my seeds are growing up!! I peeked at them this morning and to my amazement both tomatillo seedlings, the golden sunrise tomatoes, one of the cauliflower, one of the alliums and one of the sugar snaps peas were starting to peek through the surface..

you can just about see the seedlings coming up through the surface.. maybe there’ll be more tomorrow?
One solitary pea seedling coming through.. the first of many, i hope!

Its been a day of concentrating on the garden. On the advice of the lovely people at GYO i heeled in the raspberries (because bed 3 is a) not ready and b) the raspberries are not ready yet to be properly planted out because of the risk of frost, so it was recommended that i heel them in, which i did. I just hope they’ll be okay. I had put them in the coolest place in the flat for a week, the closet of doom, it was dark in there and of course they tried to grow towards the light.. which is why they look a bit spindly at the moment. I just hope its not too much of a shock for them. I did find lots of lovely worms under the soil which is a good sign!

the heeled in raspberry canes – 8 glen ample on the right, 4 malling leo on the left

I also dug up the celeriacs (well, pulled them up) and i didn’t get much from them, the root ball hadn’t really bulked out and i think this was because i didn’t strip off the outer leaves, next year i know better. We had them for tea tonight, as part of a mash, with lincolnshire sausage, boiled whole onions, peas and a white sauce (which is just about my favorite comfort food going).

Herb pots made from large yoghurt pots

Today also saw me sowing some herb seeds & making some nice pots. I’ve got some huge yoghurt pots from lidl, 1 kg pots, which once the yoghurt has been eaten got cleaned out and i knocked holes in the bottom, then painted them with 2 coats of blackboard paint. Once dry, they were filled with compost, seeds sowed and the pots labelled with the herb they have within them. I think they look really good and i’ll be doing more of them, although they’re really only big enough for windowsill herbs. I’m looking forward to having a whole windowsill of herbs. I sowed sweet basil, mint, flat leaf parsley, leaf coriander, and garlic chives today, but i’ve others to grow too – not least the list of basils.. someone shared a lovely photo of tomatoes, basil and marigolds in their greenhouse over on a GYO thread on basil growing today, and i would love to have a greenhouse like this.. marigolds, basil and tomato of course is one of the classics of companion planting – something else i hope to reproduce! [and yes, the more eagle eyed amongst you will note i got the date wrong on the pots.. i thought it was the 24th today! oops!]

Some more photos to share:

herb pots in situ. They’re covered with clingfilm to help trap heat/moisture and encourage the seeds to germinate.
In the garden signs of spring are coming along: my garlic has germinated, and its so hard to get a decent pic of a clove pushing through with my camera, the thing keeps going out of focus!!
spring flowering bulbs coming through – don’t ask me what’s what, i can’t remember what i planted where!
I like this photo – the rose leaves growing against the brickwork. This is a rose bush i inherited – left by the previous owner of the flat, its been pruned a few times by mum, and i’ve mulched it in the hope of encouraging new growth. It was in a very sorry state when i got it, it had been quite neglected, which is a shame as it produces lovely white-pink blooms every year.