Although I enjoyed going away, it's always lovely to come home again, isn't it? There something so special about slipping back into your normal routine.
The chickens had behaved themselves and we're all fine. It's the first time the younger children had looked after them, but they did an excellent job.
The veg are growing well in the garden, but I'm expecting a burst of activity in May. I had been thinking I was doing well, but seeing other people's blogs, I realise it's a bit behind. Still, allowing for various climatic differences, degrees of experience and access to greenhouses and polytunnels, I'm pleased with what's happening in my backyard!
A patch of onions in the flower bed next to the sweet peas
Butternut and pattypan squashes in the new bed alongside the chicken run
Courgettes in a patch that was once part of the run, so is nice and fertile!
Onions, shallots and broad beans in one of the two small raised beds
Some of the six potato bags dotted about in spare corners
Garlic, some random potatoes and spinach just starting to appear in the second raised bed
Little lettuce seedlings waiting to be planted in gaps in the flower beds once big enough to transplant
Romano peppers and chillies waiting to be potted on to be grow on the window ledge in the conservatory (praying for no white fly this year!)
Tomatoes desperate to be planted out, but I'm just waiting for the bulbs which I had planted in my big pots to be over before putting the tomatoes in the Pots! It's a waiting game.
Cucumbers ready to go out and aubergines ready to be transplanted to grow in the conservatory too.
It is nice to go away for a break, but it's always nice to get back home.
ReplyDeleteNo place like home!
DeleteThe night temperatures are too cold for most things here at the moment. Potatoes just fought their way to the surface, fleece will go on those for a few night. Plants in and out everyday as our conservatory gets over 35C this time of year. All of May to get through yet before planting out here. By then, the courgettes might be strangling everything!
ReplyDeleteOur nights are chilly but no frosts so the little plants are coping, but they're certainly holding back!
DeleteWell, it all looks very good to me.....you're doing better than you think! Although we have lots of warm sunshine during the day, it is very chilly at night. OH has planted some seedlings outside in the raised beds....they get covered over with fleece at night, they seem to have survived so far. Glad you had a nice break away.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm perhaps a little impatient! I'm just really looking forward to eating my own produce!!
DeleteLove that you are tempting the chickens with your veggie plantings. So funny.
ReplyDeleteThe plastic (?) red and green flowers in the first photo are so fun.
It has been so busy at my home and not in a good way, that I am behind too. But my tomatoes are growing.
cheers, parsnip
The flowers are brass. I had bought them for my Mum for her Birthday last year but as we are selling her house, I btought them back and popped them in my garden - they catch the sunlight rather nicely.
ReplyDeleteLife does have a nasty habit of getting in the way of things you want to do doesn't it?! Hope things settle down for you soon.
Actually they're not brass - they're copper!! Silly me!
DeleteGosh your tomatoes are far more along than mine! I'd better talk to them nicely!
ReplyDeleteI think I may have planted them a little early!
DeleteYou're doing really well with your veggies. It's easy to read about other folks gardens and think how far behind you are, like you say you have to think of all the variables and just get on with your own. I keep thinking I should be further ahead, but then I remember that most of my previous experience has been way down South, here on an exposed hillside in North Wales it is much colder and windier, but things are starting to pick up a bit now .... thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteMy tomato plants are just 2" high, if they stand tall ... so yours are doing amazingly well.
Thank heavens for your polytunnels!! I imagine it would be tough to grow a lot of things without some form of protection up there!
DeleteWell you're doing much better than me. I've only planted some courgettes and some cress! X
ReplyDeleteI have some cress seeds, but I thought I'd wait for the chickens to start laying so I can have egg and cress sandwiches!
DeleteWe had 3 inches of snow up here in the north of Scotland yesterday morning! There was ice on the pond too. Fortunately, the new grass seed had started to grow during the milder couple of weeks we had x
ReplyDeleteBlimey! We didn't have that much snow in winter!!
DeleteEverything looks so healthy! My squashes and courgettes are not looking good, I put them out way too early I think.
ReplyDeleteHopefully they'll burst into life soon?! I thought mine had been put out too early too, but they've hung on. I've had to water them a lot though as we've hardly had any rain.
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