Lovely day

It's been a beautiful day here: warm and sunny. I spotted my first pair of Holly Blue butterflies of the year but they didn't stop long enough for me to get a photo. (The rather poor one above was taken last year.)

I had a good tour of inspection today as I watered all the pots as well as the new plantings in the sunny border. The heads on the Allium Purple Sensation are fattening up nicely; the buds on the Aquilegia Vulgaris should start opening tomorrow I think; the first flower on the Hesperis Matronalis is out; tiny buds are showing on some of the Lilies; the Galtonia candicans bulbs kindly given to me by a friend are showing through; the Tradescantia is still tantilisingly in bud; and the autumn fruiting Raspberries have sent up a number of new shoots which are about 8" tall now.

My Fuchsia Carmel Blue plants, which I grew for the first time last year, have all survived the winter in pots against a south-facing wall. I top dressed the pots today and gave them a feed with some slow release organic fertiliser. The Strawberries (runners from last year) have a number of fruits now and they were potted on into 7" pots. The three Tomato Tiny Tim plants were also potted on into 10" pots and spent their first day outside. I'll bring them in over night for the next week and then they should be okay outside unless we get any late frosts.

All the Pelargonium cuttings were moved into the overspill greenhouse to make room for more of the 'edibles' from the kitchen window sill. So the top shelf of the main greenhouse now houses three pots of Physalis, three of radish, three Tomato Micro, two of Spring Onions and five Cucumbers. This means the Chillies have a bit more room indoors and there's room to start off more seedlings. But that's a job for tomorrow.

Georgie