Harrogate Spring Flower Show

You know the trouble with a blog? When you have lots to say you are too busy doing it to write about it. And when there's nothing going on you naturally have plenty of time to report that nothing's going on.

So I am a few days late in reporting that last Friday I got to go to the Harrogate Spring Flower Show! It was amazing. The flowers and plants were so perfect they looked artificial. And it was huge. We missed one of the big tents because Spikelet had had just about enough, thank you very much. But what we saw was wonderful. The bonsai! The orchids! The ferns! The daffodils! Fuschias! Clematis! Tulips! The flower arrangements! All of it was gorgeous. Have a look at the pictures:

'The Wizard of Oz' 'Flamenco'

In the garden there are the first shoots of potatoes coming up, so that's wonderful. My trial peas haven't come through, but it hasn't been a week since I planted them, so that's not surprising. And it has been raining all day, so any plans I had for the garden today were scuppered. Although, to be honest, they were scuppered anyway, since I spent a good portion of the day at the garage while I waited for them to figure out what was wrong with the radio in my new car. They had to take it out of the dash, and when they did it rattled. Seems that the people who had the car before had been feeding the CD player with pennies, and they shorted the system out. So my car has a big gaping gap-toothed hole in it while they fix the stereo. At least I still have my car, and the fact that there's no radio is really no change... it hadn't worked in the whole time I had it! Still, at least it's on it's way to being fixed, and is still in covered by the place that sold it to us. And I had a Gardener's World Magazine to read while I was waiting.

Too Many Seedlings, Not Enough Space!

I love tulip time. Even more, perhaps than I love snowdrop time, crocus time and daffodil time. There is such variety in tulips, and every year there seems to be 'just one more' tulip I need to get, that I can't resist. These are this year's acquisitions. Lovely, aren't they?

But the other thing about tulip time is that, generally speaking, the weather is undeniably springlike, and getting better. The days are long and getting longer, the sun (when it's out) can be quite strong, and there are leaves everywhere. It is a gorgeous time of year.

I have been working in the garden as much as I have been able in the last two weeks (the Easter Hols). We have also had grandparents staying, and all the excitement that brings, plus a short break in the Peak District, which was totally beautiful, even if the weather wasn't at its best. So that has limited my gardening ability. But still. This is the stage I am at:

Potatoes are in, one teepee of sugar-snaps are in (next to the shallots in the raised beds) and I have managed to squeeze another teepee in on the 'flower' side of the garden because I have way too many peas and beans to fit in solely on the 'veg' side. The one on the flower side is the one that will be playing host to the sugar-snaps and mangetouts that I got courtesy of the RHS pea trials (remember? They sent me 300 of one and 250 of the other? WHO NEEDS THAT MANY SEEDS? EVER?)

Well, anyway, I finally figured out where I was going to put them ('flower' side), and figured out what I was going to do with the mounds of earth that had come out of the potato trenches (bagged it up into old compost bags) so I could put up at least one teepee on the 'veg' side. I still have another mountain of dirt to find a home for and no more bags. Considering invading the children's digging/sand area, but think it will probably mean that the sand pit will become a sand-and-dirt pit. Am I ok with that? I haven't decided. But I may not have any other option...

When I finally come to a conclusion about that I can plant out the heritage runner beans. Of the 9 I have had 7 come up. Rare #8 (of which I have the final seed since my uncle's died) is doing best of all, thank goodness. I haven't seen any sign of #7, and #1 and #6 are only now coming up. The others are about 3 inches tall or more, so needing to be planted out asap! (MUST figure out what to do with the dirt!)

I also have the Cherokee Trail of Tears beans to be planted out. I got a beautiful little package of seeds courtesy of Kath at Vegetable Heaven (she got hers from the Heritage Seed Library) last autumn and all six which I have planted came up. Very good germination rate! I have since given a few of the extras Kath sent me to the visiting grandparents, since they all live in Oklahoma, which is where the Cherokee Trail of Tears ended. It will be interesting to see how they grow out there. No doubt it will be ideal conditions for the beans!

I also have two butternut squash seedlings which are getting too big for their starter pot (an old plastic pastry tub with a flappy lid, which made a wonderful propagator pot) and, as is looking to move up in the real-estate world to a place where they can really spread out and consider having a family. I only started growing these (from seed saved from a supermarket squash) because Dude really wanted to grow pumpkins. It's easier to show him that squash and pumpkins don't really do that well here than to tell him. He doesn't believe me. (Or am I just being defeatist? Perhaps they will grow, won't be eaten by slugs and get moulded into nothing by the rain.)

Anyway, that's the state of the garden, here's the state of the family. We bought two £3 kites from a shop at an English Heritage site. Better than the usual pencils and bouncy balls, I thought, and they have been brilliant. We lengthened the tails by about twice as much again, and they have given much delight to all of us. Bargain. In this pic (you'll have to click it and make it big to see properly) you can see Pip and Dude both flying their kites.