Well, that was April. As always, the month caught me out by seeming to arrive out of nowhere (as if I shouldn’t know it’s coming every year), as did the sunshine. I found myself standing in my empty greenhouse admiring everyone else’s foliage-rich greenhouses on Instagram. But hey, why break tradition?
The tulips this year were fabulous. The best I’ve managed so far, in fact. After last year planting around 300 bulbs in the background, and watching the squirrels host a daily buffet, this year I changed my approach slightly. Firstly, I avoided the back garden and exclusively stuck to the front of our house. Although mostly a grass lawn, there is a small oval flower bed that’s on show to anyone passing by. So I knew I could create a compact tulip display if successful. Secondly, rather than meticulously placing the bulbs one by one, this year I engaged in some ‘chaotic gardening’. And it worked! I had a beautiful display of tulip flowers throughout April. The next step for me is also something I didn’t do last year – pulling and storing.
‘Chaotic Gardening’: I placed my full collection of bulbs in an unused washing-up bowl and mixed them up. I then dug the top layer of soil from my flower bed and sprinkled the bulbs. I faced them all the right way, and covered them with soil.
Planting started at the allotment too. Another victim of neglect, since having a baby in March put a pause on all things gardening, only half of my shared plot is currently ready to welcome seeds. But I did go about making a start. Directly sown into the ground this month were carrot seeds, chitted potatoes, and on top of those, radish seeds. I also started a flower bed using all my old flower seeds that would otherwise be moved back into storage for another year or thrown away. Another attempt at chaotic gardening. This time I just prepared a bed, threw the seeds out, then raked over them to cover. By the end of the month, I’d already spotted a few very small sunflower leaves appearing.
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Although I haven’t got a fleet of seedlings as impressive as everyone else yet, I do have a few plants beginning to appear in the greenhouse. Mainly peas – how do the peas always come on so strong? While there’s still lots to plant and catch up with, alongside the peas I have sweet peas, pumpkins, semi-dwarf beans, sunflowers, cucumbers, and one lonely Mange-tout.
Speaking of greenhouses, mine had a mandatory upgrade this month. A very baby-step upgrade – we’re not yet at glass window quality. Sadly, my loyal step-in, plastic sheet greenhouse was left out in the storms earlier in the year and was a casualty of the winds. I woke up one morning to find a huge tear in the ‘roof’, and gradually over the next few weeks it grew. Eventually, it was ripped from the very top down to the first shelf. Any seeds underneath it were getting drenched in rainstorms, blown about in winds, and the temperature was not doing what a greenhouse should.
So, rather than replacing the plastic sheet this time, I took the whole frame down and built a bigger one. Now, before we get too excited, it isn’t pretty. The plastic sheet isn’t clear, like my last one, and it’s still built with quite flimsy and thin shelves. It’s also hard not to notice the black graffiti marks on the outside. In its previous life, it served as a spraying tent for motorbike parts, so it is in need of a hose down. But in the meantime, it’s a positive upgrade, with double the amount of space and no gaping holes (yet!).
