Busy times

It's been a lovely week here with sunshine every day and what a difference it has made. I've already had to start watering my container plants and lots of things have had a growth spurt.

My first job today was to try and get some more New Horizon peat free compost. The nearest stockist only had one 60 litre bag of multi-purpose left so I snapped that up and in desperation picked up 6 x 25 litre grow bags for a tenner which I will empty and use in containers. I asked the lad at the checkout when they'd be getting more multi-purpose in but he didn't know. No wonder I hate giving garden centres my business!

Then I popped into the water plant specialists and was able to pick up the three marginal plants for the pond I wanted - Caltha palustris, Typha minima and Veronica beccabunga. I was informed that they will be getting their floaters in in a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll then be able to get the Stratiotes aloides. Of course now that the pond is full of frog spawn I have no idea how I'm going to get these plants in place. I guess I'll have to scoop it out into a container, put the plants in (just two - the Caltha is being planted at the edge of the pond) then put the frogspawn back. Nothing is ever simple.

On the edibles front the Physallis and Chilli seedlings are looking good and the Peas I sowed under a cloche on 1 March are germinating. My two over-wintered Chillies were potted up in fresh compost today with some slow release organic feed and the six Parsley plants in the greenhouse are looking really sturdy now so I think I might plant those out tomorrow.

I spent a fair bit of time reorganising my containers again and as you can see from the picture my Narcissus Jet Fire are still look great. I've got Tulips in bud now and the first of my Hyacynths are starting open, as are the buds on the Skimmia Kew Green. I was pleased to see that the Bluebells are just beginning to shoot as are the Galtonia I grew from seed last year. And lots of the hardy Fuchsias are showing signs of new growth including Alice Hoffman, Beacon, Hawkshead and Tom Thumb. But there's no sign of the Lily of the Valley yet and my Hellebores are producing new leaves but no flower buds. Ho hum.

Georgie