Well things are well underway in the garden! I have a spare room full of chillis and tomato plants. Now that the risk of frost has diminished for the next few weeks at least there are already peas planted out, some spring cabbage, early potatoes went in last week under fleece. Just the last few days have seen the veg patch (which from now on is christened “The No-dig Nook”) burst forth with many weed seedlings, but as always I always check for any volunteers I might want to keep. As I use my own compost I frequently get self seeded plants, which are usually the healthiest if I leave them be. In February I threw some old beetroot and chard seed over the patch, nothing lost if they don’t germinate, I thought, and I’ve just seen a couple have germinated, so they get to stay. A feverfew growing in between some overwintered chard was in the way, but it’s one of my favourites so it got transplanted. An aquilegia seedling was potted up for the flower beds. Another beetroot was discovered in a pot of overwintered lettuce!
Speaking of the lettuces, they were the most puny and pathetic ones left over in the autumn, so I just left them in the greenhouse. The past few weeks they have really started to fill out and have become more and more beset with greenfly! Not much I can do about that in the greenhouse, but as soon as the frosts were over I’ve planted them outside to let my beneficial army of insects clear them up.
Elsewhere there are still some later daffodils popping up, primroses are in full swing as are the daisies that most people call a weed but I adore. One of my alpine strawberry baskets succumbed to vine weevil larvae, but the chickens had fun clearing them all out of my other strawberry baskets and pots.
My sister came down to visit me and brought me a new toy, a Cricut maker. This is a new hobby for me, I used to design quite a bit of graphic artwork a few years back, I’m going to re-try it now I have an easier way to cut out graphics. First job was making some branded Busy Lizzy’s hats for work which turned out fantastic. And I might have spent far too long designing a frosted glass window for my greenhouse when I should have been studying cell death for my uni work!
