Lovely jubbly

Lovely weekend again, blossom out on the plum tree, busy busy on the plot. What we really need is some rain, none for three weeks now, save for a drop this afternoon. So much for April showers. Still, life goes on.

Plenty more sowing, pricking out and potting on. Sweet peas and maincrop potatoes planted out, the first wild flower area sown. And my yam tubercles arrived.

Potting on

Carnations in this case.

From small modules...

...into 9cm pots:

Once they've grown into their pots they go out into the coldframe to harden off prior to planting out.

Chinese Yam (Dioscorea batatas)

I first read about this unusual tuber on Ken Fern's Plants For A Future website and managed to obtain some tubercles from John in York. I've started them off in pots so it'll be interesting to see how they turn out. Fingers crossed they germinate, that would be a start.

Meadow Mix

I've sown the first of the wildflower areas today, mixing the seed with soft sand before broadcasting, then covering with scaffold netting to protect from birds, cats, foxes, trolls.

Spring greens

Nice to look out of the window of a morning and see the trees greening up after the bareness of winter. Lovely blue skies over the weekend with not a contrail in sight. And out in the garden there's some colour at last.

Things are ticking along on the plot and I've sown a few more seeds. Still a few sprouts to eat, fresh spinach and the first salad leaves.

Colour in the garden

Pulmonaria (Lungwort)

Arabis "Pinkie" (Rock Cress - I wonder if it's edible?)

Cowslip

Salad leaves

Hellebore

AWOL

Not much done on the plot this weekend mainly because I wasn't there. I had somewhere else to be.

Peas

I did manage to get the peas planted out. I seem to have more posts about peas than anything else. Maybe because I find them the most satisfying crop to grow.

Lining them up:



Planted out with some protection till they get established:

Baby Jude - first pics

A ray of sunshine in an otherwise barmy world.

Easter

I planted out the early potatoes today. I would have done it yesterday but I was helping move the Boy Wonder and his tat into a new apartment.

I see the Israelis are celebrating the occasion by yet again bombing the crap out of Gaza.

The protestants and catholics are trading insults as usual.

Call me a pagan if you like but I can't help thinking life must have been simpler when we celebrated this time of year by dancing naked round a bonfire.

More new life

Not as exciting as last week's news but it's always a treat to see the seedlings emerging into the world.

Gardeners World

Phew, a one hour Easter Special last night. For the national trust brigade they'd dredged up the appalling Dan Pearson to waffle on about some tired-looking country pile. Your man seems to be attempting to do something about his street-cred by taking on the appearance of Frank Gallagher.