Another morning of potting on has left the grow house looking nice and full and the plants are always outside now unless the overnight temperatures look set to be frosty. It really is time that the temperature picked up better. Everything is still so far behind everywhere.

 

At the plot I did a quick round of weeding and then sowed a first batch of candytuft in various places. The pink mix has gone along the ledge, the left side of the trellis and in the front left corner of Bed 3. The purple candytuft is in the middle front to centre, and right hand side of Bed 3.

While working on the bed, I found a mystery seed, which I’ve put in near the middle of the bed. Let’s see what it turns out to be.

I’ve opened Bed 6 and edged it. The runner beans need to go here and although the weather isn’t warming up properly, the vines are getting long and mad. I’m keeping the vines outside but they’re still a bit out of control. This year is just going to be a challenge.

I’ve fed everything with seaweed today, mainly to see if it will give the tomatoes a boost. Possibly things are running out of steam thanks to the coir in the compost mix? I’ve also resown a borlotti bean that turned out not to have germinated properly.

It was windy and rainy today so all the half-hardy plants stayed indoors and the hardy trays stayed sipped up in the grow house. Tomorrow and the following night are balmy in comparison and so the big plants are going to have their first night in the grow house.

Looking at photos from last year, everything is just behind – in nature too, so I don’t need to be too worried. The geums are starting to wake up now, whereas last year they were already flowering.

Just one little bank holiday job today: putting up the bird house. Ultimately we delegated the work to Mr B, who had a bigger electric drill and a bit more height on him. It’s a bit late this year, but hopefully next year a bird might move in.

More radishes are coming up today and we’re due heavy rain tonight, so everything outside should get a good watering at last. Most of my seedlings at home are being kept indoors out of the rain and we’ll shore up the grow house against the wind.

The apple tree has now starting blossoming. The pear tree is mostly done, but got a bit nipped by the frosts.

I’ve now removed all the remaining grass that was among the mint and put the bulbs I’d dug up back into the ground. They’ve kind of rotted a bit while being at home, but most remain I think.

With that I believe all the weeding and grass removal is done. There are tiny incidental bits here and there, but it’s no longer on the to do list.

This should be the very first radish coming up.

Last year’s lupins have come back really well and there are seedlings coming up in the front bed, so although it looks a bit empty at the moment, it is starting to fill up again.

Potted on:

• sweetcorn – two of which have only just sprouted and still managed to survive the move
• cosmos
• snapdragons – pricked out to 2 seedlings per cell
• cucumber
• all tomatoes, with some backups in smaller pots

Partial resows:

• nasturtium
• marigold
• malope
• rudbeckia
• cornflowers
• Californian poppies

Complete resows:

• Mars pumpkins
• broccoli
• Jack be little
• calendula

I’ve kept some of the leggy seedlings as backups – cucumber, broccoli and Mars pumpkins – , but I’ll keep them in the grow house permanently, partly as a test of its frost protection.

I’ve resown the coriander at home and set up a wire frame to stop the birds bathing in or pecking at the soil. In other half of the planter I’ve put the leftover snapdragons, with the same protection.

I went down to dig up the dead stalks but just as I was about to put my fork in, I noticed growth! I must have pulled up the only dead one. The little green shoots are not particularly numerous, but are well scattered. Some are right by the stalks, others have come up from the roots, which extend quite a way from the stalks underground.I imagine this will be like kerria – great until it isn’t!

There are several big autumn cornflowers in the beds. This is the first flower bud I’ve seen.

I did a bit more finger-picking weeding on the ledge and then scattered some compost with seeds into the barer spots. I’ve put a bunch of morning glory seeds down the back edge and thrown them into the no man’s land of the fences and up around the back of the apple tree. I can’t plant in those harder spots, but if they’d like to grow, they’re welcome to.

This year, the slightly weak orange geum has bucked up and is the first to flower – though it’s doing so towards the fence.

I did the first potting on of the season, moving the uchiki kuri, the courgettes and one JBL into bigger pots. I’ve also separated half the morning glories from the first tray into another tray. Hopefully they’ll all be solid plugs by the time I can put them out.

The first cucumbers have all gone bent in strange ways. I hope that the backups might avoid this.

I’ve bought new pumpkin seeds as I don’t like how leggy they are, but I only have one spare seed.

I just really wish the tomatoes would buck up a bit. They’re very behind my usual point. The damaged ones have their true leaves, but are still small. The replacements are slowly appearing.

I went to the plot in the afternoon. I dug down to the roots of the plants I was given for the front bed, but there’s no sign of life from them at all. So I’m pretty sure I’ve just got architectural sticks. I’ll take them out and inspect each one, but it looks like I need something else for the front bed.

I did another bunch of good grass removal and verbena cutting. Most of the grass is now gone from the left hand side, though I’m sure plenty has come up where I’ve already been.

I’ve donated my obelisk to C & V. I have no more use for it and it’s only got a year left in it. They might just use it for canes, but it’s now no longer my storage or destruction problem.

My new salvia has gone in near the elder. There’s still some clearing to do here, but I should be able to work around the plant ok. Hopefully it doesn’t mind competing with the tree when it wakes up.

I did a rough dig of Bed 10 and a full dig of Bed 5, into which I sowed a row of Red Vulcan chard.

Neither bed had any weeds to speak of so digging was pretty easy.

I sowed a tray of calendula at home. I’m seeing lots of the ones at the allotment now giving up and I’m also conscious of needing to fill space if things like my delphiniums get eaten before they can get established.

I did a second dig of Bed 10 and sowed two half rows of beetroot and carrot. Then over in the smaller bed, I sowed a row of Bright Lights radish. There’s room for another row of something in this bed later.

I did a bunch more couch grass weeding down the left hand side, cutting the verbena down as I went. It’s starting to come to life now, but I’m not sure it’ll be huge. I’ve cut down the veronica too and it’s looking ok. There’s still a bit of a physostegia remaining, but no sign of the one that died.

There’s another dead foxglove on the left, but I found a really healthy one over by the trellis. Shows that the poorly ones really are hopeless. Might be time to get myself a few replacement tall perennials.

 

 

I’ve sown all my beans now:

8 x runner beans
5 x green French beans
6 x borlotto beans

I’ve resown all the cucumbers too, as I’m not too confident about the current seedlings. They’re ok, but not a great shape.

I’ve done another tray of morning glory to follow on from these. I’ve no idea how many I’ll need for the fences, but it’ll be lots.

The grow house has gone up now, but the nights are still cold enough that I’m ferrying everything in overnight.

A lovely sunny day, but the air is still quite cold. We’ve done some good errands: bags of mown Surrey leaf mould have now been taken to the plot, along with the new broccoli cage. We spread the last old bag of wood chip under the tree to cover up the holes and make space for the leaf mould by the shed.

After lunch I did a load of grass weeding from Plum Corner, down to one of the delphiniums. That produced a whole bucket of weeds and grass. There’s still another section to go until I meet up with the cleared bit of the other end.

At least one of the foxgloves has died. Its leaves are dry and brown and a lump came away, so it might be root rot. I’m not sure my verbenas are going to do much again. They might just be a bit past it now. The delphiniums keep getting eaten, but keep fighting back too. There are some huge cornflowers and still lots of geums.