Sunday 29 August 2010

Many Marigolds.

I finished planting them at long last:


112 marigolds, from seed, all along the driveway. It took three separate stabs to get the job done, but now it is. And they'll hopefully be blooming soon.

Meanwhile, the pumpkins are growing, the red cabbages are being ravaged by darn caterpillars, the tomatoes are struggling to life, the courgettes still producing. The spring onion and lettuces are just beginning to show themselves, and yesterday saw the sowing of two rows of carrots where the last lot was dug up (is it a problem, planting them in the same place? Hope not!) The lavender's ok, a couple of ropey looking ones perhaps. The sweet peas have decided to offer up a few more flowers, and the spuds should be dug soon (though we had a batch from Wales, which was lovely!)

The 252 miniplug plants (primula, pansy and viola) have arrived and the viola is now 'potted on' into the trays (40plugs per tray)

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Update:

So, we came back and the harvest started, but it's slowed down a bit since. In the last week, I've tidied up the long bed out the front of the boarding house (2/3 of it so far...) and planted marigolds. So far, I think there are about 80 in there. Need to do the last 2 1/2 sections and that'll take us over 100 I imagine. There are about 4 that haven't made it so far, so I'll have to replace them (I'd already replaced two which had been dug up by something - I blame cats.) They're all from seed. So apart from the hours of work, they cost about 2 quid. Not bad for 100+ flowers.
I've just (today) ordered 252 plants (£9.99 off Thompson and Morgan) with the following write-up
"Pansy 'Universal' is ideal for any season of the year and remains a best-selling variety. Viola 'Sorbet' is just as winter hardy and will produce an abundance of flowers, but just a little more dainty and in bi-colour variations. The gorgeous new Primrose 'Petticoat' Mixed gives a outstanding display of compact double blooms in bright-warm shades, which resemble miniture roses, again very hardy flowering through frost and snow." (Yes, they did spell miniature incorrectly)
They are sold as 'plug plants' but they may come as mini-plugs, at that price... We'll have to wait and see.
The squashes are growing well, it would appear. I'm going to put them on tiles tomorrow (we don't have bricks lying about, but we do have some roof tiles!) to keep them off the ground. Will probably also bung slug pellets on the tiles!
Sowed two rows (sideways) in the big bed. Next to the path, there are lettuces, and one row in are spring onions. Didn't want to start too close to the spuds, as they'll be harvested soon, and I intended just to tip the soil onto the bed and fish them out. The beef toms are beginning to appear. Cherries in the boxes are getting there too. We had the last of the carrots at the weekend, so I'm going to sow a bunch more this week too. We had some parsnips at the weekend too, which was satisfying, but I didn't take any pics!
Enough for now!