we carried on doing weekendy gardening jobs all day
until well after 7pm - sort of glad he's gone back today so I can have  a rest ;)

Actually most of my time was spent very happily in here busy with seed sowing

I have waited a long time to have a greenhouse - after years and years of growing seeds on windowsills, watching them go leggy, I was so excited to have a greenhouse at last, already in situ when we moved - it has a few cracked panes and the door is awkward to open, but I love it!!!

Also planted out into the greenhouse borders the little brave hardy lettuces that grew from seed

and survived in the greenhouse though two lots of snow - hopefully we will have eaten these by the time I need the space for tomato and pepper plants - assuming the seed germinates - have just moved the trays for those seeds indoors onto a warm windowsill (feeling of deja vu here - back to the windowsill!) as I'm not sure they will germinate in an unheated greenhouse.

The keen gardeners amongst you may be interested to know that I have sown 4 types of tomatoes (Golden Sunrise, Moneymaker, Oxheart and Red Cherry) and 2 types of sweet peppers (Romano Mixed and Colour Spectrum)

I have also sown Cornflowers, Clarkia (elegans mixed), 3 varieties of nasturtiums (Oranges, tall mixed; Dark red Jewel Cherry Mixed; and a peachy Peach Melba), Ipomoea (Blue Morning Glory), Tagetes (Lemon Gem), Nicotiana (Evening Fragrance mixed), Delphiniums, Hollyhocks, Penstemons, Sweet Peas, Brachycome and Rudbeckia.

I always sow far too much on the premise that surely something must germinate and survive, and if I have too many of anything there are always plenty of friends and family to give to.

But I nearly always regret this bountiful approach when successful seedlings need pricking out ;(

(Why on earth did I sow so many I moan)

I have also sown Broccoli, Sweetcorn (Sweet Bounty), Courgettes (Green Bush), Dwarf beans (Fandango), Broad beans (Lingo), Leeks (Musselburgh) and Peas.

The other winter survivors are waiting to be planted out now - spinach and a few more cabbages that I kept inside as insurance against the birds and slugs when I planted the others out last autumn

But first I need to clear and rake over part of the vegetable garden - there are lots of flower plants to be moved before this final bed is ready, and strawberry plants to move too.

This little heartsease stands alone in the vegetable bed

Elsewhere in the garden, the flowers on the ribes are now fully open

This lovely little yellow flowering plant will flower now on and off

until autumn but I need to find out what it is - does anyone know?

The lesser periwinkle has settled in well in its new home



The camellia is in full bloom - some of the frost damaged blooms are already fading and a couple had fallen on the lawn this morning

Colourful primulas still flowering in borders, baskets and pots

The hellebore is just starting to look a little ragged but still beautiful

You can just see Bessie in the background here

We have the previous owners to thank for all this spring prettiness we have inheirited

Just a quick peek at a bargain book that arrived this morning - for the grand sum of 1p off Amazon (plus postage) !!!!

Looking forward to looking at this tonight - bags and skirts!!!

And a section on tarting up what you've already got - should be good for some ideas and inspiration!




Have a lovely day and thanks for all your comments on the last post - will try and reply soon!