Flowers out this week

Fleabane

Clematis

Beesanium

oriental poppies

star of India clematis

self-seeded foxglove

Why you should clean a greenhouse

I have had my cheap plastic greenhouse up for a few years now and have to confess I have never cleaned it.  Always seemed like too much of a hassle for a cheap plastic thing don't use much - also not in a place where you can get round it.  Excuses, excuses.

one of many leaks

This is one of many leaks which have appeared this year.

There is dirty, mouldy algae forming round the various clips and they are working like blotting paper - soaking up the rain and ultimately letting it drip through.

It really will have to wait for this season.  I hate the thought of trying to sort it with plants around but before I start next year it will need a good going over so that's a bit of research waiting for me.

When to start feeding

By now the general borders and lawn in your garden are getting into full growth and you can start feeding them.  Absolutely not essential but you will see a difference if you do.

I am not giving you very detailed instructions on feeding - there is a ton of information if you Google it.  Different plants have different needs at different times and you can finesse it down to the nth degree.  Over the years I have done this or that and bought different foods for different species but now I do just what my (excellent gardener) mom did all her life - one basic food for the lot applied during the summer.

little round grains of food

I have a tub of granular feed that I buy by weight from Gordon Riggs now and again.  Any 7-7-7 granular feed will do - mine is Growmore.  Here's how I use it:

2 oz instruction for general feeding

You may want to weigh and measure what 2 oz a square yard looks like just once but after that you get a feel for it.  Two ounces is a small cupped part of my hand and the fence panels are six foot long and border is about 4 feet deep so roughly that amount twice for each fence panel - easy peasy.  You'll figure out yours in a similar way.  Try to do it on the first or last day of every month and that makes it easy to remember.  First day for me - weather permitting.  

Hanging baskets and other containers get a Sunday dinner every week with any cheap fruit, flower, all purpose liquid feed that I pick up from here and there- mostly Lidl and places like that.

If I am growing any plant which is to flower and then give me fruit or veg from that, they get the same treatment.  

So, basically anything not in the ground gets liquid feed weekly and anything in the ground gets dry granular 7-7-7 monthly.  Couldn't be easier (or cheaper).

Ready for food

When you've potted on the plants will soon romp away and will be ready for their final growing place - outdoors or in a proper size pot for the rest of the season.

aubergine flower buds

The aubergine my daughter gave me has done well and is putting on its first flower buds.  This is the point at which you should begin to feed it.  Don't feed seedlings it will just make them overgrow and be leggy and weak.  They need to be well established in their last home and be starting to produce flowers.  A cheap tomato food or all purpose feed will do - just water in once a week to encourage more flowers.

Clever stuff

Take a look at this link if you can find ten minutes.  B & Q (probably others???) have come up with a new way of going about bedding plants.  Anything that does away with those flipping polystyrene gubbings gets my vote:

Tea Bag bedding plants

Click on the link, scroll down a bit and watch their video.

When to pot on

If you grow things from seeds it is important to know when to 'pot on'.  
  

40 sunflower seedlings ready for their pots

The first move is called 'pricking out' and that is done when the plant forms its first two (or more) true leaves.  Easy to see here with the sunflowers.  The paler two leaves on the sunflower are the cotyledons.  All seeds will produce these first two leaves and they are pretty much the same shape on every plant and don't look like the proper leaf.  Don't move them on at this two 'leaf' only stage wait until the real leaves start to form.

You then dig them out gently, holding them by the leaves not the stem and put them into small individual pots.  I'll show you this when I do them.

Right now I just wanted to show you how seedlings look when they are ready to move on.

some ready, some are not

These three different veggie seeds were planted at the same time but germinated at different rates - exactly how it should be.  Every plant will have its own gestation time.

On the left are peppers and they just have their cotyledons (not proper leaves) and are not ready to move on.  The centre row are tomatoes and most of those have their proper leaves but only just.  This is also the time to decide which are the best of the bunch as I won't want all the ones that have germinated.  The right hand row of cucumbers have most definitely formed their proper leaves and again one of these is enough, two for belt and braces I suppose.

cucumber

tomato

The tomatoes show up the big difference between cotyledons and proper leaves - they look totally different.

peppers

No sign of a proper leaf yet.

What's in my garden right now

.... not quite right now..... but what was in my garden on May 30th when these pictures were taken...

I suppose the most notable at this time of the year are the Granny Bonnets or columbines (Aquilegias).  They are one of the most incredible plants in the garden for sheer variety.  They interbreed and self-seed, so every year is a surprise.

They can be a few inches high and many varieties can grow to three feet high; there are even some that will reach five feet tall.  There are singles, doubles, bi-colours, lacy, pleated and on and on and on with endless variations in their structure and colours.  Take a look at this site just to give you a flavour:  My favourite Flowers   

Possibly my favourite is the white one which luckily keeps appearing.

white Granny bonnets

blue version

Most of them hang their heads

so be sure to lift them up as you pass

a tiny one almost hidden

love the white tips to the petals

The other 'shy' flower just about leaving me now is the anemone.  This is another where up close and personal is needed to fully appreciate how lovely it is - made of velvet and with a lovely crown in the centre.  This is the wood anemone - again there are many varieties and colours of this plant.

wood anemone

 I am pretty sure the next one is a small allium which is a pleasant surprise as I have never managed to succeed with its big blue brothers.  Let me know if you think it is something else.  I haven't made a note of this anywhere when it was planted but it looks like wild garlic to me so it should be an allium of some sort.

Here comes another unknown.  I have a list of twelve clematis planted in the garden - I am lucky if I see three of them come to flower.  The little alpine made an effort a couple of months ago and now this one has managed it.  The downside is I don't seem to have any record of it and - guess what - I think it was a mis-label again!!!!  I am pretty sure I planted a purple Warsaw Nike in this spot but this is what I have.  It resembles the common old Nelly Moser which must be my least favourite clematis but it has a centre like Josephine so maybe it will go on to produce more petals like she does.  We will see.  Right now I am suppressing disappointment and trying to celebrate any clematis that has what it takes to grow in my garden.

I'll leave you with another Granny's bonnet......... (not a self-portrait).  How lucky we are......