Home again, home again
Well I got back this afternoon to find my garden very wet indeed. I don't know how much sunshine we've had here over the last few days, but we've certainly had showers!
Checking all around my little dears:
Back garden
Sweet peas - looks all fine and dandy.
Potatoes, no sign of any activity at all, yet (although the cardboard had blown off in parts leaving a few of the seed potatoes partially exposed - I've covered them with soil and removed all the cardboard as I think we are past worrying about frost).
Greenhouse
Tomatoes, still there, quite happy, given them some water.
Peppers, ditto.
Land cress and spring onion seedlings, ditto.
Windowsill
Rocket, and mixed leaves - all sprouting like billyo. Ruthless thinning tomorrow.
Perpetual spinach - looking nice - thinning soon but this lot seems more under control so no urgency yet!
Propagator
Pumpkin seeds - no sign.
Mangetout - a couple of tiny seedlings, most not yet up.
Thyme - all three peat pellets sprouting well, I'll put these in a pot in a few days. Hm, do I need to thin?
Purple sprouting broccoli - three have sprouted really well, the others absolutely nothing. I guess I can always put some extra seeds in the same pellets if nothing happens soon!
Houseplants
Geranium - looks happy, new leaves sprouting, support needs adjusting.
Purple shamrock - unchanged - still needs repotting
Aloe jungle - also unchanged - still need a good sort out!
Front garden
Blueberries - still look fine, a week after planting out. Yay!
Coriander experiment - no sign of anything yet.
Rosemary - big and strong and wonderful.
Garlic - there, but looking as small and useless as ever. I'm giving up on garlic I think, planning to try garlic chives instead.
Gooseberry bush - given it a good water in its pot, spotted some early blossom coming through. Desperately needs repotting, which I will do in the autumn - stick some manure on top of the soil ASAP though.
Herb container (big sage, weedy chives, something that looks suspiciously like a clump of grass) needs a bit of love - I will repot the sage and discard the rest I think, then use the container for something else.
Big trough - useless small conifers must go, also half-dead thyme. Pull it all out and start again.
Gosh I love my garden! I was so happy this morning lying in my hotel room and thinking that today I would be coming home from my holiday, rushing back to my plants! The holiday was grand, it's just that unlike usual I had something wonderful waiting for me at home that made the end of the holiday happy rather than sad.
On the way back we broke our journey at Longacres for a surprisingly moderately-priced lunch (most garden centre cafes are shockingly overpriced) and I couldn't help getting some herb plants and seeds.
I got peppermint, garlic chives and chamomile plants. They have all gone together into a square container to sit on top of the drain cover in my front garden. Eventually this square container will be just peppermint (I wouldn't ask anything else to compete with mint) which I am growing for tea as a digestive aid. However, in the meantime, I thought I might as well stick the garlic chives and chamomile in there too, if only temporarily. Not sure if they will transplant well once the peppermint starts to take over but I'm happy to treat these as annuals if need be since I have got some seed to try as well. :)
The other seeds include asparagus, french marigolds (to go with my calendula?) and coriander.
We have only half-filled our asparagus bed at the allotment and if we're going to plant another half a dozen crowns next year I thought we may as well grow them from seed now rather than spring for one-year-old crowns next year. The coriander is part of the ongoing Great Coriander Experiment - to see what kind of seeds grow best as well as what conditions are most amenable Meanwhile Persephone wanted to buy flower seeds and I remembered that the calendula I bought a while ago, while pretty and edible, was not the same as french marigold which is recommended as a companion plant to deter aphids and attract pollinators. Or something.
Oh, happy day!