Seed planting

On Sunday we decided it might almost be warm enough to plant out some seeds. This time we sowed seeds (for salad leaves, mainly) directly in the top bed, and left the bottom bed mostly clear to take seedlings. The upper bed is exposed to a cold draft from behind the playhouse, and is a bit more shaded.

 Top bed, left to right (6 drills across whole bed):

• 1, 2: Spinach Scenic F1 Hybrid.
• 3, 4: Lettuce: Lollo Rossa, Little Gem, Red Salad Bowl.
• 5: Chard: Swiss chard bright lights (Suttons), spinach beet chard white silver 2 (Dobie).
• 6: Rocket wild, Broccoli (sprouting) early purple, Salad leaves (Morgan 881).

Bottom bed, left to right (4 drills at 100mm spacing across left quarter, then 1 drill, then lots of empty space):

• 1-4: Pea Jumbo. Self-supporting, so needs to be close. We probably need to do it closer, so will infill after a couple of weeks.
• 5: Spring onion winter white bunching

All planted 2012-04-29.  We put spikes in to try and keep the neighbour's cat off. Let's see if it helps!

Aidan did an awesome job weeding at the bottom of the garden, but I didn't get a photo - sorry.

Class Celebrity

Aidan was Class Celebrity in P4B this week. Everyone wrote something good about him on an A3 poster which he brought home with him on Friday. We're so proud!

"Interesting, cool, clever, speedy, kind, smart, nice, awesome,fast, ..." That's our boy!

A beautiful walk

We went on a five-mile walk yesterday with some friends, along the Loch Leven Heritage Trail (walk 4). A great time was had by all! Here's Aidan looking through a hollow tree:

Sunshine and new growth

Yay!

5/6: carrot	22/4: beetroot	7/5: kale (green)(X)	5/6: parsnip	22/4: kale (black)	7/5 then again on 5/6: rocket wild
5/6: spinach	22/4: spinach	7/5: rainbow chard	5/6: rainbow chard	22/4: lettuce (plus extra on 5/6)	7/5: salad leaves(X)

Megan and I are pretty happy with how it looks, and we've eaten our first spinach leaves! Yay!

Today we also added more spinach and chard, filled in some gaps in the lettuce row, re-sowed the rocket since the first lot didn't take, and added carrots and parsnips. Fingers crossed! On the upper bed the beans are struggling on, plus two peas and (maybe) a squash. We added some more peas, and gave it all a good water.

Megan saw me putting another layer of soil on the potatoes. "Are you sure it's OK to bury them Daddy?" :-) She was also very proud of herself figuring out how to balance the hose so she didn't need to hold it while watering the very thirsty Acer.

Nice to have some good garden news to report!

Cats and storms

After the enthusiasm of the last post, we're a bit sad now. The crazy winds we've been having, and the neighbour's cat, have joined together to spell the end of most of the seedlings :-( I think one squash (A) has survived, but the rest are dead. Megan and Aidan are sad, but we should be growing some more soon. The lower bed is doing much better - the cat tried to hurt the spinach too, but it's pretty hardy.

A couple of weekends ago Megan and I planted some strawberries in our strawberry planter. For posterity, here is what they were: Pegasus (slots 1-4, 7, 8), Dar Select (5, top near 5), Honeyoye (6, top near 7). They're doing pretty well on the whole, as are our potatoes.

Yet more spring gardening

The seedlings in our propagator are pretty huge - at least, those that have come up, which is almost all of them. So on a lovely rainy afternoon (yesterday, 7/5) we planted up most of our seedlings, and added a second planting of seeds. The peppers aren't big enough yet, and only one of the dwarf beans is visible at all and it's really tiny, so both of those remain in the propagator for now.

Upper bed:

Beans			---
Peas	-----
	-	-		Squash (A)(o)		Pumpkin (B)(o)		(B)(o)
	-	-	(F)		(D)		(D)		-
	-	Cucumber (F)		(F)		Squash (D)		(D)

(o) - not quite certain of the order here, sadly.

---

You can just see the spinach and black kale pushing through now, after two weeks!

Lower bed:

-	22/4: beetroot	7/5: kale (green)(X)	-	22/4: kale (black)	7/5: rocket wild
-	22/4: spinach	7/5: rainbow chard	-	22/4: lettuce	7/5: salad leaves(X)

(X) - last year's seeds

Druim Glas

Druim Glas, Ardgour. NM847664, 435m. Ascent from Ariundle car park ~400m, 5mi, 5 hours.

On our holiday in Ardgour with my work colleagues we climbed Druim Glas: me, Carolyn, Aidan, Megan, S+N+baby, and T+S+four dogs - quite a party! We started with a lovely walk along a stream (fording it in one place!) and through an ancient oak forest. Beyond the forest we climbed to a disused lead mine - we found some impressive lead crystals in the tailings! Leaving the path, we headed up the side to the trig point. We planned to return the same way, but instead decided to descend to the road on the far side, where Carolyn and N hitched a lift back to get the car - thanks very much to the driver!

Aidan and Megan did very well - a good start to our planned summer of hillwalking!

Off we go:

Ancient oak forest:

Rosie the dog pulling Megan up the hill:

Aidan climbing the side of the hill to work off energy:

Lead (this crystal is about 5mm on a side):

Summit!