More goings on today!

This is the updated plan for Bed 1, which has now been fully planted out - no more room at this one!

I spent around 1 hour at the lotty this evening. I got my parsnips planted and interplanted them with some radishes from seed. The big mistake that I made was that I forgot my little book and I didn't know the spacings for the parsnip plants, so I had a look around and saw that one of the older gentlemen was at his plot. Off I trotted full of cheer to ask him if he knew spacings for my parsnips. Well, the look of shock on his face when I told him what I was planting out and that I had grown the plants on from seed at home! He told me that as a general rule all root veg are planted directly into the soil - oh well - I am sure I must have read it somewhere (sowing indoors etc. hardening off and all that ) I will just have to wait and see what happens!!

The sun is SHINING today!

Wow - I can't believe that after all this awful / wet / cold weather, the sun is finally shining today!

Before I go on and on about the sunshine and what I have done, I just wanted to report that I went to the lotty last night. Susan's hubby had started to clear our bottom bit, where we originally started our digging last year, so he has lifted some of the ground cover sheet from that area. As the saying goes "Recycling - the possibilities are endless" so I took some of the small sheets and covered over my beds #2 & #3 as bed #1 was covered ages ago.

Now all 3 beds are tucked up and awaiting the warmer weather. I was speaking to our lotty neighbour Mavis, who gave me heaps of advice re planting out etc. I think its best to wait and wait e.g. end of April possibly, unless we get a really good spell, but she said that this is exactly what happened last year - good sunny days with plenty of heat early on and then BAM along came the rain for months on end and no end of diseases like blight etc. set in and ruined many a good gardeners prized veggies.

A lesson to be learned here me thinks

Anyway, now for the pictures.

I decided to open my coldframe up to the elements and not only that, but as the sun was so warming I took all my coldframe plants for a holiday on the decking.

As you can see, I have even taken my tomato plants out for a bit of a "tanning" session too.

OK so it doesn't look that sunny but it is, and the temperature has picked up - so much so that I my heating has turned off automatically!! I will keep my eye on the temperature and either put them back in the coldframe or in the case of Tomato Plants back in the utility room if it starts to feel fresher. I would really like to wander down to the lotty later today, but I have nothing but nothing to do there at the moment, apart from being nosey and have a mooch around and possibly a chat with some of the other lotty owners if they are around. I may just go anyway!

Oh - nearly forgot to mention that Woodcote our local garden centre phoned - to tell me that the book I had ordered "The Vegetable & Herb Expert by Dr D G Hessayon" was now in, so I went to collect it. I was REALLY good and I didn't take a trolley OR a basket with me, to resist temptation as I go in for one item at around £5 and end up with several and am lucky to get away with under £70 normally. Then when all the goodies are loaded into the back of the car, I remember what I went for in the 1st place and do another £20!!

So with only my 2 hands I went in and got my book. I felt very proud of myself at that stage. However - on the way back to the tills I saw a little red plastic "trug" which would go perfectly with my red watering can, and then I came across a bamboo wigman hold it all in place contraption, so bought one of these too. By this time I realised the trug was not good it was getting filled up with items. Last but not least - a spider plant for my husbands office as it looks really "manly" in there and I thought a plant would brighten it up! Got away with just under £20 this time - phew!!