Toads trying to produce the next generation. There’s a poor female somewhere in the middle of that lot.

         

As Easter is fast approaching, I thought it was time we had another competition.

A £25 gardening voucher ( book vouchers for children) for the person who creates anything Easter related and wins the popular vote.

You have until midnight on the 18th April......get creative people!

I've never had a greenhouse before and don't really know what can be out there at different times of the year. However, my dining room table (by south facing french doors) can't take any more seedlings so I could really do with moving things either to the greenhouse or outside as soon as possible. My dining room has the heating turned off, but does get warm during the day because of the big windows.

I have:

Onions (Red Baron, Ailsa Craig, Welsh Bunching)
Leeks (not many - had rubbish germination)
Cabbages
Lettuce/salad mixes (have a container of salad in the greenhouse now, but that was started out there)
Tomatoes
Sweetpeas 
Cauliflowers
Artichokes
Allium (yes, singular - I didn't do well with these!)
Zinnias
Tomatillos
Cucumber
Watermelon
Lemongrass
Radishes
Mustard
Kohlrabi
Chillies
Aubergines

I'm thinking definitely not the chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, or aubergines.

Moving the onions would free up the most space. What do you all think?

Would hydrangeas make a good hedge? 

Any other suggestions for flowering hedge would be appreciated. Especially ones that are easy to work out when to prune so it flowers again the following year.  Some varieties of berberis for example can’t be pruned in autumn because they don’t flower the following year. So I discovered   . I don’t like & won’t pruning anything in spring/ summer, bird nesting season. 

Also while we’re on hedges     . Would you go with one variety of hedging plant or mixed?

I was thinking one variety. So it’d grow at same speed & pruning time would be the same. Is that good thinking ?

I'm not much a flower grower, edibles always seem to take priority, but I do have a LOT of flower seeds. Its time for a cunning plan

I've started with the A flowers and pulled out all the seeds that should have been sown before 2020. Then I sorted them into groups - annuals for cut flowers, flowers for drying, perennials, shade lovers, tall, ground cover or, when there are a lot of the same flower - like Antirrhinum and Achillea I've kept them together. I'll mix the seeds in each group together.
I've made a list of the seeds that are in each group so that I'll have a better chance of identifying anything that grows.
Since I'll never get round to sowing them in trays/pricking out and so on, I'm going to scatter them in an appropriate spot and hope for the best. They'll have more chance of growing this way than being stuck in a box in a cupboard. Just one plant from each batch would be a bonus.

Does anybody still use polystyrene seed modules?
Bought some years ago( I think they were called Propapacks).  Mine are finally becoming unusable and need replacing.
I really rate them for keeping seedlings happy and encouraging good root formation.
There must be a good reason why I never see them these days.

I understand the general rule for pricking out is to wait until the first set of true leaves appear.

I usually follow this for tomatoes  but I've read somewhere (twice now) that research has suggested the optimum stage for transplanting is six days after germination, at which time only the seed leaves show.

In reality I probably prick out anything when it suits me or when I have space for them, I'm not scientific,  more a bumbler

What do you think?

Please share when you notice signs of life on your fruit trees and bushes. Are they earlier or later than in 2021? https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.p...ht=blossom

You may also like to send details to "Fruitwatch" - more information at https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=1482

Anyone with fruit trees on their allotment/garden, or wild fruit trees in hedgerows around, may like to submit a record to Fruitwatch

It is a study by the University of Reading monitoring changes and trends in fruit tree flowering dates across the UK. they don't collect personal info, just the location of the trees.

I've been worrying about the frogs in the pond as there hasn't been any frogspawn this year. In fact, I'd made up my mind that they'd packed their little froggy bags and hopped it.
Today we started to drain the pond and you can guess what we found! Five frogs and one was a monster frog. He waddled out from under a stone, clutching a lady frog.
A couple of hours later - there's a clump of spawn!!
I won't do any more to the pond area until the tadpoles have been and gone - then I'll create a small pond, maybe with a baby bath, as part of the makeover.
Really happy to have found them today.