Another sickly plant.....

I posted about my sickly Skimmias the other day and now I'm posting about my sickly Camelia - another ericaceous loving plant.
Unlike the skimmias that were potted wrong and in unsuitable soil this Camelia is in a large enough pot, in ericaceous compost and has been fed according to instructions as often as required, I'm pretty sure this can't be Chlorosis.
And yet it still looks like this

Despite obviously ailing from something the Camelia is covered with healthy buds as usual

 

Anyone have any idea of what it suffers from? I'd really love to know.
All I can think of from a little internet searching is that maybe it's getting too much sunlight. I keep it in the polytunnel as it would not survive up here outside and it isn't shaded in any way. I wouldn't have thought that would be an issue but apparantly Camelias do not like early morning sun - who knew!
But would excess sunlight cause this? Could those brown splodges be burns?
I've quickly moved it to a slightly more shaded area of the polytunnel to avoid too much sunlight but  I'm not even sure if this is what ails it. HELP!! I love my Camelia and would hate to lose it cos it produces flowers like this

On a brighter note, guess who managed to get out in the garden today? Go on guess.....
Yup, yup, yup the snow (what there was of it) has gone, the winds have dropped to barely noticeable and this means the temperatures are not quite so cold as they have been.
So myself and Mr TG (rare day off from work, well his usual work anyway) spent the day outside - I was clearing ugly borders ready for moving around of perennials and a serious mulching and Mr TG was rotovating and everything else associated with being stubborn enough (and foolish enough?) to believe he can turn all the land over with just his trusty rototiller.

He's actually done alot more than is shown here but I wasn't nearby to catch a picture of him rotovating (I'll snag him tomorrow though) so a raking picture will have to suffice for now.
He's determined to do this himself (maybe to prove his COPD does not affect him one iota -insert rolling eyes here) and luckily we're not bothered about a perfect field. we just want to get it levelled enough to mow it (it's full of digger tracks and Dane holes and a danger to walk on at the mo).

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.