2021 - What I did today

Planted out the tayberry and loganberry plants I bought from Aldi last Summer. Also a rhubarb cutting I took last spring and just left in a pot. Prepared 1/2 the ground for where I'm going to plant out onion seedlings ASAP.

I sowed my first earlies Sharps express in raised beds in the poly tunnel. I will get some horticulture fleece during the week for them. The tubers are about 18-20” deep. Should be safe for the moment. Did a lot of tidying up in the tunnel, dressed some beds with BFB meal, removed any weeds. Dressed my rhubarb pot, there were about 4 leaves appearing, put some sulphate of potash on th3 rhubarb and hazelnut bush.

Busy day today! 

Went to the garden centre (Scotsdales) in the morning and bought a dozen or so plug plants - they had a "pick'n'mix" section with lots of fuchsias, petunias, calibrachoas, verbena, etc - all things I was looking for. Also grabbed a couple of aubretia, partly because it's a great early flower for bees, but also for nostalgia's sake, as we used to grow them in our garden when I was a teenager.

On a whim I also bought a small lemon tree for the conservatory, on the excuse of it being my birthday next weekend - it was expensive, but I made a chunk of change during the week selling some unwanted chicken fencing, and my tomato seedlings should raise a few bob more next month. Plus, free lemons!  

After lunch I did some chores in the back garden: moved a hanging basket and put up the mason bee release box and nesting tube, put up another bracket in a quiet spot and moved the bird feeders there (they haven't had many visitors so far), weeded around the tulips, and did some general tidying.

Planted out 30 broadbeans today, 20 transplanted and 10 seeds.

A bit of tidying at the plot.

Brought some manure back from the plot, decided my blackberry plants will go in pots this year.

Started cleaning plant labels. Sorted out all my seeds for the commercial seed swap. There’s more than I thought   . 
Sown some more seeds I wasn’t planning on growing      .

Put some supports for my shelves in place and as I had some onion sets I decided to plant them out, now waiting on the hot weather to come along, I need it to get a bit of a tan

Finished cleaning labels. Filled dehydrator with chillies. Did other stuff, but not even remotely interesting or garden related.

Trying to tame the flower border, muscari, crocosmia, campanula and bluebells making life very difficult. Also trying to un-intermingle various plants trying to get friendly with each other. I fear I'll be left with masses of soil and no plants.

Having given a test aubergine seedling the organic insecticide treatment against fungus gnats a few days ago and apparently not killed it, each of my seedling pots got a small dose today. It took ages to find and remove the zebra spider that has been hunting fungus gnats for the last week!

Moved a lot of seedlings out of the heated prop and onto the pretty (not) metal shelving in the living room, to make way for most of the weekly sow list - tomatillos, celery, squash, melons.
Off to clean the cooker and oven - I'm giving it away but still want to send it on its way clean. 

It took ages to find and remove the zebra spider that has been hunting fungus gnats for the last week!

I love zebra spiders - I'm glad you saved him/her!