Sunshine

Glorious weather continues - and the clematis loves it. The flowers which were huge anyway seem to have got bigger. The petals have flattened out and formed into a sort of disc, and all seem to be facing the sun.

Julius gave everything a good drink yesterday as the tomatoes looked worse for wear after only 2 days without water. Other news is that the replanted seedlings are going crazy. I didn't bother with placing things in the airing cupboard and just let them germinate on the windowsill. 6 days later and they're on their way.

Washed the old milk bottle out with water then used it on the tomatoes. I think I remember reading somewhere that that was a good idea. Let's see!

Teaching Mam how to blog

Not that mam ever will blog, but....

She wanted to see a picture of the clematis flower, so we've posted it together. She thinks the purple flower is beautiful. I've got 5 of them now on display it looks like its really taking off. Some of the leaves are turning yellow, but not sure why.

Mam says: 'are you sure you're giving them enough water?'

Bumble bee

It just gets more and more exciting out here. Today is the first sighting of a bumble bee. He was zooming in and out of the pansies drinking all he could. The pansies have really gone for it and just seem to keep growing and growing. Think I'm gonna need to keep them in check as they seem to be winning the war against the lettuces.

Tomatoes at night

They just keep getting taller. They need sticks and string now

Klaussie came round for her tea

It was lovely. Then we got a bit drunk and bit some rolo biscuits.

Here are the pansies and lettuces. They are doing grand.

Touch of frost

Tomatoes are tucked up in the warm. Weather forecast is touch of frost in the morning

Tomato sadness

It's been a tough week. Been trying to harden off my tomatoes. Wind burn?

Return of the French

Today was the reward for taking of the French lavender Julius got me last year all over winter. It's started producing lavender flowers again.

The whole plant doesn't know what it's doing. The bottom bit is all dry and woody, the middle is looking a steady green, and the ends are all new shoots and brand new flowers. It's like three plants rolled into one. Julius reckons I should have cut it back during winter or something. I'll have to look into that for next year.

Main job today was changing the magazines in the nursery. I've got all the plant pots sitting on discarded copies of celeb magazines. The ones they had were all wrinkled. It was easy to give them a quick air brushing by ripping out some new pages and swapping them for the old. Hopefully they're feeling all cosy and tucked in with their new clean sheets

Mins feedback

Min came round yesterday and was chuffed to see how everything is getting on. He said it looks like I've got an allotment in my living room.

He went out to the 6x12 for a smoke and spotted my first proper lettuce leaf. You can see from the crinkled edge that it's no longer a regular seedling, but now a bone fide lettuce.

The lettuces are in a kind of window box thing that is hung on the edge of the balcony. I noticed that wind whips over the edge of it and the seedlings shiver. I wonder how they'll do in there?

First Glimpse

Been posting for a few days now, and I realise I haven't even shown you my 6x12. I'm a bit seedling intoxicated at the moment. You can get a bit of an idea what I'm working with from this pic.

Grow bags - check
Terra cotta pots - check
Donated banzai tree - check
Bit of string - check

Your sweetness is my weakness

Introducing my sweetpea pyramid. I grew these ones from a start kit I bought in the pound shop. I got a packet of seeds, some compost and a propagator all for a pound. They grew quickly - they seem to love the sun.

A lot of them were too quick for me though and got too tall for their own weight, fell over and snapped. I tried putting a stick in for them to climb up, but they didn't have the strength to hold onto that alone. In despair, I asked my mam. She suggested the pyramid as she has managed to get something similar going in her garden. So now that's what I've got. There's a few on the go, but this is the biggest. Not bad huh?

Rocket(ing)

My mate Ann was on about growing rocket in her back garden. 'it grows like a weed' she says. Apparently all you need to do is sling some seed into a grow bag and let it do it's stuff.

Such a simple recipe sounded right up my street. On a heady trip to Homebase u bought one too many terracotta pots in a fit of excitement. I chucked some compost in, watered it and scattered a few rocket seeds on top. On top of that I just sprinkled a bit more compost, just to say cover the seeds and then gave it another good water and left it out on the 6x12.

9 days later I've got me some seedlings! We've had the wettest April in 100 years, so in sure the regular drink that they have been having has helped. Now it's a case of waiting and seeing, to see if I get a harvest. Fingers crossed!