Stop the Clock!

We have reached that glorious moment when you stand up, straighten your tired back and think 'done it', for today is the day that everything is finally out of the dining room and into the ground!

All the plants have been released into the big wide, (and currently very windy), world to fend for themselves. It took a couple of weekend sessions to get it done, but with the exception of the leeks that aren't big enough yet, or in the dining room, we are finished.

I shoved Heather up on the shed roof again to take a couple of aerial shots (she'll buy me that drone I want soon if I keep doing this). As you can see all the beds look pretty busy now.

Beds 2/3 

Beds 1/3/4/5

There is of course the small matter of weeding, feeding , watering, mulching, grass cutting, protecting, pruning, picking and successional sowing but it feels like a victory to us and we can worry about all that next weekend can't we. For now we just look forward to the fruits of our labour as it were.

This one of the Sierra lettuces that was planted from seed under the cloches in late Feb, it has taken a while to get to this size, but its worth the wait.

As a reward I invested in these. All the planting has pretty much done for my old metal ones so why not. On sale in Tesco £2.40 each.

The only nagging question is, did we cheat just a little bit, by buying a few plants?

I guess this depends on your point of view. The great allium disaster of 2017 meant that we have half a bed spare far earlier than planned and my cabbages and kale just didn't take off, I don't think they liked the compost. So I'm taking the view that given the late planting date for replacements, a couple of butternut squash and a tray of kale and cabbages from a garden centre is not cheating, but a wise investment. Ironically for the windy conditions this week one variety was called Hurricane.

Jono over at Real Men Sow recently wrote a couple of posts on the advantages of buying seedlings which are work a read. Click HERE to have a look.

I'm thinking that next year more plants may come from external sources. don't get me wrong, I like growing from seed, but space is an issue and this tends to lead to leggy plants that have been a deprived of light. It would be nice to plant out a tomato that didn't have 9 inches between leaves! I give this one some more thought next year.

Happy gardening folks!!