Bank Holiday Weekend Gardening

We've been incredibly lucky with some glorious weather this weekend (a rarity on a Bank Holiday), so it definitely needed taking advantage of in the garden. Mum and I have had various seeds starting off in the greenhouse for weeks, and they're now beginning to get strong enough to brave the outdoors. Yesterday afternoon was the turn of the broad beans and runner beans to go in the ground - these have really shot up this week with a bit of sunshine and warmth, and hopefully now we won't have any more frosts they should be safe in the veg patch (with a liberal sprinkling of slug pellets for protection...)

 

I also planted some sunflower seeds in pots yesterday, so they'll be a few more weeks before they're ready to go out. We've planted a variety called 'Teddy Bear' that are quite short but with amazingly fluffy flowers. The sweetcorn are taking a bit longer to get going this year, I think we ended up with a dodgy packet of seeds as about half of the first batch I sowed didn't germinate, so I've started a few more in the hope that we get a good crop in the end. I think sweetcorn are my favourite thing to grow, and definitely the most satisfying to eat straight from the plant via a quick flash on the BBQ - yum!

The potatoes are going great guns, and the first earlies will probably be ready in a couple of weeks, the plants have got flowers coming now, and the second and main crop varieties are rapidly catching up! We always grow potatoes in pots as you can keep topping them up with soil so that they have plenty of room to grow lovely big tubers.

This is the second year I've grown peas, and they are doing really well too. In tubs we can move them around as we fill up the veg patch, and make sure they stay well watered - they must have grown six inches this week! Oh, and mustn't forget the little strawberry plant that now has flowers too.

 

 

Away from the vegetables, we've got lots of flowers coming on really well, and other stuff just getting started. I've got a couple of dahlias that are on track to grow even bigger than last year, the roses are putting on buds, the peony is filling out by the minute, and the sweetpeas are in the ground and starting to get established.

I love having flowers indoors too and got very spoiled this week for my birthday with several beautiful bouquets, as well as cutting a few peony flowers from the bush at my grandparents house - it always flowers really early, but they are absolutely glorious.

The next things to go in are the packet of wildflower seeds that I got free from BBC Countryfile a couple of weeks ago, just need to find a convenient place for them where they won't swamp or get swamped by other things.

Mum and I went to the Weald of Kent Craft Fair at Penshurst Place yesterday, and apart from having a wonderful look round and a minor shopping spree, we also got some beautiful nemesia that I'm going to plant in the front garden later on. We've never had any of these before, but I just loved the colours and the pretty shape of the flowers.

 

After all that hard work, I think I deserve a sit down, and I shall enjoy relaxing in the garden later and watching all the local birds coming and going. I'm afraid my photography skills aren't up to capturing fast-moving wildlife, but I love to watch the sparrow colony from next door's hedge to-ing and fro-ing, the blackbird family digging up the biggest, fattest worms they can find from the lawn, and the pair of robins sitting the tree singing - I think they must have a nest somewhere nearby too. I love Spring!