tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11597893.post-1142850367854348222006-03-20T10:54:00.000Z2006-03-20T10:55:57.073ZI finally did some planting and tidying up this weekend, and I feel much better for it! <br /><br />Friday I went to B&Q, Homebase and our local independent Garden Centre which is called Taskers and was amazed to see that black bins cost £8.99 each... Forsomethingg that I'm going to leave behind when I go I'm not prepared to pay that much so I'm going to ask the Secretary if he can find me another water butt off an empty plot like he did my last one, there is one on the plot behind mine that is all full of weed as it's obviously been sitting there full for so long so maybe they can empty that and I can have it. I was going to get some flower seeds from B&Q but the service was so terrible that Little One and I left and I didn't find any seeds I wanted in the other 2 places. I did get a bargain £2.99 dirty washing basket from Taskers to put the compost stuff in. I'd not been to the plot in 3 weeks due to being away, being ill and then snow so we had rather an avalanche of stuff out the back and I was worrying about rats so now we have a nice container to put it in rather than having it in an open bucket.<br /><br />I started of on Saturday by cleaning up the potting bench in the back garden and emptying all the pots out into the wheelie bin, I hope to god they actually empty it today as it weighs a ton and a half, I was merrily working away quite forgetting that we would have to move the bin full of wet soil, DH seems to have managed it though so that's ok! I put away pots under the bench and stacked the others up nicely and who'd of thunk it, I can now actually *use* the bench rather than it being covered in crap and having to lean over 72 pots to get to it!<br /><br />I did my first planting as well, outside in the old washing basket I planted Cottage Herbery's Own Salad Leaf Mix. I got these seeds at Tatton Park RHS Show, the stall was wonderful and I'm hoping that they will be at the Southport Flower Show (my Mum and I agreed that we actually preferred this show to Tatton Park so we're going there again this year for our outing) so I can get some more herbs. The seed packet says that the mix included Green cress, Parsley curled and French, trespinachch, Chervil, Cornsalad, Verte de Cambrai, American cress, wild rocket, salad rocket, mustarspinachch, red mustard, bulls blood beet, red salad bowl lettuce and red orach. I saw it growing and it looked fab! I put the whole packet in as the basket was so big and I'm determined to get my little boy eating salad this year (he's almost 3) so I want to make having a bowl of salad on the table a regular thing in our house so he will get used to it. I've got 2 more packets of mixed leaves that I will put in when the previous lot look worse for wear and hopefully it should see us through until winter.<br /><br />I also planted Thompson and Morgan Baby Rosanna F1 Hybrid Aubergine which are suitable for pots so I'm growing them in the back yard, I planted 3 of those as I had split the packet with my sister. Then I planted 5 (again split the packet) Thompson and Morgan Burpless Tasty Green F1 Hybrid Cucumber which I'm also intending to grow in pots out the back (so I can go out and pick the whole salad in one go!). They are currently living on my kitchen windowsil with attractive plastic bags over the pots. I planted just 1 ceramic pot of each variety rather than individual little pots as I didn't have any to hand. I have a few more things to get going next month for the back yard but those 2 were the only ones calling for a March planting on the packet.<br /><br />Yesterday we went down to the plot to take the compost, check things out and pick anything that was ready. I was a happy to see that everything seems to have done well despite the rain, rain and more rain we've had followed by snow and then more rain. My cabbages have actual cabbages in the centre now, some of them are about 4 inches across which is exciting! I pulled the largest leek, which actually wasn't that large when it was out of the ground, and got a huge bag full of Kale which I'd not had until I grew it but am really enjoying. I cooked some shop bought Kale at my Aunt and Uncles house when we went a few weeks back and it was nowhere near as nice as my own stuff which made me happy!<br /><br />The shed is nice and tidy, the beds I'd weeded look fine, the onions are growing well and the rhubarb is coming up really well too. I am planning on going next week to dig another 2 square foot gardening beds and weed another bed ready for potatoes but I don't think I will be planting them for a few weeks yet as the ground is so wet. Anyone else in this area got an idea when they are going to put their spuds in? I've got 5 varieties to go in and I was intending to stick them in all at the same time as they should cover the whole season (early, main crop x 2, lates and salad).<br /><br />I'm also itching to get stuff in the trays in the shed but it's still so cold that I don't think it will survive. I'm going to start checking the weatheforecastst and as soon as it looks like there's a turn I'll be covering the space again to get things ready to go in the ground! I'm excited about how little digging I need to do this year after last year's almost constant digging. I should be able to finish digging the plot in 4 sessions and that's amazing to me! I imagine that I'll still be doing it at the last minute though but that's just the way it goes with me!Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09025074547529568579noreply@blogger.com