Hi - ho!

Yes - feeling a bit like the 7 dwarfs song. We dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig dig, dig the whole day though. There is nothing else for it really. Still - there is a bit of progress. The first picture shows what has been achieved so far on the main veg area. Granted it still looks a bit rooty and needs some more forking over, but it is so much easier to work on. Once I am happy that it is reasonably clear I will cover it with wood chips. Until about 3 or 4 years ago, the garden was surrounded by a (cue scary music) Leylandii hedge. It took up so much space and made everything so dark - not to mention how it covered up some rather nice brick wall. We knew it had to go, so the local tree surgeon was called and he did the deed. He then asked if we wanted him to take the trees away, or chip them on site. For some reason my husband asked for them to be chipped. We were left with a piles of wood chips behind the garage that rivalled the Pyramids of Egypt in scale! Now, however, they have composted down considerably, but will still provide enough mulching material to cover the whole of Scotland. The second photograph is I suppose my garden equivalent of "Here's one I made earlier!' It is the new onion bed - almost ready to go. I have since put the wooden edging onto the bed and it really looks quite ... bed like! You can also see a tiny corner of the garlic bed, which has been covered with lots of jaggy branches to keep the naughty neighbourhood cats off. Hoping for some fine spring weather next week, as husband has another wee holiday from work.

A sunny harvest

A beautiful day to pick the coltsfoot flowers that have sprung up like tiny suns around the plot. We will dry them - although they do go quite fuzzy - and mix them with the leaves when they appear. Coltsfoot is also known as "Son afore the Faither", as the flowers appear before the leaves. The Latin name is Tussilago which means to take away the cough, and the lightness and brightness of the flowers apparently clears out black residues from the lungs. A good respiratory spring tonic then.
James and I spent the day in the garden, just mucking around. As he is not walking yet, he used his push-along car to get around. Later I planted more seeds in the greenhouse, while he did some gravel and water mixing - mostly on his trousers :)
The staging in the greenhouse is starting to look a bit more business like now, with new trays of sown seed creeping in all the time. Today we planted sowed climbing beans into root-trainers and also refilled the propagator with peppers, courgettes and herbs. We are getting there and it feels good!

Tomato Fever

The tomatoes are out of the propagator and sitting nicely in 3 inch pots on the greenhouse staging. Getting to that point is always the trickiest part as far as my gardening skills are concerned, so now I feel fairly confident - well - lets just say a bit less nervous, that we will have tomatoes this year. I read an interesting thing about transplanting seedlings at the weekend - after moving them - spray them with Rescue Remedy! So, I did. There are loads of seedlings - 9 Black from Tula, 9 Sioux, 8 White Tomasol and 8 Roma. I only really planned to bring on 3 of each, but I can never make myself do the 'use the strongest seedling and discard the other' maxim - feels like I am needlessly destroying a potential life. I regret this later on, of course,when I need a machete to cut my way in to the greenhouse, but the wonderful smell of tomato leaves and the thought of those multi-coloured salads will be worth it. Also, my Dad is going to take some off my hands, and I thought about putting some on Freecycle, so really that means I have more space than I thought - back to the catalogues :)

Spring Snow and Summery Dreams

It has snowed here the last two nights and mornings. A typical spring snow which fell heavily with large sticky flakes - hard and slushy, and completely gone by the afternoon. Winter just wants us not to get too excited yet. I am a bit excited though, because my tomato seeds are up and looking quite strong. Everything has germinated except the Ailsa Craig seeds, which is no real surprise about as I found the packet at the back of the garage where it had been for over a year. The Seeds of Distinction Catalogue came in yesterday and I want to grow everything. My annual seed order is largely dictated by dishes I have imagined, or recipes I want to try out. Sometimes even by the serving plates I have - the heirloom tomatoes are being grown just so I can serve a multi-coloured tomato salad in my new white square shaped shallow bowl. So with that in mind I simply must have a green tomato, oh - and I see a purple one too, and I absolutely must add the chocolate coloured pepper to the order. Hmm - that's going to be one big salad!