The even newer good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2021!

Suffolk_lass

@-taff - It's a case of wimpy gardener, not the potatoes. Here is EA it is quite normal to leave them until late April. Last night the forecast was for a brief period of 10 degrees so it might be today

carinjo

I had an unexpected free afternoon (should say evening), so planted my potatoes! Did cover it up with a bit of fleece just to keep whatever dug up my herb box out for the first week. 
Invested in some blue scaffolding netting and W1lko was selling 30cm pots for £1.50, will use them for the aubergines. 

Caitykinss

The frost and cold has killed the nasturtiums and all but three zinnias in my zippy greenhouse (as of last night, they might have all perished this morning!). Luckily have more seed so I'll give both another go at the weekend. Really glad I'd not moved anything else out there yet, despite the annoyance of my other half who hates that the house has turned into a garden centre! 

Weather looks better next week, so lets hope it stays that way and no more April snow! 

As a side note, I had delphiniums and asters in my makeshift propagator that seem to have gotten too wet and have yet to germinate. I've taken the lids off to dry them out a bit, but hope the seeds haven't rotted. 

MovingForwards

I've had more seeds arrive today, some are flowers to put in the neighbours garden when that's ready for planting. 

Being an experimental grower I now have squash and melon seeds. My great plan for those are growbags on my patio as it gets loads of sun, as does the rest of my garden, but without taking space away from my staple veg items.

Suffolk_lass

Wretched mice have been in the pots in my greenhouse and had the squash and bean seeds. If it were not so depressing I would replant but will leave it until next week

Suffolk_lass

Planted out the seed potatoes yesterday afternoon in a brief spell of warm weather.

One of the local beekeepers came home to find her bees on the brink of swarming and managed to ready a second hive, into which they all walked. Ours were very active on all the sources of water in the garden and loads of pollen coming in, which is an indication of the hive building up

carinjo

My jab knocked me out for a couple of days, but managed to drag myself to allotment first thing to finish the first dig on leek bed. 
Mr R was there to plant some cauliflower seedlings and showed me how to set up strong enough support for my big tomatoes. He also already got his baby leeks in the ground. His philosophy: if it grows it grows, if not, he got plenty more seeds. I love it.
Getting my pots and soil ready for potting up tomatoes tomorrow *fingers crossed*
@Suffolk_lass sorry to read about the mice, but yeah for the bees! 
@Caitykinss i feared the same for my sweetpeas, was going to move them to a warmer spot to "dry out" this morning. Imagine my surprise when 5 of the 6 popped their heads out overnight!
But my beetroot seedlings mostly flopped over, gone too leggy. Think the next batch of seeds straight in the ground.

carinjo

Well, obviously feeling better today. Started at 8am on allotment.
Dug over the leek bed and put fleece over, ready for direct sowing. Prepared and planted 2 types lettuce and radish in leftover bit of broadbean bed.
2 propagated sage plants into raised herb bed.

At home, are you ready....potted up 32 tomatoes! Only lost 1 and 2 were too small to bother with. So chuffed. Fingers crossed don't kill them now.
Potted up 5 aubergine, hardly any roots, not sure they will make it. 
Added more soil to the leeks, ms marple having a munch last week gave the rest more room and they already getting a bit thicker. 
Moved the (floppy) beetroot into green house, look a lot better already, but will bring inside for evenings for now.
2 growbags of desiree potatoes at home.
Repotted the big lavender into an even bigger pot. Was 4 plants, 1 will go to allotment.
Tired now. 

Suffolk_lass

Having my car windscreen replaced by a mobile service today so I need to stay home and close by so I will bring indoors some of the remaining small pots and plant replant the corn, squashes and a few beans, leaving the larger pots outside to take pot luck. I can fit 8 pots in my mini heated propagator, and four or five on a tray n top of the bug zapper. There is another unheated drip try that I will also populate, to try and recover a bit.

I am going to wait until it's warmer and direct sow some bean and corn seeds, and I always do this with salads. Really it is the squashes that have suffered most, and I can see the seed husks all over the tray and pots. 

All the tomatoes are growing well and so are cosmos and hollyhocks. I should probably assemble the new cold frame and get that out there to move those into so the great light in the greenhouse can be taken advantage of

Caitykinss

Glad I resisted anything garden based this weekend. The frost was so bad this morning, my car doors were frozen solid! Tomorrow onwards looks better, so I think I'll get my potatoes out tomorrow night after work, and maybe get some sowing done in the greenhouse. I have a handful of seed packets for various flowers (rudbekia, foxgloves, geraniums, hollyhocks and bergamot) that I'd scheduled in for the last couple of weekends. I'll need to redo my poor frozen zinnias and want to get some lettuce on too.

@carinjo my soggy seeds are starting to dry out and had two lavatera germinate. Nothing from the rest yet (delphiniums and asters), but the seed packet tells me they could take ages anyway, so not giving up hope. 

Aubergines and padron peppers now germinated and looking good. I did the peppers in individual pots so they'll be fine for a while, but aubergines will want going into individual pots soon I think. 

My calendar is telling me to do basil, beetroot (indoors if I have enough pots/space), carrots and leeks and the weekend. A busy week ahead I think.