What are we doing in the garden 2024

My Salvia Caradonnas and several shrubby salvias, which I'm not naming for fear of causing offence , have all made it through winter. My sandy well draining soil is not so bad after all !

 

This is the alpine trough I replanted yesterday, leaving an existing Thyme and Sedum and an unknown plant which is just about to flower. I hope they all like cold, wind and wet!

 

At last, in my raised bed yesterday, I planted the rest of my onion sets, some shallots and I sowed my peas - two types I don't remember the names of, but they are dwarf ones.
Watered the potatoes in tubs because they had become very dry.

 

I’m in ore with all the goings on in your gardens or GH, for me commenting on what I have been doing sounds so trivial but here goes:

Tomatoes plants are now in the cold frame throughout the day- tempted to leave them over night this week as temps are supposed to be warmer.


Sowing my salad seeds have been a bit of a disaster:
Radishes (Cherry Belle)in pots had lovely leaves but after 2 month, were not showing bulb peeping throw the soil growth?
I used John Innes no. 3 / watered from the bottom / no extra fertiliser.
Pull one out 2 days ago and the radish was very thin – match stick size -and elongated by 2cm.

I checked the roots when emptying pot - plenty of roots gathered at the bottom. “Now thinking I should have waited to grow in cloche 5 inch apart”?
Which could be this week if weather is ok.

“Just a thought… is it best to us a fleece or a polythene sheeting over the cloche? I’ve been using thick fleece - but know wandering if I should have used more protection?


Spring Onions ( Snow Queen)
3 times of trying:
First time sowed seed separately instead of in bunches these were weaklings and never alter from looking like thin blades of grass.
Second time - no show!

Today checking my seeds in propagator I have “lift off “ 4 - 3inch pots have sprouted my spring onions.
I used a capillary mat, keeping it damp all the time

Now taken out and they are on the kitchen table enjoying the sun,when tall enough to handle I will separate the bunches of 8 a little wider apart when planting in cloche.

 

Not much to do today, I seem to be more or less on top of things for a change! So it looks like I'm restricted to new-growth-spotting, and maybe a bit of greenfly-removing from the roses!
I was going to pot on the bush tomatoes, having done the cordons last week, but think I'll wait till they can all stay out in the greenhouse, as bigger pots will mean more windowsill space needed...... Hopefully by the beginning of next week it will be OK for them....then the shuffle will just be for the cucumbers.

My salvia Amistad, overwintered in the greenhouse, are looking really good so I've started hardening them off....in at night, out in the day.....and they can hopefully be permanently out by middle-end of May. I'm considering leaving them in the ground this year, with some added grit to the planting holes. Last year I sank their pots in the ground but they grew so well there was an issue getting enough water to them. The S. Love & Wishes is just beginning to shoot, but no sign of the S. Ember's Wish. I have good cuttings growing of these last two though so have replacements if needed....they will stay in pots.

Temperatures look to be due to rise slowly, so my hope is that by the time we go on holiday (last week of May) and my daughter comes to dog-sit, tomatoes and cucumbers will be in their final pots in the greenhouse, hanging baskets will be out, and most of the annuals will be either planted out or well on their way to being ready to do so. The less regular watering she has to do the happier I'll be!!

 

Bought 4 lavender plants to replace 4 that have died. Planted 2 at the moment.

After the hardy geraniums finished flowering i will cut the stems down and the lavender will have more space.

 

If it helps, I agree that your radishes would be better spaced, or thinned at the 2 leaf stage.
Spring onions will appreciate a liquid feed 3-5 days before, and after, planting out. Alliums are hungry !

 

I left our salvia Amistad in situ and it looks like only one has survived, sheltered a little by the garage wall

 

I am concerned that your seaweed cocoction is in sealed -to- the- air conditions. I think this may create an anaerobic environment, that is not conducive to producing helpful microbes. Consider piercing the lid, or lifting one edge.
Terra Better – About the Dangers of Anaerobic Decomposition and How Aerobic Fermentation Revitalizes the Field in the Long Term

 

I lost my Amistad last spring. It got through the winter, showed some growth, and then just kind of wilted away. My Salvia Oceana in a pot has made it through fine and is romping away.

 

My Amistads and some of their relations (Animo, Amigo and Phyllis Fancy) aren't showing signs of life yet but it's not too late to hope. Phyllis in particular is always a late starter. Amante in big pots by the front door, Black n Bloom and some cuttings of Pink Amistad are growing (haven't checked the original one - it's currently surrounded by forget-me-nots). I don't think I've lost any of the shrubby ones this winter. There are some S. Patens in the garden as well but it's too soon for them to be growing.

 

My Amistad was always the last one that came out, around June. Speaking of the past only shows that it’s stll not out and I never know if it’s still alive.

 

My Amistads and some of their relations (Animo, Amigo and Phyllis Fancy) aren't showing signs of life yet but it's not too late to hope. Phyllis in particular is always a late starter. Amante in big pots by the front door, Black n Bloom and some cuttings of Pink Amistad are growing (haven't checked the original one - it's currently surrounded by forget-me-nots). I don't think I've lost any of the shrubby ones this winter. There are some S. Patens in the garden as well but it's too soon for them to be growing.