Seedlings, seeds and a bug.

April 27, 2015 by Elaine 8 Comments

Grown from seed last year, this giant pansy was well worth the effort.

The continued cold nights are really beginning to get to me now, as I really do think it’s high time that 4C and below no longer featured so heavily, thereby negating the need for me to spend time carefully trying to ensure that all my seedlings are snug and warm, tucked up under fleece. With some of the tomato seedlings now relying on the support of short plant sticks to remain upright, the job of ensuring that my meager supply of fleece reaches all corners of the seedling rows, without huge gags appearing between sections, has got that little bit more difficult. No, all things considered, I think it’s time for night time temperatures to start getting their act together and remaining above the 5C mark, at least for the majority of the time.

Some of the plants in the tomato forest now need support.

On Tuesday, I did manage to get some more seeds planted into my propagators including some of my beans and the mange tout. Into the narrow window sill propagator went:

• Three modules of water cress;
• Three modules of Really Red Deer Tongue lettuce, the sowing of which highlighted the fact that I appear not to have any other lettuce seeds, so they have been added to my garden shopping list; and
• 24 more of the Special Swiss sweet corn from my saved seed cob.

In the greenhouse, the Butternut Squash are growing nicely.

A couple of weeks ago whilst visiting the local garden centre, I noticed that they had a whole shelf full of packs of seed tray inserts reduced to just £1.99 for 5. I had plenty of the 40 module trays (with the small modules) at home and the 15 module trays (with the larger modules) but I did notice that they had some 24 module trays with the modules that fell nicely in size between the ones I had and would be ideal for peas and beans etc. So I bought a pack of five and used them with my small propagators and sowed:

• 8 more ‘Jack O’Lantern‘ pumpkins (just in case the frost gets the first lot in spite of my best efforts);
• 8 more ‘Winter Squash Mix‘ ( you know, just in case etc. etc.);
• 8 ‘Kinghorn’ wax beans;
• 16 ‘Oregon Sugar Pod‘ Mange Tout (we really like these and they grow in abundance);
• 8 ‘Golden Sweet‘ Mange Tout;
• 8 ‘Purple Podded’ peas from saved seed;
• 8 more ‘Marketmore‘ Cucumber ( urmm, well, just in case);
• 8 ‘Rattlesnake’ pole beans from saved seed;
• 8 ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears’ beans also from saved seed; and
• 8 ‘Czar’ runner beans from saved seed.

Marigolds, Zinnias, Cosmos, Black Eyed Susans, Lupins and a solitary Hollyhock from my first sowing of flowers this year.

With the seeds sown, it was time to collect the girls from school and so I packed everything away and headed out the door.

Waiting for the girls I became aware of a nagging pain in the front of my head and resolved to have a paracetamol when I got back home but this was to no avail and things rapidly went from bad to worse, to downright unpleasant as some sort of tummy bug took firm hold.

Wednesday was another lovely warm and sunny day. Perfect for weeding and potting on but as I was still feeling rough, I wasn’t able to take advantage which was so frustrating. I did make it to the greenhouse though, to give the seedlings a much needed drink and realised that my first batch of marigolds have flowers forming and really need planting out, another job added to my list. On my way back to the house, I took a few pictures of the flowers currently on show around the garden and what a cheery sight they are.

Aubretia grown from seed a few years ago

The primulas keep on spreading, creating colourful clumps of flowers

This little blue flower comes back every year but I have no clue what it is

 

 

 

 

Advertisement