Spring bulbs

This weather really is screwed up right now isn't it!  One minute we have mild, sunny days and manage to get a whole heap done outside and then BAM! down with the snow, ice cold winds and frozen earth and no hope of getting anything productive done outside.

All these years of gardening and I've never ever planned for spring colour. I have the odd clump of Daffodils planted sporadically around the flower beds but that's it and so I've really missed out on Spring interest in the garden.
I don't know why I've never bothered to incorporate Spring bulbs into the garden - I guess maybe I thought it was pointless (I hear that intake of breath y'know) but having spent so many months getting hooked on other gardening blogs and seeing the riot of colour available this time of year I've decided to make a change this year.
On Sunday we took a trip out to to the town and I managed to pick up a few Spring bulbs at some bargain prices (We have no garden centres here so it's basically a case of seeing what's available in Tesco, Homebase or Poundstretcher). I managed to get 16 Lily of the Valley for £5,   90 Muscari for £1.50 and 30 Pushkini for £0.49.  It's a start!

Muscari, Pushkinia & Lily of the valley at bargain prices.

All bulbs/plants have been potted up ready to grow on and then I'll plant them out at the end of summer when I can see where I want them to come up next year.

The Tomato seeds I sowed a few weeks ago are all doing well and I'll get them pricked out pretty soon. I'm so excited because I have never had seedlings up this early in the year so I'm quite confident that this means some ripe fruit this year.

Tomato seedlings.

I've also sown Brassica seeds (Cabbage, Cauli etc) and I'm hoping this years attempt will be better than my last attempt.  I didn't bother with much veg growing last year because I'd become cheesed off with the whole thing but the year before this is what happened to pretty much all my Brassicas

Dessicated Cabbages

Well can't get much worse can it! guess I'll have to be more on the ball with removing those caterpillars or else getting some netting over the lot of em.

However my Climbing French Beans gave me weeks of regular pickings, but I did come to the conclusion that growing them in the polytunnel was not one of my brightest ideas - they grew to Triffid proportions and literally took over and decided to use the Sweetcorn as an extension of their own poles.

Climbing French Beans.