Stunted Growth

The little basil seedlings are just not growing.  I'll re-pot. So this is for reference.

Bees, Beans and Butter

The beans are in the ground. After a month of very settled and sunny weather, the beans are ready for planing out from their first home in the greenhouse. We made sure the ground was good and moist, then popped in runner beans around our mighty construction, with a dwarf variety, called 'butter bean' (confusingly) around the smaller frame.

Genie and I potted up a lot of the herbs, too. 

Some of the rescued strawberry plants went into the shallow stone trough, displacing a thyme plant, which was split and put into the 'rockery'.  I use quotes because the stones are there, but there are no rockery plants - something I want to rectify.

Genie sat on a nettle.

Rob kindly offered me some nematode slug control he had left over in a WhatsApp message. He said he put it on his strawberries. I said we prefer cream.  He treated this old joke with a dignified silence. Quite right.  

There was enough for most of the tender shoots in the veg plot, but I left one strawberry bed as a 'control'.

I was a bit too lazy on Sunday.  There were lots of jobs I could have got on with, but I wanted a proper rest having been somewhat poorly in the second half of the week.

The laurel over the stone seating area is in flower. The bees and furry hoverflies love it. So do I. The scent is subtly spicy, warm, and almost buttery (to my nose) and, with sound of the bees, makes a drowsy combination. The bush is too big for the location now and it leans over the seating area.  I need to think how I can shape it.  Not now though.  Too sleepy.

Un-pottering

I ignored my own advice to tackle on job at once.  There's too much to do! Today, much weeding. Genie took some of the many new strawberry plants and potted them up.

I concentrated on weeds and our early crop of dandelions and brambles.  Cleared under the veg plot Acer (every veg plot should have one), around the compost bins and the paths around the blackcurrants.  I put a line of bricks to divide up the veggies - not a good job - taking in too many tasks at once.   It's not organised enough for pottering yet!

Germinatio!

I planted some seed on 5th March. Through the magic of germination, the first seedlings up: corriander.

Herbs

Assembled mini greenhouse this morning (£60 from Homebase in Kendal). Put the greenhouse on patio near the house.  It only gets sun from about 1pm. There's nowhere with more light near the house.  Alternatively, I could put it in the veg plot ( which is somewhat self-defeating)  or possibly make a space for it near the shed when I rebuild it, though this area gets more afternoon shade.

Potted up herb seeds with Genie's help this afternoon, and placed in greenhouse.  Parsley, corriander, basil.  Also tomato (Alicante).  Last year, I didn't plant the tomatoes quickly enough.  

Dug out the stone mint trough, which did almost nothing last year, and re-potted some roots.  Also started some bits of root ok n the greenhouse.