Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

Firstly, sorry for the title but I do love a poor pun.  I managed to get a few hours in on the plot Saturday morning in the lovely sunshine which is always a bonus. I was down to my vest and shorts at one point, nice for me, not so nice fof the neighbours!  The Runner Bean seedlings have been planted out into the bed, some were significantly bigger than I had thought, and all look well and healthy as I write on Monday. They were given a real good soaking and I will continue to keep them well watered throughout spring and summer as they are thirsty plants.  The  Sonesta Dwarf French Bean  (yellow) seedlings have moved from the conservatory to the greenhouse as part of their hardening off programme and all seems well with them. The  Amethyst Dwarf French Beans  (purple) sowed direct into the bed have clearly failed - it was pretty ambitious on my part sowing them in March - and I have sowed a number into pots now which have taken the place of the Sonesta seedlings in the conservatory.  O

 I had ordered some Miscanthus Indian Summer grass for one of the beds and they duly arrived this week from Thompson & Morgan. I already had two planted at the back of the bed which now holds four; don't look like much at the moment but hopefully the bronze stems and feathery seedheads will look stunning planted as they are behind some French Lavender bushes as the season progresses. In theory, it's the first time I have tried this planting scheme, the golden colours of the grass should sit beautifully behind the green foliage and blue flowers of the Lavender, in theory. Only time will tell I suppose but I am hopeful and look forward to seeing how the bed progresses over the summer.  The Cosmos Purity seeds were sown on a rather dull evening here with no real plan as yet as to where the plants may go as and when they have grown to a suitable size. They are a lovely flower and can fill a border with their white flower, much loved by bees, butterflies hoverflies and alike.

 As mentioned in a post early this week I have been busying myself flicking through various plant catalogues and browsing numerous websites. As predicted a somewhat foolish purchase has been made. Not foolish in that it is an Agapanthus Ever White, Agapanthus are possibly my favourite plant spectacular beauties that they are, but foolish in that I have just paid £14.99 to Thompson & Morgan for a plant they expect to despatch in September!  A classic case of the heart ruling the head, I saw the picture, decided I had to have it and hit the buy button. All I have to do now is wait for 26-weeks for my plant to be delivered. That's right half a year! By the time it is despatched I will have completely forgotten I have purchased the thing and will then have to panic buy a pot to plant it into!! I don't know about parental controls on laptops and mobile phone I need some kind of plant buying control on my electronic devices!  Cheers 🍺

Welcome to the blog and my first post on  Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs . I write sitting in a conservatory that at the moment looks more like a greenhouse with pots full of seeds and seedlings all around me. I am terrble for trying to get the jump on old Mother Nature and have tomato seedlings galore straining for the light, the heater in the conservatory doing overtime recently in the cold snap.  Right now not much is happening in the garden, there a signs here and there, and the first few spring bulbs are bursting into life with Crocus and Snowdrops popping up in the beds and that always makes me feel good, spring and summer are just around the corner.  Hopefully over the coming weeks and months I will be able to share with you my gardening triumphs, and no doubt a few disasters..............but that's all part of the fun and joy of gardening. Not everything works and sometimes things work better than you could have hoped.  For now here is a picture of a three headed tete-a tete