19 March - Cutting In -To Get Ahead!

Last Autumn's tomato cutting in green house

 My experiment of taking tomato cuttings last autumn and over wintering them appears to have been a success. A couple of weeks ago I took side shoots off the small plants and pushed them into compost. These new cuttings are beginning to root now whilst the overwintered parent plants are in the greenhouse bed putting on strong growth. In contrast my tomato seedlings are still feeble little things and it will be weeks until they are large enough to be planted out.

Tomato seedlings

Every warm day in this season stirs one to action, filling the soul with a restlessness which can only be subdued by a hard day's work in the garden. A few days ago I put queen excluders and supers on the bees discovering that eight out of my ten hives have survived the winter, which is not too bad at all. The surviving colonies are strong, producing brood and gathering pollen and nectar which extends the promise of a productive year ahead. My early sowing of salad crops in black tyres where last year courgettes grew, are up and away. The rotted down manure provides a perfect growing medium and the black rubber, combined with a piece of glass on top makes an ideal warm cloche. In the orchard at Green Lane the almond tree is in bloom and here the yearling peach is a spray of pink florets.

 Radish seedlings

Peach