An expensive hobby.

I've spent an awful lot of money on the garden this month. I've been very, very happy and excited about buying all of these plants. I would love to get a job that involves buying plants. Does that even exist?

I've bought five bags of compost, three bags of manure, five Japanese painted ferns, eighteen lavenders but half are for my dad. three lily bulbs, lots of squash seeds, sunflower seeds, pea seeds, lettuce seeds, Today I bought a Cornus Kousa var chinesii. :D I really love buying plants! I just need to find places for them all. :D I got fifty free Freesia bulbs with the tree too. :D :D :D

That doesn't even count all of the weed suppressant, cloches etc that I've bought too!

More seedling progress.

We have germination from the Ogen melon today.

I hope it does better than it did last year. The slugs just decimated everything last year. 

The poona kheera melons are fully open now and we have a third seedling showing its head. 

My lavender arrived!

My lavender arrived and I can't believe how tiny they are!

I've potted them on so that they are a little bigger before they go into the lavender raised bed. 

We had a busy morning this morning and dug out three roses, a pretty big sycamore and levelled out the ground before covering it all over with weed suppressant. 

Poona Kheera cucumbers.

They're up! They're up! They're up!

My Japanese painted ferns arrived today!

And I am utterly, utterly in love!

I foresee an obsession coming on.  

A bit of bottom heat. :P

These are the seeds that need a little extra heat. I hope this heater will be ok. Its been in the shed all winter.

I gave the chickens another ice cream, you can see them stalking it. 

And my first crops seem to be doing well. The radishes, mint and rhubarb are growing fast. 

SEEDS!

Courgette Eclipse

Squash Pontimarron. Best tasting squash ever!

Lettuce Webbs wonderful

Squash Turks Turban

Sunflower Autumn Time. 

Stuffed toy GBH

It didn't even last 24 hours before she'd ripped the poor thing a new one.

The scene of the crime. Such a violent dog. :/

Oh dear. Somebody let me near the computer again... Five Japanese painted ferns ordered for the front garden.

Doggos. :D

New toys

and treats. :D Equals happy dogs. 

over the last few days I sowed

sweet peas
Nicotiana suaveolens
rudbeckia (three feet tall variety)
tomato gardeners delight
tomato sweet baby
tomato tamina
dahlias
sunflowers little leo
Indian cucumber
cucumber telegraph
Ogen melon
Scabious

And I potted up the Mashua and four Tomato Tamina plants that I sowed a while back.

Green, green green and red Thai curry.

This is kale that has started to flower. Its a really old variety of kale that I got from chase organics a good few years ago. Its really nice.

This is a Thai style chicken curry with chicken wings, chicken breast, broccoli, kale, coconut milk, onion, garlic, lots of spices and lots of chilli. I have developed full blown flu and its gone to my lungs so I'm trying to spice the germs away. 

I had a potter around while I went to feed the chickens and I noticed that my dog violets are looking lovely right now. The oriental poppies have been planted.

And the globe artichoke has started putting on lots of growth now because the sun has come out.

It might not look pretty... And I can't really tell you how it tasted or smelled but it was certainly spicy. I think it would have tasted good if I could taste anything. 

I have a cold. :/

I'm not happy about it as I've got work today until late in the evening and then first thing in the morning the day after. Its not going to do me any good. Troubles unhappy because I haven't walked her. I'm just trying to fight this cold off.

I've dug over three of the raised beds now. I know I was going to keep the flowers in the raised beds for the bees but I really do need to get stuff planted.

I sowed some Kohlrabi behind those lilies that I thought had been killed by the slugs last year. I've left the dog violets for now but I'll be sowing swede on that side of the bed in May.

I'm really not happy with how everything's looking right now. I know its very early but I think i'm going to look into adding some year round colour. I don't care about the lawn. Its only purpose is as a dog toilet. I need to trim the hedge but I'll have to wait for the birds to fledge. I must make a start on some hardy annuals. 

Bit more progress.

 I finally dug over this bed and planted my shallot sets. Its a little late, but it should be ok.

I dug over this bed too as it didn't have any of last years crops in it. It's going to be a squash and corn bed.

This one needs to be dug over, but right now its a rich source of nectar for the bees with the dog violets, dandelions  and bittercress... Although i think the bittercress will be going tomorrow. 

I better get these parsnips up quick as they're going to seed. This is going to be more squash and sweet corn bed.  

I still haven't cleaned up the garden as much as I want to.

I didn't make this nature area purposefully but it has turned out pretty well.

The baby lilac tree I took from a cutting from my dads lilac tree has grown a lot and its looking nice. 

The black current too is looking well

A small raspberry plants growing. 

The artichoke leaves are lengthening nicely and will hopefully grow more than one head this year.  

The poor lawn only just got its first cut and it was quite tall, so it looks a bit naff. I'll try to give it another quick cut when the grass has stood back up.  

The spring bulbs are looking lovely. This one's really cute. :)

This pot doesn't look as nice as I'd like but maybe in a week or so I'll be happier with it.