The weekend before was Mother’s Day, and Mark and I went down to see our son at university. Our daughter and her boyfriend were also away seeing his parents so it was a rather unusual Mother’s Day albeit a different way to spend Mother’s Day. So that weekend I didn’t get anything done in the garden because the Saturday it poured with rain.

So this weekend, after a morning bell ringing and picking up paving slabs and spending my birthday money (yes it was my birthday on 21st March, I’m 49 now!!), after lunch I slipped on my wellybobs and went outside into the garden. My two almond trees are in full blossom at the moment, hopefully this means that I’ll get more than 3 almonds this year.

The primulas and various other flowers in the fairy garden are looking so colourful as well as the daffodils. The tulips are thinking about opening, but I think it’s still a little too cold for them.

There was lots to do in the greenhouses so after checking if anything needed watering I began pricking out more seedlings.

My tomato seedlings are growing fast, so I pricked out as many as I could. I suspect few more will grow, so where I’m going to grow all these I don’t know. When sowing them, you only think you’re sowing a few, maybe they multiply in the compost? Once I’ve pricked them out, I give them a quick water from above which helps the compost to fill in around the seedling and then from the bottom so the compost can draw up the water and encourage the roots to grow down.

Here’s a video about pricking out tomato seeds, hope you find it useful…..

Then it was onto my leeks. The Elefant variety are germinating better than the Musselburgh variety. I think that’s because one set of seeds is slightly older than the other. My onions aren’t quite ready to prick out yet, but will be in about a weeks time so I’ll prick them out in the same way as I do my leeks.

Here’s a little video that I made a while ago to help you…..

Then it was onto the brassicas. Most have shot up so fast, with the exception of the Greyhound Cabbage, but I know these seeds are so old anyway. I think I’ll have to finally throw these away. But the others are growing well, so I worked my way through them all this afternoon.

Hope you find this video useful when pricking out yours…..

And finally the chard which I pricked out the same way as I did the brassicas, but instead of putting 1 seedling per pot I clumped them together in 3’s or 4’s. You don’t have to be exact with the numbers but they don’t mind having a couple of buddies with them.

So that was it for the day. Don’t forget I have my Claire’s Allotment Essentials Guides, click HERE to go straight to my page. Or there is the Bumper Edition either on Kindle or Paper Editions

The young budding gardeners aren’t left out either as I have my Lottie and Dottie books available only on my Etsy page. Get them while you can as stock is very low on a couple of the titles and once they’re gone there won’t be anymore.

Happy gardening and see you next weekend,

Claire xx