Almost April

Just a few days away from April and already its been mild (but windy) and the clocks have gone foward. This means more time in the garden and the real start to the gardening year. The March sowing was complete disaster, my propegator is too warm for indoors at this time of year and it just forced everything up. I ended up with leggy, weak seedlings and pretty much lost the lot.

I sowed some more Cape Gooseberries into pots and left them in the greenhouse, I am pretty much at the end of the sowing time for this but I should be ok. Over weekend I bought a new blueberry tree and have rehoused my cranberries into its pot. I added coffee grinds and chicken manure into the compost to raise the acid level (which both plants love) and nutrients. I also planted my second early potatoes out, using my planned general purpose compost with grit this should be light enough for them to grow. Using second earlies means they will be ready by July, I'll add pictures for next time.

My April sowing will start this weekend if the weather remains mild, if we get a cold snap forecasted beyond this then I will wait another week. My local scouts are offering bedding plants for 2 pounds for a box of plants, going to order a couple.

March and the sowing really starts

So into March we go and this month really marks the start of the Gardening year. My lemon grass sowing from last month failed, I suspect light levels were so poor that it caused this. Not one to give up I will wait until the end of March when BST is neally here and try again. My onions, tomatoes and chilli have all been mostly potted on and starting to get a feed to encourage growth through March. I have also started the first of the flowers for this year, 2 different Petuina species and a Salpiglossis. I have also set a Golden Berry (cape goosberry) going. This completes my March sowing and by the end of the month will have reached germination ready for the April sowing (which I will need to time right to start the more demanding species off in the propegator).

Last weekend I gave up on the idea of a wild garden and scrapped it, in its place is a the same bed but now redug with grit and manure throw in. On it I want to grow sweet corn, cabbage and for a bit of color something else. I plan on starting this off in April, as it stands I dug this before a nasty cold snap set in across the UK last week so the hard frosts and snow will have done wonders to help break up the bigger clods.

My potatoes are now set to chit and doing well, I will wait until the end of March before I plant them as the weather has so far been a little too hard for them to cope with. The saskatoon still shows no sign of life, looks like I am in for the long haul with this after all.