I've been planting seeds this month! Only a few, as it's still a bit chilly, but seed planting time makes me soo happy!
I planted some 'Lipstick' sweet peppers, they're an early variety and I bought the seeds from The Real Seed Catalogue. They're currently hanging out on a sunny windowsill under polythene while they germinate.
I also planted some 'Casablanca' potatoes in some slightly too small pots. I just want a few new potatoes really, so hopefully my experiment will be a success.
My other big big excitement this month has been taking delivery of my new shed and mini greenhouse. So far just the greenhouse up, it arrived flat packed and I would have liked to have done it myself but I managed to hammer in 3 nails, badly, before having a strop. I would never have been able to build it on my own, it didn't have any holes pre-drilled or proper measurements. I have IKEA level DIY skills, good job I had a boy to kindly help me!
This is what the area looked like before,
And after! (I've been painting the fence 'Jasmine White' too!)
I'm about half way there with the fence painting.
Here's my little garden chum this month, a ladybird warming herself up in the new greenhouse.
This time last year I still had my balcony garden at the flat, all those spring bulbs in pots are planted in my garden now!
I can't wait for things to start growing properly now it's spring!
I've already got forget me nots and tulips coming up!
I want to garden plastic free this year as far as possible, here are some articles I've been using for inspiration and research,
3 cool tips for plastic free gardening from My plastic free life. There are also good ideas and ponderings in this post on plastic free planting and replanting too.
Ways to get plastic out of your vegetable garden from Rodale's organic life.
This article from Soft Landings seems to have some useful info on what types of plastics are safer to use.
What's happening in your garden this month? And do you garden plastic free? It is even possible?!
I really like your raised bed, looks like you have loads of space in there. We are sorting our garden out this year, but it's not plastic-free :(
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm really lucky with the size of my garden, there's loads of room! Hope you enjoy sorting your garden!
DeleteHe he, I've also sown the 'lipstick' peppers.
ReplyDeleteI just love the progress you are making in your garden. The fence looks so much better painted and it will bounce the light around in your garden.
let me know how you get on with your lipstick peppers, my first one sprouted today! :D
DeleteI think the fence looks much better too, I've discovered it's rotten in places while I've been painting so it'll need replacing in the next couple of years but the white definitely brightens things up for now!
What a fabulous little greenhouse! I'm contemplating taking down my old and rather unsafe greenhouse - it's too big for my needs and the glass keeps falling out! - but something like yours would be ideal, just enough for me to start things off before transplanting them into the ground :)
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of plastic free gardening, sounds like an interesting concept.
So nice that you could bring the plants from your balcony, I was sad to leave behind so many plants that I'd planted and nurtured when we moved.
Oh how sad to leave your plants! But at least you get to buy more!
DeleteI do love my little greenhouse, I only wish the shelf in the middle came out, so I could grow a tall tomato plant in there once I've got most of my seedlings out (we did try to build it that way, but it needed to be fixed to stop the whole thing being wobbly!), apart from that though it's ideal, especially as we don't have room for a big greenhouse.
Wow what a change Susie. I am so happy for you that both your home and garden are becoming more and more homely. You are full of steam too, I wish I had your enthusiasm for the garden, I am hoping to get my mojo back this year after two years of failure in the garden. I think part of the reason is our garden is on a slope, so it seems so much harder to work and then the beasties and pests feast on what i had planted, made my heart sink. So lets hope this year is better, though we have been slow with weeding and digging the garden. By the way where did you get that wooden greenhouse from? I think I'd like one for my seedlings.
ReplyDeleteThank you Shaheen :D I've always wanted a garden and this is the first time I've had one of my own, so I think that's why I'm so happy! But I can see how easy it would be to get downhearted when things don't work, I hope you have happier garden times this season :)
DeleteThe little greenhouse is from here (but if you google 'Forrest mini greenhouse' you can see it's available from loads of different shops at different prices, this was the cheapest I could find it!)
http://www.greatlittlegarden.co.uk/grow-your-own/greenhouses/mini-greenhouse
I do really love it now it's up, but it was difficult to make, it came with some missing/wrong parts and it arrived really, really wet, so I'm not sure how far I'd recommend this exact model!