The moss covering the seedling is coming on well
The delivery of my multi pack perennial plugs has been put
back a month. Apparently there has been a huge demand for the 70 plug offer and
the company want to make sure they are only delivering the best plants, so they
will establish quickly.
I’m quite pleased in a way as it means they will be keeping
the slugs off the tender new leaves for a whole month so I don’t need to
bother. I have been busy in preparation
though and have washed/disinfected enough pots to house them all when they
arrive. I’ve been mixing my own blend of
potting material too, a bit of soil, a bit of garden compost, a bit of
bonemeal, a bit of bagged compost and a touch of sand.
Hopefully there will be enough nutrients in
there to keep them healthy until summer when they can be planted out. I’m still
no clearer where they will be going as we really haven’t any room, especially
when the veggies start getting big. I might need to get a load of large pots
Garden Tat
Talking of pots, I couldn’t resist increasing my collection
of “Garden Tat” when I saw three old chimney pots - I just had to have them. They are very structural and perfect as
stand-alone items but I might put a perennial or two in the tops. I have also impulsively bought a large tray
of geraniums though, so they will probably go into the ‘architectural salvage’
as they can tolerate dryness if I forget to water them.
The new additions have pride of place next to my old stained
glass windows which I refurbished last winter when it was too cold to go
outside. I’ve put a mirror effect on the
glass to close them in a bit. To most people it looks like either a reclamation
or scrap yard, but I have the whole are lit up in the evenings and I think it
looks fabulous through the patio doors in the evening. I did resist the offer of buying some really
old cast iron and oak based bar stools, they needed a lot of work to bring them
up to a usable condition and I couldn’t see me getting around do doing
anything with them for a long time as they would be joining a long list of
‘things to do ‘in the garden. I didn’t want to bring anything home that would
cause me stress and stain visitor’s clothes with rust when they came to visit.
Keeping it Clean
My seedlings are not doing too well. A lot of things are
really slow to germinate and one of the reasons might be the compost I used. I
have made a recipe for the chamomile plants I grow and the top has gone green with moss and algae really
quickly. These plants have a really good
survival strategy whereby they absorb all the water like a sponge leaving the
soil below bone dry. I have to water the
trays from below dipping them into a bath or really give them a good soaking. A
lot of the seeds were quite small too and just under the surface so if I scraped
the moss off it would probably take the seeds with it. larger seeds such as the sunflowers, beans,
mange tout and sweet peas all came up well as they build up some strength
before bursting through the top layer of green covering the trays. Hygiene is very important early on in seed
germination and I have learnt my lesson to only use fresh sieved compost in future.
Bag It Up
I tried burning the rough, fibrous garden waste in my newly
acquired, skip found galvanized and rust incinerator. I also have a lot of tap root weeds such as
docks as well as nettles. After lighting
the material, it kicked out a load of smoke for a while and then fizzled out;
leaving me with a bin full of smokey stems and dead leaves. They were probably a bit too wet so I have
decided for now to just bag everything up and take it to the recycling centre.
I’m sure the neighbours will be relieved as they will only need to wash their
whites once after hanging them outside.
