Spring and all is going well, let's hope it continues.

Been meaning for all of last week to get in and add some words to the pictures posted last week, where has the time gone . The weeks are flying by and finding time to get everything in seems to be impossible.


Hydrangaes are coming back nicely, gave then a little clip and tidying up a fornight ago.

My lupins are really beginning to fill out, hopefully a sign of things to come.

The lilly's are coming on strong, suppose I should have thinned them out this year but now it will have to wait till next year. Have got nice displays over the past 2 years from these.

All is going well in the greenhouse, not as many seeds as I have done for the past 2 years as I'm oly doing my daughters garden this year, my own will follow next year.

Marigolds are so easy.

Red cabbage plants no bother again this year and they were absolutely lovely last year.

Peas not a bother either, so hopefully we'll have a good crop again.

Today I planted the spuds in a raised bed. Tightened up the recomended spacings to get more in, so we'll have to see what happens.

Below is a list of the seeds I sowed in February this year. Although all my seeds were last years or the year before, germination was good. Going to sow another batch over the week end and also do some more work on my daughters garden.

Flower seeds sown in February 2010
Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy
Rudbeckia Becky Mixed
Rudbeckia Hirta Toto
Petunia Salmon Velvet F1
Marigold Durango Tangerine F1
Gaillardia Goblin
Sweet Pea Early Fragrance Mixed

Veg seeds Sown in February 2010
Cabbage Red Jewel F1
Pea Twinkle

Sunday was like a summers day, bright and warm, spent the afternoon in my daughters garden in short sleeves. Well the greenhouse is finished, that 3rd bed is done too, dug 2 trenches across the bed 18'' apart and put in some newspapers and well rotted manure for my pea's. That now is covered as well for the next couple of weeks. Bought some carrots on seed tape for a trial this year, seems to be the thing to do. Spent a couple of hours cutting back and weeding some flower beds as well as cutting a small patch of grass just to tidy it up. I also turned over the compost heap.

I started these 2 beds last year for raspberries and blackberries, they really haven't done much but then I suppose, hand on heart they were slightly neglected, gave them a good old weeding and a good covering of home made compost. Fingers crossed we'll have something good from them this year.

Seeing as my greenhouse is now nice and clean an organised I put my 'rocket' early spuds on the bench for chitting. Will be planting these on Paddy's day.

My seeds in the propogator are germinating well and all but one tray has shown signs of new life, still plenty of time for this tray to come good yet. Also sowed some 'red jewel' cabbage seeds on Sunday as I have the propogator on a fairly high setting which this seed requires.

Frustration

Was delighted to get a packet of bubble wrap clips with the roll of bubble wrap I bought last week.
This was most useful as for some strange reason one never seems to have enough of them or indeed one can sometimes forget where they were put for safe keeping. The problem I have found in the past is that different manifactures use slightly different profiles which in reality means that they sometimes are not a snug fit, ie they tend to fall out as your trying to hang the bubble wrap.

Solution: position a match stick in the profile and gently force the clip into place. The match stick is made of soft wood so it will slightly squash as you force the clip over it.

Signs of new life 2010

Popped into my daughters shed this eve to find the marigold durango seeds have begun to germinate on day 3. Hopefully this is a good omen for things to come rather than me counting my chickens before they have hatched. I normally cover my seed trays with a sheet of glass as I have found by experimentation that this can cause faster germination by up to 50%. The other thing that I am happy about is that I now know for sure that my flouresent tubes work, this is the only light source as I have blanked out the windows in the shed. So much for fancy expensive gismo's, these were a fraction of the cost and give a larger area of cover. Hope I haven't jinxed thing for myself now :-)

My lupins were looking pretty miserable so I cut back all the dead wood, some more to do next weekend. Can't remember where I read the type of feed to use for these flowers, know I saved the article somewhere.

Weeded, dugover, added a barrow load of homemade compost to each of 2 raised beds, then I covered them with polythene so that they'll be weed free when I need them in the next couple of months. One more bed to do next weekend.

Dug up some strawberry plants 11 in all and put these in tubs at the back door. They may be seen by my daughter there and maybe she'll water, feed and pick them now that they are under her nose. Poted up 5 runners from last year. Must do some more runners this year as this crop of strawberry's are in their last year.

Nearly got the greenhouse bubble wrapped, but forgot to bring some corner clips with me this morning. Another job to be finished off next week end.

Started my seed sowing today.

Rudbeckia: becky mixed, hirta toto and cherry brandy.

Petunia: salmon velvet F1.

Marigold: durango tangerine F1.

Gaillardia: goblin.

Fingers crossed.

Got my propogator and lights set up in a tempory place for this year. I was never quite sure whether the lights had any effect or not as I usually set this up in a heated greenhouse, but this year it's set up in my daughters shed as I haven't a garage or greenhouse up yet. Going to sow next weekend so I'll keep u posted as to the outcome.

Today also tidied out my daughters greenhouse, it was a job long overdue. Everything has now being removed ready for a good old washdown and bubble wrap next week end.

What I did today

Managed to pick up some used carpet and underlay today, so this afternoon laid it out to make a bed of 40' X 6' . Hopefully this will kill off everything underneath and leave me with some good soil. Won't probably do anything with it until much later in the year when I'll be preparing it for 2011. The other good bit of news is that I'll be doing some seed sowing and gardening for my daughter this year, she has run some power into her shed so I'll be able to set up my propogator in there for flowers for her garden and will also do some veg as well in her greenhouse for planting out later on. Once I get the building work done in my own garden which will probably take me most of this year, it will be full steam ahead in 2011 all going well.