Bank holiday has thrown me! I almost started to write this yesterday thinking it was Saturday, and today feels like Sunday. Oh well, it’s not, so here I am.
I’ll start with greenhouse progress and my seeds are coming along nicely. The only ones which are a bit reluctant to get going are my tomatoes. I didn’t take a picture of them – you don’t need to see what is essentially a pot of soil!
I don’t have labels, I have a note on my phone instead. I’d like to say that’s because I’m far too technologically advanced for labels, but actually it’s just that I’m not organised enough to buy any! So, in the green bamboo pots and the triple container there are Russian giant sunflowers, in the two six compartment containers are Pacino gold sunflowers and the tray and the teeny tray on the top right contain sweetpeas. Underneath that in the 99p tray are cosmos dazzler and the white tray middle bottom is nurturing zinnia orange king. Let’s hope they all survive the cold spell that is forecast over the next few days.
Next is an update on the suspected honesty plant that I posted last week. It has put on a huge growth spurt over the past week and now has tiny buds and I recognise them from when I grew honesty a couple of years ago so it is now a fully confirmed honesty plant. It’s a bit skewiff in the pot but I think a couple of carefully placed bedding plants will balance it out.
Next is my ‘new’ raised bed. I use inverted commas because I actually bought and assembled this last year but it was too late in the season to try and grow anything in it so it’s been sat there all winter patiently waiting. I have a bit of an issue because I can’t get the legs into the ground, but I also can’t get the screws out to remove them. I have attempted to recruit a bit of muscle (hubby) to either battle the screws or saw the bottoms off, but for some reason that I just can’t fathom, he doesn’t seem to share my enthusiasm for it! Don’t worry – I’ll wear him down in the end!
A raised bed needs compost so yesterday we popped to Homebase and picked up lots! I’m going to need more at some point, but this will keep me going for now.
Hopefully there will be enough left for me to pot this lovely lot up.
I ordered these from QVC weeks ago and they arrived a couple of days ago. I have two pots (also from QVC) ready and waiting for them. I actually expected the bulbs to be bigger, but we’ll see what happens.
Speaking of lilies, I noticed that these ones have started sprouting and here starteth my lily beetle watch! I think these are Asiatic lilies. I’ve bought so many that they all merge into one! I’m pretty sure these are the bright yellow ones. Time will tell.
See all the winter detritus covering the ground? This is all from next door’s jungle which means hardly anything grows on this side of the garden. I’ve got a plan hatching for this space though which hopefully I’ll be able to put into action soon and tell you about.
Until then, the Propagator’s blog is ready and waiting for you to peruse along with all the other Sixes for this week. I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend with lots of gardening and hopefully lots of chocolate.
Green Girl Gardener 
Oh Sarah, that winter rubbish looks like Leylandii. This fast growing shrub/tree sucks the water and the goodness out of your garden. Faced with a similar situation Helga planted Elaeagnus ebbingei Gilt Edge as it tolerates a dry soil.
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I question the wisdom of using multipurpose compost in your raised bed. This has only a limited supply of fertiliser added, enough to last plants for a few months at best and then it is simply a lifeless material. Perhaps, if dug into the soil beneath it might help?
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Oh. I’ve always used multi purpose for pretty much everything. Now I’ve got it I’ll see how I get on.
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There is that detritus again. It is amusing (slightly frustrating) that I can not identify it. Evergreens are so much more diverse there than they are here. I will be working with Eastern red cedars today, which are rare junipers here. These are the only three that I know of, and they are only here because I brought them from Oklahoma. They are actually not much fun to work with, but I really like them.
Honesty is ‘sort of’ a wildflower here, . . . but only because someone who used to work here collected and dispersed the seed. I should continue the tradition. I did a bit of it last year, and got someone else to disperse seed that I found in the landscapes. A little bit showed up here. I learned right away that it is not a great cut flower.
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The detritus is some kind (in fact several kinds) of fir tree. They’re taller than the house and I do wish he’d do something about them because if they came down in a storm they’d destroy our garden and potentially our house depending on the direction they fell! Oh well, let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
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That is not fir foliage. Firs have needles rather than scales. I suspect that the primary tree of the group is one of the cultivars of Leyland cypress. There could be other cypress in there also.
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