Leading up to Easter

Don’t panic
Several more beans have come up, which means they were more vialble than I thought. However, in my panic about not having enough, I have set loads to chit. They are chitting at different rates, and I have now poted up some more beans, and suspect I may have many more to pot up. This is no bad thing, because it only takes a few hungry molluscs to destroy a planting overnight. They are my insurance policy.

I should mention this chitting business it quite delicate, because the growing tips of that first root is very delicate and easily snapped. The best point to pot up is when the root is just about to emerge.




Scarlet Runners and Italian Purple beans with roots emerging






The root on this one is a bit too long and could easily be broken off.



On this one, the root is just beginning to emerge.



My greenhouse is stuffed again, and I have lots of things I want to do, like pot things on and sow more curcurbits, such as Gelber Zentner squash. I bought a pepper plant recently, and potted it up, since I didn’t get round to sowing any (and I find them a bit of a pain to germinate). There are tomato plants in the garden centres ready for the Easter weekend, in advance of mine. They must be grown in sunnier places, or under daylight bulbs, because some of mine were sown as early as is sensible, and even then they look a bit aetiolated.

Cold weather and sleet wass forecast for the week so I have to be careful what I leave outside for the moment. As the weather warms up I may plant some things out early, and wrap in fleece.

I would like to put some landscape fabric on my new bed in the greenhouse because I notice weed seeds are germinating already, but I’m contemplating adding a bit more soil, and the surface is presently cluttered with plants hiding from the cold.

I’d also like to start a hanging basket or two off, for a friend whose plants I over-wintered, because it’s much better to have a well-grown basket to put out when the weather warms up.

Tangles
Why is it the vision in your mind’s eye is so much better than the reality? I mentioned building a raised bed in my greenhouse in an earlier post. I intend to grown kiwifruit and passion fruit, as well as melons and cucumbers, so I thought I would support these along the roof of the greenhouse with pea-and-bean netting. It would look neat, and not block out too much light, wouldn’t it? The reality is that fixing that stuff is akin to snake-wrestling. I only did the bit by the passion fruits. I suspect the rest will look similarly unkempt when I get round to it.

It’s about this time of year that I wish I had an allotment, ie, when my seed-eyes are bigger than my stomach. Then common sense prevails. I do wish my garden wasn’t so shady though.

30th March
More seeds have chitted. I think I may have overdone this.