Inspection parade and graduation ceremony

Back from a trip to France: on the way back I was fretting mildly about whether anything survived a week away. It’s the usual scenario for gardeners during the seedling season: drop bags, race upstairs and look at what I hoped wasn’t a field of carnage. No. Things are a bit dry but extant. Hurrah.

I gave all the little pots glugs of water and had a good inspect.
What has sprouted? Plenty of capsicums, the nicotiana, the cabbage, the climbing beans.
What has thrived? The brocoletto and the extra broad beans.
What is still lurking in the dormant stage? The parsnips, some of the trickier flowers like the Cleome spider flower, but I was warned it might take ages to appear and the purple sprouting broccoli. If I wasn’t such an optimist I would say that not a single parsnip seed has germinated.
What is dead? One of the dwarf beans was crushed somewhat by the curtain and didn’t make it. Such a waste. But as I have to grow so many extra plants to take account of slug attack, it shouldn’t ruin my plans to lose one or two at this early stage.

Now that the little seedlings are pushing out of their jiffy pots it was time to get some of them into bigger pots. It’s always a fiddly time and you just hope that you don’t mess up. It makes you appreciate just how patient you have to be at this early stage. I set to work on the larger of the dwarf French beans which were positively seeking newer pastures by growing out of the base of the root trainers and found snug homes in large yoghurt pots.  The brocoletto were moved into larger pots and even some of the flower seedlings were ready to move up. So in all you could say that the first successful potting on operation completed: three cornflowers have made it from the jiffy stage to the small pot size. And all three seem to be growing nicely. Boy is that a relief.

This afternoon I shall go up to the allotment and inspect. It’s about 20C here so the trip there should be very revealing. Bet there are weeds everywhere.

So what’s up? The weeds are up, the onions are up (that’s a relief), 30% or so of the them anyway. The garlic is growing tall and the broad beans are about eight inches tall. (Unlike Rino’s verdant bushes – but then he did plant them in November.)

Only about 15% of the peas seem to have survived the mouse feast. But perhaps they are just slow. The rhubarb is green and growing, and about a foot tall. There are plenty of daffodils and grape hyacinths under the apple trees; the largest tree has plenty of green shoots, and the little one has just a few on the very tips.

It’s odd re-reading my entries from a year ago – I was all gung ho for chopping the trees down. What was I thinking? I guess I was in a frenzy of control and slash and burn. And the poor tree did lean at a very mordant angle. But I’m learning; things survive. Let’s see if it blooms this year.

There are no potato plants poking any heads up: but that’s fine. I still have fleeces all over the crop and you couldn’t see under them anyway.  The sweet peas are still alive at the bean frame. But looking rather anaemic and sorry for themselves. But then, when you have the slug colony that I support, you are just thrilled they are still alive.

In the cold frame I seem to have some brocoletto and cabbage that survived the freeze. They are looking very desiccated, but a quick slosh of water and they seem to have revived. Wonky growth mind you. I seem to recall that happened last year with the cabbage as well. Must try to be a bit neater with their first stages of growth. Only a few of the broad beans are up which is odd. And two of the dwarf French beans are up, but not as chipper as the ones I grew at home.

I decided to plant out the few of the broad beans that were grown in root trainers in the cold frame. They don’t seem to get that much advantage under Perspex, so they may as well have a try in the coldish ground. I planted the little beans (about two inches tall) into the gaps left by the unsuccessful early growth.  I will need to plant about eight or so seeds in the further gaps, but the crop is looking quite considerable now. More than last year.

Parallel to the growing plants I had a rush of blood and decided to try and sow a row of broad bean seeds. I had a few left in a packet in the shed. And besides I just don’t have the root trainers (or loo rolls) to spare for more sowing. Besides that, the living room at home resembles a garden nursery; there are pots of seedlings everywhere.

I planted 15 Sutton broad bean variety; and left little sticks next to the seeds. Either to show me where they were planted; or to give the mice a perfect flight path guiding beacon to where they are buried.  One must be optimistic with these things.

After that it was time to stalk the entire plot and spot chores and disasters. To my surprise the lilies have come back from wherever they lurk over winter. The desiccated pots have surprisingly yielded stalks of new growth. Over to the water trough with my buckets and give the lilies a good solid soaking. They would be better in the ground, but safer in the pots. Vermin and slimy feeders don’t seem to have found their way to the back of the shed; too busy gorging on the greenery at the front.

I checked over the lemon verbena which is also in a pot – it looks like sticks, but not dead I think. We shall see. I made a note to myself that I need yet more black weed proof membrane for crops and have to mulch the broad beans like mad if I’m to keep down the weeds.

Just to finish I thought I would build up my pea supply. I had purchased these clever lengths of plastic guttering that are supposedly clever tools for growing peas. You put in the compost, sow the peas as you would in the ground, water, let germinate and when they are a few inches high, you dig a trench the same size and just slide the whole gutter of compost and seedlings in. Ingenious. Well it’s worth a try. I found that the peas were divine last year, and you can’t get enough of them. Especially when half the crop is scoffed when you ‘inspect’ the plants.
 
Back home the garden theme didn’t cease. I received my seedlist from the Australasian Plant Society. I get 20 packets of free seeds. I printed off the list and started to drool. I want to try lots of propagating this year.