Ready...... steady.....

It's nearly boing time - that brilliant moment when the trees burst into leaf and you know that the new growing season is upon you.  It is marked in the Tuckshop garden by the pink acer (flamingo) showing its first tender flush of salmon pink leaves.  Buds are swelling on it daily and I think it will be out by the end of the week - Wednesday is forecast to be warm, so I would bet that in a couple of days, we will have officially boinged.

One thing I notice as I prowl around the garden is that everything is not only late, but also noticeably smaller than in previous years - the flower buds on the cowslips, muscari and tulips seem to be forming close to soil level in their desperation to get out and on with the business of making seed.

 No time to bother with this stalk making stuff - that seems to come later. Now the muscari are almost in flower, the stems are starting to elongate, but they're still only about an inch tall.  Doubtless these things will sort themselves out, but it is all very odd.  The tulips (even the new ones) seem to have much smaller flowers than normal - but that might play in favour of teacup arrangements. (Not that I'm obssessed or anything...)

Spent today planting out more sweet peas, thinning out weed seedlings, and thinning and pinching out shoots on dahlias to make them strong and bushy.  I don't want to end up with spindly slug-eaten sticks like last year.  So where there are more than five shoots emerging from the tuber, I've cut them off just below soil level and am going to see if these cuttings will root in the propagator - should do, hopefully.

Larkspur sown a few weeks ago is germinating well in the new raised bed and I think that even some of the September sown seed is starting to appear after being resolutely on strike.  Took this as a sign that it might be worth doing some direct sowing, so have put in some nigella, verbena bonariensis and clary sage seed.  It is so nice to be gardening again and to see the garden slowly filling out and coming back to life.

Something from my visit to Real Cut Flowers in Herefordshire - not sure if it's echinacea or rudbeckia - can't remember

One of my divisions of brunnera 'Jack Frost'  - growing away nicely and doing well in its new home.

Emerging shoots of anchusa - will grow to be blue flowered giants,  I hope.

Shiny thing spotted in sky.

Sun is out, sky is blue, birds are tweeting... Snow is on its way out - well everywhere except in my garden it seems.  That's the joy of a north-facing plot I suppose.  The white stuff lingers longer.

In the greenhouse, out of the cold wind, it is warm and snug and things are looking happy, if a little crowded.  Ousted most of my September sown seedlings (snap dragons, scabious, sweet williams) to the coldframes this week and dumped any sickly herberts that didn't seem to merit the space they were occupying.  Being very brutal when space is at such a premium.

Checked in my big cardboard box of dahlia tubers to see that those awaiting an acquaintance with soil were still in fine fettle.  Witteman's Best was looking eager to get going, showing little sprouts near the dessicated stalks on the tubers, so they got planted today - I now have a line up of pots in my living room in addition to the one in my bedroom.  Still have 5 Purple Gem and 5 Peaches dahlias to pot up, so hope the days continue to warm up so some of the piano top inhabitants can move towards the greenhouse to make room for another dahlia parade.

On our family day out to Baddesley Clinton, a National Trust property in Warwickshire yesterday, it was grimly comforting to see that the lack of growth on my patch is not just the result of disorganised ineptitude - the kitchen garden there was closed 'due to the recent poor weather' and was yet to be planted up. Neither were the borders were as far on as you'd expect for April, even in the walled garden. However, there were some lovely daffodils and hellebores around, and the primroses tucked into the grassy walks were just "aaaahhhh".

 What I found myself coveting were the lean-to greenhouses - I might know just the spot where one could live in my garden....

Came away from my visit with two very muddy happy children, 4 timed entrance tickets for the house which we'd never got round to using (we'll be back) as we were having too much fun outdoors, two primroses (couldn't resist - want to get lots of these going),  four Fentimans pop bottles (brilliant to cut down to use as sweet pea vases), and a bag full of foraged sheeps wool.  Why the latter? On a recent #britishflowers tweet up we were discussing pest and slug control and apparently sheeps wool is a very effective slug deterrent, so I have spread the top of my larkspur sown raised bed with a layer of it to protect any sprouts miraculously jolted into life by their spell in the cold.

I'm always amazed by the seeds that need this cold treatment.  My auriculas have now all emerged in the warm fug of the propagator following their two week banishment to the subzero nights and cold days in the greenhouse.  Have subjected my reluctant cleome sowings to the same treatment, but haven't had any success there yet. Will give them another couple of weeks to emerge or be chucked.

Steadily sowing sweet peas, still a few more batches to go to hopefully get a well-staggered harvest.  First batch of this year are almost ready to start hardening off now.  Roll on flowering time so I can press those pop bottles into service.

Last year's sweet peas in sawn off bottles - suddenly posh pop seems worth it!

Too excited to be wordless this Wednesday

Have had an extremely productive morning constructing my new raised bed.  Got the idea from the #britishflowers twitter group (that typo came out as 'titter group',  quite like it) on Monday evening.  Rosie Ellis @bespokeconfetti suggested that a cut off builders dumpy bag filled with gritty soil would make a perfect home for growing larkspur.

Funnily enough, on my remaining concrete wasteland patch, I had a builders dumpy with the remains of a load of ballast in it.  Shifted the stacked slabs currently in that spot, dragged the dumpy into position and cut down the sides.  Now all I need to do is top it up with some gritty topsoil - still have the leftovers from my friend's previous donation in a heap at the bottom of the garden so will add grit, mix it up and chuck it in.  So pleased to be using up all these things which have been cluttering up the place!

A further ingredient I've been able to put to use are the blue bricks which have been sitting around in stacks since I lifted them out of the paved side area. They are now neatly providing an unmortared wall around this new planting pocket, and I think that they transform it from a bit of an eyesore into something quite presentable.

I can already imagine it billowing with larkspur in a few months time.  I will defeat slugs with organic pellets this year, following last year's onslaught on the dahlias.  They will not beat me in 2013.

So a massive THANKYOU again to Rosie for her brilliant idea!!!