Remember when I mentioned those seeds, and how shocked I was that they were actually coming up? Well, they have gone on to surprise me even more by growing, sprouting, and resembling more and more the plants they'll become. I didn't account for the fact that every single lettuce seed would sprout with gay abandon, nor that the pumpkins would grow so profusely (every pumpkin seed sown has sprouted). At one point the seedlings were doubling in size every day, thankfully that has slowed down now, otherwise I'd be blogging from a room that looked like the Amazon jungle.


[Lettuces hell-bent on taking over the world...]

The thing is, when it comes to HLPs (happy looking plants) I just can't bear to waste a single one. Each one has sprouted so wonderfully, on cue, just when I asked them to... But that means that I'm rather over-pumpkined and over-lettuced. I guess this is a good thing, lots of summer salads and healthy eating, but it also means I'm struggling to find places to put them all... So, without wasting a single sproutling, I'm going to dig beds, hoe pastures, buy troughs, and sow each and every one to share amongst neighbours and anyone who wants them. See I'm a caring sharing person, me. Plus I just can't bring myself to commit hari kari with my baby lettuces. But please call the men in white coats when I start naming each individual plant...


[Curcubita maxima 'Mars F1 Hybrid' - a pumpkin]

The 'Meteor' peas in the garden are all up, the 'Sugar Lord' peas I'm still waiting for. A few seedlings that are sort of Swiss chard-lookin' are starting to come up where I um, planted the Swiss chard, and the indoor-sown sweetcorn are coming up in dribs and drabs (they are late-starters as they were left outside in the beginning and didn't have the benefit of me singing lullabies to them until recently...).


[Pisum sativum 'Meteor' sproutlings, clockwise Alfred, Pea Jr., Sweetie Pea and Brian]

Around the first lot of potatoes that went in on 12th April, there are noticeable 'humps'. This is a good thing, meaning that under the ground the potatoes are sprouting and growing, pushing the soil up on top of them to form small mounds. Although there are no potato plants to be seen as yet, by the middle to end of May we should start to see them leafing.


[Zea mays 'Honey Bantam' sproutlings]

Conversely the flower seeds that I planted indoors, Hollyhock 'Double Mixed' and Aubretia mixed haven't done as well, I'm not sure why. But most of them have come up, although they've taken longer than the vegetables. I think I'm just suited to vegetable growing. We have three roses on order from David Austen roses, a small bush rose 'The Fairy', 'William Morris' a large bush/small climber in pinky apricot hues with large full-double blooms and a gorgeous smell, and one of my favourites 'Alba semi-plena' a really old rose, single flat blooms with one of the finest scents possible (it is distilled into rose attar). We're not quite sure when these will be delivered - I think we've made it in time for the last posting - I hope so!

The flower seeds we planted in the flower beds in the back garden are all starting to come up too most of which are now past the two-leaf stage, are gaily growing all the leaves they can muster, and will need thinning (transplanting elsewhere, I just cannot commit herbicide!) to make space for their development.


[Species tulip 'Tulipa dasystemon' - I want to say crocus, but they're not - which is sharing a bed with the most gorgeous Tulipa bakeri 'Lilac Wonder']

So this is the view from my 'sill, the lawn green (patches in places, but who likes things perfect?), the birds singing, a squirrel collecting nuts and seedlings abounding everywhere. Ahhh, good times!