Sunday, what a glorious day!
Every time I visit the plot, which has been nearly every day recently I get more excited. June is already turning out to be a very busy month; lots of sunshine, planting out, slug spotting, weeding and watering galore.
I spent all of Saturday stuck in university, so was really itching to visit No.27 Sunday morning.
The day started with a small radio slot at 8am talking about my feature in Grow your own, then there was no stopping me. I packed all my Pumpkin, Squash and 7 ‘Gardeners Delight’ tomato plants I have nurtured from seed in to the car. I only live a 5 minute drive from the plot, but still get nervous every time I transport seedlings. All the hard work growing them could be ruined with just one tipping over as I go over a speed bump. They all survived, I’m off to a good start!
After dropping them off, I headed to the local garden centre to buy grow bags for the tomato plants. I don’t think the depth is nowhere near enough if used as suggested, so I stand the bags up and cut them in half so you get two bags that can stand up with a few holes made in the bottom, giving much more space for the plants to grow.
The photo on the left is the ‘Golden Sunrise’ plant that I was given as a present at the beginning of May as a small plant. It has grown super quick, has tomatoes forming and lots of flowers adding hints of yellow.
That was all I was supposed to buy, but no that definitely did not happen. I was joined by my parents and out I came a coffee, lemon drizzle cake and full trolley later, with 2 ‘Jemmer F1’ courgette, 10 dwarf French bean, thyme, basil, an ‘Invicta’ gooseberry bush and finally a ‘Julka’ Clematis. Whoops! Just had to hope they would fit somewhere or I would have to get digging more space quick.
Back at No.27 and time to get planting whilst my dad very kindly started work on digging a hole on the other side of the plot for my wildlife pond. Every so often I really do appreciate a second pair of hands and it is a great excuse for some family time.
After a lot of staring, measuring and brain aching I had marked out a plan with seed labels, everything I had grown from seed and now bought was going to fit! Excuse for a happy dance? Of course, who cares how busy it is! Surely you can’t have too much enthusiasm?!
By 5pm all the plants and the pond were finally in. I was shattered, relieved, excited and a tad red. I do love a day when I achieve everything I have planned, it makes me feel like I can actually relax afterwards.
Whilst busy planting I noticed the runner beans and borlotto beans have now fully popped up after direct sowing them a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t help but do another mini happy dance.
After a long day, No.27 was looking much greener and more beautiful than ever.
I still have the ‘Swift’ sweetcorn and Brussels sprouts to plant out soon, then all the beds will be full. That can only mean one thing; time to finish the pond and carry on double digging the other side, with hopefully lots of harvesting in between.
Will the freshly picked berries, runner beans and tomatoes make it home before I eat them? I’m not convinced.
