I suppose I’d better start with an apology – I seriously have no idea where the last month or so has gone! While I may have been somewhat lacking in attention to my updates, I certainly have not been neglecting the garden…

Yesterday we put the house on the market and I have to say that I am now glad that I went quite so far over winter with the pruning because the main beds are needing very little attention. There’s an odd bit to prune, where something’s shot off at a tangent and the inevitable weeds but really my main focus has been on bringing on seeds/seedlings and my vegetable patch. I’ll deal with the latter in a separate post but I’m very excited about all the produce so in a weird sort of way, I hope we don’t sell before I can reap some of the benefits!

I hunted out Grandpa’s old propagator and bought a couple of covered seed trays and have been bringing on some bedding plants – cosmos, petunias, lobelia and the like – annuals are not something I generally bother with but thought it was worth it for the viewings. And also very useful for starting off the more tricky/fragile vegetables. I’ve even sown lobelia and surfinia for the hanging baskets, although not convinced how well they will do…

At the moment, the window sills are covered with more lobelia and cosmos (having planted the first lot out, we then did a practical session at college on seed sowing!) and yellow and green courgette seeds but they haven’t poked their heads through yet.

I also have an apology to make. I resorted to using a selective weedkiller last weekend. Next door neighbour is very nice but the garden has not been touched by either him or the previous neighbour so the weeds are abundant and constantly spread. I’m not bothered about picking out whatever comes across, but it’s getting too much now and the dandelions are popping up all over the lawn. Also there is an unidentified perennial spreading weed that attracts greenfly so although I’m hanging my head in shame I admit, I did spray some perennial weeds…is it better to do that once a year than resort to insecticide on several occassions throughout the year? Not sure and I’m sure there are organic solutions but on this occassion convenience and speed were the deal breakers.

So, the garden has come on leaps and bounds and I’ll take some photos at the weekend and post them too.

We’re likely to be on the market for a long time so at least we’ll be able to enjoy all the hard work for a bit longer. Hoping to buy somewhere with a bigger garden next!

Will post more on the veggie patch later on…