A day in the garden

Today has been warm and sunny and I have been able to spend a good few hours in the garden getting on with a few jobs.

The nursery is looking rather empty now that the cherry tomato and pepper plants have all be planted into large containers outside. The aubergines will also go outside later this week once they have been hardened off. As they are quite delicate and need warmth and humidity I'm planning to create a little greenhouse outdoors for them. More on that later in the week.

Other nursery news, the trays of various herb seeds given to me by Zada which were sown a few days ago are all coming up now I am pleased to see. I'm removing the lid during the day now that they have germinated but will keep the lid on overnight for a few days yet. The purple-leaved basil sown back at the start of May is starting to show more than seed leaves which is encouraging.

Out in the garden, I started a cuttings pot in the coldframe today to try and start off various things. So far I've taken a few cuttings of Fuschia 'Tom Thumb' and Lonicera nitida 'Baggesen's Gold' from small container grown specimens I have. I am hoping that take as they will be useful for the front garden. I've also taken some cuttings of Rosemary.

A small amount of space was made in the coldframe as the two trays of marigolds were taken out and planted in a row in front of the Tomato 'Tigerella'. This is a companion planting that I read about - apparently the marigolds attract pests away from the tomato plants.

Tiny yellow marigold flowers are now starting to emerge

The coldframe space was soon filled however and is now absolutely full for the moment. I've sown a length of drainpipe with a mix of wild rocket, mizuna and sorrel seeds, 12x Pea 'Ambassador' in a tray and 14x climbing French Bean 'Neckargold' in another couple of trays. The four courgette plants that I had in the nursery have been repotted into 9cm pots and put out in the coldframe in preparation for them to go in the ground once the broad beans come out. The two trays of calendula have grown quite a bit now though so these will be the next to come out of the coldframe and will be planted out along the edge of one of the beds.

A plump, fresh green bud emerging on one of the calendula

I still have some big jobs to do and I'm hoping that we have another dry day this week that I can spend outside in the garden. I desperately want to get the salad bed in order - this needs weeding, forking over and edging with copper tape before I can start sowing directly into it.

The broad beans need lifting as we have taken another harvest of beans and the plants are now looking rather sad after being struck down with the dreaded blackfly. A friend of ours who is a much more experienced veggie grower said that if the tips of the broad beans plants are pinched out once they begin to produce flowers, this is supposed to prevent blackfly. It was too late for our plants this year but I'll certainly give that a go next time.

The area where I plan to put the leeks also needs weeding and forking over. The potatoes I think should be ready to harvest so I need to get the masses of foliage under control to get at them. There is, as always, so much more seed sowing that I'd like to do too.

The first bright blue cornflower has opened and the wildlife seems to love it!