Pumpkin Patch 🌿

 It's a beautiful morning here and at last that cruel east wind has stopped blowing .

Yesterday evening I made a start weeding what will be my pumpkin patch in the African Keyhole Bed . What a mess !  I did cover it over the winter but took it all off too soon . I already weeded it and now they've all grown back .

I made a good start as the sun was going down but husband ordered me to stop (poor hungry man who wanted feeding ! 🦍 ) so I didn't finish it .

Just look at that Giant Echium !

 It's started to open it's flowers and it is a white one . The bees are loving it .

                                  🐝    It's still going up !   🐝🐝

I was very pleased to find a little clump of my perennial Egyptian walking onions . I thought I had lost those . I did collect a few of the bulbils last autumn and they are coming along nicely in the shed . 

It's good to have these perennial vegetables . I have lost the perennial Daubenton's Kale sadly ...but I noticed a Brussel sprout stump re growing ...it may not produce sprout buttons but the leaves are very tasty .

                  What a mess !      Aagh !                   Robin came along to help .

      Bindweed , thistles , nettles , brambles and couch grass  . Everything !

Meanwhile in the greenhouse ....

                    That cactus bud is getting fatter !

Out in the vegetable garden , the chives that I transplanted into the Lavender bed are doing really well .

 They had been grazed almost to the ground by the  naughty bunnykins , but now they are in this bed enclosed with chicken wire and are coming back nicely .   

                    🐇🐰       Well , that's all fer now !    🐰🐇

                             Peace and love  🕊️  Debbie  💐 x

                                                🌿☀️🌿 

Spuds in Tubs - update 🥔🥔🥔🌿

 

              They are doing really well !

         I earthed them up a bit more . Almost at the top of the tubs now .

                    I gave them a good drink .

                Very happy with them !

Meanwhile in the greenhouse .....

The wind has eased up today , but we have had three days and nights of a bitterly cold , roof tile rattling gale blowing in from the east . I hung this palm flower pod to stop the wind blowing in through the keyhole .

Pelargoniums are beginning to flower  and there is a nice bud coming on this little cactus . Not a very good picture , I will take a better one when it opens up .

                        Buds are coming on the Epiphyllums ! 

                           Five buds on this one !

                              All fer now ..... love Debbie x

                                            🪷🕊️💚

Succession sowing

 

So with Flora Day coming up soon on the 8th May , I want to get as much done as I can in the shed, greenhouse and vegetable garden .

Our granddaughter will be dancing and we usually help to decorate their front door and gate with flowers and greenery .

This morning I wanted to clear the decks in the shed , I made a start by harvesting lots of my lovely lettuce , coriander and baby kale .

In the past I haven't been very good at succession sowing lettuce , but I'm having another go at it this year . 

Growing lettuce in the shed means no snails ! 🐌   ha ! ha ! ha !

                   I also like to have a good mix of flavoursome leaves .

The weather is slowly improving and it is getting quite warm in the shed .

I haven't had such a good success germinating the lettuce seeds , I think due to it becoming too warm and lettuce being a cold germinating plant .

I do have a couple of pots of lettuce seedlings ready to prick out and pot up to go in their place . 

The ones I have been harvesting from I am going to plant out somewhere in the vegetable garden .

 I took off most of the outside leaves of the ones at the top pictured here in the wheelbarrow .

 The ones in the tray below I took off all of the leaves , and as an experiment I  am going to plant them out too , to see if they might grow more leaves .

 I suspect they will just bolt though ....if the slugs don't get them . 

I might squeeze the top tray ones into the veg trug .... still thinking about it .

So I got the lettuces potted up and then took a look at my little pot of celery seedlings sitting there in a saucer of water .

  Yep ! They ALL came up !  Isn't it funny how such a big vegetable can grow from such teeny weeny dust like seeds . 

Carefully .......

   Carefully prick them out .....

Fourteen .......two thousand and twenty three to go !   I think I'll leave the others in the pot for the time being .  Fourteen Celery is plenty enough .

I have put them all into the big tray on the shed bench .

  The celery pots are in a long tray within it , so that they can stand in a little water .

Gave everything a good drink to settle them all in . New lot of lettuce, coriander , baby kale and a few spring onions .

                              🌱    Everybody happy ! 🌱

Note to self - need to sow another pot of lettuce seeds .🌱🌱🌱

Also ....need to clean shed windows 🙂

 A nice bag of really fresh salad leaves to go into the fridge .

 I need a cup of tea after all that !  

                      Cheerio fer now !  love Debbie 💐🐝x