How Does Your Garden Grow…

I am always amazed at how quickly time marches on! It really does not feel like it has been over a week since I last visited here. Yet, it is! In all fairness we are in the middle of school holidays at the moment and we have been keeping wonderfully busy. We are in the final stretch this week so it is back to school as from Monday. It will be good to get back into our regular routine.

Over the week-end we had some lovely sunny weather, and when the sun shines in England everyone takes full advantage of it. This week-end saw us busily working in the garden. There is much to do to be ready for planting out when the weather finally warms. 

This year I have been dreaming of a beautiful kitchen garden. I have often looked at Mr. McGregor’s garden from Beatrix Potters ‘Peter Rabbit’ and drifted off into garden dream land! Imagine having a kitchen garden like that! I dream of combining vegetables and flowering plants, loads of them, a hodgepodge of fresh food, herbs and flowers. I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to kitchen garden inspiration and aspiration!  

So with the slightly – ever so slightly – elevated temperatures, and the sun happily crossing the sky, I got to work sowing seeds.

 Beetroot, carrots, parsnips, peas, radish, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, pumpkins – only things that we will eat. Of course there is more to come like lettuce, rocket etc. But my greenhouse and my conservatory are full! Seedling trays are just about everywhere at the moment

Other seeds sown were Sunflowers and Teasels for the birds, Foxgloves, Pansy’s, Cornflowers, Orange Balsam, Sweet peas, Poppies and Canterbury bells.

I planted out containers full of beautiful Primrose. They are colourful, hardy to frost and have brightened up the front of the house.

The Daffodils and Narcissi are finally opening up and are looking beautiful.

With allot of hard digging we removed all the grass from the rose bed at the end of the drive, planted two Forsythia and planted up the wheelbarrow you see in the picture above. I will be sure to post a picture of that in due course – this pic was taken pre-planting ;o). I plan on filling the bed with Strawberry plants which are all still tucked away in the greenhouse. I’m not sure how frost resistant they are. If you know please do leave a comment.

We filled the bed in front of the conservatory with some new and some moved plants. I love how it is looking and can’t wait to see it all grow into itself.

And this weekend our lawn got it’s first cut of the season! Yipeeeee! It is looking great!

Next on the gardening ‘To Do’ list is to get those veggie beds cut before May so that we can plant out all our lovely – by then – strong seedlings! Hopefully I wont be chasing away rabbits this summer like Mr. McGregor here!