Earlier in the month I put up a large mini greenhouse (affectionately knows as Blowaways on various gardening forums!) and for much of the month it survived. It had a couple of bad nights which knocked the trays of the staging shelf, but nothing that a spot of re-sowing couldn't fix. Sadly the really high winds last week were just too much for it in the end and took the cover clean off, bending several poles in the process. It can be salvaged, but for now it's bits on the grass.
Now had there been just a few bits in there then I wouldn't have minded, but just the day before I'd filled up the table with freshly sown trays of lettuce, marigold, catnip, sweet peas and nasturtiums. I managed to rescue as much as I could, and then stuff the cover in the shed (no easy task in mild hurricane strength wind, I can tell you!), but no sooner had I turned my back then the cat dashed out to pee on all the spilled soil. All hopes of saving the soil were dashed and I honestly felt like crying that morning!
After a few days of me standing at the kitchen window muttering and cursing the wind, I pulled myself together and formulated a plan. I'd been looking at plans for cold frames on Pinterest (like you do!) and came across one made from stacked bricks and a sheet of glass. No nails, no wood and very minimal work. Splendid! As it happened my neighbour had the door of an old green house at the bottom of his garden and an ever growing pile of bricks left over from his house renovation, both of which he was quite happy for me to have. So once the wind died down, I set too and cobbled together a rather rustic looking cold frame to protect the few trays that survived the wind and sowed a few extra flowers for good measure.
It's by no means perfect, but for now it's doing the job. The Husboond has agreed to building a more robust wooden cold frame some time in the future, but as he has about a thousand other things to do first, I shan't hold my breath for it this year!
Anyhoos, other garden news is that the first row of peas has been sown direct along with radishes and some chard. I have a tray of peas in the cold frame, but they won't be planted out for a couple of weeks. The onions a sprouting well under fleece so in a few weeks I'll uncover those and I managed to get the spuds in as well. The Bean Bed (or the bed for things that fit in anywhere) has been marked out and I've started to dig it, but as it's the Easter weekend, the weather has predictably turned cold and wet which is scuppering my plans for digging, lest I fancy being knee deep in sticky mud! I'm hoping it will pick up over the next few days as at this rate it'll be May and it still won't be dug. The Root Bed needs digging too, but that's at the bottom of my list at the moment as I still need to get some sand to add to my rather claggy Fenland soil (although we did have some good straight carrots last year, so there's still hope!).
Onto the indoor seedlings then..
Tomatoes are growing well, I'm probably going to give half of these away as realistically they won't all fit in the big mini greenhouse when I put it back up later in the year.
The courgettes are also going like the clappers. In hindsight I think I've sown these far too early and they'll have to go in the greenhouse too. Luckily I have plenty of those potato growing bags, so they can get planted up and stood outside when it's warm enough.
Others than that it's just flowers growing indoors for now (I shall spare you all the blurry photos of tiny seedlings). Hollyhocks, geranium and phlox, hopefully to plant in a border. Later in the month (or in May) I'll be sowing cosmos, Nigella (or my favourite name, Love-in-a-Mist), rudbeckia and a seed mix called fairy bouquet which I am happy to admit that I bought for the name alone!
Oh, on the subject of flowers, Chops' school sunflower has finally sprouted! He has the option to grow it at home or in the class garden so we may or may not get to see how tall it grows. We will have plenty of sunflowers at home anyway so I may encourage him to take it into school.
So that's all there is for now, it's looking like it's dry for now so I'm off to hobbit about in the garden while I can!
