19th April National Gardening Week

For those of you who havent realised, it’s National Gardening Week. And what a week it is, I take my hat off to all those out there perservering in this changeable weather.
Jobs to Do.
1.Planting out – I have been trying to free up space in my green house so I have planted out my courgettes and tomatoes this week. But they definately need to be under a cloche of some kind as any sign of a frost and that will be the end of them. Also with this changeable weather they still need mollycoddling if they are going to survive.
2.Even though it is rainy outside you must not forget to water all the plants in the green house.
3.Keep sowing new seeds. Find out what your friends are growing and try to swap excess plants.

4.If you have spare cloches or tunnels place them over your strawberries as that will help them to fruit earlier and protect them from the birds.
5.If you have fruit trees such as pears that don’t produce very well – like me -you may like to pollinate them yourself by getting an artists paintbrush and dusting the blossom of one tree onto another. If this seems like too much hard work you can hang a bouquet of blossoms from one tree on a different tree, then the wind and the bees are more likely to do the work. Painting the blossom is quite fun with children.

2nd April Potatoes Seeds and Water

The sun is still out , the sky is still blue, there’s not a cloud to spoil the view and there is still so much to do.
Jobs.
1.Plant potatoes in your patch or in potato bags, for some this is late but I always like to plant mine at the end of March. They should be planted roughly 30cm (12”)apart at about 10cm (4”) deep. I create a mound of earth to cover the tops. A) so I can see where my row is and b) so that they have time to grow a bit so that the last of the frosts dont nip their leaves when they poke out.

2.Sow more seeds either straight into the earth, such as carrots, spinach, nasturtiums, peas, rocket.. Or sow seeds that are more delicate such as courgettes and climbing or dwarf beans, into rootrainers or seed trays and leave them on a sunny windowsill or in the greenhouse. If you are sowing some of the larger seeds inside beware of the mice!
3.Some of the seeds that you may have sown over the past couple of months may be large enough to transplant. It is good to transplant them into a bigger pot rather than leave them in seed trays as they get bigger more quickly if you do. Keeping them in the seed tray stunts their growth after a while.

4. Neaten up your vegetable patch, trim and mow. Make sure the earth is fine and ready for planting, it makes all the difference being tidy, you can produce so much more.
5.Lastly, I have been thinking about saving water and am going to rig up a hand pump, hose and water but under my bathroom window. So that I can use all the bathwater from our house for watering plants etc.