Joe Maiden (RIP) used to say that Good Friday was the ideal time to plant potatoes. Meanwhile, Spike from Morschen43 in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, plants his around April 10th and if all goes well, they’re ready to eat by July 6–7th.
We got ours in a few weeks ago in the raised bed (and some in another bed under jam jars) with plastic covering them, and they’re already sprouting. There’s still a risk of frost though, so we’ll be putting the plastic back over them in the evenings to keep them from any cold weather or potential frost damage.
We checked http://www.lastfrostdate.co.uk above again and hopefully we should be okay, but you know what the weather will be like, it could be snowing here tomorrow and then a heatwave over the Easter weekend. We say stick your spuds in but keep an eye on the weather and if there are frosts forecast, stick some fleece, fabric or net curtains over the top! Good luck.
Then at the back of the bed we stuck in the remaining seven seed potatoes of the “Jazz” variety. There’s still going to be some cold nights to come, so when they do sprout they’ll hopefully be protected by the jam jars. Hope there’s been some work in the garden where you are.
The other day we saw a great space saving device on Facebook; someone had put their seed trays on a shoe rack. Unfortunately, we haven’t got a shoe rack on hand, and the kitchen window is well full. We found this rack thing in the street a few months ago knowing it will come in handy soon, and it did! It’s holding up some Moneymaker tomatoes and some marvel of Peru seedlings. Below are a few different varieties of basil which we sowed today.
We’re trying to find time to tidy up the wild bit and going to fill the now weed-free area around the penstemons and love-in-a-mist with some wildflower seeds. The window frame that once had glass in it is now used to shield some plastic seed covers so they don’t blow away. Waste not, want not, part 33!
Cheers for the great pictures of your garden again Spike and keep them coming!
Today we had some good weather so had a couple of trips armed with the odd teabag and egg carton back and forth to the compost heap. On the way back we spotted these three on the pond. We’ve just found out that it’s toads that lay their spawn in lines. Well you learn something new every day.
The moneymaker tomato seeds have germinated, and we’ve taken the plastic freezer bag off them. As long as those black fungus gnats stay away we should be alright! We’re taking advice from Gardener’s World: “Control them by allowing soil to dry out between waterings, using yellow sticky traps, and placing sand on the soil surface.
Weeds up to me knees 