On a thankfully sunny day, I got out this morning and did some gardening. It has rained a little overnight so I haven’t needed to do any watering of anything, especially considering the weather is now a lot cooler than it was over the summer.

The first job was to remover some dead plants out of their pots to make space for new plants and seeds. I don’t throw out the old potting mix as I see it as unnecessary and a complete waste of resources. I do add some fresh potting mix and mix the two together, along with some organic fertiliser. I did this with four pots and started my seed sowing.

The seeds I sowed today are all legumes of one form or another. They are the following:

• Broad bean ‘Aprovecho’
• Pea ‘Greenfeast’
• Sweet pea ‘Solstice Crimson’, ‘Matucana’, ‘Beaujolais’. ‘Solstice Lavander’, and ‘High Scent’

I am looking forward to plenty of peas, beans and flowers in a few months time.

Now it’s time to talk about how my other plants are doing. Of the seeds that I have recently sown, I have some more germination, but still no sign of some others. I’ll start with the stuff that hasn’t yet germinated:

• Brussels sprouts ‘Long Island’
• Borage
• Cornflower ‘Classic Fantastic’
• Spring onion ‘Evergreen Trident’
• Onion ‘Red Marksman’, ‘Cream Gold’, ‘Bartletta’, ‘Amposta Purple’, Australian Brown’
• Bee food Mix

The sweet peas that I sowed a few weeks ago are continuing to grow really well, apart from the four seeds that seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Last weekend, I sowed some Pea ‘Podded Royal Dutch’ seeds. Many of these have now germinated, which I am excited about.

I managed to get two more bean pods off my ‘Violet Queen’ beans. As the plants were very moth-eaten and I couldn’t see any more beans, they got pulled out and replaced with sweet pea seeds.

My Brussels sprouts ‘Red Rubine’ seeds have now germinated.

My Poppy ‘Pandora’ seedlings that germinated last week are still tiny, but alive.

More seeds that have germinated this week are my Poppy ‘Flanders Field’. I have always struggled to get poppy seeds to germinate, so to get two varieties to get this far is really good.

As for my Broccoli ‘Waltham’, Cauliflower ‘Mini’ and Calendula ‘Double Red’, they are all growing well.

My potted-up brassicas are mostly still there growing slowly. The couple that have gone missing have disappeared due to likely cat action. Whether that is Cuddles or a neighbouring cat, I don’t know.

My larger broad beans are still growing well. I now have som flower buds slowly starting to open up.

I actually have a tomato growing on one of my rather sorry looking tomato plants. It’s still green, but it is quite big now-its a shame its just one tomato as one tomato doesn’t go far!

The cacti and jade plants that I potted up on Monday seem a lot happier in their new pots, especially the bigger of the jade plants. This particular plant was a ‘rescue’ from the bin room in our apartment block and was well overdue to be potted up!

That is my garden for Saturday, 2nd May 2026. I aim to do more out in the garden tomorrow to some more work, including some more seed sowing and tidying up.