GrowGirl.com – Diary – Week – 29^th May to 4^th June

Overnight rain improves planting for Spring Bank holiday.  We buy leeks and brassica seedlings plus courgettes, an Allium, a new caddy for my tools and a rain gauge for G to play with.

Tuesday finds me re-arranging plants in a friend’s garden in the hot afternoon sun and thankfully the Monbretia and Soloman’s seal survive and me too, enabling me to do two hours of evening weeding elsewhere.   Those pesky weeds and grasses certainly know how to grow and flourish.

We pick a small strawberry crop on Wednesday morning whilst weeding and then take a few softwood cuttings of mint and sage which I know will do well.  However, the Lovage and lavender cuttings look unhappy and l’m not sure how they will do.  A buying spree at Cotefield, one of our local nurseries, for nepeta, a red geranium, Cineraria and onion sets.  I really needed shallots but didn’t realise they are planted up in late autumn so now is too early.  I may plant shallot seeds for use in November if there’s growing space.

Planting out my Anemone blanda from late-winter sown seeds which now look very good on the plant table with my Marguerite cuttings and bright red geraniums.  I also grew cuttings of Artemisia, lavender, curry plant and marjoram all of which did very well.

Back to the allotment on Thursday to water, weed and plant out new salad items after pulling out a few bolted micro greens; must remember, avoid the dreaded plant-glut by not planting out everything all at once in future!

On Friday, my hotbox and herb bed get weeded and my sorrel plant too, for its threatening to fail if I don’t harvest some of its leaves.  Salad growing is an intensive job, keeping track of new growth, harvesting leaves before the flea beetle feeds and catching crops before they begin to set seed.  Harvesting in smaller quantities too is better for the kitchen routine, otherwise there’s a great deal of leaf preparation and handling to be done, before making supper at the end of a busy spell in the garden.  A tarragon in the hotbox has succumbed to my flourishing flat leaf parsley, which I prune, and the golden marjoram plant has done so well that its time to remove it to another bed, leaving space for tumbling tomatoes to be planted.  I plant courgette plants and Tagetes with the marjoram and think they will all do very well together.  In the next bed my horseradish leaves are already showing through which is very exciting.  My earlier planted courgettes are growing madly.

My herbaceous border is filling up nicely and the welcome rain makes everything look so much better.  I dig a new trench for the nepeta to grow in and wait until the cool of the evening to plant them.  I wanted to add either pansies or more French Marigolds but ran out of daylight.   My new flower allotment is fairly hard work right now and there’s still more grass to remove before I can make other sowings and plantings.  I’m not a fan of digging so the work continues slowly.

On Sunday, I’m garden visiting at Katharine House Hospice, for their Open Garden Day, and showing visitors our WI Grow Wild wild flower area which is now bright with pink Campion, Corn chamomile and one beautiful Corncockle flower.  A bright Sunday morning gives way to a warm but grey afternoon and then rain finally ends our event, driving visitors and gardeners to their cars as the heavens open.  I wonder what reading our allotment rain gauge will display tomorrow morning?

Margaret Halstead xxx

Copyright © Margaret Halstead 2017