Saturday, May 29, 2010

I love when it a plan comes together




As Phil remarked, 'it's all come together'. We cleared the decks, did loads of planting, and the annotated photo on this posts shows the full range of what we now have on the balcony. Can't quite believe it's all come together in a couple of months.

It was great to get the potatoes planted out today in their bags, the peppers into their pots, and now 4 chard plants in pots. The courgettes are flourishing although they have very weak stems, so I was a bit concerned to read on another blog that people get 40, yes, 40 courgettes per plant!

Also added a couple more lobelia to the window pots. Should be great when it's all trailing down over the top of the tomatoes. The lettuces are doing fine, but I think we're going to need a bit more salad and lettuces, so going to buy another two long pots to grow those in. And plant a couple more courgette seeds in case we have a stem snapping disaster.

Another addition to the blog - check out the planting calendar where I'll be adding all the things we've planted and when. Will be good to check back and see how long everything took to germinate / fruit.


Monday, May 3, 2010

To be in England

Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge -
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
- Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

By Robert Browning (1812-1889) , from "Home-thoughts, from Abroad".