Easter Weekend

I thought Easter was going to be a washout weather wise this year, how wrong I was. We've had two glorious days, Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, and the warmth and sunshine looks set to last for the rest of this week.

We spent the majority of the weekend decorating our bedroom, that's the royal we. I usually leave all the decorating tasks to Mick, though Eleanor's a competent painter so she helps. I did manage to get some more seeds sown though.

I decided that now we're in to April, it isn't too soon to get my cucurbits underway so I got out my new seed tin which Eleanor bought me for Mother's Day this year.

It isn't big enough to hold all my seed stash but it's just the right size for the seeds I'll be sowing this year. It came with monthly dividers so the packets have been sorted according to when the seed will be sown.

I sowed courgette - Dundoo and Tricolour, cucumber - Mini Munch and Crystal Lemon, squash - Winter Golden Hubbard, Waltham and Custard White and I also sowed some spring onions - White Lisbon and calabrese - Autumn Spear.

Seeds were also sown last weekend, brussels sprout - Evesham Special, another couple of pots of leeks - Musselburgh, a few more tomato - Maskotka as I had poor germination with the first lot of these, sweet william - Pinocchio, stock - Dwarf Ten Week Mixed, sunflowers - Big Smile and Pastiche and some living rabbit food. Most of these seeds have already germinated now and I've had better success with the Maskotka seed than I did the first time round.

We also got a few other jobs done in the garden in between the decorating. My two apple trees which I've been growing in pots have been planted in the ground, here is the Golden Delicious, it's only a small tree growing on dwarf rootstock, the Gloster which is slightly bigger has been planted next to it. I'm hoping that they do better now that their roots aren't confined.

My first lot of potatoes have gone in to buckets. I'm growing two varieties, Arran Pilot and Anya, as well as three tubers each of Sherine, Vales Emerald and Bonnie. I started off the three extra varieties as well as two containers each of Arran Pilot and Anya. I kept a note of when I'd planted my potatoes last year and the ones planted in March didn't do very well at all. The ones planted at the beginning of April did the best of all, even better than those planted towards the end of April when the weather had warmed up.

We also got round to sorting out all my container grown plants, potting on those that needed it and replenishing the compost in those that didn't. My three blueberry plants got topped up with ericaceous compost and I gave them a bit of a trim, pruning out all the dead wood. Their buds are just starting to break now. This is my oldest plant which I bought eight years ago, I've got another two, one bought seven years ago and the third one must be about five, though I can't actually remember when I bought it.

Mick's gone back to work today for a rest, it's been a busy weekend for him, but we managed to get lots of things done.

Don't forget, if you haven't already entered my giveaway, you've got until twelve noon on Friday the 10th of April 2015 to do so. Just leave a comment on my It's Giveaway Time post.