On the windowsill, April 2024

The first Tomato Red Robin I sowed was a no-show so I sowed another one which germinated and started growing in less than a week. It’s now over 1 in/2.5 cm tall and I’ll be replanting it into a 5 in/12.5 cm pot in a couple of weeks.   It’s shown below right, picture taken earlier in the month.

The Sunflower Big Smile (above left) is doing well and is now over 2 in/5 cm tall. It will also be replanted into a 5 in.12.5 cm pot when I do the tomato.

The English Daisies in a 3.5 in/9 cm pot, which I showed last month, have been flowering continuously with six flowers at one point.  I sowed a few seeds in a seed tray and most appeared and started growing.  I’ve repotted them in a couple of small  3 in/7.5 cm round terracotta plastic pots.

If you read last weeks Forget-me-nots post you’ll know that I’m trying both the common blue variety and a white one Snowsylva.  More about these in next months On the windowsill post.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

Some good news

Yesterday I planted out the last of the potatoes, the main crop Picasso, and can now turn my attention to making a start sowing the annual flower seeds on the flower patches.

The onions Sturon are now starting to grow leaves, and so far the birds haven’t pulled any out of the ground as they often do.

At home on windowsill the first of the tomato seeds, a Gardener’s Delight,  has germinated and started growing.  They’re taking longer than usual, I guess due to the cool, dull weather.

Some good news is that new growth has finally started to appear on the white flowering Aster/Michaelmas Daisy Twinkling Stars which I thought I’d lost.

 

 

There are lots of flower buds on the rose Pretty Lady, which looks like it’ll be flowering early this year.

 

Have a good week, and take care!

Forget-me-nots

I was looking round the site one day last week and noticed a lot of forget-me-nots, then wondered why I didn’t grow any. At home I browsed some gardening books, then looked at various websites and decided I should grow them both on the plot and at home.

I found this small flowering plant on an untended plot which I dug up and is now in a 3 in/7.5 cm pot on the windowsill.

I’ve bought a packet of the common Forget-me-nots, or true wild form, (Mysotis arvensis) which I’ll sow in various places.

 

Chiltern Seeds list a white one (Mysotis sylvatica Snowsylva). In the description it says these are perfect pot plants so I’m going to try some and hope to get one as good as the one in this picture (with due thanks to Chiltern Seeds).

 

For a really lovely picture of some Forget-me-nots along with some folklore about them have a look at this tweet of Venetia Jane’s.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

Planting and sowing

I planted the rest of the onions Sturon on Thursday afternoon, and so far none have been hoicked out of the ground by birds.

I started planting out the potatoes on Friday and I’m just doing one row of ten each time I’m there, which is easier for me nowadays.  It also means that I’ve got time while I’m there to work on the flower patches, and the main one is now ready to start sowing seeds.  I generally just hoe all these areas over before sowing  but I’ve forked cosmos corner over as it was the soggiest area on the plot apart the bottom corner by the crocosmia. That should help to dry it out quicker. I took this picture in August 2021.

A sure sign of better weather is the wildlife I’ve been seeing during the past few days.  There are lots of ladybirds on the plot which are always good to see, and there was a yellow Brimstone butterfly fluttering around one day.

On the way home on Friday afternoon I saw a Peacock butterfly resting on the pavement in the sunshine. This picture of one on a dandelion I took back in April 2014.

I was standing looking out of the living room window before 6 am this morning drinking a cup of tea when the Iceberg rose directly outside started twitching. Looking closer I saw that there were at least three Blue Tits on it enjoying an early breakfast. I watched them for several minutes, which got my day off to a good start.

Have a good week, and take care!

Onions and tomatoes

I’ve always grown onions Sturon and generally do well with them. I buy the sets from the horticultural society trading shed and plant them out around the end of March or beginning of April.  I’m a bit late this year as the ground has been so soggy but on Monday I planted out half of them, and will do the rest over the weekend. I’m happy when they grow to around the size of a tennis ball, but they do generally vary.  Last year wasn’t a good year, which I think was due to the hot weather which restricted the size to about a golf ball.  This archive picture shows two I grew back in 2017.

This week I also sowed three each tomato seeds Gardener’s Delight and Golden Sunrise in pots which will stay on the windowsill until I take them to the plot to harden off and plant out in early June.  These I also generally do well with, but blight often hits them towards the end of August most years.  This archive picture is of both varieties which I grew back in 2018, and they’re in a 6.5 in/16.5 cm plant saucer to show their size.

Have a good weekend, and take care.

Better weather

Since Friday it’s been dry, mild, sunny at times and very windy all of which have all helped to make the plot a lot less soggy.

The wind has been a bit of a mixed blessing as it’s been gusting up to 40 mph, especially this morning,  making plotting uncomfortable.

I spent much of yesterday and today lightly hoeing across various parts of the plot where the surface was turning into a hard, wind blown, surface.

I also cut the rest of the cornus stems down to ground level.  There’s not much I can do with this area so I’m going to scatter flower seeds there.

 

Looking round this this morning I was surprised to see that some of the strawberries already have buds and even some flowers on them.

 

I then saw that the perennial cornflowers (centaurea montana)  have flower buds.

The forecast for the week ahead is for better weather, being mostly cloudy and dry with temperatures in the mid teens C/60 C, so I hope to plant the onions Sturon and then make a start planting the potatoes.

Have a good week, and take care!

Into April

I did some plotting on Monday, mostly hoeing round where I’ll planting the onions Sturon and first early potatoes Pentland Javelin.  I also re-weeded a couple of areas on the flower patch.

Yesterday I only looked round and pottered as it was all much too soggy again.

This is part of cosmos corner by the stone feature, which is roughly in the middle of the plot. This area has only been like this a couple of times before, and nowhere near as bad as this.

Something that is doing well is the rhubarb, but sadly the daffodils Sweetness seen below/in front of it have come up blind with no flowers.  I think that I may dig these up, and if the bulbs are okay replant them in a container.

Take care, and have a good weekend!

Happy Easter, 2024

I thought about doing a post titled Miserable March or Marking Time but I try to keep positive here, which certainly hasn’t been easy of late.

Yesterday was a rare dry and sunny day but today it’s drizzly and dull  again.  Last week I only went to the plot twice, on Monday and yesterday, when I did some hoeing and weeding.

Here are four pot marigolds Flighty’s favourites from July 2016.

Happy Easter, have a good week and take care!

On the windowsill, March 2024

Last Saturday I sowed some seeds in pots most of which are plants I’ll be growing on the windowsill.  Of course the first thing I did on Sunday morning was to have a look at them even though I thought that it would be at least a week before any  germinate and start to appear.  In fact the first few were just showing by early yesterday, much to my delight and relief.

The dwarf sunflower is the variety Big Smile, which I’ve not grown before, and the tomato a Red Robin.  More details about these in next months post. Once they’re big enough I will replant them into 6 in/15 cm black plastic pots.

I’ve only dug up and brought home any English daisies I’ve grown in pots at home but I sowed some seeds which have just started appearing.  The small plant I showed last month produced a couple more flowers but then died, I think due to my over watering it.  A couple of weeks ago I dug up a couple more from one of the plot grass paths and they’re now in a 3.5 in/9 cm terracotta coloured plastic pot.  There’s been a couple of flowers, and there are more buds showing.

The other seeds are dwarf Pot Marigolds Daisy Mix and yellow flowering Viola (cornuta?), but none have appeared as yet.

Have a good Easter, and take care!

Ready, steady…

but not quite go just yet as regards planting or sowing anything.  It is gradually drying out helped by some sunshine and being breezy over the past few days.  I hope to plant out the onions Sturon next week as the area where I’m growing them is all ready.  The first early potatoes Pentland Javelin need to planted at hand trowel depth so I’ll dig one or two holes during next week to see what it’s like a few inches down.

It’s been sunny, although windy and slightly chilly, yesterday and today but I did quite a lot including cutting down most of the cornus/dogwood stems which have appeared around the tree over the past year.  I turned the compost heap over, and will now only be adding to it through to the autumn.

The three blue flowering asters (Michaelmas daisies) have all reappeared but I’m slightly concerned that there’s no sign of the white flowering Twinkling Stars as yet.  It does flower later than the others so I may be worrying  unduly about what is one of my favourite plot plants. This archive picture was taken late October 2019.

Apologies for this slightly waffly post as it’s not the one I had intended doing but wasn’t happy with.

Have a good week, and take care!