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