What a week! I won’t mention the dreaded C word as it has already taken over our lives. Thank God we have been enjoying wonderful weather with temperatures as high as the mid-twenties during the day and a minimum of 13C at night.
Time to hunker down in the garden and tackle all the outstanding jobs, especially *one that has been on my ‘wish list’ for a couple of years.
I’ve emptied and cleaned old pots, planted basil and curly parsley seeds and would have planted spinach but I lost the seeds on the way to the garden. No doubt I will find them in a safe place when I’m searching for something else. I will now have to grow all my crops from seed rather than plugs, as the farmers’ market has been cancelled.
The raised vegetable area is now full of baby courgettes, French beans, carrots, peas, aubergine and cucumber. And all but a few containers are now being utilised.
1. Strawberries are happy in their new bed!
After accidentally buying over seventy strawberry plants which by some miracle all survived, I had nowhere to plant them. However, my garden gnome came to the rescue, moved all the herbs from the herb garden and build this raised strawberry bed in its place.
All the activity did not escape the eager eye of our resident blackbird and no sooner had we filled the bed with compost, processed manure and planted the strawberries he was there digging out the strawberries to find worms and other juicy morsels. He even had the audacity to shout at me when I shooed him away!
My gnome quickly came to the rescue and he built a frame so we could net the strawberries and protect the worms.

2. Peas in Progress
The pea seeds planted on Feb 4th continue to thrive under the protective plastic crates. I wonder how long it will be before we see any pea pods?

3. Beans glorious beans
I decided to grow two types of beans this year, the little bush French beans and the traditional runner beans.
The French bean seeds planted on Feb 4th are finally ready to be planted out. Fingers crossed the slugs don’t eat them! I do use slug pellets but cover with crates so the birds can’t get to them. However, I usually see the ants walking off with them, which while annoying is a bonus as they take them back to the nest.

We don’t normally grow runner beans here as it can be far too windy, so with nothing better to do I decided to try growing in pots in the most sheltered and sunny location in the garden. So far so good, and they are still standing. However, despite using good quality compost the leaves look pale so I fed with some Epsom salts. We will see.
Watch this space!
4.Growing Tomatoes in Containers
The cherry and Rosa tomato plugs I purchased from the local market in February are doing well and I have now planted on into the large pots. Good quality compost plus the processed manure compost I hope will produce a good crop… even if the cost does make them gold-plated.

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5. Growing watercress in a container
I decided to grow watercress as apparently, it is one of the powerhouse vegetables with numerous health benefits.
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin K
- Calcium
- Manganese
Check out this article which was the source of my inspiration.
I have never tried to grow watercress before so we will see how this experiment pans out. So far, so good. I am using a crate about six inches deep. Good quality soil which I keep moist. Full sun.

6. Spring Onions
I bought these onions at the local farmers market four weeks ago. They are now ready to eat.
Happy days. The next lot of onions I grow will be from seed as the market is now banned due to the Corona Virus. Which is surprising as it is usually empty and a far better place to shop t for urgent supplies as it is in the open.

Check out more gardening news for six on Saturday at Mr P’s blog.
Looking good. I’ve been potting one hundreds of tomatoes at work so bought two. Seemed wrong to spend so much time working with them and not get to enjoy them myself.
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Watercress is something I have never grown. I will be trying only a new few new items this year. I do not like to try new things while there are so many very reliable vegetables to grow. This is something I should consider, even if it does not work out. I am trying potatoes too, even though I doubt they will do very well here. Mediocre would be just fine.
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I am still experimenting as to what will grow well here. Good luck with the potatoes 🙂
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Thank you. Just in the last few days since writing this, watercress was voted off the island. I won’t be trying it this year unless I expand the garden so much that I have plenty of space for splurges, (which I just might do).
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The strawberry bed looks very professional, I hope you have a good crop after all your garden gnomes hard work.
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Thank you Brian. Yes, my Gnome did make a good job. 🙂 Just need to get everything to grow now.
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OH so exciting the spring sowing for you. I shall look forward to seeing how you fare. My pot tomatoes did far better than my garden ones. I imagine if you do get any frosts your covers will help to keep it off them.
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Hi Tazzie, I am nervous about frosts but so far so good. I was not planning to plant the tomato plugs out quite so early but they grew too quickly!
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Fingers crossed your will do so much better than mine I still have many green ones but am more fortunate than some friends I have had a steady supply of ripe tomatoes. The joys of gardening.
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All looking very productive and like Gill, I envy you those temperatures!
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thanks to Coronavirus we have now increased production … every spare container will be utilised. Hoping for more warm weather. 🙂
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All looking good. I must try growing some spring onions in a pot. I think I say that every year and never do but this time I shall… probably.
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I grow them because spring onions are expensive here. I think in the UK you can buy them very cheaply. I have a lot of ‘probablys’ so I understand 🙂
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You surprise me with your french beans, so early … I sowed
my peas 10 days ago, however my strawberry plants look like yours. The only difference is that you have sun on your photos …
I have already tried the tomatoes grown in container : be careful because they will quickly thirst and will need to be fed
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Maybe the crates keeps the windchill off at night? I planted some more today which are a lot bigger. I actually got confused and planted the second crop first. I don’t think we are due any low temps at night … now you have me worried! Yes, tomatoes I must remember to feed. Especially as they already have one truss of flowers. Thank you for the reminder.
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Everything is so far on, and I am green with envy at your temperatures! Your watercress looks wonderful, I love watercress soup, so spicy and delicious.
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Yes, I love watercress but rarely see it in the shops other than mass-produced and plastic packaged. I’ve never had watercress soup. I must give it a try.
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