Pond nearly finished

Here is the pond with some water and plants in it. It needs a water lily or something as it is in full sun most of the day which can cause a build-up of algae. I have put a couple of spreading plants around the outside edge and sowed a few seeds, and I will be adding more stones as I rake them off the plot. Beyond the pond I have spread a thick mulch of bark chips (we had a delivery from a local tree surgeon) so no weeding in this area this year :)

These are some half hardy annual seedlings, dahlia Bishops Children, Morning Glory and Zinnia. On the right are Aquilegia seedlings.

These tomato and chilli seedlings are in my 'inner greenhouse', which is my small plastic greenhouse inside the main greenhouse. At the bottom of it is a thermostatic tube heater, which keeps them warm at night.

New Season Begins

 

My new pond has had about 12" of water in it for the last few weeks, but by yesterday it had all drained away. We have had a few really good days this week, which by lucky chance has coincided with my week off work (half term), so I have been taking advantage. I have pruned all the fruit:

 

dug over the onion patch and the potato patch:

planted a row of shallots and sowed another row of broad beans. Maybe I've been a bit hasty but I got quite carried away. It is nearly March, and it has been very mild so I think I will get away with it. I've got my seed potatoes laid out chitting, and I've sown some leeks and sweet peas in the greenhouse.

You can't beat a freshly dug patch of earth - so satisfying!

Peppers and Pond

My gardening mojo has been in a state of dormancy over the last few weeks, I haven't really been interested in anything gardening-related, mainly because of the weather. I haven't been able to do anything significant on the plot since before Christmas, I doubt if anyone has. I left a couple of pepper and chilli plants in the greenhouse at the end of the summer, mainly through laziness, but also because the plants still had unripe fruit on, and I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, even though I knew they wouldn't ripen....or WOULD they??? Well, some of the chillis did continue to ripen, and a couple of weeks ago I noticed the chillies were going mouldy, but the peppers still looked perfect, so I brought this stalk in and put it in the vase to see what would happen, and lo and behold! Not only ripening, but still plump and wrinkle-free.

One thing I have been doing at the allotment, mainly before Christmas, is digging this little pond:

At the moment, there is about 6" of water in the bottom, along with a couple of drowned worms and two large drowned green caterpillars. Caterpillars in January??

There is a lot of work to be done: I haven't done any digging yet, the whole plot needs to be dug over and prepared, plus all the fruit needs pruning and weeding, not to mention finishing off the pond. Well if the forecast is to be believed we are due a dry spell at the end of the month and not before time - I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in now!