Thursday 9 April 2015

Beautiful Weekend to Get in the Garden

But that does not mean we broke our backs doing all the hard work that is waiting for us.

Easter weekend was glorious, at least the Sunday and Monday, but after a relaxing Sunday with the only gardening being the planting of some more seeds indoors (rainbow chard, courgettes, marrow and a variety of squashes) we decided to spend Monday in the garden.

The lawn had its first mow of the year, its now looking a lot better from a distance, but up close there is another story to tell.  Yes its nice and green, only a couple of bare patches in the shade, but on closer inspection it looks to be mostly down to the even coverage of moss!  There arent too many larger weeds, a handful of dandelions but nothing more.  So something need to be done about the moss before it chokes out all of the grass.  I will aim to rake it this week so long as the weather stays dry, then it will be a prescription of regular weed and feed.  This helps to strip out the moss while also providing nitrogen rich fertilizer to enhance the appearance of the grass.  It will be a long road to a healthy lawn, but so long as I treat it every 4 weeks or so, keep it mowed and rake it to remove the dead moss it should be looking good by the time summer begins for real.

Our lawn does not get as much sum as I would like, and doesnt drain too well as there is a slight slope on the garden that means one side of the lawn collects most of the rain water, and that side is in shade most of the day and only get real sun in the high of summer as its too low later in the day the rest of the year.  It all amounts to a difficult to manage lawn, sounds like a challenge we can meet.

News on the seedlings planted last week is that the majority of the peas have sprouted and are growing well.

Peas


The runner beans are not fairing so well, with only one having made an appearance so far, that one being one of the unidentified beans I harvested from the 2013 crop, it was larger than the scarlet runners I planted, reddish brown in colour with black mottling, and it has grown fast, about 3 inches high now having only appeared 3 days ago.

Runner Bean, cabbage and kohlrabi


The cabbages and kohlrabi are both coming away well, and will need splitting soon, similarly with the leeks and one of the other seedlings which I am uncertain of which it is.  It could be kale of spinach, but whilst currently only about a half an inch high, they are difficult to identify and I foolishly did not label these as I presumed I would be able to tell the difference once the sprouted, as only one has done so I cant tell what it is!  If you review the post about planting these I don't even mention the kale, but it was in there.  The tray with leeks has either kale or spinach in, the other tray has the turnips, celeriac and the missing plant.  the turnips have sprouted, no sign of celeriac, and nothing of the mystery seedlings yet.  Hopefully this week everything will start and I'll be able to tell what is what.
Turnips, no sign of celeriac and what is that single tiny shoot?

Leeks to the right, is it kale or spinach at the left??


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