I’ve been talking a lot about raised beds recently, and you’ll be pleased to learn I think that period is nearly over! I built my last raised bed, the one in the greenhouse, last week, so now I’m focusing on filling and painting them. I’m sure I’ll mention them again in a future post, since I’ll be proudly showing off their new paint job (Cuprinol Garden Shades in ‘Urban Slate’ is our choice), plus the plants I choose, but in the short term it’s nice to have another big garden project mostly complete. I lifted the uneven slabs in the greenhouse, they made the greenhouse look unkempt. In so doing, I disturbed an ants’ nest, so I gave them time to disperse before I needed into that area to finish screwing the raised bed together. Turns out, if you kneel in a disturbed ants’ nest, even one that looks empty, they will get into your clothes and bite you. Luckily their bites were small and barely noticeable, but I still feel bad for them. And me. They’ve survived though, and taken up residence inside the raised bed, which is currently filled with a base layer of moss and straw. I hope they don’t mind when I fill the remaining couple of inches with compost. This is the blossom from the plum tree I talk about in this episode. It’s quite old I think, and doesn’t have a lot of blossom relative to the size of the tree, but I can still see it’s going to be an issue in the autumn trying to keep the dogs from eating the dropped plums. It’s also slowly bringing down the back fence, so unfortunately, once it’s bloomed we’re going to take it down and replace it with climbing plants instead. My daffodils are so pretty, and I’m very much enjoying bringing cut flowers into the house. I’m meeting a friend tonight and I’m going to take a bunch for her as well. It’s so lovely to be able to give flowers away, I definitely want to grow cut flowers this year and in the future. I’ve got yarrow seedlings in the greenhouse, borage in the raised bed, and cosmos in some of the garden beds, so we’ll see who survives and thrives. I’m also planning to plant marigolds in May. My Jazzy Rose sweet peas are coming along nicely, another week or two and I’ll be planting them out in the garden I think. I planted some nasturtium seeds in the long raised bed alongside the greenhouse, mixed in with leftover last year’s onion sets. The pigeons keep pulling the onions out, which is annoying, so I’ve mulched them with straw to help keep them hidden until they establish themselves. I have visions of the nasturtiums tumbling over the side of the raised bed later in the summer, I hope that comes to fruition! Basil, tomatoes, chillis, parsley and coriander are all doing well in the greenhouse. Once the raised bed in the greenhouse is filled with compost, I’ll be planting these little seedlings out. I’ve got an oregano in the external raised bed that is struggling, so I think I’ll move it into the greenhouse too. I’ll report back on their progress over the coming growing season! Another couple of links from this episode: * East Coast Organics * Vital Seeds * Jazzy Rose Flowers This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit craftandthrift.substack.com
