Today, I have got out into the garden, and got some gardening done. I have been out and got the potting mix and pots that I needed to get on with getting on. The seeds I ordered have also arrived, so I have had a productive morning.

The first thing I have done this morning is pot up my three little cacti and jade plants. All needed to be potted up, especially the two jade plants. I am now hoping that they will be so much happier now they have some fresh potting mix.

The seeds that I ordered are Brussels Sprouts ‘Red Rubine’ that are purple sprouts that have a nutty taste and Pea ‘Purple Podded Dutch’, which are heirloom peas from the sixteenth century, being ideal for drying or soups. I am hoping that they grow well so that my husband (the best cook in the house) can cook some tasty soup! All my pea seeds have been sown, and I have also sown a few Brussels sprouts seeds. I’m hoping for peas in nine weeks and sprouts in twenty weeks.

In my previous sowings of various seeds, that you can read about here, my Broccoli ‘Waltham’, Calendula ‘Double Red’ and Cauliflower ‘Mini’ are growing well. I now also have two tiny Poppy ‘Pandora’ seedlings, which is nice to seed . I am hoping to see other seedlings soon.

My sweet peas are also growing really well. I did sow four seeds of five different varieties-I have seedlings for four of the varieties, with one showing no signs of germinating. As I didn’t label the different areas with where each variety is, I don’t know which I haven’t seen any sign of yet!

The broad beans I am growing are doing well too. There is plenty of new growth on them, with signs of flower buds too.

As always, I have a list of jobs that need to be done in my little garden. My list is as follows:

• Sweeping up
• Scrubbing down the tiles, some of which are absolutely filthy!
• Removing all dead plant material from some of my pots and getting them ready for new plants as they grow big enough to be potted up.
• Clean the pots that I have just emptied, so that they are ready for use when needed.
• The final job I have to do is update my seed spreadsheet-I don’t want to spend hours doing it at some distant point in the future, like I did recently (read here)
• I will also sow more of the seeds for the plants that I want to grow over the next few months (to read what I want to grow, go to this post).

A lot of these jobs will get done bit-by-bit over the next week or so. I like doing a bit of gardening most days, as it stops me getting overwhelmed-and then not do anything! If I can tick off a lot of these jobs before the weekend, then I will be really happy.

Written 27/04/25.