First fledglings of 2009

I saw my first fledgling sparrows in the garden this morning. Two perched in next doors tree being feed by their mother. She was darting backwards and forwards taking seeds from the feeder and the ground to feed her young. The young made their innocence know by flapping their wings in a submissive way as she came close. No sight of a male to give a helping hand.

Dwarf Beans

The Dwarf Beans are all about 3 inches high now and producing the first set of real leaves. They will need to be transferred to larger pots now. I'm not sure what size these beans will grow to (being dwarf I imagine quiet small) as it does not say on the packet. Just to be on the safe side when these beans are ready for their final big pot I will add a cane next to each. I don't want the same problem I had with the tomatoes last year, were I didn't add a cane until they had already grown tall. I could not get the cane close enough to the plant because it would have damaged the roots.

My tray of various vegetable seeds has produced a very poor crop. 5 seeds were planted of 8 different veggies. Of the possible 40 I have only got 2 tomatoes, 3 beetroot and 3 leeks. I suspect I over watered them to start with and although they were in the greenhouse I should have put a propagator lid over the tray to create more humidity. I have replanted new seeds this weekend, I hope its not too late in the season.

Potato crazy

The recent warm weather has sent many of the seeds flying into action. Germination is going crazy for some, such as pototoes, onion, garlic and drawf beans and not so well for the rest.

Tulips and daffodils

Sweet peas planted out

The first sweet peas of the year have been planted out into the border. Five plants were sown during the winter and kept in the greenhouse. During that time they have grown slowly and now the warmer weather is with us they have started to shoot up. These plants were grown from the seeds I harvested from last years crop.

This first batch should provide early flowers. A second batch of seeds will be sown this weekend for a later flowering.

Ive attached netting to the fence for the sweet peas to climb up. I have tried to position it slightly more to the right of the plants this time. The wind can often blow towards the top of the garden causing many of the plants to drift that way. As a result last years sweet peas grew away from most of the netting.

The same batch of sweet pea seeds were given to family and friends at christmas. I hope to hear news of their own plants soon.

The wind also effects the bulbs which blow over easily. To control the wind, I plan to put in shrubs to act as wind breaks. I have lots of shrub cuttings in small pots at the moment. I hope they will be big enough in a year or so's time to be effective.