Veg from the polytunnel

It's so nice to be able to pop out to the polytunnel and freshly pick veggies for an evening meal, last night we had friends over for a grill and the fresh picked Corn on the cob went down a treat with a smidgin of butter and plenty of black pepper

The Black Russian Tomatoes are currently huge, they're real beefsteak in size. The only problem I have is that it's kind of hard to tell visually when they're ripe because they retain some of the green to the top of them, in fact I only had an inkling they were ready because they were soft rather than hard. This was the first time I've grown Black Russian and while I wouldn't say the taste was anything terribly amazing I think I will grow them again purely for the fact that they are ripe when the 'Roma' and 'Gardeners delight' are showing no signs of relinquishing their green cover.

The Cabbages are proving popular too. I usually love to do Cabbage and Leek steamed together but these ones are particularly nice with Garlic, Onion and Red pepper all sauteed together.

As for the rest of the garden, it's holding up. There's still alot of weeds taking over that I haven't got around to tackling just yet and there's plenty of forgotten areas in the part of the garden that I haven't made a start on renovating yet - such as this Butler sink planter.
I'm not entirely sure what's actually a deliberate planting and what's weed as it's so overgrown but it's on my list of garden chores to bring it back to glory.

This hardy Geranium - G'Phaeum' Somobor - is treating us to a second flush of flowers due to me cutting it right back to the ground a few weeks ago after it had finished its first flourish.

Here in Caithness the weather can be very windy and decidedly cold even in the height of summer (made worse by the fact we live next to the coast and are very exposed)  so it's really hit and miss as to what will survive even in sheltered areas, so whenever I manage to successfully grow pretty flowers I make sure they're photographed for posterity.
This Orange Dahlia is flourishing in a tub alongside a red one - both of unknown names.

I've posted a photo of climbing rose 'Compassion' before but I just couldn't resist a new one. This rose is doing amazingly well, the blooms still look fabulous after heavy rain and the scent just has you constantly returning to stuff your nose in it. I'm definitely going to have a go at propagating this one.

Finally the Fuchsia 'Hawkshead' is getting to full bloom. This particular Fuchsia is very hardy and I have a few of them planted out in the beds all year round with fabulous success.

The Bees are finally buzzing...at least one is anyway!

I had the best surprise ever when I went into the Polytunnel yesterday - a Bee! But not just any Bee, this is the first Bee I have seen this year and I have a Pear tree and a Plum tree in there that could seriously do with some pollinating.
Shame the little guy took off from this position though and proceeded to buzz around the plastic

This is where I need the little guy to be

I did try hand pollinating as all my fruit trees are self fertile but I don't think I did a good job of it - much better if Mr Bee does it.

I also managed to get some of the veggies pricked out and potted up individually. It's going to be a fair few weeks before it's safe to plant these guys out though

The original Sweetcorn that I sowed died. I thought I may have been able to save them but it wasn't to be and luckily I made another sowing just in case they didn't make it, so thankfully I have more Sweetcorn on its way.
I have plenty of Cabbage (Greyhound & Golden Acre) and Cauli (All the year round) for the first sowing, I'll make another sowing in a few weeks.
The Tomatoes (Roma, Black Russian & Gardeners delight) all seem to be doing well. The Swede (Invitation), Cucumbers and Courgettes (I must post the varieties) are all romping away in the polytunnel.
I've got French beans growing too but they won't be able to go out for a few weeks neither will the Leeks.
The ground is still quite cold at the moment so I am going to have cover it with plastic to warm it up a bit so that I can get the Parsnips in.
So far I have had absolutely no success with the Celeriac sowings. I've done two seperate sowings and tried one in the heated propagator and one in the polytunnel. The propagator ones grew sporadically then just withered away and the polytunnel ones have yet to show any life at all.

And because all the veggies are growing I needed to make some more veg markers. I didn't want to make completely wooden ones for the veggies though because I needed something that would be quick to make and require nothing more than cutting and nailing, plus I wanted whatever I wrote the veggie name on to be weather proof so here's what I came up with

Granted they're not the most stunning of markers but they were quick, easy and free to make. All I did was cut that wood to the length I wanted, cut up an old milk carton to get the plastic I wanted then folded the plastic over on top and nailed it to the wood

I'll make the more ornamental ones I posted about HERE for the garden plants or plants that are in tubs.

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.