It was mostly dull on Thursday with only a few very brief glimpses of sunshine.
I’d decided to sow our leeks earlier this year. Last year they were sown on 8th April so this year’s seeds are in a whole month ahead of last year which I suppose thinking about it is quite a bit earlier. Perhaps it’s the mild start to the month that’s encouraged me to sow the seeds now. Last year at the beginning of March we had a series of keen overnight frosts from the 2nd to 11th March with temperatures falling as low as -5.1°C so there wasn’t a lot of encouragement to make an early start to seed sowing. I also made a start sowing some of our sweet peas today too. These were sown on the 2nd April last year so I’m well ahead of last year at the moment. Hopefully by the time any of these seeds have germinated any danger of really cold nights in the greenhouse will be past.
I managed to make some space for the seeds on the greenhouse floor next to our onion sets which are now all starting to shoot. The onions and shallots will be the first plants to move out of the greenhouse and into the cold frame to make way for more seed sowings.
Our second camellia which only receives a light pruning each year is also in flower. Unfortunately I can see the time approaching when this too will need a major pruning. In the meantime it continues to produce some spectacular flowers.
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I start my leeks early. Since they take so long to grow.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful flower to welcome Spring!
Hi Robin
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem. The flowers on our camellias are so beautiful we don't like to prune them too hard and loose next years flowers. Result is shrub eventually gets way too big for our garden!
Has Sue asked you to leave the Camellia pruning to her after the short back and sides you gave the other one? I'm hoping to get both leeks and sweet peas sown this weekend. Are your sweet peas sown in the buckets?
ReplyDeleteYes she has - she just gives it a light prune each year.
ReplyDeleteI've sown leeks in the buckets where they'll stay until planted out. They might get thinned out if too many seeds germinate. The sweet peas are sown in the cells - this normally works OK for garden peas so I'm hoping it works for sweet peas. If not I'm in serious trouble again!!
Good luck sowing the leeks and sweet peas this weekend.