Having resolved to update the garden blog more often, it's good to have a busy day outdoors to report. It's been mild, if mostly cloudy, up in North Staffs today; perfect conditions for the first serious gardening day of the year and exactly right for spending too long digging, lifting and bending so that all sorts of atrophied muscles are now aching furiously. I really must learn to pace myself at the start of the season!
As usual, seed sowing involves seeing how long it is possible to keep seed past its official use-by date and still have something viable poke through the compost. I'm fortunate to have a keen and creative gardener for a manager, who tends to pass packets of left-overs to me when she tidies out her seed box. Consequently, the propagator on the living room window sill - cunningly crafted from some yogurt display trays recycled from
Sainsburys - is home to two pots of tomato seeds (gardeners delight and an orange plum), aubergine, sweet pepper and two squash varieties.
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| Broad bean propagation - mushroom box and six loo-roll middles |
A couple of small plastic mushroom boxes (my favourite mini seed trays) sown with mixed salad leaves keep them company. These have more clear plastic recycled packaging for covers - small meat trays, which are sadly getting hard to source as more supermarkets seem to opt for vacuum-sealed packaging instead. It may seem eco-friendly to them but, from my perspective, rather than being a handy mini-propagator, the plastic used for this is simply waste with no re-use potential at all. Similarly, shrinking the circumference of loo-roll tubes may eco-sense for companies and consumers but makes them unsuitable as plantable pea and bean starter pots!
It's not the only change that's upset my Womble-like activity. One of my most successful recycling initiatives in past years has been painting empty chocolate and biscuit tins in 'Roses and Castles' style and selling them - with other goods - at craft fairs and other venues, including a lovely local pub. This little enterprise - which turns something waste into something pretty and re-usable - is under threat because so many companies now insist on embossing their brand name on the lid of the tin - 'Fox's' or 'M&S' - which makes it impossible to make an attractive job of repainting them, thus making the tin mere scrap metal.
At least I can still recycle my plant waste into compost. I had to abandoning the autumn dig-out of the big heap last year as a family of rats had moved in! However, four visits from the Council's exterminators later, we seem to be rat free and there is a nicely-rotted stack of stuff ready for topping up the veg beds and mulching round as the perennials start to come through. It was even good enough to use for potting up some hydrangea cuttings I hope to sell later this year.
But that's all for now - it's time for an early bath!
