Diary of a weekend gardener

Time for a tidy up

I'm a messy gardener. Or as I prefer to see it, a gardener who doesn't have enough time to be tidy. But eventually even I get sick of tripping over broken pots, tools and half empty bags of compost. So today's short spell outdoors was 90% organising with just a smidgeon of actual plant work thrown in for good measure.

The polytunnel was the main beneficiary, with another tier of the new staging finished and all the seed trays laid out. The only mystery is how they fitted in before the staging went up. The shade tunnel got a spring clean too. The hardy geraniums that I divided last autumn are coming on a treat and the meconopsis seedlings are growing on nicely. Two unsung gems are the acer cutting I took last spring which is well rooted and sprouting healthily and the pot of acer palmatum seedlings which have finally germinated. The plan is for these to become the rootstocks for my first acer grafting attempts next year.

And for Mum and Dad - the tulips below are some of the ones you gave me for my birthday last year. They're now flowering beautifully in the front garden.
Some of the birthday tulips
Obsolete IKEA shelving makes great staging, while a 1950's school desk becomes the potting station
The shade tunnel looks empty now that it's tidy
The mecon- opsis and acer seedlings happy in the shade tunnel.

posted by Sue Beesley @ 10:35 pm