Gluttony

I do so love being greedy. It means I never skimp when it comes to seed sowing and hence, potting up small plants.   And here are just the plants that are not quite ready to go out.   My what a haul.

I must admit that half the trays seem to be full of calendula (French marigold) and verbena bonariensis seedlings.   Plus lots of cosmos for the village at the end of May.   I have to resow the verbena and marigolds each year.   The cosmos comes up like weeds in my potager and I have to be ruthless about weeding those out or moving them somewhere suitable.

My vbs just don’t make it over the cold winter in any large volume.   And volume is what you want in a garden as big as ours.

And for my last post for a week, here is a picture of the current fecundity in the potager.

If you look at the picture you can see the potatoes to the right, with tomatoes and aubergines in between.   Plus red clover in between the rows to cut down on weeds.

To the left are the cloches hiding all the cabbage plants.   Top left are the lettuces hidden under the too luminous green shade netting.   Plus the spinach.

I’ve also sown carrots and parsnips in long rows in this quadrant. But have doubled up with swiss chard over the top.

And in the far right quardant are the mighty peas and beans.   They are coming up beautifully.   I’m only planting the crimsom flowered broad beans as they look so fantastic.   And I think they are mostly mangetout as I can’t bear to waste all the poddery of the pea.

And with our erratic rainful and my erratic watering, I find that sometimes getting to the fully formed pea stage is just a little too risky.   So mangetout and sugar snap peas all the way it is.

Here’s another view of the potager from the lawn.   I have to put in the row of sunflowers down the edge, and possibly interweave with gaura and verbenas.   I haven’t decided. This is the brand new wall that Nicolas made last autumn.   It’s too lovely to want to plant anything in front of the stones, so I thought it best to make something more scenic on the top side.

The tricky thing is it’s going to be hard to walk up the path with so many plants.   But that is what a French potager ought to be. Crammed with veg and flowers all intermingling.   I’ll just have to watch where I walk.

And speaking of intermingling. I do hope these poppies come up a fetching colour.   I leave most things to self seed in the vegetable garden as it’s such a thrill to find out what is coming up.   And when I spotted these poppy seedlings I knew they had to be spared.

Naturally they are enjoying their moist and rich surroundings a bit too much. And I had to plant the red cabbage around them, but it will be fun when they burst out. They can have their weeks of glory and then I shall turn this little cloche into a cabbage bed again.