Seeds and Stuff - May 2015

May has been a weird month - not an awful lot of rain, but pretty cold.  In fact, I've had to pop the heating on for a couple of evenings - ridiculous!  This month wasn't so much about sowing new seeds, as potting on the seedlings I already had and concentrating on looking after what was already growing. So many of the seeds have taken this year that I didn't need to keep topping up - for instance, I've got that many carrots, but still had scheduled to sow some more this month. But given the amount that are already sprouting, I decided to not bother.

Tomatoes sown in March.  I sowed some more in April so have got loads ready for succession planting. When am I ever going to eat this many tomatoes?!

Same with kale - I really don't need to sow any more of these for a while.  Crazy!

Everything's going mad. Although only the seedlings on the top shelf can be seen in this photo, there are two more shelves with as many seedlings. I might have to set up a stall outside my front garden to sell off the excess produce at this rate, if everything takes.

The potatoes are going great guns - one lot have been fully earthed up to the top of their growing bags, while the other lot need topping up. (I have stupidly run out of new compost - I have lots in my compost bin, but because it had last year's spuds in, I cannot reuse it in these sacks. I can, of course, use it for other potting ons.)  If each of my potato plants produces twenty spuds, then I can hope to harvest 640 this year!!!   That did make me chuckle as I was trying to explain that at work!  I've got six good courgette plants which are now outside - although they have taken a bit of a battering as we've had really fierce winds for the past twenty-four hours. I shall keep an eye on them.

The back garden is looking glorious right now with some really stunning flowers out there.  In the six years I've been here, I've never seen this pieris look more beautiful.

And I'm sure this is the first time that the azalea has flowered since I've lived here.

I'm really happy with the way the front garden is looking this year - I usually grow all my veggies in the back garden, but I've moved them to the front this year as the back garden was looking rather over-crowded. I've also bought some new plants at the Creake Abbey Plant Lovers Fair (post to follow) so am hoping to have more flowery goings on out the front.

Kniphofia Tawny King and Liatris.

Lupins.

My front garden (and back as well) has been taken over by foxgloves - I don't mind as I love them!

So, overall, am very pleased with how everything's looking at the moment.  Just need a bit more rain and for it to warm up a bit!