My greenhouse is already full...

Along with my potato delivery was the onion sets. I'm late starting both of these I know, but I'm relatively relaxed about that as our plot is much more open than our north-facing garden and so I think they'll stand a better chance, and will hopefully catch up pretty quickly. Saying that though, we didn't have much luck with onions last year and I grew what I affectionately called miniature versions.  I've since read that onions do well where potatoes grew the previous year so that's my plan. 

I do have rather a lot of onions though, and that's ok as I'm always buying them. If they'll all fit into the space last year's potatoes had, is another matter. 

I'm starting the shallots and both red and white onions in modules in the greenhouse, which will start them growing and developing roots away from hungry birds, so when I do plant them out they'll be more established and be able to fight back. It also gives me some time to clear a space for them - there's (some) method in my madness.

I put these in on Saturday shortly after they arrived and already there's sign of activity. This is good news because at the moment I have six seed trays of onions, plus the smaller one of shallots and they take up quite a bit of greenhouse space. 

As I was planting them up though I started to run out of compost. Not wanting to use the new seed compost  I found myself digging into one of the composting Daleks. It's been a year or so since we emptied this one and it was good to see compost inside. It means we've another job for our list, to empty both of the daleks this year, that'll be good news for the allotment though.

I told you there were a lot of onions,  but I'm liking the uniformity and order they bring.

My sowing really got started last weekend 

I've also planted some herbs in pots; there's savory, coriander, tarragon, chervil, garlic chives and basil. I'm hoping to use these as decorative plants around the garden as well as in the kitchen. I've a bit of a thing for herbs, which is one of the reasons the tables at our wedding were named after herbs, and my next cat will be called Herb. MOH is fully aware of this and isn't quite sure if there will be another cat, but deep down I think he knows there will be at some point, just not yet.

The giant fuchsias are growing well, still not giants as they're in the smallest plant pot I have, but they've grown so much. Their new job is to supervise the cucumber seeds through germination.  

I'm growing two varieties this year with seeds left over from last year and a new-to-me mini version which promises to be a prolific cropper. 

I've flowers on my tiny blueberry plant which is into its second year now. I'm hopeful for some fruits this year and if I'm lucky there'll be enough for us both! 

As well as my usual tomato farm - I always grow a lot of tomatoes - this year I've already planted some flower seeds. The seeds are a little old so I hope I have some success, as I'd love to fill the garden and pots with foxgloves, teasels, delphiniums and a statice or two.  

But along with some broad beans, borlotti beans, sunflowers and chillies it means all of a sudden my greenhouse is choc-a-block, and I'm not sure how that happened! 

I've already moved in my temporary staging in and have space for four more seed trays before I will be officially unable to move  

But it's a great feeling.  

And gives me the perfect excuse to potter around of an evening and to check for signs of growth. And I wonder what took me so long to get started this year... 

What are you growing this year?

In my garden: A sparkling clean greenhouse

It's a job that I've been putting off, but one that I know needed to happen before I got too many seeds on the go, and that's cleaning the greenhouse. It needed to happen as the glass was showing signs of green, and I'm sure there was less light coming in because of it. And so on the warmest weekend of the year so far I decided that the time had come, and started to empty its contents. 

After several trips the pile outside was beginning to grow, but there was still a lot more to come.

With everything out I took the opportunity to check under the wooden floor, which is actually the side of our old wooden shed. One part of it had become a bit spongy and I was keen to check it was ok. I half-expected to find a massive hole, so was pleased to discover it was just where the ground level changed a little and where the wood was starting to rot. We'll need to replace the floor in the not too distant future, but not this year. I added some sand and a bit of broken paving slab under the spongy bit in the hope it gives me a bit more time.

And there was quite a pile of stuff outside. Considering we have a 6 x 4ft greenhouse, it's pretty impressive, and the contents completely filled our stone circle, and some.

Next up was some Jeyes Fluid, lots of water, the hose and some time to work out our best implements. For MOH it was the hose, for me it was MOH. For some reason he couldn't help himself and was itching to get involved, so not wanting to get in the way of a man and his cleaning habit I found myself a deckchair to watch from.

He got bored pretty quickly too, and was soon heading off to clean more manly things like his barbecue. Luckily though the green grime came off easily and it wasn't long before the greenhouse was sparkling inside and out.

I also took the opportunity of having some space to work in and added some manure compost to the greenhouse bed before moving everything back in, after a brush down. The good news is that everything went back in, and even better than before so it's tidy and there's places to work, and now I can't wait to get on and sow some seeds. I know they'll thank me for the extra light.

In the greenhouse bed I've this gorgeous ice plant which has overwintered in there. It's clearly happy as has some offspring so that's good news and I'll be potting it on and out soon, before it gets too used to being in the greenhouse. The giant fuchsias which I shared in my post at the weekend are now potted up and I'm waiting for them to grow into giants...

GIANT FUCHSIAS IN THE MAKING

We'll see how they do.  I was pleased to see two pots of thyme had survived the winter too (you can see it just creeping into the photo above) and I'll be planting many more herbs in the next few weeks too.

Elsewhere in the garden

My garden is bursting into life, and despite its greenness, there's plenty of colour. This Kerria, or yellow pom pom plant, came through the fence from next door and now I have two mid-sized bushes for nothing.  And looking as beautiful as this, it's very welcome to stay.

KERRIA, OR YELLOW POM POM

The euphorbias acid green flowers continue to add highlights throughout the garden. I've noticed that they've started to creep towards the house along the fence where I'm struggling to get anything other than bulbs to grow, so I'll be encouraging them to do more of that. MOH still calls them dalek plants, but has conceded they add colour to our Spring garden.

EUPHORBIAS, OR DALEK PLANTS AS MOH CALLS THEM

The garden is growing, and this shot of leaves gives a good clue to how much. What I like about this shot is the density of the leaves, and all of the shapes that happily grow alongside each other.

LEAVES OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES

At the back of the garden the pear and cherry trees are in blossom. All white, all of them. This is from the pear tree, but the cherry is very similar to this. The lilac - also white - is starting to flower, but only on the branches we didn't cut last year, so I'm glad we didn't cut them all. We do need to finish the job but will be waiting for it to flower before we clamber up the ladder with the extendable loppers.

PEAR BLOSSOM

I've spotted some of the brightly coloured flowers of the honesty plants too. They're looking great against the zinc pots behind them, and I still can't believe that for many years I missed these as they were pulled up with weeds. MOH still brings plants over and says is this a weed, which to be honest is too late to say no! He's getting better, but even so...

HONESTY

The sempervivums - or succulents - appear to be doing well in their trough, and I'm keen to see how they get on and multiply. I've read this week about taking the top out of these plants to propagate them too - as an alternative to propagating from leaves - so I'll be looking into that more, and maybe even trying it for myself.

SEMPERVIVUMS

The camellia is finally flowering, it's in a very shady spot by the fatsia and so it's always much later than others, but it feels late even so. The newer white one at the back of the garden is growing well but flowers are few and far between. The peonies at the back of the garden have almost doubled in size in the past week, the one I struggled to find is easy to spot this week, so I'm hopeful for lots of flowers from them this year - keep your fingers crossed!

And finally the sambucus nigra, or black elder (think elderflower but with pink heads) is still with us. I was worried about it during the winter months, and wasn't sure if it'd make it. It's the plant I planted for my first cat Dylan (who was a black long haired moggy), so I was hoping I hadn't lost it, and I haven't.

THE BLACK ELDERFLOWER

It's at this time of year that we struggle to keep up with our garden, but hopefully it won't get too far ahead of us, and will look half decent for the party for our 110th that we've got planned in June. More on the party another day, that's a whole other post, and organisational challenge I'm working on!

How do you keep on top of your garden as it starts to grow like crazy at this time of year?

A fleece-covered greenhouse

When I packed up the garden about a month ago that included the greenhouse. But I had a dilemma as I still had plants growing in there. The chillies were still fruiting, and I'd followed dad's example of planting some aloes into the greenhouse bed, but I knew that in our north facing garden they'd be unlikely to thrive, or possibly survive, without some extra help.

When we cleared out the shed and greenhouse in the summer I'd found some horticultural fleece and I wondered if it would help here. So with a nothing ventured, nothing gained approach I set about tucking them in.

And this weekend watering the greenhouse was one of the chores that got me out into the garden. Even though plants will slow down over winter, they still need some water and I was keen to see what was going on under that fleece.

The amaryllis has recovered well, it was in the conservatory and not looking so well. I brought it out into the greenhouse as it seems to like it there, and it's rewarded me by reviving itself.  The aloes were doing well too, but the real find was to discover that my bargain hyacinth bulbs from last year are starting to grow again.

The chillies were doing well and there were some new fruits on the plant, so that has to be a good thing. 

And yes that is a geranium. It's a relative of the ginormous one dad has in his greenhouse, and looking back I can't believe it's two years ago that I first shared the hugest of geraniums here.  The red stemmed plant on the right is a blueberry plant, that's shed its leaves but I'm hoping that's normal.

The succulents were also doing well. The one above - a Pachyphytum, or grey silvery one - has been under the fleece. The ones I propagated from leaves are coming on leaps and bounds and really are looking like proper plants now.  You'd never know how they started off now, would you?

So with everything checked and lightly watered, I tucked it all back up again and edged out of the greenhouse amused by the ghostly shape. But if it works and helps the plants keep going then I'm all for it. Checking the thermometer it's already reached -4 in the greenhouse which seems chilly to me.

I couldn't help but notice the difference in the mind your own business. Inside the greenhouse it was thriving and clearly happy. It put itself there and well it's good to have some spare incase the weather wipes out the rest of this plant. It's a plant I love - partly because of its name, but also because it's a great filler and softens the edges. It has to be used carefully, I'd never plant it in a flowerbed, but along paving and walls it's brilliant. And next time you visit a National Trust or similar garden, look out for it, it's more widespread than you first think.

But outside I think the weather could be starting to get to it. I'm not sure if its the cold or the wet. We'll see how it goes, but at least I know I've got some backup.

Outside the greenhouse I checked my 'spare' brassicas and they're still doing ok. I'm sure they'd do much better in the ground, so remember my allotment to do list, yes these are the ones I need to find space for. There's some curly kale, purple sprouting broccoli and a few more red cabbages, because I don't think you can have too many. And I still can't throw out plants that are growing!

A little sun makes all the difference doesn't it? Especially if you've got a lovely warming fleece on!