Vegetables - the early days

I have had some spinach plugs sitting outside for a couple of weeks now. I think the deal with these guys is that you plant them straightaway, but that was not to be. I've been procrastinating a while, partly as I'd planned to build a wooden planter for them (last weeks weather thwarted me). I took one look at their squished little faces this afternoon and realised that today should be the day. The sooner they're potted up the sooner we can eat them! They are now happily stretching their legs...

I hope they have enough space in there. One of the things about growing veg in pots is that if you were to follow the spacing advice, well, you'd just have 12 pots of spinach and not much else. And tasty though it is, that'd make for a fairly monochromatic scheme... My mum reckoned I could squeeze a few into this pot, especially if I cut leaves before they're huge. Which is when they're nicest. A win-win spinach situation!

On the other side of the window, there's been some serious excitement in the tomato department. Serious. Two (two!) seeds have sprouted.

Out of a possible fifteen, but I have hope. Those two Toms might just be quick off the mark. The seeds are out of date (does that really matter?) and I've rarely grown much from seed so didn't quite trust the magic to happen. But it has. (YAY!!) The packet suggested a propagator but it seems my little-pots-in-a-big-tray-with-clingfilm version has done the job. Fingers crossed the other seed siblings will crawl their way to the surface and a fruity life.

I've got some rocket seeds to plant up too. The excitement of the tomato babies has definitely inspired me to plant more seeds. Also, it would obviously be amazing to have a greenhouse, but I kind of like having my version on the living room table - I get to see it all happen, clock the changes, and (crucially!) it prompts me to remember to look after them...

In other news, I had a visit from Monsieur Nutkins the other day. Balcony gardening renders me exempt from lots of wildlife damage (slugs are thankfully rare) but its nice to have visitors sometimes. I'm growing flowers for the bees (the poor bees!) and I might get a bird feeder. Nutkins hasn't wreaked any destruction yet, so he's fine by me.

Hello my bushy tailed friend. Don't you go nibbling my veggies!

Raindrops on roses

Rain is not one of my favourite things, but after the unseasonal dearth of it lately, its hard to resent. Though I've luxuriated in all this sunshine, it's been hard to ignore the drought warnings that have appeared. It's April! Drought? Here, now? Bonkers.

No-one could deny the smell of happy relieved plants when the heavens opened yesterday.

Trembling pearls of water caught in the curves of my aquilegia, soon to roll off.

Raindrops on roses. (Don't it give you that Maria feeling..?) Rain really freshens the colours of the leaves. I love their softly winestained edges.

The first buds on these freesias have only just burst into bloom. They were all I could smell out there!

I've lost more plants to the sun than I should have since living here. Going away without arranging a waterer or just being lazily forgetful over consecutive scorching days, I've felt horribly guilty discovering them wilting, parched and sometimes unrescuable.

I've been careful to water religiously through the recent dry spell, and have also been adding water retention granules into pots old and new as a backup. Pots are very vulnerable, they don't have the option of plunging their roots deeper to quench their thirst. I've trapped them 3 floors up and have a responsibility to keep them alive. Even when it does rain, some plants by walls miss out due to angle issues... I must be vigilant!

I remember my geography teacher talking about the drought of 1976, and how her father had collected the family's bathwater for weeks to keep his garden alive. We should all do that. There's so much waste. It'll be a serious jug relay though!

I feel sad for people with bigger gardens than mine for whom this hosepipe ban will spell disaster. (I will think of them happily whenever it rains!) At the same time I understand that all resources are finite and we need to be more mindful of this. There's some really useful advice on the RHS website about dealing with drought.

And check out the amazing dry garden at Hyde Hall - apparently they don't water it at all!

Progress!

Friday was long and hot and I was off work. I spent literally all day on the balcony, from my first cup of tea to sweeping it down at dusk. It's the longest stint I've had for quite a while. Ever, even! It's rare to have a completely free day that coincides with decent weather, at least at this time of year.

People look at how small my balcony is and can't conceive how I manage to find so much to do out there! But it's deceptive. Pots are fairly high maintenance and dry out fast, and then there's my plant buying habits - newbies have to be potted up, and I end up rearranging loads of pots to find them the right placement... Weeding and pruning too, and trying to remember to feed things occasionally. Because I love to be out there, I do go looking for jobs to do sometimes, tiny trims, bits of sweeping. Turning pots a few degrees... Or just looking at it all living, breathing, growing. All the little miracles.

At the moment there is no time for such leisurely pursuits, there's too much to do! It seems like in a matter of weeks its all gone from an almost-graveyard to full of fresh life. One of the major jobs on Friday was repotting my jasmine. It was desperately in need of a move and some more legroom, and has now had both. I've moved it to the end wall where we have our table. I've decided to focus on making that end nice first so we have a green and flowering bit to sit in. I've struggled to make clematis happy against that wall for years - I had visions of a generous frothing tangle of it but the reality has been a few tragic straggling vines that succumbed to mould and didn't come within a mile of my imaginings. So to hell with them! If the trusty jasmine survived it's old spot then hopefully it will thrive now its more sheltered and secure. As you can see in the picture above (jasmine in pride of place) we also have an ugly satellite dish that I'm determined to camouflage as much as possible, hopefully with lots of fast growing jasmine fronds...

I've also moved the big rose into that corner, and fashioned a raiser out of an old palette to hold up a couple of other pots. One of the things I want to really work on this year is having varied levels, not just a bunch of sad little pots sitting on the floor.

I also went plant shopping. (Again!) I'll introduce them properly soon but here's a sneak preview:

That smorgasbord of loveliness includes some vegetables. Very excited about them! Looking forward to my first homegrown meal.