Spring cleaning

Spring cleaning. It was time to open the windows in our bedroom for the first time since autumn and get to the window boxes and give them a good feed. The poor ivy had suffered over the dry winter, but the rosemary and the geraniums had done quite well. I spent a happy time shaking out the dead ivy leaves (and spraying the people walking on the street below), cutting back, and then force feeding them with seaweed compost. Bliss. Every plant in the house had a dose, and I pruned back the eucalyptus tree on the roof terrace.

The poor tree was completely desiccated by the cold and the wind, but it seems to be still alive. I pruned like mad and have to hope for the best. I sprayed the roses as best I could in the wind, and conceded that I may be an organic gardener, but by god the roses get their magic chemicals before the black spot and mildew hits. They are Madame Alfred Carrière climbing roses in pots on the balcony, and they have put on tremendous growth in their first year. But I let them suffer with all sorts of rose diseases through sheer ignorance. And then we went away for two and a half weeks in August they suffered through lack of water. So this year they are going to get their doses of fungicide and insecticide; and get a drip water system installed before we leave.

The tomato plant has been potted on (into a rather sumptuous but small pot of chocolate ice cream I devoured last night) and the seedlings watered.

Tomorrow I need to pot up the runner and French beans. And have come up with a design for their wigwam.