Sagina
We have the young baby vegetables planted in place at last.
Well, apart from some broad beans that are still in small pots. There’s time
for those yet and we’ll get those in as soon as I have finished making a wigwam
shape out of bamboo poles. I can’t make the climbing structure until we remove
last years old broccoli plants, but they are still producing florets. Granted
the heads are progressively getting smaller and smaller as we pick away at them
but so far they haven’t flowered or gone to seed. It takes me an hour to get a
small pan full but I’m not giving up on them yet. It’s always the same with
these plants, they do tend to be in the way a bit as we rotate the crops. I’m
not complaining though as even a small portion is very welcome at any time of
year.
It’s always a relief when the young plants go into the
ground as it’s not long before they start suffering when they get pot bound,
especially the broccoli and kale as they tend to go to seed really quickly if
they are subjected to any form or stress.
I made the structures for the peas, mange tout and beans a
week or two ago and they are happily spiralling their tendrils around the poles
and reaching for the sun. We have
parsley coming up, it’s been very slow to appear and I’d nearly given up on
them and the ‘pick and come again’ lettuce is doing really well. It’s been kept
out of the glaring sun we had last week as they don’t really like it too sunny
all day, a bit like my head.
More Seasonal Changes
The tunnel is mostly empty now because it was getting far
too hot for most of the plants apart from the young perennial plugs which seem
to cope with the 40 degree heat and one of my dogs who for some reason insists
on sitting in there. I think it might be something to do with her staring at
the two resident frogs for hours. She does the same with cats too until they
give her a swipe.
I also have seven gifted tomato plants filling up the
available space and loving the heat. I wasn’t going to grow any this year but I
just can’t say no when someone calls around with them in their arms. It’d be
impolite to refuse.
I had to remove the chamomile plugs I have growing as they
were starting to get too soft and leggy They have now taken over the patio as
the 20 packs are covering every paving slab and available ledge. The patio
chairs and now in the middle of the lawn out of the way (and in the shade). The
family are very patient with me and let me get on with taking over the place
with the small plants. I’ve been a couple of years making my small chamomile
lawn and these will be filling in all the gaps in a few weeks so it’ll be
business as usual on the patio in not time. I’ll be growing them under cover later in the
year to fill any more gaps that appear in winter but I doubt we’ll be even
thinking about the patio then.
Irish Moss
I’ve started to grow ‘Irish Moss’ or pearlwort (Sagina
Subulata) in plugs for a bit of ground cover, not for a lawn, more as a rockery
plant. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before
but Irish moss isn’t Irish and it’s not a moss, but it does cover the ground
really well only growing to about 4 cm in height. It’s a plant originating in
the sandy, gravel hills of Europe and is very popular with people who have gaps
in slabs or a bit of a decorative green space they want covering. The plant is
evergreen, has small white flowers and all it does in winter is get smaller and
more compact until the warmer weather starts up again. It doesn’t have the
fragrance of chamomiles but not everyone wants the sweet smell of apples when
you walk on a lawn. I’ve already covered half of the garden with them as we
have a lot of cracked concrete to cover, maybe I can cover the patio slabs for
next year.
