There was a frost last night. Not ideal as I just planted a hanging basket and a container with pansies. Hopefully they’re ok. We brought the hanging basket in tonight and I’ve fleeced up the pot containing a hebe surrounded with baby pansies. I’m not a big fan of pansies but the primroses at the garden centre were really sad looking and not particularly nice colours so… pansies it is. Knowing my luck they’ll be mostly one colour.
I have a fair stack of seeds here that I want to tray up. The two packets that came today are Mountain Sandwort (Arenaria Montana) and Phlox (Moody Blues). I love the sandwort. I picked up a plant two years back without knowing what the hell it was, divided it and planted it around a small spruce we rescued from Tesco. Come May it was absolutely glorious. A mass of little white flowers tumbling around the edge of the pot. Sadly, it got a bit decimated when we had to have our stuff stashed somewhere when we moved. A little clump survived, but I’m hoping to get some more back into the pot when these are ready to plant out.
I’m hoping the marigolds will do better this year. The last planting I did at mum’s bungalow wasn’t as successful as those I bought from the local nursery the previous year. Mine were … underwhelming. I think I got a bit previous and should have given them more time in the seedling trays.
Oh, I am also a tad obssessed with house plants, which I am not terribly good with but I keep trying. This years hyacinths I got from Tesco are ridiculously tall again. One bloom snapped while I was trying to stake it upright. 😒 They are all tied in 3 places now on taller stakes. The big spider plant below is the mumma of all my spider plants. It was a gift from mum as a thank you for helping her out so much in 2019, the year she died. It has survived falling from the ceiling in The Great Macrame Hanger DisasterTM and also being left in the car in blistering heat for too long while we were holiday-let-hopping while house hunting. At the final holiday let (a lovely static caravan near Hexham in Northumberland) I gave it a massive haircut and it arrived at our final destination shorn of all it’s glory. I think we can say it’s doing better now.
A lot of my seed packets are from my subscription to Garden Answers. I’m not overly hopeful but I’ll give it a try. Last time I used magazine freebies I put wildflower seeds along the front border at the bungalow and not a single one germinated. Not one. I have some giant poppy seeds I’m itching to use but they need to be sewn outside so I think I’ll wait for the weather to cut me some slack.
There’s a lot to do outside. The persistent rain over the winter has turned the (shudder) monoblock a rather fetching shade of green. We sprayed Algon over it, but it only seems to have worked in patches. It’s probably time to get the pressure washer out, that’s always fun. Lewis does love his Kärcher. 😁